by Old Mentz | Jun 11, 2022 | Uncategorized
Tucked away in the old section of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery you will find many graves with names long forgotten in the area. John and Rachel Waffle are one of these families. I recently cleaned their headstone and wanted to see if they could be added to the PBFT project....
by Old Mentz | Apr 17, 2022 | Uncategorized
The Port Byron Family Tree (PBFT) is a project with a goal of discovering connections. Most people or groups are added when we at Lock 52 receive a research request (like the Peck family) or find a photo (such as Otis Critchett) and we want to see how they fit into...
by Old Mentz | Apr 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Note that is an updated version of this that reflects the lessons learned over the year. Check on the new post. If you take a walk through one of our many local cemeteries you might notice that time and weather has not been very nice to the headstones and monuments....
by Old Mentz | Mar 27, 2022 | Uncategorized
We have been working on the Port Byron Family Tree project for about a year now. As of March 20, 2022, we have entered 4964 people. Although to be fair, with some families I have chased the linage back to the Mayflower or Europe to see how people might be related. I...
by Old Mentz | Mar 26, 2022 | Uncategorized
When I run out of ideas for my monthly Citizen column, I turn to the old Port Byron Chronicles for some inspiration. This is where I found these two articles about the old Erie Canal. The first is an article about how the construction of the new telephone building on...
by Old Mentz | Jan 19, 2022 | Uncategorized
Frank Avery Skilton died in 1931, and it is likely few of you have heard of him. And, he was not a resident of Port Byron or Mentz. So why I am writing about him? Well, his name kept coming up as I searched for ancestors to add to the Port Byron family tree. He fist...
by Old Mentz | Dec 2, 2021 | Uncategorized
Back in June 2021, I wrote about the Ray family for a Citizen column and I also added the family to the Port Byron Family Tree project. The Ray’s were one of the last canal boating families and some made the transition to the new barge canal when it was opened...
by Old Mentz | Nov 30, 2021 | Uncategorized
Over the past year the Lock 52 Historical Society has added to its collection of Regina Gates paintings. The most recent painting was donated by a lady from Norwich, NY who wished to see the painting returned to its Port Byron home. This donation led the members of...
by Old Mentz | Nov 7, 2021 | Uncategorized
The Lock 52 Historical Society hosted a walk about the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery on October 23, 2021. The focus of the walk were a few of the 237 men who volunteered to fight in the Civil War from the town and village. After a brief history of the Grand Army of the...
by Old Mentz | Sep 6, 2021 | Uncategorized
In 1882 the New York State Experiment Station wrote that, “Perhaps no crop grown in our State gives better rewards for careful management than tobacco.” Many of us don’t realize that in the late 1800s tobacco was a major crop, especially in Oswego and Chemung...
