KU facility gives
countians a look at German roots. The center's director says the library
provides access to records that are not available anywhere else in the the
United States.
By Francine M.
Scoboria
Reading Eagle/Times, Sunday, January 3,
1999
People interested in tracing the roots of
their family tree back to
Germany have a new resource
at Kutztown University.
The Pennsylvania German
Cultural Heritage Center, located on the
university's north campus,
recently opened the Pennsylvania German
Heritage Library.
The library offers the public access to
German records that cannot be
found anywhere else in the
United States, according to Dr. David L.
Valuska, director of the
center.
Valuska said the library has the only copy
of records from the Institute
for History and Folk life of
the Pfalz. The state owned educational
organization is located in
the Rheinland-Pfalz area of central western
Germany, near the French
border, he said.
Valuska said he began working
with the institute in 1991. The
relationship has included
several educational exchanges, he said.
In 1995, the leaders of the
institute decided to give the center copies
of historical records
relating to German immigration to Pennsylvania, he
said.
"We get calls from people in Europe and
Germany every week," said
Valuska, a history professor
at Kutztown for 25 years. "And we get calls
from all over the United
States, and even as far away as Japan. The
response has been amazing."
Valuska said the German records offer
information about several thousand
German immigrants who moved
from Rheinland-Pfalz to Pennsylvania between
1683 and 1804.
Additionally, the library
houses publications of the Pennsylvania German
Society and local resources
including wills, county histories, church
and cemetery records, and
documents relating to immigration,
naturalization and land
ownership, he said.
Volunteers from the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk
Culture Society help staff
the library, according to
Anna R. Stein, executive director of the
society.
The Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Culture Society
- founded in 1965 - became a
part of the Pennsylvania
German Cultural Heritage Center about six years
ago, Stein said.
"Both organizations have the
same goals in mind," Stein said. "We want
to preserve Pennsylvania
Dutch culture, including the language, the
dialect and the folk art."
The library is open to the public Monday,
Wednesday and Friday from 10
a.m. to 4 p.m., she said. The
fee is $5 per day, or $10 for unlimited
access for a year.
Valuska said more than 180,000 Germans came
to Pennsylvania between 1683
and 1804. More than 75
percent of all Germans who immigrated to the
United States during that
period first arrived in Pennsylvania, he said.
During that time, there were
few economic opportunities in Germany, he
said. "Pennsylvania was very
friendly and receptive to Germans Valuska said.
"Land was available and there
were economic opportunities for great
abundance. There was also
religious freedom."
Additionally the rolling countryside of
Pennsylvania offered Germans a
familiar landscape on which
to build their new lives, he said.
Pennsylvania German culture
influenced this whole region, and it is
still here," Valuska said
"People care about preserving it because they
see it rapidly disappearing."
Hours of Operation
Monday - Friday10:00am - 12:00pm
1:00pm - 4:00pm
Tours by Appointment
Contact us at (610)683-1589 or heritage@kutztown.edu
Updated: July 20, 2009 paf