On the Road to the NGS Conference

Yesterday I drove down from New York State to Virginia. As a genealogist, I cannot just drive along this route without stopping by a cemetery, an archive, or something to add to my research.

Coincidently I was recently looking closely at John Frederick Wolf, my fourth great grandfather. I was preparing to write about him for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

So I went to Family Tree Maker & clicked on the ‘little leaf’ with new hints. The hint took me to Find A Grave.  I already had his burial information & had visited & photographed his grave site. However I followed the suggestion to see if there was anything new there. I easily found Frederick Wolf and photographs of his historic home in Abbottstown, PA! Checking Google maps I discovered this home was just a short distance from my route to Virginia!

Home of
John Frederick Wolf 1779 PA - 1872 PA
29 East King Street, Abbottstown PA

I was meant to stop there on my drive & I did. I had been in the area before looking at cemeteries. In fact, I was only a block away from my last visit. I parked & snapped photographs of the home of my distant grandfather.

Back to Google, I put in the address & found a real estate website with thisinformation:

The Frederick Wolf House was built in c.1753 and is the second-oldest house in Abbottstown. It predates the founding of Gettysburg (1780) by 30 years. The house was built by the Abbott family, who also built the Abbott House, the borough's oldest structure. The Wolf Family lived in the house from 1820's to the 1890's and built several additions to the original log cabin. This house was the recipient of the Historic Gettysburg-Adams County Inc., 2004 Historic Preservation Award. The house was built circa 1753. The museum quality restorations were performed by T.L. Sanders, Historic Building Preservation Specialist.

When I return home after the conference I plan to contact the local historical society to learn more about this house.

This conference is off to a great start!