ROOTS & BRANCHES

“Roots & Branches” gave a shout-out to the late Floyd Hoenstine, one of the giants of Pennsylvania genealogy of the 20^th century.

Hoenstine (1895-1990) had been brought to mind when I went to a seminar at the Blair County Genealogical Society’s library, which is where his enormous rental library of genealogy books ended up some years ago.

It’s not unfair to say that before there were such things as “Google Books,” there was Hoenstine and his rental library.

Well, not long after that column ran, Hoenstine’s son, Floyd G. Hohenstein, contacted me about whether I’d want to see a copy of the book titled My Father’s War Diary that the younger Floyd (who’s now in his mid-80s himself, splitting time between Connecticut and Florida) had put together centered on his father’s World War I diary.

Of course, I was plenty interested. The late Floyd’s diary described his day-by-day activities from when he went into the service, shipped to France, was badly wounded almost immediately, and then eventually convalesced.

All of this before he went on to become a Pennsylvania genealogical legend!

His story has an “everyman” feel to it; making the reader understand the sacrifices many soldiers make for their basically small – but potentially fatal – roles in war. There are reflections on the seemingly mundane (and therefore often overlooked) details of feeding and transporting an army.

In addition, the younger Floyd has packaged together stories of family members (and others of his surname, including a Revolutionary War Hessian soldier and a German World War II veteran) in other wars, too. And he also reveals why he went to court to change the spelling of his surname into a more authentically German version of it.

Hohenstein has distributed copies of the diary to his immediate family members as well as area historical and genealogical societies and the Army Heritage Center in Carlisle.

He also has additional copies available to historical and genealogy societies as well as any Hoenstine/Hohenstein surnamed individuals; for anyone else, he’s willing to mail a copy for a nominal charge of $10 to defray his printing and postage costs. Please direct e-mails inquiries to  myfatherswardiary@gmail.com.

These type of personal documents are a genealogist’s dream; they allow descendants to get into the thoughts and motivations of ancestors the way records compiled by third parties do not!

It’s laudable the time that Hohenstein and his wife spent deciphering the handwriting of the diaries so that these gems could live for future generations.