Pennsylvania Chapter, Palatines to America

Henry Schneck is a native Pennsylvanian who has been closely involved with the state all of his life. Born and raised in Allentown, he went to Lehigh University next door in Bethlehem. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering which he has used in practice as a Professional Structural Engineer. He has designed industrial structures, bridges, and power plants. He married Alma Marie Sechler in 1964 and they now reside in Lehigh County in suburban Allentown. They have three children and five grandchildren.

 

Though his professional career has involved technical-mathematical-engineering work, he has always had an interest in history, geography, and German culture/language. He began researching his Schneck genealogy in 1972 and co-compiled Im Schneckengang  (“At a Snail’s Pace”) which is a genealogy and history of several Schneck families in the U.S. from 1741 down to the current times.  He has been searching for his Adam Schneck’s family origins in Germany for 24 years without success. In this endeavor he as reviewed the microfilms of many German church records of southwestern Germany.

 

He became aware of the Pennsylvania Chapter of Palatines to America in 1983 through Friedrich Wollmershauser with whom he had been corresponding. He joined the PA PalAm that year and he has attended more than 90% of the semi-annual conferences since that time. He agreed to join the PA PalAm board in 2006.

 

Lisa Kerr Ilowite is a research scientist who has successfully applied her professional skills to genealogy for the past ten years.  She obtained a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in the Biological Basis of Behavior (Neurobiology). Later, she obtained a Masters of Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey.

 

In genealogy, her main areas of research are Pennsylvania, the British Isles, and social family history. She enjoys travel, especially to Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England, to conduct her family history reearch. She is a member of the DAR, First Families of Western Pennsylvania, and the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists. She coordinates  her annual family reunion which includes a different social history theme each year based on interviews with family members and photographs. Themes of the reunions have included, Military Veterans, Sweethearts, School Days, My Mother, My Father, My Grandparents.

 

Her publications include Transcription of the Clarion County (PA) Death Register (1893-1906) and the Abstract of the Clarion County (PA) Birth Register (1893-1898).  She has also been a contributor of articles such as “My Genealogy Fairy Godmaother,”  “A Time Line as a Compass.” Both of these article were contributions to the art of solving brickwall problems.

 

To gather information, she has researched at the Family Research Centre in London, General Register Office of Scotland ,in Edinburgh, and the Irish Heritage Centre in Belfast.

 

She agreed to join the Board of PA PalAm in 2006.