Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Did you know the heirs of William Penn bought land in Sinking Valley? It’s true.
Between 1787 and 1813, at least 45 early settlers who were in some way related to William Penn, purchased land there.
There’s plenty of early history in Sinking Valley, and thanks to the efforts of two dedicated women, it’s starting to now come to the surface.
Karren Morrow and Aileen Crawford Fulcomer, who represent the descendants of five early landowners, wil present an overview of the genealogy, land and architecture of Sinking Valley and of their efforts to collect and preserve the history of the valley. The presentation is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on May 20 at the Blair County Genealogical Society on Scotch Valley Road in Hollidaysburg.
Morrow is a certified parent educator for the Parents as Teachers program sponsored by the Family Resource Center of Blair County. Karen and her husband John own and operate a dairy farm in Sinking Valley.
This farm is recognized by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a Century Farm because it has been in the same family since 1850. John and Karen’s five children are the seventh generation to be raised in the valley.
Aileen Crawford Fulcomer is involved in the Tyrone Historical Society and also operates a farm in the valley.
Two years ago, the ladies began researching into their family histories, and what started as a hobby, has now turned into a passion.
“Our goal now is to find more people who have a common ancestor,” said Fulcomer. “We have discovered a lot starting when William Penn owned the land and through his heirs, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions there. We’re trying to fill in the gaps.”
According to Fulcomer, the purpose of the Sinking Valley Family Tree Project is to collect, compile, preserve and distribute genealogy information, pictures and family stories about the early landowners in Sinking Valley, Tyrone Township, then in Huntingdon County, but now in Blair County.
“We’ve put together quite a bit of information,” said Fulcomer. “There are obviously gaps in the information that we have to share and there are probably also inaccuracies. For example, we do not know if all of these landowners actually lived for a long period of time in Sinking Valley.
“It’s pretty tough to find the things we need when there’s really no single place to go. The Tyrone Historical Society, Huntingdon Historical Society and Blair County Historical Society have been great tools, but there’s not a Sinking Valley Historical Society where we can research.”
Morrow claims the advances in technology have really helped their cause.
“Marriages between these families resulted in a complicated web of relationships that can be a challenge for the modern researcher to sort out,” said Fucomer. “With the increasing use of powerful search engines on Internet-based genealogy sites, there is the potential to link the descendants of Sinking Valley for the purpose of sharing information on common ancestors.”
According to the women, although there are gaps in the research, they said they know the Morrow and Crawford lines fairly well.
They said the Stewart (sometimes seen as Stuart) and Moore lines contain less information and they are working to find out more about the early ancestory of these families.
Fulcomer encourages anyone in the Northern Blair County area who may be able to help fill in some of the gaps to contact either her or Morrow. She said the best way to get in touch with them is through the Internet. Morrow’s email is kkmorrow111@hotmail.com and Fulcom can be reached at remocluf@pennswoods.net.
“While Internet-based research has great potential, there are privacy concerns,” said Fulcomer. “Therefore, care will be taken to prevent personal information about living individuals from being distributed over the Internet.”
Fulcomer also noted that residents who have old photos of families from Sinking Valley should share these artifacts. She said technology allows them to scan the photos in without damaging them at all. She also encourages residents to contact either her or Morrow if they want to view the photos they already have in their collection.
“We’re not just looking for who’s mother is who and who’s father is who,” said Morrow.
“We’re looking for more than that – what people did, which churches and schools they went to. Those kinds of things.”
As more information becomes available to these women, more thoughts pass through their heads of someday establishing a “historical society”-type organization in the Sinking Valley area.

By Rick