January 26, 2008
Finding people with unusual names can be very difficult but it is easy to find them on GenealogyBank.
Today I was looking for Henry B. Platter and his good wife, Rachel (Bittinger) Platter. The Bittingers are my cousins and many of them are from Garrett County, Maryland.
Now, Platter is an unusual name. It would be easy for a search online to bring back every record that spoke about cooking, kitchens, plates or platters.
On GenealogyBank, I was able to instantly zero in on records 
about them.
With just a few clicks I was able to find a dozen documents
about the Platter family. I began opening them one by one.
The first hit came from the historical documents and was a pension request by Henry’s wife, Rachel Platter. I quickly discovered Henry had served in the Civil War, a private in Company A, Second Regiment, P.H.B. Maryland Infantry and received a pension of $72 a month (certificate No. 1045070). (This is from: Pensions and increase of pensions for certain soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. Feb 5, 1925: Serial Set Vol. No. 8392, Session Vol. No.A68th Congress, 2nd SessionH.Rpt. 1385).
This is a terrific document – it gave me a lot of details about the family. The record showed that he and Rachel had married on March 12, 1867. That would have been hard to find anywhere else.
It also states that he died on October 4, 1923 leaving her in need of assistance; how long he had served in the Civil War and that his disability was caused during the war.
It is a picture of her nephew Charles “Wooly” Henry & Sarah (Hoover) Bittinger and their family in front of the family home in New Jerusalem, Garrett County, MD.
(Photo by Arthur Rothstein; Library of Congress Photo LC-USF34- 026095-D).
Wow. It’s great that GenealogyBank has been digitizing so many documents. I never would have found this one on my own. It was easy to find it online at GenealogyBank.
Their names, marriage and death dates, military service; details about their house, their income – bingo, there it was – all this family history in one document.
GenealogyBank added over 42.5 Million family history records last year and added another 2 million just this week. It now has over 216 million historical newspaper articles, obituaries, government and historical documents online. records and documents online.
Give it a try right now. It’s available at a great “get acquainted” rate – only $9.95 for 30 days.
Very interesting story ! My Dad grew up in Elgin ILLINOIS . He was born April 17 1920 . Was raised by his Grandparents. His grandfathers name was Philip Bittinger.
Truly, Bob Bittinger
Bob,
Write me offline at: TKemp@newsbank.com and I’ll help you work on your Bittinger family tree.
Tom
I’m glad someone is finding their family on genealogybank.com. I am having very little success.
Oh course, my families are from very small rural areas in the south. Maybe this has something to do with it.
I specifically have searched for obits and newspaper articles from the mid 1800’s to about 1930 and I just don’t think genealogybank has the papers I need. I couldn’t find anything about one of my WWI soldiers who died overseas. I couldn’t even find his name much less his cause of death and next of kin.