Miner-Minerd Reunion

An estimated 50,000 Minerd-Miner family descendants, many of whose ancestors left the Pittsburgh region in the early to mid 1800s, never to return, will be invited to the family's annual reunion in June at the Senator John Heinz History Center to help the city celebrate its 250th birthday. Most of these distantly related kin have no connection to Pittsburgh other than knowledge of their ancient family roots, and would have no other reason to come.

The three-day reunion will be held weekend of June 27-29, 2008, with the Heinz History Center event scheduled for Sat., June 28. Other activities for Friday and Sunday are being planned. Reunion officials hope for attendance of 200 to 300. View this year's attendance roster (PDF).

"Reunions are a perfect way for families to salute our city's landmark birthday and show off its transformation into 'America's Most Livable City'," said Andrew E. Masich, president of the Heinz History Center, and a leader of the Pittsburgh 250 Commission. "We are honored to host the Minerd-Miner family, which has one of the best-integrated reunion and genealogy website efforts in Western Pennsylvania."

Masich and Pittsburgh 250 executive director Bill Flanagan both plan to attend the event and welcome the group to the city.

Minerd-Miner Family Website

The clan's reunions have been held since 1986, with a different theme each year, and since 1994 they have averaged crowds of 100. One of the secrets of the reunion's ability to connect with its vast diaspora scattered across the nation is its website http://www.minerd.com/. The site has drawn more than one million visitors since its launch in May 2000 and was named on one of the "Top 10 Family Web Sites" in the nation by Family Tree magazine in 2003.

Among those coming to the reunion in recent years is a Columbus, Ohio resident whose great-great-great-great-great grandparents left here for Perry County, Ohio in 1812. She was probably the first of her branch to come here for a family event in nearly two centuries of time. Other recent attendees are descendants of pioneers of Indiana (1844), Kansas (1886) and California (1888). The family traces back to Revolutionary War veteran Jacob Minerd Sr. and his wife Maria Nein who settled near Mill Run, Fayette County, in 1791. They are known to have had 12 children, and a documented minimum of 87 grandchildren, 434 great-grandchildren and 1,004 great-great grandchildren. Over time, spelling of the German family name has evolved from Meinert to Minerd, Minard, Miner and Minor.

Minerd.com's long-term objective is not only to share information but also to attract cousins who google their own family names, find the pages and become curious and intellectually engaged.

Free to all, the encyclopedic site features more than 1,150 biographies of cousins born before 1900, linked to biographies of parents and children. Also featured are more than 5,000 images, many which are one of a kind. The site features a popular "Photo of the Month," the archives of reunions of the early 1900s, and extensive summaries of the clan's contributions in the areas of coal, coke and steel; military service; the construction and care of Fallingwater; quilting and creativity; and public education.

One biography features cousin Corwin D. Tilbury (1853-1947) of East Liberty and Oakmont, who served on Pittsburgh City Council in 1908 and was a member of the Sesquicentennial Committee organizing the city's 150th birthday.

The underlying research for Minerd.com has taken decades and has produced more than 110,000 pages of material. Cousin-researchers have visited more than 50 counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois and the District of Columbia. These trips assure that data come from the best possible original sources, rather than purely relying on the work of others. The research trip in October 2007, for example, included five days in eight counties in Central Illinois, and generated 600 pages of material.

Photos

Cleveland Farabee and his wife Jessie and their children. This image was taken at Jones Mills, Somerset County, in 1921.

Albert 'Ross' Minor and William Thomas Minor, with semi-pro or amateur baseball players with the Brave village team in the Waynesburg (PA) Athletic Club. (ca. 1910)

Younkin National Home-Coming Reunion of the 1930s and early '40s. Held at the IOOF Picnic Grove in Kingwood, Somerset County, PA, these gatherings drew more than 1,000 people a year during the heart of the Great Depression.

Reunion sponsors are cousin-owned or operated businesses, including Kellner’s Fireworks, Inc., Barnett Insurance Inc. and Mark Miner Communications, LLC.