Skip to main content

THE BIRMINGHAMS: A FAMILY HISTORY (1810 - 2013)

THE BIRMINGHAMS: A FAMILY HISTORY (1809 - 2013) documents the immigration of my paternal great grandparents, Daniel Birmingham and Ellen Collins, from Ireland to Baltimore Maryland in the 1830's and eventually to Cumberland Maryland where they raised their eight children, including my grandfather, Daniel Collins Birmingham. Around 1895 Daniel Collins would move to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where he would meet his wife, Mary Rodgers. They would eventually settle in the Mt. Washington section of the city where they would raise my father, Daniel James and his sister Mary Rodgers. In 1887 Louis Buchner and his wife Thekla would leave Bavaria Germany for the United States. After a few years in Boston they would also move to Pittsburgh and make their home in Mt. Washington and raise their four surviving children, including my maternal grandfather, Andrew Buchner. In 1913 Andrew would marry Nellie Miller and they would raise their three children, including my mother Helen Marie, in Mt. Washington about a mile from the Birmingham family. Mom later recalled that after she met Dad "was really the start of my happy memories" and that "Dad was the best looking guy in the gang".  They married on November 14, 1942 at St. Justin's Church. The next day Dad would leave to return to the Marine Training Camp in North Carolina and shortly afterwards to the South Pacific. Many original photos, census and immigration records, and personal anecdotes from various family members and friends have been included.

Also included is Artist Deborah McLaren's beautiful portrait of our parents, Helen and Dan Birmingham.


Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

December 7, 1941: This Day in Pittsburgh

DECEMBER 7, 1941: This Day in Pittsburgh Everyone alive on this day would remember what they were doing when hearing the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Just as future generations would remember where they were on November 22, 1963, and September 11, 2001. The Japanese Attack On this Sunday morning, Japanese bombers under the command of Mitsuo Fuchida were approaching Hawaii’s Hickam Field, a few miles from Pearl Harbor and heading directly for “Battleship Row”. At 0753 hours, in the skies over Hawaii (1:23PM Pittsburgh) Fuchida sang out, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” - Code words which told the entire Japanese Navy that they caught the United States Pacific Fleet unaware. At 1:47PM that afternoon Navy Secretary Frank Knox calls and informs President Roosevelt of the ongoing attack. At 2:05PM President Roosevelt calls Secretary of State Cordell Hull and tells him not to say anything about Pearl Harbor when he receives the Japanese envoys, Nomura and Kurusu, who were to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2018 Trip to Schmidmühlen Bavaria - Home of my German Ancestors

2018 Trip to Schmidmühlen in Bavaria Home of my German Ancestors In the summer of 2018 Judy and I made a trip to Schmidmühlen, Germany, the town where my mother's grandparents, Alois and Thekla Büchner, were born. The town of Schmidmühlen  is in  the Amberg-Sulzbach district of Bavaria in Germany. It is situated at the junction of the Vils and Lauterach rivers,  about 100 miles north of Munich, and 50 miles east of Nuremberg (See map below).  Schmidmühlen has about 2,400 residents, among them many U.S. Citizens.  The municipality is now bordered by the US Army Garrison Hohenfels, which I assume accounts for the U.S. residents in Schmidmühlen. The garrison has resided there since 1951. Their mission is to facilitate realistic force-on-force maneuver training for all U.S. Army Europe Combat Battalions, and to support NATO training activities. Map of Germany – Location of Schmidmühlen highlighted in red Mom's grandfather, Alois Büchner, was the s...
Post a Comment
Read more