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<p>The 1807 marriage of Jacob Cist to Sarah Hollenback united two of the most prominent and important names in Wyoming Valley&#8217;s history. Both those names are bound up intimately with development of the anthracite coal industry and the growth of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Of course both families and their immense influence have been written about extensively by the area&#8217;s historians.</p><p>Now Maurice Chaffee of Boulder, Colorado, is looking at the Cist-Hollenback marriage in another light. He&#8217;s a descendant, and he hopes to find church records of Jacob and Sarah and their children.</p><p>&#8220;I assume the marriage ceremony took place in the Old Ship Zion church, which I believe was the only church in town at that time,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Records indicate that it was the church attended by Sarah&#8217;s father, Matthias.&#8221;</p><p>That church, on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, served Congregationalists (later Presbyterians), Methodists and Baptists, until they all went their separate ways and built their own downtown churches.</p><p>Mr. Chaffee, older records like that are notoriously difficult to track down, despite the great prominence of the names in local history books. You say that a search of the Luzerne County Historical Society failed to turn up anything. So I have another idea.</p><p>It&#8217;s obvious that Old Ship Zion families migrated to other downtown churches when they arose, and my suggestion is that you contact those churches &#8211; which still exist (and whose information I will send you).</p><p>To that end I&#8217;ve looked up histories of the churches in question, and I&#8217;ve found the name Hollenback associated with both St. Stephen&#8217;s Episcopal and First Presbyterian in the early and mid-1800s. I haven&#8217;t noticed the name of Cist, however. Jacob Cist&#8217;s biography contains early Lutheran and Moravian references from before he moved to Wyoming Valley.</p><p>Records Update: Late last year Luzerne County took a huge step toward developing a proper storage facility for its old paper records, which it&#8217;s required by the state to maintain. The county agreed to purchase a former U.S. Postal Service building in Hanover Township for $750,000. The building, at 85 Young St., is near the county&#8217;s emergency dispatching office. County officials are looking to put a morgue and the county coroner&#8217;s office in the building as well. The paper records are now held in a former produce warehouse in Wilkes-Barre, a building that has been criticized as inadequate for the storage purpose.</p><p>Cemeteries: The burial list for one of the largest and oldest cemeteries in this area is now available online. It&#8217;s the Wilkes-Barre City Cemetery, on North River Street. The web address is huge: www.wilkes.barre.pa.us/forms/wbcemeteryrecordscomplete.</p><p>This is a resource of historic proportions. The original city cemetery was removed to the current site in the 1890s to make way for construction of the new city hall. With records online, searching by genealogists can be conducted from anywhere. This data base gives good information, including the name of the person or persons who arranged the interment, an additional aid to genealogists tracking ancestors</p><p>News Notes: The Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society&#8217;s research library will be open this week 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. If you haven&#8217;t been there, stop by and check out this extensive genealogical research facility on the grounds of the Hanover Green Cemetery, Middle Road, Hanover Township.</p><p>A good crowd attended my recent &#8220;Getting Started in Genealogy&#8221; session at the Gateway Apartments, Edwardsville. I&#8217;ve prepared an all-new handout packet reflecting change and growth in availability of research materials. Watch this column for future programs.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TOM_MOONEY-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Tom Mooney</p><p>Out on a Limb</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy columnist. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Out on a limb: Looking for info about Jacob Cist and Sarah Hollenback through church records