Minerd-Minard-Miner-Minor National Genealogy and Reunion Website

This award-winning site -- celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2010 -- has twice been named one of Family Tree Magazine's "Top 10 Family Websites." Having drawn more than 1.4 million visitors over the past decade, it captures the sweep of Americana through the eyes of one family, with thousands of stories.

Minerd.com is a forum for sharing knowledge and promoting the national reunion of our large pioneer clan, the Minerd- Minard- Miner- Minor family, with origins in the Pittsburgh region of Pennsylvania. The site may change the way you think, learn about and understand families. While our clan is no bigger, better or more interesting than anyone else's, it is symbolic of many early families who put down roots and let time work its magic.

Instead of just tracing backward, we're also exploring forward in time to tell the saga of one Pennsylvania-German family over a span of 275 years. It starts with German-Americans Friedrich and Eva Maria (Weber) Meinert Sr., and their son, Revolutionary War veteran Jacob Minerd Sr. and his wife Maria Nein, pioneers of Fayette/ Somerset Counties, PA, and thence to thousands of their descendants, down to the present day, with long-term, collective impact on our nation. We're very interested in making contact with all descendants, everywhere.

Today, cousins primarily spell the name Minerd, Minard, Miner and Minor. On average, though, fewer than one percent of all cousins carry the name, with the remaining 99 percent having some other name, due to the long term effect of women changing their names in marriage. As a result, most cousins don't even know they belong to this sprawling clan. When we stopped counting in 2000, more than 15,000 cousins and spouses had already been identified. In the ensuing decade, the the actual number has skyrocketed and may be substantially higher, perhaps 40,000 to 50,000 all told among the diaspora.

A side effect of this large headcount is that a staggering 700-plus cousins have passed away since we began collecting data in earnest in July 2000. Helping cousins and communities connect with their roots, honoring past lives with more than 1,332 biographies and more than 7,700 images, and exploring the clan's connectedness with American society and culture, are at the center of our interest. Be sure to take a peek at our 2009 Annual Review.

Little Big Horn Associates' Newsletter Features
Minerd.com Story About "Tommy Custer" Connection

The Little Big Horn Associates' Newsletter for August 2010 features a Minerd.com cover story headlined "Tommy: The Unknown Custer of Tontogany, Ohio." The article covers our family's unique Custer connection from the perspective of cousin Thomas C. "Tommy" Custer, the illegitimate son of Capt. Thomas Ward Custer and Rebecca Minerd. The cover uses Minerd.com photographs of a Sons of Veterans parade and colorful logo, while the two-page layout contains 15 of Minerd.com's archival photographs and documents.

Minerd.com Joint Venture with VisitPittsburgh
Announced Nationally to Attract Reunion Goers to Region

VisitPittsburgh, the official tourist promotion agency of Allegheny County, PA, hopes its new joint venture with the award-winning Minerd.com website will draw more reunion groups to the region with inspiration and valuable advice. “We’re delighted to work with Minerd.com to reach new audiences around the world whose ancestral home is Pittsburgh,” said Tinsy Lipchak, VisitPittsburgh’s executive director of tourism and cultural heritage. “It’s a model other families and regions can use to attract guests who may have no other reason to come.” The announcement, syndicated nationally via PR Newswire, is picked up by more than 300 electronic news media outlets. More >>>

VisitPittsburgh Visitors Guide Mentions Minerd.com, Reunion

Minerd.com is mentioned, and our National Minerd-Minard-Miner-Minor Reunion is pictured and featured, in the new publication There's No Place Like Pittsburgh, the official 2010 Visitor's Guide of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau (VisitPittsburgh). The booklet is a one-stop guide for everything to see and do in Pittsburgh. The history of the places like the Duquesne Incline feel right at home next to the futuristic Roboworld, opening at the Carnegie Science Center. (Click to order your own copy from VisitPittsburgh.)

Website Visit Totals Hit 1.5 Million

Sometime on Sun., Feb. 7, 2010 -- perhaps it was you? -- a Minerd.com visitor clicked in and became the website's 1.5 millionth guest of all time, dating back to the launch of the site in May 2000. February's total of 20,724 visitors was the second highest for that month during a decade online. It's an indication of the site's continuing popularity during this economic downturn.

Minerd.com Featured on PBS "Faces of America" Website

Minerd.com and its sprawling storytelling of its thousands of cousins is featured in the "Share Your Story" section of the PBS website promoting the "Faces of America" series with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The series, which began airing Feb. 10, explores the personal "family histories of 12 renowned Americans -- professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander, chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, novelist Louise Erdrich, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, actress Eva Longoria, muscian Yo-Yo Ma, director Mike Nichols, Her Majesty Queen Noor, television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, actress Meryl Streep and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi." Details (scroll to Feb. 10 entry)

2009 Annual Review Released

Minerd.com has produced its largest, most sweeping and analytical Annual Review covering its first decade online, and celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Click for details on the site's remarkable story featuring growth and public recognition since the time of its launch on May 7, 2000.

Family Tree Magazine Again Ranks Minerd.com
in Nation's "Top 10" Personal Genealogy Websites

In its article "Tips for Making a Good Web Site," the Sept. 28, 2009 edition of Family Tree Magazine again ranks Minerd.com among the nation's "10 personal genealogy Web sites" that "are the cream of the crop." Says the magazine, "Take some time to visit them. They might inspire you to clean up your existing family history site, or to put your own fascinating family story online." Full text.

Prayer for Our Military Cousins in Harm's Way

Scores of our cousins are serving in the United States Armed Forces in the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and other military hot spots around the world. Please say a prayer for their safety -- click to see the names of each known one.

Our website and archives are continual works in progress. We regularly update the site with new findings, and add to the archives with news of you and your family, past and present. (We even welcome ultrasound photos from the womb, such as the image here of Jacob Benjamin Miner, a 1999 addition to the family!)

If you have questions or information, spot any errors, or wish to contribute your own writings or archival materials, please contact us.