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After a year off, we will gather again
for our reunion in June 2011, during the 150th anniversary of the start of
the Civil War, to honor the more than 100 cousin-soldiers who served. Watch for updates.
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Our 10th
Anniversary Year
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 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.
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Little
Big Horn Associates' Newsletter Features
Minerd.com Story About "Tommy Custer" Connection
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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.
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Minerd.com
Joint Venture with VisitPittsburgh
Announced Nationally to Attract Reunion Goers to Region
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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 >>>
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VisitPittsburgh
Visitors Guide Mentions Minerd.com, Reunion
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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.)
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Website
Visit Totals Hit 1.5 Million
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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.
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Minerd.com
Featured on PBS "Faces of America" Website
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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)
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2009 Annual Review
Released
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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.
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Family Tree
Magazine
Again Ranks Minerd.com
in Nation's "Top 10" Personal Genealogy Websites
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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.
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Prayer for Our
Military Cousins in Harm's Way
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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.
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In Memory - Capt. Erick Foster - The Ultimate Sacrifice in Iraq
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Cousin Erick M. Foster, a captain and paratrooper with the 82nd
Airborne Division, died Aug. 28, 2007 of combat injuries sustained during an
enemy attack using small arms fire in Muqdadiyah, Iraq. The great-grandson of Oakey
and Gertrude (Shroyer) Harbaugh, he was the troop commander of A Troop,
First Squad, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team.
Tragically, Erick is now one of 27
known cousins in our family to make the ultimate sacrifice during wartime.
Kellner's Fireworks held a fireworks exhibition in August 2008 in
Oil City, PA in memory of Erick and as a fundraiser for the Wounded
Warrior Project.
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We Want to Hear from You!
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.
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VisitPittsburgh.com
is the promotional sponsor of the Minerd.com homepage
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Minerd.com has received numerous awards and is licensed
to display the Pittsburgh 250 and Ohio Bicentennial logos
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Acknowledgements
- Newly updated Who's Who 2010
booklet
Researching the names Minerd, Minard, Miner, Minor, Meinert,
Meyndert, Meinder, Minder, Minord
Total visits:
from May 7, 2000
launch to July 31, 2010: 1,629,601
Visits in July 2010: 24,098 --
Last
updated: Aug. 25, 2010
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Copyright
© 2000-2010 Mark A. Miner.
US military photos courtesy of AirForceLink.com
and Army.mil
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