Byrnesville, Barnesboro, Northern Cambria, Cambria County, Pennsylvania

The Byrnes Family Crest and Coat of Arms

nospam@example.com (Edward Byrnes) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:05:18 -0400

Shaun Byrnes

We've had plaques of the Byrnes Family Crest and Coat of Arms in the family for years, our dad (Edward Joseph Byrnes) and his brothers (our uncles) always had one; sometimes featured in the living room and sometimes in the family rooms.

Bending to the demands of the latest in interior design, you might at times also find the Byrnes Family Crest and Coat of Arms hanging in the basement sharing space on a pegboard with a number of hand tools.

Made of hand-painted repoussed metal, copper-tack tacked to the dark wooden plaque, our Byrnes Family Crest and Coat of Arms has been in our immediate families since the early 1960's.

Buttons made for the Byrnes Family and Friends Reunion of 2005 also featured the Byrnes Family Crest and Coat of Arms. (See Byrnes Family and Friends Reunion 2005 click here.)

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Breakfast in Byrnesville

nospam@example.com (Edward Byrnes) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:26:32 -0400

A boy of eleven years wakes up as the car stops. With the family he arrives in Byrnesville after an eight hour ride. Excited but tired, sleep comes easily and morning comes quickly. It is cold but warm enough with the knowledge of being there. Too early in the neighborhood for noise, the boy could go out back as long as he was quiet; grandma would make him some breakfast.

The boy closes the wooden screen door gently, the sound of the spring and the smell of the air bring the fact home, he really is in Pennsylvania again. Just outside the back door he stands on the cement walk and looks across the yards and up the hill. The lawn holds a suspended layer of water droplets of transluscent white, heavy dew. He raises his eyes and looks at the gold-brown field up behind the hotel and below the big house where the Shuma's live. The field is soaking wet and not yet in the sun. The air is thick with morning, the hotel an iron red of asphalt shingle siding and white painted frames of wood trim the windows.

Byrnesville, PA 1967

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A Story of the Platt Family Tree

nospam@example.com (Edward Byrnes) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:23:01 -0400

by Jane Tripp

Valentine DeVinny wrote to Commissioner of Pensions in November of 1896, when he was 62 years of age and perhaps on a visit home to Canton, Ohio. He is our first recorded Platt Family historian.

How he learned of his great grandfather John Platt is a mystery -- perhaps some family stories of Revolutionary War soldiers, as both his grandfathers were soldiers in the War of the Revolution.

Valentine's sister's son, Charles Vignos, was approaching 30 when the reply came from the Bureau of Pensions. Later, in the 1930's and 40's, Charles would visit Cambria County in reference to his American Mine Door Company. Charles' Platt family research was done in person in the libraries, courthouses and church offices, mainly in Pennsylvania.

He walked many a cemetery and interviewed many a relative and any old timer he met who would talk to him of days past. When gas rationing in the 1940's slowed down his trips to Cambria he corresponded by letter to many, including Clair Bearer who knew many members of his Platt family. Charles' secretary typed his notes.

Years later, after his death, copies in the form of five binders were donated by his grandson Joe Wagner to the Cambria County Historical Society in Ebensburg. Joe Wagner certainly expanded on his grandfather's research and is the author of many Platt and related family papers. I do not know if the binders at Ebensburg are the original Vignos binders or contain some of his grandson Wagner's expanded research.

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The Monkey Drifts

nospam@example.com (Edward Byrnes) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:52:09 -0400

We'd walk to the east past James Street in Byrnesville where narrow dirt roads and paths led us to and across a large flat area of crushed coal. We would play baseball here. The outfield was bordered by a creek and a few trees under which guys old enough to have them would come to wash and wax their cars. On Saturday nights these same guys would bring their girls to this spot to watch for fireflies.

With a bucket filled from the stream and soap to make suds you'd slather up the vehicle and then rinse it by throwing water on it from the bucket dipped in the creek. You'd then dry the auto with a chamois if you had it or an old towel if you didn't.

Once dry you would Simonize your ride with paste wax applied in careful circles using a small piece of rag. When the wax was dry and chalky you would buff off the wax leaving a shine at least three inches deep.

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Searchable Platt Family Tree

nospam@example.com (Edward Byrnes) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:10:30 -0400

The John Platt Family Tree
by Charles Vignos

There exists a wonderful John Platt Family Tree on paper; it is a drawn tree with family names representing the branches and limbs. It was created by Charles Vignos in 1950. Charles Vignos lived in Canton, Ohio and so does at least one of his grandsons, Joe Wagner. I met Joe Wagner and family in 1979, Joe has continued John Platt (1747-1850) research and has written several excellent papers about the life and Revolution War travels of John Platt.

John Platt was born in 1747 in Littlestown, Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1775 at a tavern in Gettysburg John Platt volunteered for duty in the Pennsylvania Militia and served in the Revolutionary War. Five years later John Platt was living in a part of Huntington County, Pennsylvania which later became a part of Cambria County. It follows that many of the individuals on this tree are from Cambria County, Pennsylvania. See the Surname List below.

The grandson of Charles Vignos, Joe Wagner showed me a great photograph and as I remember, it was of Charles Vignos working on the original tree. A standing person would have had to reach up to touch the top branches of the nine foot tall tree. The completed tree was photographed and Mr. Vignos sent copies to many relatives.

Click HERE to go to the searchable pages of the John Platt Family Tree. Continue below for notes on using the web version of the tree.

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