It can be a rare thrill to uncover details about the day-to-day lives of our forebears—things we likely take for granted in our own daily lives. It’s especially precious when the information is from the 1800s or earlier.
Truby & Chambers families for the win in 2026
Truby and Chambers families of western Pennsylvania: Farmhouse history and the Revolutionary war.
What the Tombstones Tell
What clues can gravestones give us about a person or family now gone? See if you can match grave markers to brief Truby family bios.
Black Hand and the Chicken Coop Caper
On a fall afternoon in 1921, Clark Owens Truby opens a letter that demands he place $100 next to his dad’s backyard chicken coop, or he will be killed. The letter is signed “Black Hand”
Captain Henry Truby’s Hard Knocks
1854 was a rough year for Capt Truby of Gilpin Twp. His crops failed, his dad died, and his 3-year-old son lost his sight. But the Captain took in an orphan boy who helped him out.
Truby Diary Hints at a Soft Heart for his Sweetheart
Bachelor Capt Henry Truby of Gilpin Twp was a man of few words when writing his diary back in 1844. Here’s what the Captain was up to exactly 176 years ago, in the days leading up to Valentine’s day.
Truby Farmhouse Apollo PA 