Joseph Fornance (1804-1852) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Norristown, Pennsylvania. Like the elder Joseph, his son Joseph Fornance (1841-1923) and grandson Joseph Knox Fornance (1882-1965) were lawyers involved with politics. The Fornance family papers, 1794-1989, is an extensive collection of correspondence, ledgers, diaries, photograph albums, scrapbooks, and documents covering several generations of one family. Family members were involved in numerous matters over more than one-and-a-half centuries, so among other subjects, there is rich documentation of military service during the Civil War and World War I, the election of Woodrow Wilson, and early efforts at historic preservation (the Fornance family home is considered the oldest in Norristown).
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