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E. D. Buckman genealogical collection on the Buckman and allied families

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Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

The Buckman family was one of the earliest British families to settle in Pennsylvania. In 1682, Joan Bagham Buckman, widow of Edward Buckman of Sussex County, England, set sail with several other family members on William Penn’s Welcome from England to America. While at sea, smallpox broke out on the ship and many passengers died, including the widow Buckman and at least two of her children. The Buckmans who survived the journey to Pennsylvania were William Buckman (circa 1650-1716), his wife Sarah and four of their children, and William’s sister Ruth Buckman (circa 1659-1716).

Prior to their journey, the Buckmans had purchased property in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, from William Penn. In 1683, William and his family made their way to Newtown to claim their land. William worked mostly as a carpenter and became a member of the Middletown Friends Meeting. After his first wife died in 1690, he married Elizabeth Wilson (1682-circa 1731). Together they had four children.

Also in 1683, Penn granted Ruth Buckman land in nearby Fallsington, Pennsylvania; though by the late 1680s, she was living in Burlington County, New Jersey, with her new husband Richard Harrison (circa 1664-circa 1742). The couple went on to to have several children.

Edwin Dawson Buckman (1823-1891) descended from William Buckman. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1848, married Rebecca Lowner (Lownes) that same year, and worked as a doctor in Philadelphia. He spent much of the latter part of his life compiling the history and genealogy of the Buckman family. At one point he announced his intentions to publish a book on the family, although it is unclear if the book was ever published. However, some of his findings were published in the Doylestown Democrat in the early 1880s.

The E. D. Buckman genealogical collection on the Buckman and allied families consists of forty-seven volumes that together present a comprehensive family history representing the first through ninth generations. The volumes' original order and call numbers have been retained, though their order is somewhat chaotic (e.g. the index to Gen Bu1:3 [Volume 3] is in Gen Bu1:18 [Volume 18]).

While the Buckman family is the one most prominently featured, several volumes are devoted to allied families including the Atkinsons, Ashtons, Burgesses, Blakers, Hestons, Harrisons, Paxons, Martindales, Janneys, Coopers, Hibbs, and Tomlinsons, among others. Several volumes also contain similar accounts of the history of the Buckman family, the "final" versions of which are published in newpaper clipping in Gen Bu1:15 (Volume 15). Other volumes contain correspondence to E. D Buckman and copies of abstracts, minutes, and vital records from Friends' meetings. In the first six volumes of the collection, family members are arranged by number. Starting with the earliest generations (the Widow Buckman, is number 1; her children are numbers 2, 3, 4, and so on), these numbers of used to track individuals throughout these volumes. The family numbers reappear in throughout the volumes, especially in Volumes 13 and 14 where individuals are listed alphabetically, and the family number indexes (Volumes 30 and 33).

Further descriptions of some of the volumes can be found in the inventory below.

Publisher
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Finding Aid Author
Finding aid prepared by Cary Majewicz
Finding Aid Date
; 2010
Sponsor
Processing made possible by a generous donation from Norman Bryant Buckman via the Buckman Family Fund.
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Collection Inventory

Family numbers 1 to 193, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:1
Family numbers 194 to 921, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:2
Family numbers 1005 to 3417, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:3
Family numbers 3460 to 3496, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:4
Recapitulation of information in Volumes 1:1-1:4 (1-4), in abbreviated form, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:5
Family numbers 6000 to 8520, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:6
Marriages from Friends' monthly meeting records in Bucks County, Pa. (random index); also genelogical accounts of Bucks County, Pa. families of Allen, Beans, Moon, Knowles (with index), Betts, Fell, and Palmer, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:7
Offical announcements issued from the Office of the U. S. General Hospital No. 6, 1864-1868, not indexed; also family genealogies, indexed; and the Paxon family, indexed, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:8
Random index to Volume 10 (Gen Bu 1:10), (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:9
Genealogical history of the Buckman family, first through sixth generations, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:10
Abstracts from the minutes and other records of the Buckingham Monthly Meeting of Friends in Bucks County, Pa., (1885).
Volume Gen Bu1:11
Abstracts of the certificates of removal, marriages, births, and death occuring among the members belonging to the Quarterly Meeting of Friends in Bucks County from 1680 to 1702, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:12
Family names G to S, numbers 992 to 2376, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:13
Family names S to Z, numbers 2377 to 3158; family numbers 3159 to 3419, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:14
Genealogical history of the Buckman family, (1880-1883).
Volume Gen Bu1:15
Scope and Contents note

This book contains clippings of E. D. Buckman's "Genealogical History of the Buckman Family." His findings on the family were published in the Doylestown Democrat and possibly other newspapers that are not identified, starting in 1881. Scattered among Buckman's clippings are others on family marriages and deaths, related families and town, and unrelated stories and poems. The clippings cover most of the book's pages, except for several pages at the back revealing that the book was once used as a doctor's log of patients' conditions and treatments.

Personal history of members of the Buckman family and genealogical register, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:16
Daybook of James Buckman and Sons, White Hall Boarding School; and index of marriages, (1847-1848, undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:17
Index to Volume 3 (Gen Bu1:3), (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:18
E. D. Buckman correspondence, (1853-1885) (Bulk, 1882-1885).
Volume Gen Bu1:19
Scope and Contents note

The volume mostly contains letters sent to E. D. Buckman from family members concerning family history. Together they present one way used by Buckman to gather information on the family. There is an occasional letter or two from Buckman, but the vast majority is incoming correspondence. Some individuals provided detailed genealogical lists along with their correspondence. All the letters are tipped onto the volume's pages and are in roughly chronological order dating from 1853 to 1885.

E. D. Buckman correspondence, including information on allied families: Higgins, Kinsey, Paist, Harrison, Skelton, and others, (1885-circa 1889).
Volume Gen Bu1:20
Scope and Contents note

This volume continues the letters sent to E. D. Buckman during his search for information about the Buckman family's history. Interspersed among letters from family members dating from 1885 to about 1889 would appear to be some of Buckman's own compilations of notes on various family lines.

Allied families of Armitage, Atkinson, Ashton, Alexander, Austin, Baker, Taylor, Wiggins, Burgess, and others, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:21
Genealogical data and charts on allied families; preceeded by maps and information on the history of Bristol Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:22
Genealogy of the fourth branch of the Buckman family consisting of descendants of Joseph Buckman, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:23
Geneaology of the third branch of the Buckman family in the third generation consisting of descendants of John Buckman and Eleanor his wife, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:24
Genealogy of the fifth branch of the Buckman family in the third generation consisting of the descendants of Thomas Buckman and Priscilla Bunting his wife, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:25
Genealogical history of that branch of the Buckman family descended from Ruth Buckman and her marriage with Peter Blaker, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:26
Genealogical history of the Heston branch of the Buckman family--copied from the work of Thomas Warner, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:27
Genealogy and history of the Paxson family, with notes on the Heston family, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:28
Heston and allied families, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:29
Family number index to Volume 34 (Gen Bu 1:34), (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:30
Newspapers clippings, including a short biography of Phineas Pemberton; the Shewell family; marriages of Buckingham, Bucks County, Pa.; the Pownell family; and the Tomlinson family of Byberry, (1855-circa 1882).
Volume Gen Bu1:31
Scope and Contents note

Clippings take up most of the first half of the book. Most cover the history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, though a few discuss health issues and other topics. The clippings are followed by a list of marriages, which is then followed by registers pertaining to allied families.

The Martindale family, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:32
Family number index to Volume 27 (Gen Bu1:27), (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:33
Genealogy of the Buckman family of the fourth and fifth generation with allied families of Strawn, Heston, and others, (circa 1850).
Volume Gen Bu1:34
Blaker genealogy, Bucks County, Pa.; also, Boyer and Briggs families, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:35
Geneaology of Sarah Buckman and her descendants; includes allied families of Lancaster, Taylor, Jones, Conrad, Dunnett, Foulke, Jenkins, Thomas, and others, (1882).
Volume Gen Bu1:36
The Burgess family of Bucks County; and allied families Burroughs, Cadwallader, Canby, and Paxson; and genealogical accounts of Mary Buckman and John Carver, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:37
Cooper, Cowgill, Harding, Harvey, Hibbs, Knights, Inskeep, and other families, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:38
Janney genealogy from the pioneer Thomas Janney, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:39
Kinsey, Linton, Lippincott, and Paist(e) families, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:40
Ancestry of the Palmer family of Pennsylvania; also, allied families of Penquiste, Scarborough, Stackhouse, Taylor, and others, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:41
Tomlinson, Wilkinson, and Paxson families; descendants of Joseph Winder of Newtown, Bucks County, Pa.; and other allied families, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:42
Geneaology of the Jacob Buckman branch of the Buckman family from the ancestor who migrated to this country with William Penn in the Welcome in 1682, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:43
Genealogy of the second branch of the Buckman family in the third generation consisting of the descendants of William Buckman and Jane Briggs, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:44
Buckman genealogy and allied families, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:45
Buckman genealogy and allied familes, continued, (undated).
Volume Gen Bu1:46
Buckman family, first through ninth generations, (circa 1882-1892).
Volume Gen Bu1:47

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