Apr 2, 2007 — David Hively has had success in researching his family tree. He knows his family arrived in Philadelphia from Germany in 1749 and has spent much of the time since then in Lancaster and York counties.

Still, the Red Lion resident said, "Sometimes you can't find history records."

On Sunday, Jonathan Stayer, reference archivist with the Pennsylvania State Archives, spoke to Hively and about 20 others at the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society's meeting at the York County Heritage Trust.

Stayer, a York County native, is familiar with genealogical research as he has researched his own family back two centuries and gave his listeners a clue as to what records are available at the state level.

Stayer said that the state has been putting as many records online as the technology will allow. However, the staff recently attempted to load all of the data from survey records, and, even after 14 hours, the effort had to be aborted. "We're looking at putting that up in chunks," Stayer said.

The state also has nearly 500,000 photographs in its collection. They range from showing construction projects in Pennsylvania history to postcards from the York Fair about 100 years ago.

One of the pictures was an Associated Press photo from Nov. 24, 1955. It shows then-Governor George M. Leader of York holding a hatchet above the head of a live turkey, the grand champion of the state Farm Show in 1955, while Nancy MacDonald of Stewartstown, the state turkey queen, looked on.

Some of the records include railroad records, mining ledgers and passenger lists dating back to colonial times. Pension and bonus applications as well as letters and diaries date from the French and Indian War of the mid-18th century to World War II.

One of the records not included are the papers of governors. In Pennsylvania, those documents are considered the private property of the governor.

There are dog records. York County was the only county, Stayer said, where dog owners actually sketched out a picture of the beloved canines on their applications.

Hively has been doing his research for three decades now. Among his successes include the knowledge that his family is mostly "peasants and farmers" and originated from Germany and Switzerland.

"It's fascinating," Hively said. "It's like a disease. You can't stop."