Research
Our research library has grown tremendously over the last few years and we have many resources for researching local history and genealogy. These include church records and histories, ministerial records, printed family histories and a database of over 15,000 names. There are newspaper and will abstracts, early tax and census records, township and county histories. Although we concentrate on information from Albany and neighboring townships, we have many church records from throughout Berks County as well as historical reference books from Berks and surrounding areas.
VISITING THE LIBRARY
We encourage anyone who is interested in local history to visit the ATHS library. The library is open by appointment and we can easily accommodate your schedule, including evenings and weekends. To visit our library or make an inquiry, please contact Peggy Light by using the contact form on this page.
The Arlan Schroeder Collection
The Bonnie Yuhas Collection
The Arlan Schroeder Collection
Arlan Schroeder, a native of Albany Township, researched his ties to the township for many years. Starting in 1991 he began gathering information about his paternal grandfather, Jacob Schroeder, and amassed genealogical data about many local families. Prior to his death in 2014, Arlan had generously decided to share his information with the public through the Albany Township Historical Society Library.
The collection includes many printed family histories as well as his electronic data base of more than fifteen thousand names. In many cases these histories include newspaper articles, obituaries, land records, wills and other sources that provide a rich picture of the life and times of that family.
In addition, Mr. Schroeder donated many reference books including township and county histories, church records, atlases, wills, obituaries, ministerial records, cemetery records and much more.
The Bonnie Yuhas Collection
What are the essential documents we use when researching the past? Church and cemetery records, census data, land and estate files, military records, and general reference works detailing specific locations or time periods are among the most common. Thanks to a generous donation by the family of the late Bonnie Yuhas, Albany Township now has many of these records available in our research library.
This collection contains more than 150 church and cemetery records from all over Berks County. So now we are able to not only track people while they were in Albany Township, but also in the places they moved from and to. We can widen our circles of connections and better understand kinship and community relationships.
There are also military records, ministerial records, maps, over 300 estate and land records, and genealogy notes for more than 400 families from throughout Berks County. We have many general reference binders for Berks and surrounding areas; these include such diverse subjects as early tax lists from the Pennsylvania Archives, Berks County forges and iron industry, obituary and marriage notices from the Reading Adler and Revolutionary War data.