Peter Shirk family reunions

Title: Peter Shirk family reunion fonds

Dates of creation: 1961-2000, 2009

Physical description: 4 cm of textual records

Administrative history: In 1961, several descendants of Peter Shirk met to plan a family reunion commemorating his arrival in Canada in 1862. Subsequently, reunions were held in 1961, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1982, 1988, and 1992.

Peter Shirk (1839-1919), accompanied by his sister Barbara, came to Waterloo County in 1862 from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1866 he purchased the Blair Mill, and later the Bridgeport and Baden flour mills. He was Waterloo Township treasurer for 20 years (1892-1912) and a trustee of the Berlin High School board for 26 years (1878-1904). He was a member of the Martin Mennonite Meetinghouse congregation in Waterloo. Peter married Magdalena Martin in 1866; the couple had 13 children. After her death in 1895, he married Judith Weber Krampien; the couple had one child together. Judith, the widow of Charles Krampien, had three children from her first marriage.

Custodial history: Donated to the Archives by the estate of Lorna Bergey, granddaughter of Peter Shirk, in 2009. Bergey saved and compiled these records.

Scope and content: Consists of minutes of reunion committee meetings, genealogical notes on the Shirk/Sherk family, news clippings on the life of Peter Shirk and the reunions, pages of reunion guest books, and talks by Lorna Bergey given at the reunions. Some materials from the Schurch family reunions and Joseph Sherk (Schoerg) family reunions are included. Someone inserted an obituary of Lorna Bergey, as it appeared in the Sherk newsletter.

Notes: For photographs related to this family search the Mennonite Archival Image Database.
Further materials related to this family may be found in the Lorna Bergey fonds and by searching the Archives. An encyclopedia entry for this family may be found in GAMEO.
Original description created by Laureen Harder-Gissing in Jul 2012.
 

File list:

1. Lorna L. Bergey (nee Shantz) : some records she kept - personal family history and Shirk/Sherk reunions