Berne Historical Project, April 2001 

Genealogists Darin Flansburgh, Barbara Bolster-Barrett, Harold Miller and Ralph Miller have put together an ambitious project involving the history of the Town of Berne and the surrounding areas. This project, now referred to as the Berne Historical Project, will begin with the 1866 Beers Map of Berne and attempt to identify and trace the history of each family listed on the map.   

Ralph Miller, the Berne Town Historian and has had a dream for many years of providing a database that will contain the genealogy of all Berne Families. With this project, historical society visitors as well as internet researchers, will be able to locate records of their ancestors and much more. Ralph started his database over ten years ago and works on expanding it daily. Using church and town records Ralph and his brother Harold have been searching for the earliest settlers where the church records were recorded in Schoharie. They are also finding much information on the German, Dutch and Swiss ancestors of the early settlers.   

The project is envisioned as a dynamic copy of the Beers Map that will allow a person to click on a family name, land plot, church, cemetery or other landmark and be presented with a history of that selection. For example, you would be able to select a family name listed on the map and access the Genealogy Database for that person. You would have access to a biography of that person that would include ancestors, children and any know facts. By selecting the land plot you will be presented with a history of the lot, the earliest settler, who he passed it to, the earliest Van Rensselaer lease, who was living on it according to the 1787 Van Rensselaer lease map, any subsequent lease holders, who was living on it according to the 1854 map of Berne and who was on it in 1866. We'll carry it as far as we can. By selecting a cemetery you will be presented with a current description of that cemetery with photographs and transcriptions of each headstone.   

The objective is to make this information available to all genealogists and researchers. The participants in this project are arranging for a computer to be donated to the Berne Historical Society so visitors can check out their ancestors and the families who previously lived on the farm or in the house where they are currently living. It's anticipated the neighboring historical societies in Knox, Westerlo, Rensselaerville, Middleburg and Schoharie will also benefit from this project and make this information available to there users.