This interview marks the ninth in a series where we meet with a user of the Moravian Archives to discuss their unique experience working with our collections in Bethlehem. In April 2025, we sat down with Richard “Rich” Heckman to discuss his research and volunteer work at the Moravian Archives.

Tom McCullough (TM): Richard “Rich” Heckman, thank you for joining us for another Interview with a Researcher here at the Moravian Archives. I really appreciate you joining us. Could you tell us a little bit about your journey at the Moravian Archives? How did you first learn about us?

Richard Heckman (RH): You’d have to go back quite a number of years. Vernon Nelson was the archivist at that time. It was the first time I ever came to the archives. I was doing some research on some Civil War members of my family. I had asked my grandmother, (who was not a Clewell), if Clewells served in the Civil War?” And she said, “Oh, no, they were all Moravians; they were pacifists. They wouldn’t have done that.” Okay, and so I accepted her answer. Well, several months later, my mother and I went to the Veterans Affairs office for Northampton County. My mom used to work at the courthouse, and she knew several of the ladies. And as she was talking to her friends, I discovered an old-style card catalog along the wall; it contained thousands of veteran’s names from our county. So, I pulled out the drawer with the letter C, and I was shocked to find dozens of Clewells! And I said to myself: “Grammy, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” So I talked to my mom about it, and she said, “Go talk to Vernon Nelson down at the Moravian Archives.” And that was the first time I ever came here; it was probably around the late 1990s. He was very kind, very helpful, and made some suggestions to pursue my investigation.

Shortly after that visit, I began to enter our Clewell family genealogy into a computer. The Clewells created two history/genealogy books, one published in 1907, the other published in 1978. And the committee, the five individuals who put the second volume together, were already thinking: What are we going to do now that the computer era is coming about? How are we going to record and expand our genealogy? And the thing about genealogy is it just keeps expanding and expanding to the point that actually publishing a third volume was going to be impractical (and extremely expensive!). So, I just took it upon myself to start entering all the genealogical data in a digitized format. Now keep in mind this was around the year 2000’ish, something like that. Digitizing information was fairly new stuff twenty-some years ago. But I entered all the names, birth dates, death dates, and related information from both of our family’s volumes with over 20,000 names; today, our database has nearly 25,000 names–Clewells and non-Clewell spouses. The thing that’s so fantastic about it is that—well, the two volumes only have birth dates and death dates and people’s names, who they married, and then the list of their children and birth dates and death dates, but with the computer, you can enter so much more. I mean, it’s almost limitless as to what you can add. And that’s why I love the archives. Because I get birth dates, baptism dates, death dates, burial dates, marriage dates, just a whole host of information. That’s why I love the Schoeneck Moravian Church registers, because there’s just a heap of genealogical information. That was kind of my introduction to the archives.

TM: That’s super interesting. When looking at Schoeneck registers or other materials, did you have like a special moment where you found something you never knew about (or, a eureka moment of sorts)?

RH: Twenty some years ago, I started to enter our family’s genealogical data into our digitized database; specifically, I was digitizing two volumes of our family’s genealogy. There was one family that grabbed my attention: The parents had six children, two sons and four daughters, in that birth order. What shocked me as I was about to enter their information: Four of them (the daughters) had the same death year and the same death month. And then within about a period of eight days, these four children died. There were literally four funerals in eight days; I was shocked! When I originally entered the information, I had no idea what caused this calamity. Had there been some kind of sickness, some kind of accident? Something very unusual had occurred. I tried to research this through other sources, but I could find nothing. Then just a few weeks ago, when I was entering information from Schoeneck’s Register Five into the database here at the Archives, there it was! The pastor recorded the four names, the dates; everything lined up exactly with our Clewell genealogy. Under the last daughter’s name it said, “these children died from diphtheria.” It was kind of like a Eureka moment; there’s the answer to my question, 20 years later! This family’s tragedy left an impression in the back of my mind that I had not forgotten. Why would these four children have died, with their ages from sixteen years old down to five? There had to be some kind of specific reason. And fortunately, the pastor who recorded the funeral information explained it. And I cannot help but think of the deep grief experienced the parents. The pastor had to do four funerals in a period of eight days. Such a horrible tragedy! But yeah, eureka, I found it here at the Archives!

TM: You mentioned that you were entering genealogical information from a church register the other day, Schoeneck volume five. Could you tell us a little bit more about what it is that you do at the Moravian Archives?

RH: As I understand it, from the Schoeneck registers, I’m taking all the names, birth dates, death dates, parents’ names, pastor’s names, locations, etc. and entering that information into one large database. And then you folks here at the Archives will be able to use it, as well as others, who will be able to locate information much more quickly. I think that’s what I’m doing!

TM: Correct! And generously volunteering your time.

RH: Well, for me it’s kind of therapeutic because a lot of us folks who retire have nothing to do except sit around and watch the Weather Channel and then waste away. So, working here, at the Archives, gets me out of the house, and contributing to deepen its database. As I’ve told you earlier, there’s hardly a page in any of the Schoeneck registers that I can turn to that I can’t find a relative connected to our Clewell family.

TM: Didn’t you say last week that you entered in your mother’s baptism?

RH: Yes. Well, not only that, in the same register, Schoeneck’s Register Six, her brother, her sister, and her three younger brothers, spanning about 18 years, their baptisms were recorded in the same register, several different pastors, but all in the same register.

TM: That’s super cool. You mentioned working on, you know, in the course of your previous research, that you have worked on a computerized database for your Clewell family. In what ways have you taken what you’ve learned from this research and shared it with others?

RH: One of the things that I did do several years ago at one of our Clewell reunions was to give talk on the births of the family. By that I mean: there were two brothers (and their mother) who arrived at the Port of Philadelphia, Franz and George. And for some reason, over a period of about 5 generations, the George side was much larger, nearly twice as large as his brother’s side of the family. Now, understand those two brothers had a total of 25 children. Franz had thirteen children, and George had twelve children. I became curious when I discovered one side of the family used 2/3rds of the pages in our family’s genealogy, and the other side used only 1/3 of the pages. The bottom line was that George’s family, his children and grandchildren, had more reaching the age of adulthood, than his brother’s Franz’s side. Further, George’s descendants had larger families than Franz’s. I think only about four of Franz’s 13 children would go on to have children, and George had ten of his 12 would go on to have children. I shared the information on a graph, and you could quickly see how great the difference was between the two sides of the family. So that was one of the talks that I had given.

This past summer, about a year ago at a Clewell reunion—one of the things that I really enjoyed doing was going to the Schoeneck cemetery and helping family trace their family line from their grandparents all the way back to the original Clewells buried at Schoeneck. For some, they were going back 9 and 10 generations. I think a lot of those folks enjoyed that, because they could actually trace their line at the cemetery. I put small lawn-flags throughout the cemetery so I could kind of guide them to the location of their ancestors’ grave stones.

For some of these attendees, I could only direct them to their great, great, aunts or uncles. The reason why is because several of George’s sons left the Schoeneck area and came down here to the Bethlehem area; they became a part of the Central Moravian Church. And they’re buried in the God’s Acre behind Central Moravian Church. One of them is a Revolutionary War veteran, Jacob Clewell, and he’s got a flag marking his grave.

We also took a trip to Gettysburg, and through my research, I found out that a number of our family members served with the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers. I found a number of our Clewell family members’ names on some of the large plaques on the big Pennsylvania monument at Gettysburg. And I think a lot of our family really appreciated that, because, you know, a lot of our family didn’t know about it. And we went to the places around Gettysburg where the 153rd participated in the battle. Just as a little historical note: the fellow who wrote, I forget the title of the book, it deals with the history of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, I think it was a Reverend Kiefer who wrote the book. There’s also a number of memoirs in there. What cracks me up is when you read Kiefer’s assessment of the Civil War and 153rd’s involvement, you get this feeling that if the 153rd had not participated in the war, the whole Northern cause would have been defeated! It’s like, oh, dude, come on; you’re building it up a little bit more beyond what the reality was. But, yeah, the 153rd participated in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and, um, I would eventually find out that my great-great-great uncle would be taken prisoner at Chancellorsville and moved to Libby Prison. And he writes some of his memories of his experience; eventually he was released from prison and mustered out of service with his comrades of 153rd.

TM: Did your passion for history come through a particular interest in the Civil War?

RH: Yes, I would think that that would be a good way to say it, because I lived in Baltimore for a number of years, every so often I and some friends would go to Gettysburg, and we’d take tours and then eventually, like I said earlier, my grandmother told me, “Oh, the Clewells were Moravians. They wouldn’t have been involved in war; they were pacifists.” Oh, no? They were very much involved in the Civil War. I’ve been in contact with Sue Dreydoppel every so often, and I asked her about Moravians and war, especially as it relates to the Revolutionary War. And she said that the Bethlehem congregation was more strict about Moravian traditions and military service, but the further you got away from Bethlehem, the more relaxed they were about their rules and traditions. And of course, since my family is involved in Schoeneck, a congregation further north of Nazareth, that helps to explain why some of my Moravian ancestors participated in the Revolutionary War.

I remember looking at some Moravian church’s diaries and being surprised to see how many officers were in the Continental Army, you know, in Staten Island, because they’re far enough from Bethlehem. It’s like they were far enough away from the restrictions of the Moravian Church’s general stance on their traditions. As I understand, the Moravians were certainly pacifists. Someone from here at the Archives many years ago, showed me a letter written by Continental Congress that basically says to the local leadership to stop molesting the Moravians. They were very helpful to Washington and his troops, marching from New York City, down to Valley Forge. The Moravians were very hospitable; they cared for the sick and the wounded. And that’s why the Continental Congress said, don’t harass these Moravians; they were very kind to our troops.

TM: I think I know the exact letter you’re talking about; it’s cataloged as BethCong 423. What else do you wish others knew about Moravian history or the archives?

RH: One of the things that our family did at our recent reunion: Sarah Hriniak joined us, and she was dressed in period costume and explained a lot of the traditions of the Moravian Church. In fact, last year, when I took some of the family members to the cemetery, when I said that the men are buried one side, the women and the girls are buried on that side, they were all kind of like, what? A husband isn’t buried next to his wife? Yes, that was a part of the Moravian tradition better than a century ago. And one of the things I try to emphasize in that sort of setting is stress that that was a normal practice for them. A lot of people will look back in a period of history and say, “Well, that’s really weird, or that’s really stupid. What’s wrong with those people?” No, that was normal. We’re looking back in time, and we have to readjust our perspective of what’s occurring. I will further explain to them that this was an example of the choir system, and it’s the way the older Moravians would worship, as well. And then, you know, over the course of time, traditions changed. And Sarah went into more detail about the choir system.

One Moravian tradition that I thought was interesting and worth sharing, and it’s in relation to one of our Clewell family members: It’s the casting of lots. One of our Clewells had became a widower, and he wanted to marry another widowed member of the Schoeneck Church. This is probably around 1820s to 1840s, somewhere in that time frame. Well, the Moravians had their tradition of casting lots; several times the lot came up negative, and the leaders of the church said, “No, you can’t marry her.” After the lot was cast a few more times, he put his foot down and he said, “I will have the widow so-and-so, or I will have no other.” And the church authorities acceded to his wishes.

TM: Given your experience with compiling a genealogical database with over 20,000 names, are there any tips you might be able to give to people who would want to come to the archives for family research? Is there any advice you would give, or tips for people who would want to come and do family history research at the archives?

RH: If there were one tip I would give to those doing genealogical research, it would simply be: Document, document, document! Let me share my biggest, most horrible mistake regarding digitizing our Clewell genealogy. I listened to my mother (**laughs**). Now, let me clarify! My mother was a part of the committee of five who helped to create our Clewell family’s second volume, published in 1978; she was the typist. So, it kind of naturally flowed down to me. We’re talking around the late 1990’s when I began to investigate what we should do with our genealogy; computerized genealogy was still in its infancy back then. When I started to enter the names from our Clewell genealogy books, I asked her about documentation, and she said, “Oh, don’t worry about that, just get all the names and dates in the computer.” I’ve been to graduate school–to seminary, and I’m thinking, I need to justify this; I need to document this. “No, no, no, just put it in. Just get it into the computer,” she said. And that’s exactly what I did. I listened to my mom, and now I have the chore of going back and documenting the sources from where I got this information. The reason why it is so important is because if you don’t document, you do not have genealogy; you have mythology! I mean, I can have all the names and dates and print them out for family members. But if I don’t say I got it from volume one, published in 1907, they have no idea where it came from. In fact, that’s one of the gripes that I have about both volumes of our Clewell family history and genealogy: There’s not one citation, not reference, no bibliography. The writer makes references that he came here to the archives, and I assume he was looking at the first and second Schoeneck registers, but I don’t know that, because there is no documentation. If someone can learn from my mistake, then learn to document. It’s very critical! One can use conversations, emails, phone calls, letters, and websites like FindAGrave, Ancestry, or FamilySearch; they are all a part of genealogical documentation. One of the other things I like about genealogy today is that you can also add photographs, maps, obituaries, videos, and audio recordings. These additional media add many wonderful details to a family’s ancestors.

TM: Social history has certainly had an impact on genealogy, I think, and whereas in the past someone might just jot down the birth and death dates of an ancestor and so on, today there’s more interest in including information regarding who a person really was, what they were like; what was their personality like, and what did they do professionally? Moravian records are particularly useful for this, whereas they’ll describe a person as a devoted member of the church, a bit grumpy, a skilled carpenter, and so on.

RH: One of the things I’ve done in the past, is transcribe some of the funeral entries from old Schoeneck registers and publish them on the Schoeneck’s Facebook page. Some members have said, “Oh, I didn’t know great-great grandma was like this…” One of the pastors talked about visiting a sick lady and reading a particular Psalm to her, her favorite, and a few moments later she died. For family members who have never known that, they might say something like “Oh, wow. Thanks for publishing that; I didn’t know that about her. I really appreciate learning that about my ancestor!”

One of the things I’ve done in the past is publish the names of confirmands from nearly a century ago. This past Palm Sunday (2025), I typed out, I think it was the confirmation entry from Schoeneck for the year 1935. The pastor, Rev. James Gross, talks about it being the largest group of confirmands in the church’s history to that point, a whopping 29 of them! One of the things I included was the Scripture text, not just the reference, but the entire text. At the end of the list of confirmands, the pastor also includes about 4 or 5 sentences about what he had them do. They [i.e. the 1935 confirmands] had to read through Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible (1904). They had to write a prayer or a hymn. I think they had to write an essay. Eventually, they had “catechetical night,” apparently, where all the families would get together. I’m guessing it was a covered dish, but the confirmands had to read their essays to the audience. Now I’m thinking: 29 of them had to read all that–they were there for a long night! Oh yes, and they also had to give $0.10 each Sunday morning at Sunday School. And of course, attendance was taken each Sunday. The pastor explains the reason why they had to give the $0.10, was to get the kids into the habit of giving to the church.

I typed that all out and put it on the Schoeneck Moravian Facebook page, and people were appreciative, either just to hear the history or because they saw a relative’s name among the 29 confirmands. I really enjoy sharing some of these wonderful pieces of information that are found only here in the Moravian Archives.

TM: You mentioned having gone to seminary. Did you ever work in the ministry? Could you tell us a bit more about what you’ve done professionally, before coming to volunteer at the Archives?

RH: I served in the Presbyterian church. I attended Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and served in two Presbyterian (PCA) churches: Hillcrest Presbyterian, in Seattle, Washington and Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, MD. I served as a youth pastor for a total of eight years; I loved working with kids. Eventually I felt the Lord leading me in a different direction. Since I was single and had no family commitments to keep me home, I decided to earn my CDL (commercial driver’s license) to drive a “big truck.”  And for the last 28 years, that’s what I did, and there’s all kinds of stories I have from that perspective.

TM: And now after retiring, you’ve been able to spend a lot more time volunteering and researching at the Archives?

RH: Oh, yeah, especially volunteering. And it’s also funny, too, when I talk to some of my truck driver friends. They say, “You’re going to be doing what? In an archive? Huh? You?” I’ll say back to them, “You guys don’t understand. You know, I’ve read more than ‘Dick and Jane go to school’ kind of books. When I was in seminary, I had to learn Greek and Hebrew!” And I must admit my reading habits really slackened off during my time out on the road. But I enjoy this kind of work. Entering in the information, I’m not doing it just for me, but I know that there’s going to be others who are going to be using the database I’m helping to create. And I don’t know how many years I have left (I’m in my 70s), but if I can help others gain access to the information here in the Archives and make it more accessible, I’m 100% for it!

TM: Awesome! I think people are going to be excited to read the interview that you’ve done with us today! Unless you have any closing comments…

RH: Let’s see. Yes, Yuengling is my favorite beer.

TM: Okay, I’ll leave that in! (**laughter**) It’s been a pleasure doing this interview with you today. We know each other pretty well from the archives, but thank you for taking the time to do this and take a break from your volunteering today!

Enjoyed this conversation? Be sure to check out our previous interviews here:

• Interview with Rev. Dr. Winelle Kirton-Roberts
• Interview with Dr. Josef Köstlbauer
• Interview with Dr. Christina Petterson
• Interview with Jane Chang
• Interview with Luke Soderstrom
• Interview with Anca Wilkening
• Interview with Rev. Dr. Frank Crouch
• Interview with Savannah Flanagan