What we’re all about.

Most visitors comment about the passion they hear in our voices when Brian, Alyson, or I show them around the Palatine House.  So what makes us so passionate? 

For me it’s my heritage.  I am descended from some of the first Palatine immigrants who settled in Schoharie.  I know their names, I know the names of their children, I am the keeper of their 305 year old Bible and I am proud of my ancestry.  As I type this, I look up at the portraits that hang in my living room of my great, great, grandparents, and realize that they were the sixth generation of Schaeffers in Schoharie.  Two generations before them my great, great, great, great grandfather, Hendrich, was involved in the building of what was then the Lutheran Parsonage, and is now the museum that I direct.  It was meant to be.

I won’t try to speak directly for Brian or Alyson about their passion.  You’ll have to stop by and let them tell you themselves.

Combined, I know that our passion also comes from the cold, snowy days this past Spring when we dove into this project without any clear direction on where we were headed.  We’re finding our way now, and that way is constantly evolving.  I intend to write a mission statement (on the ever growing to-do list), but I think we need this first summer to clearly define our goals.  In the meantime we’re having fun and working hard on everything from programming, to fence building, to creating our own Palatine House tongue twisters that are used to engage our younger visitors.

Stay tuned….”Who were the Palatines?” comes next!