Freeland local history researcher to present collection of Freeland area images from the early 20th century

Freeland native and local history researcher Charlotte Tancin will narrate a tour of the Freeland area through images from the first half of the 20th century during a presentation in March at MMI Preparatory School.

Tancin will make her presentation on Thursday, March 10 at 6:30 P.M. in The Joseph A. Turri ’45 Library and Learning Center on MMI’s campus at 154 Centre Street in Freeland. The event is free and open to the public. It is offered through The Joseph A. Turri ’45 Library and Resource Center as part of the Community Event Series.

The illustrated journey into Freeland’s past is designed to give spectators a view of how Freeland and neighboring towns once appeared. Tancin said, “You’ll see the town as you’ve never seen it before, or as you remember it, or as you’ve heard about it from older relatives and neighbors.”

Tancin does background research on Freeland’s history and has a historical website about the town at www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ct0u/freeland.html that she began in the 1990s. She visited MMI last year to share her knowledge of the Freeland borough. It focused on Freeland’s first layout and how it grew, the early businesses and industries that made it thrive and the more than 13 churches that nurtured its people.

Tancin now lives in Pittsburgh and is a librarian at Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University. Her passion for Freeland-area history began in the 1980s while she was doing genealogical research on her family’s roots throughout the local area. She reached out to another local historian, the late Charles Stumpf, who had published information about Freeland. He gave her files that helped her begin her historical endeavor.

While she hopes to publish a book one day, her main objectives are to continue providing captivating information and images about Freeland, doing research that uses that information to educate and share this knowledge with others so that the history is preserved.

For more information on the event, call MMI Preparatory School at 570-636-1108.