“German Beaver County: New Sewickley Township” is an innovative digital media public history project of the Beaver County History Podcast. It explores the historical origin, impact, social/cultural legacies, and present heritage of German Lutheran immigration to New Sewickley Township, Pennsylvania and the region.  

Kevin Farkas – community stories, memory, and oral history

Kevin’s second great grandparents emigrated from Darmstadt, Germany to the United States in 1885, settling as farmers in New Sewickley Township. He has two sets of German immigrant ancestors–the Eulers and Herzogs–buried in township’s German Lutheran Oak Grove Cemetery. 

Kevin Farkas is an independent multimedia producer public historian specializing in oral history. He founded the award-winning Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative—a leading regional multimedia project  working closely with the Veterans Breakfast Club, StoryCorps, and the Senator John Heinz History Center/Smithsonian Institution to capture, preserve, and share the stories of veterans with a Western Pennsylvania connection. His multimedia work has appeared in local, regional, and national outlets, including National Geographic, USA Today, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, KDKA radio, WTAE/ABC television, Military Press, The Podcast Engineering Show, and websites of the Veterans Affairs Administration and the Global War on Terror Memorial Foundation.  Kevin’s work has been referenced in several documentaries, museum exhibits, and oral history coursework and texts, including The Journal of Veteran Studies and Doing Oral History.  Donald Ritchie, Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate, has recognized Kevin’s creative audio short stories and radio syndication series as a significant example of a new genre of public-minded oral history.  Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries, rates Kevin’s Veteran Voices: The Oral History Podcast as one of his favorite oral history-based podcast productions. For his oral history work in the Pittsburgh area, Kevin has received special recognition from the City of Pittsburgh, Community College of Allegheny County, and WQED/PBS (Dominion VITA Award).  His photography also won the national “Cover of the Year” award by Hibu Publishing.

Laura Dengel – agriculture, horticulture, community preservation

Ron Goehring – community history, memory, churches,

• • see: Memories of Growing Up in New Sewickley 

The Social Voice Project is the executive producer and intellectual property right owner of the Beaver County History Podcast. Neither the podcast, nor this particular digital media project, “German Beaver County,” is in the public domain, although some of the media content used in this project may be in the public domain.  

The information contained in this website is for general public education and historical information purposes. We have made every effort to ensure that the information presented here is historically accurate and factually correct. However, we welcome suggestions for correcting historical and factual inaccuracies. Where appropriate and known, source citations have been noted. We welcome any information that completes or corrects source citations. 

Historical interpretations and opinions expressed in this project may not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Social Voice Project, the Beaver County History Podcast, or the “German Beaver County” project.