There are 23 known sets of twins in our extended family tree of 
5,300 individuals.  Given that I have no birth dates for a number of 
family members, there may be even more multiple births.  I welcome 
all information from ''cousins'' who can add to or offer corrections of 
details provided here.  All of the twins are descendents of the 
Allshouse, Beck and Rugh families with ties, of course, to many 
other surnames.  The latest set of twins was born in 1979 while the 
earliest was born in 1748.

My interest in twins stems from the birth of two of our six children, 
ERIK MICHAEL AND JASON PAUL SILVESTRI.  They are 
fraternal, mirror-image twins; that is, the appearance of the left side of 
one's twin face is seen in the right side of the other, and vice versa.  
Similarly, one boy is left-handed, the other right-handed.  Their 
temperaments are also quite different, one being introverted and the 
other extroverted.

While they are now healthy young men, the status of our boys at 
birth was tenuous because they were born three months early.  With 
the finest medical care during a 90-day stay at a Boston, MA. 
hospital, they survived and thrived.  During those early days though, 
we all endured some terrifying moments when their conditions 
wavered.  Unfortunately, earlier generations did not enjoy the same 
level of health care and twin births often ended tragically.  One 
horrific example detailed below involves the death of one twin and 
three of her siblings in one month's time in what must surely have 
been a catastrophic illness.   

For those twins with happier fates, I am sure that they enriched the 
lives of their parents and siblings.  Although they require an 
exponential, not double, level of care, twins also provide for some of 
life's sweetest moments.  Except in the obvious case of male and 
female combinations, it is unknown if the following twins were 
fraternal or identical.

Sets of twins in the Allshouse line include ISRAEL JEREMIAH 
AND PIERCE ALLSHOUSE, born June 26, 1850 to Michael and 
Susannah (Riggle) Allshouse in Armstrong Co., PA.  It is unknown 
whether Pierce survived, but Israel lived long enough to marry, twice, 
and have three children.  These twins were my half 1st cousins, three 
times removed.  Their seven siblings included: Abraham, who died at 
age 4; Jemima, who died just before her second birthday; Andrew, 
who died at age 7; Jacob, who died at age 10; John, David and 
Gideon, all of whom survived to adulthood.  [Another sibling is listed 
as Michale, but his birth date is two months after Jemima's, so there 
is some error here.]

CARRELA AND ELFREDA ALLSHOUSE were born October 3, 
1902 in PA.  It appears that they died shortly after birth on the same 
day.  They were the daughters of John and Jeannette (McCreight) 
Allshouse.  The twins' siblings were: Warren, who died at three 
months; Lee, Marlin and Edgar, the life spans of which I do not 
know.  The twins were my 3rd cousins, twice removed.

Simon B. and Olive (Ringer) Allshouse were the parents of 
MARGARET OLIVE AND MERLE SIMON ALLSHOUSE, 
born September 2, 1905 in Armstrong Co., PA.  Margaret became a 
teacher and died at the age of 78 on October 14, 1983 in Avonmore, 
PA.  It appears she was unmarried.  Merle married Verna Case, had 
four children and died at the age of 52 on his birthday, September 2, 
1957.  These twins were also my 3rd cousins, twice removed.  Their 
siblings were: Josiah, who died at 17 months; Elmer, who died two 
days after birth; Arthur, Oscar and Charles, all of whom led long 
lives.  [Note: the Allshouse database on the Internet gives a different 
year of birth for Merle, but the Beers Project, an historical record of 
Armstrong Co., PA, identifies the brother and sister as twins.]

DORA ELLA AND DORIS ETTA ALLSHOUSE were born 
April 24, 1920.  It is unknown if these twins, my 4th cousins, once 
removed, are still alive.  Dora married Alfred Nelson while Doris 
married Leonard Johns.  The twins' parents were Harvey and Cora 
(Zimmerman) Allshouse who married in Kalamazoo, MI.  The 
couple's other children all survived to adulthood as well and 
included Ralph, Donald, Betty Jane and Wilson, the last of which 
served during WWII in the Army Coast Artillery.

Little is known about stillborn TWINS born sometime after 1943 to 
the late Eber and Josephine (Kiley) Allshouse of Indiana, PA.  [May 
2, 1943 was the couple's marriage date.]  They had two other 
children, Alice and Mary, my 5th cousins.  Eber served in the Navy 
during WWII.

In an Allshouse-related family, JACOB DANIEL AND SAMUEL 
ALBERT BUZZARD were born June 18, 1870 to Jacob and Mary 
Ann (Allshouse) Buzzard.  Both of the twins, my 1st cousins, twice 
removed, survived to adulthood and married.  So did their siblings 
Julia Ann, Amos, Hezekiah and Sarah Ann Buzzard, who were born 
on the family farm in Buzzardtown, Hempfield Twp, Westmoreland 
Co., PA.

Then, Amos Buzzard [cited above] and his wife, Melinda (Errett), 
had twins of their own, ELON JEAN AND ROSCOE DEAN 
BUZZARD, born July 8, 1890.  Elon died in infancy.  I don't know 
about Roscoe.  Their siblings were: Ralph, who died in infancy; 
Clement, Oscar, Susannah, Mary, and Bertha, whose dates of death 
are unknown to me.  They were all my second cousins, once 
removed.

In another Allshouse-related family, HENRY JOHN AND SARAH 
MARIA CROUSHORE were born November 26, 1872 to Lavina 
(Allshouse) and Jacobus Jackson Croushore of Westmoreland Co., 
PA.  I don't know how long Henry lived, but Sarah died at the age of 
seven months in July 1873.  There must have been an epidemic of 
some kind during that time because three of Sarah's siblings also 
died on different days in July 1873: Margarete, at age five; Emma, at 
age four; Mary at age three.  Their other siblings, George and 
Catherine, survived to adulthood. 

The brother of Jacobus Croushore, George Croushore, married Sarah 
Kunkle Allshouse, the sister of Lavina Allshouse.  George and Sarah 
(Allshouse) Croushore, also of Westmoreland Co., PA, had a set of 
twins of their own.  JAMES OFFET AND HERBERT LADY 
CROUSHORE were born September 11, 1878.  James lived only 
five days but Herbert married, had five children and lived to the age 
of 58.  The twins' other siblings all lived to adulthood and included: 
William; Margaret; Henry; John; Charles; and Franklin.

All of the Croushore twins and their siblings were both my second 
cousins, twice removed, and, my 3rd cousins, twice removed.  It's a 
good thing I have FamilyTreeMaker to help me sort out these 
relationships.  Not only am I related to the wives, Lavina and Sarah 
Allshouse, but the mother of both of their husbands, Jacobus and 
George Croushore, was Margaret Baughman, my second great-
grandaunt from the Baughman line.

Samuel Kepple, related through the Allshouse line, and his wife, 
Maggie (Seanor) had a dozen children, including two sets of twins, 
all my 3rd cousins, twice removed.   ALICE ETHEL AND DORA 
EDITH KEPPLE were born April 24, 1892.  Alice married Tom 
Pratt and lived until September 20, 1945.  Her twin Dora's brief life 
ended on September 15, 1893.  The second set of twins, RUTH 
AND SAMUEL ALFRED KEPPLE, were born September 3, 
1900.  Ruth married Richard Ross, had nine children and lived until 
June 12, 1977.  Samuel married Ethel Lunn and had three children.  
The twins' siblings included Bertha, Grace, Bess, Laura, Mary 
Magdalena, Seanor, John and Elizabeth, all of whom survived to 
adulthood.  [After Maggie's death in 1905, Samuel married Minnie 
Eyring and they had a son, James.]

Leona (Allshouse), who was a midwife, and Edward Whiteman, of 
California, Washington Co, PA, were the parents of thirteen children 
including UNNAMED MALE TWINS who were born about 1896.  
A son William was born and died in the same year.  The couple lost 
four other children: Robert, died at age 15; Alvin, died at age three; 
Louis died at age two; Eugene died at age one.  There is no date of 
death for their siblings Mae and Steward.  Of the remaining siblings, 
all my 3rd cousins, once removed: Finley died at age 52; Charles died 
at age 54; Jeanette died just before her 70th birthday; Leona died at 
age 86.

I have scant details about unnamed MALE STAUFFER TWINS 
born some time after 1886 to Minnie (Allshouse) and Fred Stauffer.  
Since they were unnamed, they did not likely survive their births.  
The twins' siblings were George, Kenneth, Charles, James, Margaret, 
Viola and Robert, all my 3rd cousins, twice removed.

In another family line, GEORGE AND LEONARD BECK were 
born on June 11, 1801 to my 4th great-grandparents, Leonard and 
Susanna (Dieter/Deeter) Beck.  The twin's birth day comes from an 
ancestral file which also indicates that both boys ''died young. ''  
This file actually says the full birth date is June 11, 1811 but the birth 
year seems to be an error for three reasons.  First, International 
Genealogical Index records show that twins sons of Leonard Beck 
and Susanna Dieter were christened on October 10, 1801 in 
Hempfield Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA.  Second, the last child born 
to the couple prior to the twins was in 1799.  Third, Susanna would 
really have been too old, almost 54, to bear children in 1811.  Thus it 
seem reasonable that the date was June 11, 1801.

Some private family records do not include the twins but this may be 
because their lives were so short that they were forgotten or omitted 
as is sometimes the case.  In any event, Susanna and Leonard, who 
served in the Northampton County militia in the Revolutionary, had 
nine other children besides the twins.  Their siblings Adam, John, 
William, Elizabeth, Jacob, Michael, Susanne, Daniel and Katherine 
Beck all survived to marry and have many children.

Margaret Jane (Beck) and Miles Crossman, of Jefferson Co., PA., 
were the parents of two sets of twins: MARGARET ELVIRA AND 
MARY OLIVE CROSSMAN, born May 24, 1873; and, NATHAN 
BURTON AND ASA MURTON CROSSMAN, born January 3, 
1879.  Of the twins, I know only that Mary eventually married and 
had three children.  Other siblings were: George, who died at 3 
months; a second brother George; William and Burton.  

In another Beck-related family, Mary (Ross) and William Fiscus, 
who served in the Civil War, were the parents OF ROSS E. AND 
MOSS P. FISCUS, born some time after 1865.  [The couple's 
marriage date was December 26, 1865.]  The twins' siblings were 
Calvin, William and Narka, all my 4th cousins, twice removed.

In a more distant Beck connection, Ira Sylvester Harmon and Emma 
(Boyer) were the parents of ALBERT BLAIR AND PHILIP 
BLAINE HARMON who were born on September 10, 1911 in 
Tarentum, Allegheny Co., PA.  They were my 5th cousins, once 
removed.  Albert married Velma Purvis and died on May 12, 1989, 
living seven years longer than his twin.  Philip, who married Lillian 
Emanuelson, died in May 1982.

In the Rugh family, Catherine (Albright) and Cyrus Rugh, of 
Hempfield Twp., Westmoreland Co, PA., were the parents of two sets 
of twins.  In the first case, RUGH TWINS, a male and a female, were 
born on January 25, 1872.  Neither survived.  Two siblings followed: 
John, who lived to the age of 85; Mary Jane, who died at the age of 
six.  Then, RUGH TWINS, a male and a female, were born on June 
14, 1876.  Again, neither survived.  The remaining siblings, all my 2nd 
cousins, two times removed, were: Dora, who died at age 44; Frank, 
who died at age 28; Paul, who died at age 78; and Cyrus and Roy, 
for whom I have no dates.

Lastly, ANNA CHRISTINA AND CHRISTIAN RUGH, my 4th 
great grandaunt and uncle, were born December 30, 1748 in 
Northampton Co., PA.  Their parents, Anna Franzina (Merkel) and 
Michael Ruch, were my 5th great-grandparents.  Anna Christina later 
married Peter Castner, but I don't know when she died.  Her twin 
Christian married Anna Frieman and died after a long life in 1827.  
Their siblings all had long lives and included: Michael (1746-1820); 
John Peter, my 4th great-grandfather (1747-1828); Anna Maria 
(1758-1839); and Jacob, (1761-1845).    

Compiled by Barbara Beck-Ramsay, August 19, 2000

Addenda, September 9, 2000: Another set of twins, our third cousins once 
removed, are James R. and John H Mathias, sons of Harry S. Mathias and Sadie 
A. Miller.  The boys were born sometime after 1893 in Hempfield Township, 
Westmoreland County, PA.  For more information on the Mathias family, confer: 
History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, by John N. Boucher, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1906.