Society Updates

News & Blog

Updates, historical discoveries, event announcements, and more from the Hinchman Heritage Society.

May 28, 2026ObituaryFeatured

In Memoriam: Lorenzo Joe "Lenny" Hinchman (1930–2021) — The Boy from Sugar Loaf Who Touched the World

A tribute to Lorenzo Joe "Lenny" Hinchman of Floyd County, Kentucky — one of the finest minor league pitchers of the 1950s, who compiled 74 wins, two championships on two continents, four All-Star selections, and a career that took him from a one-room schoolhouse in Tram to a national radio broadcast heard around the world.

By Kevin Hinchman
20
May 27, 2026HistoryFeatured

Preserving the Stories of Your Loved Ones: A Practical Guide

Before a voice goes silent, before a memory fades — here is how to capture the stories of the people you love, and keep them alive for generations to come.

By Kevin Hinchman
4
May 26, 2025NewsFeatured

How to Research Your Hinchman Roots: A Practical Guide

With thousands of individuals in the family GEDCOM, records at FamilySearch and Ancestry, the 1929 Mortimer Hinchman genealogy, and the Hinchman Heritage Society chronicles, today's researchers have more tools than ever. Here's where to start.

By Kevin Hinchman
11
May 10, 2025NewsFeatured

Leaving a Legacy: Why You Should Preserve Your Family Story

Every family possesses stories worth preserving. Whether through books, interviews, digital archives, or websites, preserving family stories creates a lasting legacy for future generations.

By Kevin Hinchman
6
November 20, 2024HistoryFeatured

The Founding of the Hinchman Heritage Society, 1994

On April 23, 1994, a group of Hinchman descendants gathered in Huntington, West Virginia, to formally establish the Hinchman Heritage Society — a moment that gave the family's centuries-long story an institutional home.

By Kevin Hinchman
5
July 1, 2024HistoryFeatured

Mary Wilhelm Hinchman: The Woman Who Wrote the Family History

Without the tireless research of Mary Wilhelm Hinchman, much of what we know about the family's 400-year journey across America would be lost. Her landmark book remains the authoritative record of the Hinchman lineage.

By Kevin Hinchman
2
March 15, 2024HistoryFeatured

Humfry Henchman: The Puritan Who Started It All

In 1637, a young Puritan named Humfry Henchman stepped off a ship in New England, carrying little more than his faith and a determination to build a new life — and in doing so, founded one of America's oldest family lines.

By Kevin Hinchman
2
June 2, 2023PublicationFeatured

Hinchman Family in America Now on Amazon Kindle

The definitive genealogical history of the Hinchman family, compiled by Mary Wilhelm Hinchman, is now available for purchase on Amazon Kindle.

By Kevin Hinchman
0
July 1, 2026Discovery

Discovery: Henchman Family Papers (1842-1998) Held at the State Library of New South Wales

A remarkable archive of Henchman family papers spanning over 150 years — including diaries, letters, and photographs connecting the Australian branch of our family to relatives in America and England — has been uncovered at the State Library of New South Wales.

By Kevin Hinchman
0
May 28, 2026History

Margaretta S. Hinchman (1876–1955): The Philadelphia Quaker Artist Who Painted Marian Anderson and the American Southwest

A prize-winning artist, sculptor, photographer, and illustrator from Philadelphia's Quaker community, Margaretta Shoemaker Hinchman left her work to the great museums of her city and a rare collection of Navajo portraits to the University of Pennsylvania — a legacy as distinctive as the woman herself.

By Kevin Hinchman
0
May 28, 2026Discovery

The Hinchman Formation: A Jurassic Rock Layer Bearing Our Family's Name in the Sierra Nevada

Deep in the Taylorsville region of northern California, a Jurassic-era geological formation bears the Hinchman name — sandstone and shale layers deposited some 150 million years ago, now part of the permanent scientific record of the Sierra Nevada.

By Kevin Hinchman
1
May 28, 2026History

Henry Hinchman of Vernon, Indiana: A Quaker Abolitionist's Ninety Years of American History

Born in 1838 in Quaker country in Ohio, Henry Hinchman came to Jennings County, Indiana as a teenager, lived through the Civil War, the abolitionist movement, and the entire transformation of the American Midwest — surviving to the age of 91 as one of the last living witnesses to the age before the railroad.

By Kevin Hinchman
0