Unity man's extended family ties include hundreds of cousins at national Harlan reunions

Jan. 22—Robert Harlan has 20,000 or so cousins spread across the country.

Every five years, he gets to meet with several hundred of them — many of them for the first time.

Since 2002, the Unity man has served on the board of The Harlan Family in America, a nonprofit group that organizes periodic national reunions of people who trace their lineage to a family that immigrated to America beginning in 1687.

"I've met some really nice, interesting people and made some friendships," said Robert Harlan, 78. That includes Fred Harlan, who is retired from the electrical power industry and lives in Lawrence County — where the town of Harlansburg was named for a branch of the family.

The two distant cousins serve on the board of the Harlan nonprofit. Robert, an Army veteran who is retired from a mail route in Plum, is the treasurer; Fred coordinates the organization's website, harlanfamily.org, and helps to maintain its genealogy database.

"It's amazing to me how the Harlan family members have really had a pride in their family," said Robert Harlan. "The basic purpose is to come together and continue to follow our heritage and be proud of it."

Several initial Harlan reunions were held beginning in 1887, which marked the 200th anniversary of the arrival in America of Quaker brothers George and Michael Harland.

Originally from County Durham, England, their family moved to Northern Ireland, in search of religious freedom. The brothers eventually immigrated to New Castle, Del. — then part of Pennsylvania, the colony founded by fellow Quaker William Penn.

"When they came to the colonies, they dropped the 'd,'" Robert Harlan said.

They soon settled on farms in the area west of Philadelphia. Robert Harlan is a 10th generation descendant of George Harlan, who gained prominence as a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly and, on the county level, as a governing leader first in New Castle and then in Chester.

Other distant relations that Robert Harlan can claim in his family tree include Silas Harlan, an early explorer of Kentucky who fought Native American forces alongside Daniel Boone in 1782, and James Harlan, a U.S. senator from Iowa who became a friend of Abraham Lincoln and whose daughter, Mary, married Lincoln's son, Robert Todd.

According to Robert Harlan, "Probably the most famous are Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan and his grandson (John Marshall Harlan II), who also was a Supreme Court justice."

The elder justice, a Kentucky native, served on the bench from 1877 to 1911 and became known as "The Great Dissenter." A member of a slave-owning family, he did an about-face to become a civil rights pioneer.

Among the cases that came before the court during his tenure was an appeal of a Louisiana law that established racial segregation on public transportation.

"The Supreme Court ruled that it was OK, you could have separate and equal," said Robert Harlan. "John Marshall Harlan was the only dissenter. His principle was that separate will never be equal."

One of Robert Harlan's more immediate relatives, nephew Mike Quinn, a Nevada native, had a career in the NFL that included serving as a Steelers backup quarterback in 1997.

More than 1,000 people attended the first modern national Harlan reunion, in 1987 at New Castle, Delaware. Robert Harlan and his wife, Cindy, flew to the event from Germany, where he was stationed as an Army intelligence officer.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, he served in the Army from 1969 until 1989, including a year with an armored cavalry unit in Vietnam and a stint as head of the ROTC program at Youngstown State University.

Cindy Harlan's family ties brought the couple to Western Pennsylvania. "I'm from

Elizabeth Township," she said. "When he retired from the Army, we needed some place to finish the school year for our kids, so we stayed with my parents."

They soon moved to Westmoreland County. In addition to working as a mail carrier, Robert Harlan "spent 15 years with the ski patrol at Seven Springs. We skied a lot when we were in Europe."

Serving as treasurer of the Harlan nonprofit since 2012, he submits financial reports to the Harlan Record — a newsletter that publishes twice annually, sharing family stories contributed by group members.

Harlan reunions have continued on a regular basis — increasing in frequency from every 10 years to every five years. Each multiday event includes an opening reception, a banquet, a guest presenter, workshops, tours of the hosting area and a Sunday worship service that follows the Quaker traditions of the original Harland immigrants.

Robert Harlan helped to organize the 2002 reunion that brought about 400 attendees to New Castle, Del. Highlights included a reception at the Brandywine Museum of Art and visits to historic sites such as the Old Kennett Meetinghouse, a Quaker building dating from the early 1700s.

Skipping over the early stage of the covid-19 pandemic, when vaccines weren't available, "We haven't missed one reunion," Robert Harlan said of the nonprofit group. "About 50% to 60% of the people who attend are the same core, but we get new people as we move it around to different regions."

Last year's reunion attracted about 300 people to Lexington, Ky., June 16-19. "There were tours of horse farms and distilleries and Mary Todd Lincoln's house in Lexington," he said.

He'll be among committee members traveling to Denver to consider it as the site for the 2027 reunion. "We're looking at going West since the last two reunions have been in the East," he said.

The 2017 reunion was in Philadelphia, within easy reach of the former homes and grave sites of the original immigrant Harland brothers.

Robert Harlan and his wife had the opportunity to visit Harland landmarks in England and Ireland, but he'd like someday to return on one of the occasional tours organized by the nonprofit family group.

"It would be nice to go back with a whole group of Harlans at the same time," he said.

Cherishing extended family ties and sharing knowledge are common threads running through Robert Harlan's branch of the family tree.

His parents were teachers and he worked briefly as a middle school science instructor before entering the Army. His wife was a Hempfield Area substitute teacher and two of their three children have chosen similar careers: Becky Shavel is a Norwin elementary teacher and Elizabeth Harlan is a college professor living in Alexandria, Va. Shavel's son, Nick, is pursuing a teaching degree as a junior at the University of South Carolina.

One of the highlights of Robert Harlan's childhood was an annual summer trip to his grandmother's home in Missouri, for reunions with relations including 17 first cousins.

Now, he meets many of them at the national Harlan reunions, while daughter Becky participates in frequent Zoom gatherings with her generation of cousins located everywhere from Texas to North Carolina.

"I like that the family togetherness is still continuing," said Robert Harlan.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .