When you're passionate about a hobby, it's easy to spend hours and hours pursuing it. Deb Gepfer and Susan Heydt certainly know something about that. The women will offer a story based on their own experience when they present "Don't Go Down the Rabbit Hole: Researching an Antique Sampler." The program will be held on Thursday, April 24, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the East Donegal Township Municipal Building, 190 Rock Point Road, Maytown.

Although they bill their presentation as a sort of cautionary tale, both women are proud of the outcome of their research, eager to share their story and ready to encourage others to consider their own research.

As Gepfer explained, the program will focus on the pair's acquisition of an antique sampler - a small piece of cross-stitch - created by Maytown resident Ann Frances Breneman in 1855.

"We'll explain how to research someone's family history, and we'll share the tools we used. We'll provide tips for researching genealogy while sharing the family history of Ann Frances Breneman," she stated. "We found some very interesting history in her family tree! Neither one of us is a genealogical expert, but we both find the research addicting."

Gepfer and Heydt are both longtime fans of textile arts. Gepfer, who is the secretary of the Maytown Historical Society, is a retired preschool director and teacher. Heydt, a retired Donegal High School teacher, is the co-owner of needlework design studio The Old Man and the Bea with her husband, Bruce.

The women met while serving on a committee to build a community playground.

"We originally connected through our love of quilts and cross-stitch," Gepfer stated. "That connection deepened and broadened when we joined the Delaware Valley Historic Sampler Guild."

For their April presentation, the women will split responsibilities of the program. "I've written the presentation for this meeting because of my Maytown connections, and Susan will be interjecting throughout. She has a wealth of knowledge," Gepfer said, noting that a version of the program will also be presented to their guild in June via Zoom. "The second presentation will be geared more to samplers than this program, which is geared toward Maytown history."

When she says she finds research addicting, Gepfer is not kidding. She spent hours learning all she could about Breneman and the sampler, which she acquired via a needlework auction a few years ago.

"The title of our presentation ... is derived from how easy it is to get lost in all of the family tree branches that you find while researching just one person," she explained. "Every time you add a person to a tree, you get hints or clues about that person's relatives, and when you add those relatives, you get more hints about other relatives and so on and so on. Plus, you will probably be adding family members that came before and after your original person. The research of Ann Frances Breneman produced a five-page family tree, and it would have been much larger if I hadn't forced myself to bring it to a close."

Both Gepfer and Heydt enjoy textile research and hope to pass that passion along to others.

"We both love learning the history of the stitchers and their families," Gepfer remarked. "It's all about sharing our love for textiles - quilts and samplers - and the history behind them with others in the hope that these crafts will continue for many more generations to come. It's also all about the joy of creating, and, for Susan and her husband, Bruce, the joy of designing through their business."

Whether you're an expert researcher, getting started on the hobby of genealogy or just interested in local history, the program will offer something for everyone, Gepfer said. It will also offer clues to a special connection Breneman had to Maytown.

"We hope our presentation will be of interest to anyone who shares our love of samplers and cross-stitch and anyone wanting to research their genealogy," she said. "We hope to have the patterns available for the reproduction of the Ann Frances Breneman 1855 sampler."

They hope to raise money for the Maytown Historical Society's archive project through the sale of the patterns.

"We'll unveil the model that I stitched from Susan's reproduction," Gepfer said, "and we'll reveal through our presentation the person who held a position of importance in Maytown and was Frances' great-granddaughter."

For more information on the Maytown Historical Society, search for the organization on Facebook. The society's museum is located at 4 W. High St., Maytown.