When Did George Hocker Jr. Die?

Evaluating Conflicting Information

In writing the Hacker-Hocker genealogy, I’ve come to George Hocker Jr., son of Johan Georg and Anna Margaretha (Weidman) Hacker. When Bill Wingeard researched George, he determined that there was a problem with establishing George’s date of death. In this post I will examine the conflicting data he found and what my subsequent research revealed.

According to Wingeard’s research, the article “The Erdenheim Stock Farm” in the History of Hatfield Township stated that George Hocker Jr. died in 1821 and he left no will.^[1] William Yeakle apparently reported that he saw a notice in the Norristown Herald [100 years later] stating George died on 30 January 1822.^[2] And Edward W. Hocker wrote that George’s gravestone in St. Michael’s Church cemetery indicates that he died in 1822.^[3]

One might conclude that George Hocker Jr. died in 1822. However, Wingeard reported that he found a deed in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania in which George’s heirs sold a tract called “Denmark” on 7 Apr 1832. According to this deed, Bill wrote, George died on 30 January 1832.^[4]

So, how do you resolve this conflict?

Of these documents, the only contemporary one—meaning it was written at the time of the events it recorded—was the Northumberland County deed. It was written 7 Apr 1832 and recorded 1 June 1832.^[5] Both the article “The Erdenheim Stock Farm” and the notice in the Norristown Herald were written significantly later. Edward W. Hocker’s Pennsylvania Cemeteries was written in the 1930s, so he was viewing a gravestone that was over 100 years old, and possibly difficult to read.

So, the three reports of an 1821/22 date of death are mistaken, right?

Not so fast.

Is there any other contemporary record that indicates whether George was alive in 1822? I did not find a burial record for George Hocker in St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Volume 2. Nor did I find George Hocker Jr. in the Administrations Index for Montomery County, Pennsylvania.

George’s father died in 1821 in Montgomery County. Is there any mention of George in his estate record?

Even though George Hocker Sr. died intestate, his estate record is quite explicit regarding his children. In a request for partition of George Sr.’s land, the record states:

“…George Hocker died intestate on or about the 16th day of October last leaving no widow but issue five children, to wit Martin, Adam, Christopher, Elizabeth intermarried with Henry Scheetz and Margaret Hocker now living; and three deceased, to wit, George, John and Jacob Hocker…”^[6]

Not only is George Jr. recorded as deceased before this record was made, but one of his heirs—Henry Daub, husband of his daughter Ann—is one of the petitioners on this and subsequent Orphans Court records. Based on George Sr.’s estate record, it is quite clear that George Hocker Jr. died before 16 October 1821.

But what about the 1832 deed? Wingeard stated that it recorded George’s death as 30 Jan 1832. If that’s true, then it can’t apply to this George Hocker Jr., right?

In reading the original document, it is obvious that Bill was correct. It does relate to George Hocker Jr., son of George and Anna Margaretha (Weidman) Hocker. The heirs listed in the deed—widow Mary Hacker, Henry Daub and Ann his wife, Philip Hink and Mary his wife, Jacob Cress and Elizabeth his wife, Jacob Mason and Margaret his wife and Susanna Hergesheimer—match those listed in George Hocker Sr.’s estate files as the heirs of his son George.

However, while the deed states that George is deceased, it does not provide a date of death. Furthermore, it also states that Martin Kindig granted the tract to George Hocker on “the first day of June in the year last aforesaid” [1797], not on 1 Jun 1831 as Bill noted.^[7] Perhaps he misread that line as “the first day of June in the year last” and concluded it meant 1831.

Based on the information compiled, I can only conclude that George Hocker Jr. died before 16 Oct 1821. I don’t have enough information to posit an exact date, but I do know that 1822 and 1832 are incorrect.