Year: 2010

Update: Andrew Hoover Jr. of Fayette County

Kris Hocker on 10 Mar 2010

One of the pieces of data I have for Andrew Hoover Jr. has intrigued and perplexed me. During her research in this Hoover family, Luella Schuamburg Hoover was sent a deed from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in which Andrew named Yost Herbaugh as his attorney to receive from Catherine Liebrich, relict of Nicholas Liebrich, late of Raffow Township (Rapho Township), Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “three bonds due from John John [Hans] of Menallen Township… unto me two of which are for the sum of Twenty-five pounds.”1  I’ve always wondered who was Catherine Liebrich and what was her relationship to Andrew?

Today, I decided to poke around and see if I could discover more about the Liebrich family. I got lucky and found a site put together by David Hartzell Leebrick. From it I learned that Nicholas Liebrich, Andrew Hoover, and Philip Brown purchased land from John Hans in 1784, adjoining property of Christian Frederick, Ulrich Gingrich, Matthias Hoffart, Jacob Hoober, John Painter, and Andrew Hype.2 I also discovered that my speculation regarding Catharine Liebrich being the mother or mother-in-law of Andrew Hoover was NOT true. Both Nicholas and Catharina were contemporaries of Andrew and the marriages of all their daughters have been accounted for. So, if she wasn’t his mother remarried or his mother-in-law, who was she? Why did Andrew Hoover from Wharton Township, Fayette County purchase land with Nicholas Liebrich of Manheim Township, Lancaster County and Philip Brown? The mystery deepened.

Although the Liebrich site included source data for the birth dates of the Liebrich children—John, Philip, Daniel, George, Elizabeth, Catharine, Mary, and Salome (also called Sarah)—I decided to check John Humphrey’s “Pennsylvania Births: Lancaster County 1723-1777” and “Pennsylvania Births: Lancaster County 1778-1800” for their birth/baptism information. Instead I found Catharine’s maiden name. The listing for Nicholas and Catharine’s daughter Maria includes the names of her parents as “Nichol. Liebrich and Catharina Hansin,” the “in” being a suffix indicative of a female.3

Thinking that John Hans was perhaps, then, Catharina’s father, I searched for additional deeds for John Hans, hoping he died intestate and thus deeds might reflect the settling of his estate and name his heirs. Instead, I found a deed from John Hans in which he sold land that he had inherited from his father Henry Hans, that by its boundary definition, looked to be the exact piece of land that was sold to Nicholas Liebrich, Andrew Hoover and Philip Brown in 1784.4

So, I went looking for deeds granted by Henry Hans and got lucky. I found a deed from Henry Hans’ heirs to John Hans in which “Catharine Hans wife of Nicholas Liebrich of the Town of Manheim and the County of Lancaster, Maria Hans wife of Andrew Hoover in Fayat [sic] County, Mansion [sic] Township, Barbara Hans wife of Philip Brown in Paxton Township, Elizabeth daughters and Sons in Laws all of the deceased Henry Hans and Province of Pennsylvania” released their rights in the property to John Hans the “son of the deceased Henry Hans.”5 Additionally, there was another quitclaim for this property from Maria Huber to John Hans dated 1788, because although Andrew and Maria were included in the prior deed and Andrew signed it, “yet by Neglect or otherwise she [Maria] did not sign and execute the same.” 6 This quitclaim was witnessed by Alexander McClean and Silvester Gruber. McClean was a neighbor of the Hoovers in Fayette County.

Thus, after some sleuthing for the Liebrich and Hans families in Lancaster County, I now know that Andrew Hoover Jr. (Andrew1) of Fayette County married Maria Hans, daughter of Henry Hans of Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Next Steps? Andrew Hoover Jr. was allegedly in Fayette County, Pennsylvania by 1770 when his brother Jacob Hoover settled on land in Monongalia County, Virginia (now part of Greene County, Pennsylvania). He purchased land in Westmoreland County in 1775 with his brother-in-law John Hunsaker from John Waller. However, an estimated birth date for Andrew’s son George of 1775-1778 means that Andrew married about 1774. So, when and where did Andrew meet Maria Hans of Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania?

As far as I know, Andreas Huber Sr. and family never lived in Lancaster County. Did he perhaps move his family there between his sale of his old Frederick County, Maryland property in 1763 and his purchase of other property in 1772? 7 If, as I postulate in “Andreas Huber Origins: Trippstadt, Ellerstadt, or Ittlingen?,” Andreas’ brother was Johannes Huber of Manheim Township, did Andreas’ family, perhaps, spend time with him in Lancaster County? What other connections exist between the Fayette County Hoovers and the Lancaster County Hoovers?

All good questions for which I need to find answers. What answers, I wonder, can be found in documents I have yet to find?

Pennsylvania Genealogical County Map

Kris Hocker on 17 Feb 2010

If you do genealogy, then you’ve got to love maps. Maps can help get you oriented, organized and straightened out when the research—and all the little bits of data you’ve collected—gets confusing.  Say you find records under the same name, but in different townships. A map can help you to decide whether the records are likely to be for one man or more than one man.

What always trips me up, however, is that maps don’t stay the same over time. Records for one location may be in a different township or county—or even state—years or decades earlier or later. For instance, John2 Hoover’s (Andrew1) property in Greene County was originally part of land claimed by Virginia, so documentation can be found in Monongalia County, now West Virginia. But after Virginia and Pennsylvania settled their claims, part of John’s land was in Westmoreland County then Washington County, where the copied survey can be found, and finally Greene County.

Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties

Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties

What I love about the Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties from the Pennsylvania Land Office is that it shows the counties over time. You can see when certain parts of the Commonwealth were purchased. It also tells you when each county was created. For instance, the Fayette County area was part of land purchased in 1768. But Fayette County wasn’t created until 1783. It also shows you that Fayette was originally part of Cumberland County (#6), then Westmoreland County (#11).

The full map also includes little vignettes that show the counties for specific years. You can see how the jurisdictional landscape changed through the years. It also includes information on each of the 33 land purchases from 1682 through 1792 that established the boundaries of the state of Pennsylvania.

You should check out this valuable resource at the Pennsylvania State Archives website. And while you’re there, check out their other fantastic map resources!

Update 11/2012: If you would like a copy of this map, you can purchase it at the Pennsylvania State Bookstore – shoppaheritage.com. It’s a bargain at $2.00 for an 11×17 poster. The downloadable PDF is NOT printable.

Genealogy on TV

Kris Hocker on 15 Feb 2010

This spring is the TV season for the genealogy buff. There are two new programs for family historians to enjoy on television.

The first—Faces of America—debuted last Wednesday on PBS from 8 to 9 p.m. ET and will run through March 3rd. It features Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard scholar and will use the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 famous Americans:

We watched it last weekend and it made me ponder on the life experiences of my ancestors in a way I never really had before. Fascinating stuff!

The second—Who Do You Think You Are—is produced by Lisa Kudrow and will be airing on NBC for seven episodes on Fridays starting in March. This show is an adaptation of a popular English television series. It, too, features celebrities on voyage of discovery through an examination of their family histories, including:

Here’s a trailer for Who Do You Think You Are, featuring Brooke Shields and Sarah Jessica Parker (please excuse the commercial content…).

Census Checklist

Kris Hocker on 13 Feb 2010

If you’re a fan of Ancestry.com on FaceBook, you may have seen the postings about creating a census checklist to track your ancestors through the census records. Since people have been sharing theirs, I thought I’d share, too.

I don’t know if you’ve found this to be true in your family (bet you have!), but it seems my ancestors and their brothers used the same given names for their children over and over and… This can create problems when you’re looking in source records—how to do know which John or George or Adam the record pertains to? It’s particularly confusing in early census records—pre 1850—when you only have the location, head of household, and an age range with which to work. Tax records were giving me headaches, too.

So, I used a spreadsheet to make a chart that shows me what years to expect to see records for a given individual.

Tracking record availability by year and age

Tracking expected record availability by year and age

As you can see, this chart includes more than just the years for US Federal census enumerations. I’ve also included years in which I’ve found records for tax assessments and returns across the top. Names for the people I’m researching appear down the left side. It’s a two-generation chart, so the name in bold is the father of those indented beneath.

I included the year in which each individual turned 18. I’ve never been sure when they became eligible to be taxed—at age 18 or 21—so, to be safe, I’ve used 18. If I know the year that an individual married, I will put an “M” in that cell. This helps because sometimes, unlike today, a person won’t be found as a head of household if they haven’t married and set-up their own household. Instead, they would have continued on as a member of their parents’ or other relatives’ household, or if they got work with another family, as part of that household. I also try to include the year each person died, with a “D”, so that I know when I can expect them to stop appearing in the records. The dark blue shows the years I expected to locate records for the fathers, starting at eighteen. The bright blue shows the childhood of the sons with the years after the age of 18 in a lighter, grey-purple.

Adam and Martin Hocker both lived in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. They both had sons they named John, George and Jacob. Frederick Hacker’s son, George (1808), also lived in the same area in Dauphin County for a time, creating more confusion. Additionally, there were an Adam and John Hocker in Derry Township that I’m sure are members of the family, but I haven’t been able to tie them in, yet. This document—plus marriage information—helped me to straighten out some of my confusion regarding tax and census records and attribute them to the appropriate person.

What tools have you found or created to help you during your family research?

Pennsylvania Warrant Township Maps

Kris Hocker on 12 Feb 2010

I’m always looking for new ways to research my family. Living in New England, I’m a long way away from sources of Pennsylvania information. So, I especially love to find FREE sources of information ONLINE. The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission and State Archives usually have something good.

Jacob Hoover's German twp property

Jacob Hoover’s German Township property

In the past I’ve used the online Pennsylvania Warrant records and Patent indexes and the Copied Survey books to find surveys for land my ancestor settled. On my most recent visit to the site, I noticed that they’ve added PDF files of the Warrantee Township Maps.

These show the all the original land purchases within the context of the present-day townships. You can see your ancestor’s property in and amongst their neighbors. The map also provides the name of warrantee, name of patentee, number of acres, name of tract, and dates of warrant, survey and patent. It makes a nice summary and geographical index of the warrant/patent information of each township.

Please remember that the townships are shown by present-day boundaries. I spent some time looking in the townships referred to in the surveys I’ve obtained. Several townships later, I finally found what I was looking for. So, make sure you look in the current township.

While you can download these file to view, you can’t print them. However, if you’re interested in getting a paper copy, you can purchase one from the archives.

Drop me a reply and let me know what you find!

Census Substitutes

Kris Hocker on 10 Feb 2010

You may know that some of the US Federal census records have not survived to the present day. The 1890 census is the most famous example, but there are other earlier records for various states that are also not available. What alternatives do you have for finding information on your ancestors from a specific time period if the census records for their location do not exist?

There a number of different sources available for finding this kind of information:

  • State Censuses—State census records, where available, can provide information on your ancestors for the years between federal census records. They were usually taken every ten years—like the federal census—but usually at the midpoint between census years, i.e., 1885. You can find a variety of information in these records; they were sometimes designed to collect specific data relevant to the needs of the community for revenue assessment and urban planning.
  • Tax Assessment lists—Tax assessment lists are a source commonly used for locate information on individuals between census years. Usually they provide the names of the head of household—like the pre-1850 federal census records—but sometimes the names of men (of legal age) are listed even though they may have no taxable property. These records will show an individual’s level of wealth and provide a year-to-year location for that individual. They may also help to narrow down a marriage date or death date for an individual. A reference to an individual as a freeman one year, but not the next year may indicate a marriage sometime between assessments. Additionally, I’ve seen reference to an individual one year and to their estate the next, helping to narrow down a death date when other records were unavailable.
  • City Directories—City directories are the precursor to our modern day telephone books. These records will help determine the location of your ancestor’s residence in years between the census enumerations, helping to determine whether or not they moved. Sometimes a move—even within the same city—can make it more difficult to locate them in the next census enumeration. Additionally, some city directories will even list occupation which may help you to discern who is your ancestor.

Other sources to check might be militia enrollment lists, voter or poll registration list, or juror lists. Ancestry.com, Footnote.com and the country websites online are valuable resources for finding this type of information.

For more information, check out this article on census substitutes from Rootsweb.

John Hoover of Licking County, Ohio

Kris Hocker on 8 Feb 2010

If you recall from my post Hoover Families in Licking County, Ohio I was especially interested in John and Barbara Hoover of Franklin and Newark Townships. John was of interest to me because the census information indicated that he was of the appropriate age to be my John2 Hoover (Andrew1). A review of the Revolutionary Pension files revealed, unfortunately, that this is not the case. The following is a summary of the information I found on John Hoover in his pension file.

John Hoover, a.k.a Johan George Huber, of Licking County, Ohio was born possibly in 1752 in Germany. He claimed in his pension deposition on 28 Apr 1834 that he emigrated from Germany, arriving in Philadelphia in 1775 (he thinks) and was for a short time indentured to Jacob Huber of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in order to pay off his travel expenses. In the fall of 1775 or 1776, he enlisted in the army at Lancaster. He did not speak English and could not—at the time of his deposition—clearly remember the details of his service or his command, except that he was in the battles of Germantown, White Plains in New Jersey, Brandywine, Princeton and Monmouth. He claimed that he was injured by a musketball in the neck, lost one of his eyes, and was taken prisoner in Philadelphia then transported to New York where he spent the rest of the war.  1

Barbara Hoover’s deposition for his pension in 1838 states that they were married about 1784 in Chester County, Pennsylvania about 29 miles west of Philadelphia near the Red Lion. She states that her marriage information was written down in a Bible her husband owned—alongside the ages of his brothers and sisters, but that it was destroyed by “a little puppy dog when she was out of the house having given it to one of her children to keep it quiet while she was out.” 2 John Hoover died in Newark Township on 8 Oct 1834. John and Barbara had fourteen children, the eldest of whom was “fifty-three years of age on the 27th of March [1838].”3

Charles Hoover also appeared and made a deposition. He states that John and Barbara Hoover were husband and wife, and also his father and mother. He also states that he has one older brother and sister, and eleven other brothers and sisters.4

Footnotes:

Lancaster County Deed Books Online

Kris Hocker on 8 Feb 2010

Note (2017): The new Lancaster County online deed viewer is easy to use and includes the deed indices! Make sure to check it out.

Note (2018): Deeds are also available online on FamilySearch.

 

Did you know that you can view Lancaster County deeds from 1729 through 1981 online? You can! Visit the Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds to use their online e-film reader to view digital versions of the deed books.

Film Roll field of the Lancaster Deed Book e-film online reader

E-film reader film roll field

There is no online index to the records prior to 1981, so you’ll need to know what you’re looking for ahead of time. Simply type in the book you’re looking for in the Film Roll field—ie. G9, for book G, volume 9—or click the “…” button to see a list of book links. If you’re looking for an early deed book with no volume number, check out the links in the top of the film roll box. Book A is shown as 000A.

E-film reader page field

E-film reader film frame field

Enter the page number in the film frame field. Since the film frame number and page number are not an exact match, you’ll need to adjust the number or scroll through the pages until you find the page you’re looking for. If you start with your page number, you should land on a page that’s prior to the one you’re looking for, so scroll forward.

The image quality is not too bad, all things considered. Having scrolled through the microfilm myself, I’ve found these images to be fairly good—perhaps not always easy to read—but certainly much better than some of the copies I’ve made from the microfilm.

Although I’ve found no online index to these records, there are images online from the Lancaster Deed Books Grantors Index. I used them to put together my Huber/Hoover grantors index. You can find them at the Southern Lancaster County Historical Society’s site on RootsWeb. These images have been removed as of Oct 2014.

Good luck with your search! If you find something, drop me a line and let me know.

Lancaster County Deeds, Hoover Grantor Index, Part V

Kris Hocker on 7 Feb 2010

This is the final part of the Lancaster County Deeds, Huber/Hoover Grantor Index post series that I’ll be publishing. Since the list contains almost 1000 rows, I’m breaking it down into smaller chunks by first name groups.

This lists Huber/Hoover grantors from 1729-1893 with first names starting with R through W. The list has been sorted by first name, surname, then by book. The date is the date the deed (release, etc.) was written. In some cases, they were recorded many years later.

Also available: Part I (A—D), Part II (E—H), Part III (I—L), and Part IV (M—P).

Grantor Grantee Deed Information
Surname First name First name Surname Bk Vol Pg Dated Location
Hoober Rachel heirs Shrff Rachel Hoober Exrs X 8 81 16 May 1850 Release
Hoover Rebecca Samuel D. Hoover B mis 603 19 Aug 1869 Articles of Separation
Hoover Samuel Rebecca Hoover B mis 603 19 Aug 1869 Articles of Separation
Huber Samuel John Strohm C 9 401 15 May 1861 Providence
Hoover Samuel Downingtown & Lanc RR Co   G 13 307 2 Apr 1889 U Leacock Twp
Huber Samuel John Kendig GRDN I 8 50 7 Oct 1854 Release
Hoover Samuel John Beaner K 9 156 30 Mar 1865 Paradise Twp
Huber Samuel John Frank K 7 269 30 Mar 1818 Warwick
Hoover Samuel Abraham Hoover L   186 20 Jan 1763 Warwick Twp
Huber Samuel John Grossman L 11 398 23 Jan 1880 Warwick Twp
Hoober Samuel George Baghart MM   373 5 Mar 1781 Transfer
Hoover Samuel Isaac Brubaker N 10 158 16 Feb 1876 Earl
Hoover Samuel Benjamin Gerhart Q 9 60 27 Mar 1867 W. Cocalico
Huber Samuel Ann Margaret Shitz Q 12 179 12 May 1856 City
Huber Samuel Margaret Ann Sheetz Q 12 180 2 Apr 1866 City
Huber Samuel John Bender S   329 2 Oct 1775 Warwick
Huber Samuel August Rolt T 9 225 15 Apr 1867 Lancaster
Huber Samuel Samuel Shrantz Z 5 339 13 Aug 1825 Warwick Twp
Huber Samuel Admrs Franklin Poff T 11 542 1 Apr 1882 Providence
Huber Samuel GRDN John Kreider GRDN M 7 519 22 Aug 1849 Release
Huber Samuel heir Christian Riser 1   649 14 Dec 1811 Transfer
Huber Samuel heirs Samuel Huber Admr C 14 121 18 Jul 1892  
Huber Samuel heirs Samuel Huber Exrs D 13 467 1887 Release
Hoover Samuel heirs Samuel Hoover Exrs K 9 103 14 Mar 1865 Release
Huber Samuel heirs Samuel Holl Z 5 344 31 Mar 1827 Release
Huber Samuel Jr. heirs Samuel Huber Admr Z 13 239 19 Apr 1892 Release
Hoover Samuel S. John Shimp G 10 178 29 Mar 1872 Salisbury
Hoover Samuel S. Elias Lynch K 11 89 31 Mar 1879 Salisbury
Hoover Samuel S. Luther S. Kurtz K 11 254 31 Mar 1879 Salisbury
Huber Samuel Sr. heirs Samuel Huber Exrs C 8 457 14 May 1853 Release
Huber Samuel Sr. heirs Samuel Huber Jr. trustee C 14 120 18 Jul 1892 Release
Huber Samuel Sr. heirs Samuel Huber Jr. trustee Z 13 237 19 Apr 1892 Release
Huber Samuel trustee Henry Burkhart Exrs Q 11 179 11 Apr 1881 Release
Hoover Sarah & hus Thomas Cox P 8 509 11 Apr 1857 N Prince St City
Huber Sarah & Hus William Gast Y 10 449 17 Sep 1864 Lafayette St
Hoover Sarah Ann Amanda Bryson E 13 554 11 Mar 1889 Paradise
Hoover Sarah heirs David Markley C 13 196 5 Feb 1883 Walnut St
Hoover Sarah heirs John B. Hoover trustee U 12 376 30 Mar 1887 Release
Hoover Solomon Peter Orth C 13 331 21 Mar 1877 E Donegal
Hoover Solomon Henry S. Trout O 10 273 1 Apr 1873 Transfer
Huber Solomon Jacob Myer U 9 408 16 May 1868 West Earl
Huber Solomon Amos Horst W 9 129 2 Apr 1869 Voganville
Huber Susan Charles E. Huber I 14 63 4 May 1893 823 N. Queen St.
Huber Susan & Hus Henry Charles W 11 309 23 Mar 1876 Pequea Twp
Huber Susan heirs Susan Huber Admr Q 12 302 22 Jun 1886 Release
Huber Susana heirs Susanna Huber Exrs T 10 161 24 Mar 1875 Release
Huber Susana heirs Susanna Huber Exrs U 10 383 4 Jan 1876 Release
Huber Susana heirs Susanna Huber Exrs U 10 383 21 Jan 1876 Release
Huber Susana heirs Susanna Huber Exrs U 10 384 4 Jan 1876 Release
Huber Susanna Mennonite Society   H 9 232 17 Dec 1864 Providence
Huber Susanna Jacob Lantz N 11 377 20 Sep 1850 Martic
Huber susanna John Oberholtzer S 13 572 1 Apr 1891 Release
Huber Susanna Abraham Herr GRDN T 7 625 30 Jan 1852 Release
Huber Susanna Admrs Catherine L. Huber C 13 489 14 Feb 1889 Strasburg Twp
Huber Susanna Exrs Benjamin Seigle T 10 25 14 Apr 1875 Providence
Huber Susanna Exrs Witmer J Barge T 10 35 14 Apr 1875 Providence
Huber Susanna Exrs John F. Meck T 10 43 14 Apr 1875 Providence
Huber Susanna legatee Susanna Huber Exrs Y 9 628 26 Mar 1870 Release
Huber Susannah Philip Ranck PP   553 19 Oct 1792 Warwick
Hoover Tobias Nathaniel Watson L 8 205 9 Aug 1855 Transfer
Hoover Tobias heirs Mary Hoover A 9 474 29 Nov 1858 E. Donegal
Hoover Tobias heirs Tobias Hoover Admr X 8 136 30 Jul 1859 Release
Hoover Ulrich John Bare M 3 480 28 Mar 1772 Water right
Hoover Ulrich heirs Jacob Huber II   358 23 Sep 1786 Martick
Huber Ulrich heirs John Huber II   358 23 Feb 1786 Martick Twp
Huber Ulrick Jacob Bare H   251 12 Jun 1764 Strasburg Twp
Hoover Ulrick Jacob Hoover K   133 12 Jun 1764 Strasburg
Huber Wendel Stephen Houser W 12 87 17 Feb 1871 Strawberry St Lanc
Huber Wilhelmina Ann Huber T 9 126 5 Aug 1868 Conestoga St Lanc
Huber William James A. Huber L 13 69 6 Nov 1889 Freiberg St
Huber William Catharine Huber R 9 580 10 Jun 1867 City
Huber William Henry Lossner T 9 274 1 Apr 1869 Conestoga St Lanc
Huber William R. Jacob S. Trout GRDN A 12 42 26 Mar 1883 Release
Huber Winfield H. James H. Doebler B 14 393 29 Apr 1892 Christian St Lanc
Hover Woolrich heirs John Hover H   92 23 Jun 1759 Conestoga Twp