tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70039661235001461452024-03-13T03:15:11.113-07:00Mann Hunt & Sommer SearchTracing the Mann & Sommer families from Germany to Philadelphia to New Jersey and MichiganUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-3852965735083934132017-06-18T19:06:00.000-07:002018-08-10T07:34:50.622-07:00Sommer Siblings and Their SpousesNow that the excitement of Canadian travels is over, I look over
the pile of other projects calling for attention, and it's hard to
know where to go next. But now it's the youngest Freistett Sommer brother, Martin 1729-1799,
who has me wishing we could somehow find out if he had any
descendants who might have made it into our present world. Even though I have already given a couple years of attention to this question, a fresh look has brought new answers! Here is my research trail:<br />
<br />
I was looking one more time at the grandson of Freistett Martin 1729-1799,
and son of Martin 1770-1811, the blacksmith of Waggoner's Alley,
namely John H. Somers (baptized as Johann Heinrich Sommer), 1800~1830. As we
know, a couple of years ago I found an <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2015/12/martin-summers-of-waggoners-alley.html" target="_blank">1831 petition by Cecelia Kinnaman</a> for guardianship of her granddaughter, Sarah Somers,
daughter of John H. Somers, who had recently died. I suddenly got
newly interested in Cecelia, especially finding her in the 1840 census of
Greenwich, New Jersey, which is the very area where my ancestor,
Georg Sommer/George Summers, moved to when he left PHL. Following the
Kinnaman trail, I found there were a couple
Kinnaman families (probably originally German, Kuehneman) in Sussex
County (later Warren County). There is a great source about the <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/kinnamon-family-in-america-its-european-origin-early-colonial-history-and-lines-of-descent-in-america/oclc/181358204&referer=brief_results" target="_blank">Kinnamon</a> families (available on
ancestry), but ultimately this source cannot place Cecelia (see p.
376). Distraction Alert!<br />
<br />
I subsequently found the marriage between John H. Somers and
Susannah Ann Kinnemore in Jan. 1820 at the First Reformed Church. So
voila, it looks like Susannah could well have been Cecelia's daughter. But
what's this? There is another marriage record in 1825, at StM&Z
no less, between Jeremiah Bamford and Susan Kinneamann. But it
doesn't stop there. Next I found that Jeremiah Bamford had a first
marriage <u>to Sarah Sommer in 1818</u>. It just so happens that
John H. Somers had an older sister named Sarah. Sure enough, there is
record of Sarah Bamford's death in 1821 at the age of 23, an age that
fits with her baptism record for this family group.<br />
<br />
So the timeline of this relationship scramble looks like this:<br />
<ul>
<li>1818: Jeremiah Bamford married Sarah Somers (John H. Somers'
sister)<br />
</li>
<li>1820: John H Somers married Susannah Ann Kinnaman.<br />
</li>
<li>1821: Sarah Somers Bamford, wife of Jeremiah, died.</li>
<li>1822: Birth of Sarah C. Somers, daughter of John H. Somers and Susannah Kinnaman. Was she named for John's beloved sister who had just died?<br />
</li>
<li>1825: Susan Kinnaman married Jeremiah Bamford. The marriage
record says that both of them were single. Jeremiah was, but was Susan?<br />
</li>
<li>1827: John H. Somers, of Dauphin County, PA, executed a deed
involving his interest in his father's property on Waggoner's Alley
in PHL.<br />
</li>
<li>1831: Cecelia Kinnaman filed a petition to Orphan's Court
for guardianship of her granddaughter, Sarah Somers, stating that
the father, John H. Somers had been dead for a year.<br />
</li>
</ul>
The only conclusion I can come to here is that John H. Somers and
Susan Kinnaman <a href="https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Pennsylvania_Vital_Records#Divorce_Records" target="_blank">divorced </a>very shortly after their marriage, even
though they had at least one child together (Sarah). So given all
these cross-ties, the relationship formula between the Sommer
siblings and their spouses looks like this: A+B and C+D, where A and C are the Sommer siblings, Sarah and John
H. After the Sommer siblings dropped out from death and separation, B+D married and lived
happily for many years.<br />
<br />
My biggest question is this: why didn't Susan take her daughter,
Sarah Somers, born from her first marriage into her second marriage
with Jeremiah Bamford? From the census data, Sarah Somers never
lived with the Bamford family. In other words, why did Cecelia
petition for guardianship of the child, Sarah Somers, saying that the
Sommer orphan had nobody and nothing when, in fact, the child's
mother was alive and remarried? In addition, the children that
Jeremiah Bamford and Susan had together were well aware of their
half-sister, Sarah Cecelia Somers – who later married Jonathan Simpkins. (Special
thanks to researcher, <a href="http://www.andreabatcho.com/" target="_blank">Andrea Batcho</a>, who had already figured out much
of <a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3349306&id=I75376" target="_blank">this family</a> arrangement.)<br />
<br />
There might be any number of answers to this question, but for
now, this is the one I have settled on: Cecelia, whoever she was
(probably not German), simply <i>wanted</i> to raise her
granddaughter. And it seems very likely to me that Grandma Cecelia
was well loved. Why? Because Sarah Cecelia Somers Simpkins named her
only daughter Cecelia (later married William G. Harris). Add to that six Simpkins sons, and the legacy
of Martin Sommer of Freistett most surely lives on today.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-87677852243241808352017-06-13T21:54:00.000-07:002017-06-15T10:04:01.550-07:00Spelling and DNAHere's some exciting news, or seemingly so! I am a member of ancestry and took their autosomal dna test awhile ago, but I haven't checked on my matches for a long time. When I did so today, I realized that I have never searched for matches with those who have the surname spelling of SOMERS in their family tree. The surname spelling used by my Freistett Sommer family in America became almost immediately SUMMERS (at least in my branch), although some of the early generations kept the German spelling of SOMMER. But the Canadian spelling eventually became SOMERS, so I wondered if a match might appear between me and somebody with the name Somers in their family tree.<br />
<br />
There were 9 matches between me and people who have the surname Somers in their family tree. Of those, 2 have their family tree locked or unavailable, and of the other 7, one was a descendant of both Anna Catharina Sommer (m. CHAPPELL) and Eva (Magdalena or Salome/Sarah, m. ALLEN), both daughters of Mathias and Christiana! The possible range of this match is 5th-8th cousins, which is exactly right if the common ancestors between Canadian and American Sommer's are Matthias Sommer and Anna Barbara Hubscher of Freistett. Looking more through the family tree of this dna match (a female, btw), most families listed are Canadian going way back, and mostly in New Brunswick. I don't see any other way I could be related to this person except through the Sommer family of Freistett. Pretty cool, eh?<br />
<br />
Two main lessons in this episode: One. Even though I have taken the autosomal dna test, I have found that it helps my paper genealogy almost not at all. But now I have new respect, especially seeing that the DNA of females does indeed matter to establishing family connections. Two. I've always known that the spelling of surnames can be and often is all over the place, especially the farther back you go. I wasn't, however, remembering that consideration when reviewing DNA matches. It's more work to check every alternative spelling, but if you have some awareness of geographical regions and the married names of your female ancestors, you might recognize and confirm some previously elusive connections.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-16149706743412236622017-06-07T19:47:00.000-07:002018-08-05T08:59:29.022-07:00Connecting Canadian Sommer Families to FreistettHaving just returned from Moncton, New Brunswick where they celebrated the 251st anniversary of the German settlers from Philadelphia landing there in 1766, the genealogy cat is officially out of the bag in announcing my research that confirms Mathias Sommer of Moncton was originally from Freistett. You can read about the highlights on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/matthissommer1766/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or you can access my research article <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/MathiasMoncton21.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. I'm happy to say that a shortened version of this article has been published by <i>Generations</i>, a journal of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society (Summer 2017, Volume 39, No 2, p. 3). The shortened version contains an update to my simple Sommer diagram, which you can access <a href="http://http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/sommer_diagram_4-hiRes.jpg" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
To be honest, my head is still spinning from this adventure. Less than a decade ago, I would never have seen myself spending large amounts of time in places like Salt Lake City and Philadelphia, nor traveling to destinations like Freistett or now Moncton. To be sure my eyesight has suffered from so many hours squinting at screen after screen of nearly indecipherable genealogical documents, but the list of correspondents and genealogy friends just keeps growing. I particularly enjoy this networking aspect of the work, and I rather doubt I'd still be doing this without all the myriad conversations leading to insights which have broadened my own horizons and those of all our family tree.<br />
<br />
So while I have tried to thank everybody who I met so quickly in Moncton last week, I also send out thanks to all my research kin. It's one kind of gift to just love doing this work, but the gift of making so many diverse connections in this present-day crazy world has been an unexpected gift that touches me deeply.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-40394532802880712322017-05-19T10:59:00.000-07:002017-05-19T19:01:11.746-07:00Menge-Sommer MishMashI've been going through the PHL deeds one more time, this time with more careful attention to the years following 1800. What I found was an 1842 deed that quite clearly names the 8 children and their spouses of John Summers. Unfortunately, it does not say exactly when this John Summers died, but it did say that he was the son of Catherine Rash who, in her 1799 will, bequeathed 15 acres in Northern Liberties (later Penn Twp) to her son John and his descendants.<br />
<br />
For those who haven't exactly followed all my roller coaster research results in the last many years, I will try to succinctly tell you who the main characters in this episode are:<br />
<br />
First remember that I have established there were at least two seemingly unrelated Sommer families who arrived in PHL around the same time:<br />
<ul>
<li>Freistett (FR) clan arrived 1748-1752 (brothers Georg, Johannes, and Martin in 1752, brother Mathias some time before that) </li>
<li>Hoch-Weisel (HW) clan arrived 1754 aboard the ship Edinburgh (father Hermann with 5 sons - Philip, Henry, Martin, Peter, and Matthias) </li>
</ul>
Next remember that my Menge/Mann family arrived in PHL in 1754, also aboard the ship Edinburgh (brothers Henry, Ernst, Johannes). It was Ernst Menge who married the German-born daughter of Georg Sommer of the FR clan, and begat my family line.<br />
<br />
It's not really a surprise, however, that the HW Sommer family also connected with my Menge family since they arrived on the same ship, and did hail from the same area of Hesse. In 1769, Hermann Sommer's youngest son, Peter, married <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2012/11/update-on-catharina-menge.html" target="_blank">Henry Menge's oldest daughter, Anna Catharina</a>, and they had three children: Joh. Ernst (John), Margaretha (m. Jacob Lybrand), and Catharine (m. Archibald Woodruff). The bigger news, at least for me at the time, was discovering that Peter and Catharina divorced (she claimed he was unfaithful), and then she remarried in 1784 to Nicholas Rausch (various spellings). Catherina Rausch died in 1800, and through her will, the Northern Liberties property went to her son John Sommer. John had married Hannah Harrison, and now thanks to this 1842 deed, we know who their eight children were: Catherine (m. John Hackett), Elisabeth (m. Samuel Weiss), Margaret, John P (m. Rachel), Hanna Ann (m. James Miller), Harrison (m. Susan), Harriet, and Louisa (m. Alexander H. Blair).<br />
<br />
More to the point, if you are related to this family line, I am related to you not through the HW Sommer clan, but through the Menge family of Sodel, Hessen, Germany, and even then the connection is not in my direct line. Even so, if there's a DNA match along this line, here is the explanation, as least as we understand it today!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-31759619785226581372017-05-16T19:48:00.000-07:002017-05-20T09:53:30.831-07:00Sommer Orphans and Ground RentIt seems there is no end to learning about how life worked in early PHL, and that learning just keeps coming thanks to help from more experienced research friends. To understand how the subject of ground rent has helped to correct a mistake I made about the genealogy of certain Sommer orphans, let me first set the stage:<br />
<ul>
<li>In 2015, I found a PHL Orphan's Court record where three orphans of Martin Summers, Elizabeth, Edward, and George, over 14 but under 21, requested George Rudolph to oversee their personal estate. This record was dated September 1824, one month after probate records started to appear for Martin Sommer of Oxford twp, and thus I presumed the orphans belonged to Martin of Oxford. This record also mentioned that the orphans were due rental income from which $16 ground rent and taxes would be deducted. </li>
<li>At roughly the same time, I found another Orphan's Court record which pertained to <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2015/12/martin-summers-of-waggoners-alley.html">Martin Summers, blacksmith</a>, son of Martin Sommer, the youngest Freistett immigrant. This record lead to an 1827 deed where John H Somer, an heir of Martin-Blacksmith, sold his interest in Waggoner's Alley to Peter Smith. That record also mentioned $16 of ground rent, a detail previously unnoticed by me. This has now lead me back to the 1794 deed where Martin-Blacksmith purchased the property in Waggoner's Alley from Mark Rodes, and there I have realized much more clearly the price that Martin agreed to pay Rodes was $16 ground rent "forever" with the option to pay the full price of $320 within the first 10 years, something Martin apparently never did. Oh my. </li>
<li>Now we come to the recent discovery made by my fellow Sommer researcher, a sheriff's deed in 1833: </li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #990000;">Peter Smith vs. Edward Somers, Wm Somers, George Somers, deed to John Ely </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Without having yet located court records to explain what the law suit was about, this deed effectively sold the Waggoner's Alley property out of the Sommer family. The yearly ground rent of $16, however, was still due by Ely (whether he had become owner or just occupier is not yet clear to me). </blockquote>
Given this string of evidence, we can see that the very specific ground rent amount of $16 kept showing up in relation to Martin-Blacksmith, and the names of two of the orphans, Edward and George, can be associated with Waggoner's Alley. It seems very likely that Elizabeth, Edward, and George were the youngest of Martin-Blacksmith's children, and as they grew older and after apparently their mother died (she was last noted in the PHL city directory in 1822), the orphans asked the court to assign them George Rudolph who seemed to know that the property on Waggoner's Alley was generating rent for the orphans, but also that $16 ground rent would be due from that income.<br />
<br />
So <span style="color: #741b47;"><b>the first task</b></span> after all this is to make the genealogical correction: The Sommer orphans, Elizabeth, Edward, and George, were probably the children of Martin Summers the blacksmith who died in 1811, and not the children of Martin Sommer of Oxford who died in 1824. Based on other deed records, other children of Martin-Blacksmith included John H. and William.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><b>The next task</b></span> is to have a better understanding of ground rents in early PHL. To my understanding, in this case, the ground rent of $16 was 5% of the value or the principal of the property in 1794, which was $320, an amount that was set for only the first 10 years, and would have to be reset by Rodes if the occupier wished to buy later. At the time of the sale in 1833, the sheriff appraised the property at $800, an amount which the parties involved refused, and so the Waggoner's Alley property went to public auction where the highest bid was $500 by John Ely. Apparently Ely paid whoever won the Smith v. Somers case, then taking over the pesky $16 ground rent which was still to be paid. But to whom did this ground rent then go? Obviously there is still more to figure out about all this. <br />
<br />
See how genealogy becomes a gateway for life-long learning?! In this case, click <a href="https://archive.org/stream/groundrentsinphi00allirich#page/n0/mode/2up" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/138811112/Old-Ground-Rents-in-Philadelphia" target="_blank">here</a> to study up more about ground rents in early PHL.<br />
<br />
Finally, if you got this far in reading this blog entry and share with me any understanding and appreciation for the importance of all these subtle details to our genealogy work, I'd like to make <span style="color: #741b47;"><b>an offer</b></span>. In order to pay forward some of the research kindness that has been extended to me, especially recently, I will take PHL deed lookup requests from individuals researching <i>the Sommer surname in PHL before 1830, </i>up to three deeds per person. And of course I reserve the right to respond as I have time. This offer is good to the end of 2017. Please contact me if you have interest and/or need help learning to use the free online <a href="http://philadox.phila.gov/phillyhistoricalindex/" target="_blank">PHL deed index</a>.<br />
<br />
Lesson learned here? Timing isn't everything. It's possible that something about the death of Martin of Oxford twp. triggered the orphans of Martin-Blacksmith to request a guardian one month after Martin-Oxford's death, but it's more likely that Martin-Blacksmith's widow had recently died, and THAT was the coincidental trigger. My assumptions, as always, need to be reviewed and questioned, and thanks be for genealogy friends who help with that process!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-11495482583086029732017-04-19T12:10:00.000-07:002017-04-19T12:10:15.520-07:00Updating the Legacy of John MannIn the Menge/Mange/Mann family story I've pieced together before now, John Mange (1722-1790) was “just” the brother of my ancestor, Ernst Mange. But with the help of another PHL researcher, we've discovered there was much more to the story of John Menge/Mange/Mann.<br />
<br />
First, we've always known that John was an innkeeper in the Northern Liberties (NL), but where? In 1793, after John's death, Catharina Mange was listed in the PHL directory at 219 N. 2nd St. in the NL district. Following that address through subsequent directories, that address was renumbered in 1858 to 319 N. 2nd St. Sadly, that address no longer exists --- two interstate highways intersect in that general area today. Curiously, even after consulting multiple sources, we still don't know the name of John Mann's inn, so if anybody finds a clue, please let me know.<br />
<br />
Second, we know that John had two wives, but apparently only one child who survived to adulthood, a daughter named Sarah. Here's a quick summary of what we have since learned of Sarah's story:<br />
<ul>
<li>After her parents died (father in 1790, mother in 1795), Sarah was in possession of three properties:</li>
<ul>
<li>her father's inn</li>
<li>property farther north on N. 2nd St. sold to her father by her uncle, Ernst Mange in 1783</li>
<li>property in Kensington that her mother, Catherine, had purchased from John Jacobs, shorty after John's death</li>
</ul><br />
<li>In 1797, Sarah married Gottfried Schmidt, more familiarly known as Godfrey Smith. He was merchant, and he had a business at 103 N. 2nd St. called Smith and Helmuth, Merchants. Godfrey and Sarah had six children: Maria Magdalena (m. Benjamin German), Henry F., Sarah, William L., Charles H., and George A.</li>
<br />
<li>According to the deed evidence, Godfrey liked to invest in real estate. In fact, he bought (or rather mortgaged) the property next door to John Mann's inn, which his wife Sarah had inherited. I'm sure the plan was to expand the inn and tavern business. But then, rather abruptly, Godfrey died, so Sarah was subsequently saddled with a mountain of Godfrey's debt and several small children. There is evidence that Sarah tried everything in the book NOT to sell her father's property, and it must have been a very hard and sad day when she decided she must sell it. She, of course, knew the history of it – that her father had come to PHL from Germany, that he had started the inn/tavern less than 10 years after arrival, and that he had stayed with it throughout the Revolution and including the British occupation of PHL. And Sarah also knew she was the only one to survive her parents' toils and ordeals. But she had the next generation to think of. So on 15 July 1815, Sarah Smith sold both her father's property as well as the neighboring property acquired by Godfrey Smith to an iron merchant named Frederick Stelwaggon for the price of four unpaid mortgages amounting to $8830. It appears that Frederick was already leasing Sarah's property for his business, for in the 1814 city directory we find the business Stelwaggon and Knight, iron merchants at 219 N. 2nd St.</li>
<br />
<li>But then who should Sarah marry next, apparently in 1816? Mr. Frederick Stelwaggon! John Mann's inn, as well as the neighboring property were back in the family! Frederick and Sarah had two more daughters: Sarah Ann (Koons) and Emma Mathilda (Miller). Sarah also created a trust in 1819 that ensured properties that she came into the marriage with would go to her Smith children, and properties in Lower Merion that Frederick came into the marriage with would go to her children with Frederick.</li>
<br />
<li>Unfortunately, then there were some legal troubles in 1824 between Frederick and one of his step-sons, Henry F. Smith, involving the property originally purchased by Ernst Mange. A Montgomery County judgment ruled against Frederick. All this was followed by an 1835 district court case brought against Frederick and Sarah by Frederick's long-time business partner, Joseph Knight. This too resulted in losses for Frederick and Sarah. The details of these cases will still need to be further researched by those with the time to invest.</li>
</ul>
Both Frederick Stelwaggon and his wife Sarah died in 1848. Between Sarah's seven children, the legacy of John Mann of Södel, Hessen, Germany very likely carries on in America today.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-39785548705450373072017-03-08T22:31:00.000-08:002017-03-08T22:41:58.205-08:00IndentureFirst of all, isn't <i>indenture </i>a funny word? Indenture means a formal contract between two parties for services, but the French root of the word means to notch or dent. So how does this word Indenture have this <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=indenture" target="_blank">meaning</a>?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">"Such contracts (especially between master craftsmen and apprentices) were written in full identical versions on a sheet of parchment, which was then cut apart in a zigzag, or "notched" line. Each party took one, and the genuineness of a document of indenture could be proved by laying it beside its counterpart."</span><br />
<br />
The subject of indenture has come to attention lately with my recent study of the PHL tax lists. The earlier tax lists (1767, 1769, and 1774) I've studied spell out the names of indentured servants as taxable assets! Don't ask me how this detail seems to have flown right by me in the past. The most shining example is with my ancestor, Georg Sommer. In both the 1767 and 1769 tax list of Lower Dublin, George Summers was taxed for 4 horses, 4 cows, and 10 sheep. Enough said, moving on. But wait! In the preceding entry we find Mary Ashton, who was taxed for 250 acres, a dwelling, several negros, horses, cows, and sheep, and she was also taxed on 25L for Geo. Summers. How can this be?<br />
<br />
Georg Sommer arrived in PHL in 1752, so why was he indentured for so long? Typically, the term of service was 5-7 years, at least that's my understanding. But then I remembered Georg brought his family from Germany - a wife and 2 children (at least). So let's say the term was 5 years x 4 = 20 years that Georg was working off the passage. By 1772 he was a free man, and in 1774 tax lists, there was no George Summers in Lower Dublin any more, but there was one in Northern Liberties-East, which is where John Menge had his inn. So I'm thinking George might have been with his son-in-law's family until he moved to NJ around 1775. I'm guessing the Sommer and Menge families removed to NJ together, for indeed, in 1776, Ernst Menge (also previously indentured, btw) was applying for a tavern license in Oxford, NJ. Interesting, eh?<br />
<br />
All of which really changes my idea of my ancestor, Georg Sommer. I always thought he was well off after working for Mr. Kuckh in Freistett, but maybe not so much. It's hard to imagine how hard Georg worked for 20 years to pay off his family's passage AND to save enough to buy that 400 acres in NJ. At least that is the picture I imagine. As many as 50% to 70% of Germans coming to America in the 1700s came as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redemptioner" target="_blank">redemptioners</a>, and certainly several accounts exist telling of poor conditions suffered by them both during and after their voyages. But was indenture always miserable? <br />
<br />
I think it may also be true that indenture could be a mutually agreeable form of employment, both for widowed landowners like Mary Ashton and for German newcomers who did't have many resources and didn't know the language. According to one <a href="https://archive.org/details/redemptionersind01geis" target="_blank">source</a> I found, you could continue to be indentured if you wanted to be. Depending on the contract, maybe it wasn't a bad deal. It appears in Georg Sommer's case, he had a place to live with his family, he could come and go and acquire his own things, like his own livestock for which he was taxed and presumably could pay for, while also working on Mary Ashton's 250 acres. Maybe this was America's first temp employment agency in action?<br />
<br />
And finally, let me throw in my observations about the tax math pertaining to indentured servants. Mary Ashton was taxed on 25L for George Summers' service, which I assume was the amount she paid for the contract. The tax she owed was 60% of that contract amount, or 15L, annually! So if the contract was for 5 years, she paid a total of 75L tax on top of the 25L contract for Georg Sommer's services. Nevertheless, I bet she didn't need an instruction booklet to fill out 20 pages of cross-eyed forms before handing over her due to the tax collector.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-80197973887259555972017-03-06T21:56:00.000-08:002017-03-06T22:57:03.206-08:00The Northern Liberties - East Meets WestIt's been a long while since I posted anything about the Mann family because it really seemed like we had that one "all sewn up." But other recent research has lead me to the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, and in the back of my brain I remembered that's where the Mange (early American spelling of Mann) brothers lived. So I decided it was as good a time as any to review what I thought I knew. It seems there was a lot that I glossed over back when I started researching the Mann's. Finding them in Germany was pretty darned exciting back then (a whole 6 years ago), and didn't necessitate any understanding of their lives in Philadelphia. But now the time to understand better has come. You can read more about my updated understanding of the Mange family in the Northern Liberties <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/MangeNL.pdf">here</a>.<br />
<br />
But here's one of the lessons learned in this round of research. The source I've been focused on has been the PHL tax lists, and for the Northern Liberties, residents were divided between Northern Liberties-East and Northern Liberties-West. It doesn't appear that the residents in the two areas were taxed differently, but I think the division was created because the area was so vast that one assessor could not handle it all. So they split the area, but what was the dividing line? I'm sure the answer to that question is written somewhere in plain sight, but I just haven't found it yet. Then to add to the fun, there was the Northern Liberties district, just northeast of the city, and the Northern Liberties township which was also north of the city, but vast in area, and which eventually saw other townships carved out of it. So how does any of this relate to the tax lists?<br />
<br />
For the Mange brothers, they all started out in NL-E, at least up through 1769. Then suddenly Ernst was in NL-W while John remained in NL-E. Even after Ernst removed to New Jersey around 1776, he apparently leased his property in NL-W where his lessees were recorded paying the taxes on his property (in those days, the occupier, not the owner paid property tax!). After the war, Ernst finally sold his NL-W property to his brother, John, after which point John was recorded being taxed in both NL-E and NL-W!<br />
<br />
The trick to this one was all about Howdy Neighbor! I made a careful list of the neighbors for each Mange property over the years, and one name appeared over and over next to Ernst's NL-W property: James Nevill, a tavernkeeper. The Nevell family persisted at the same location until at last PHL city directories were published. In 1793, Nevill's widow, a tavernkeeper, was recorded at 466 N. 2nd St. That got me wondering about the widow of John Mange, and sure enough she too appeared in the directory as a tavernkeeper at 219 N. 2nd St. That's interesting - same street, maybe a few blocks apart. And yet Ernst's property was always taxed in NL-W and John's in NL-E.<br />
<br />
Finally I found a <a href="http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=6&article=1000&context=cml_papers&type=additional">reference </a>that said this:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">"...when the first census was conducted, the numbering system was changed again. All of the buildings on the north or east sides of streets were given odd numbers and those on the south and west were given even numbers." </span><br />
<br />
And there you have it. John Mange had an odd number address on N. 2nd Street, and so was taxed in NL-E. Ernst Mange had an even number address, and so was taxed in NL-W. At least in the Northern Liberties district, it appears that the dividing line was N. 2nd St. My thought is that 2nd St. up to and then along Germantown Ave. constituted the dividing line for the Northern Liberties township, although I'll be honest and say I haven't verified that yet.<br />
<br />
Now that I've come to this happy conclusion, I look it all over and wonder a little <i>so what</i>? I mean in the big scheme of things how does the Northern Liberties tax division boundary matter to a genealogist? In my case, and by some fluke, my family was living right on the line, and the fact that they were has helped me to locate them with some degree of accuracy. And frankly, what might matter more is how much I've learned about the history of the Northern Liberties in the last two weeks. I can still be curious, I can still expand my understanding, and I can still enjoy a better and more complete picture of my ancestors' lives.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-18322661808782576502016-12-20T16:26:00.000-08:002016-12-20T16:26:06.455-08:00A Summers FeudIt's been a relatively quiet year for my Summers research, but I did receive one notable contact from a researcher in Ontario, Canada who is a descendant of William Loder of Sussex, New Jersey, the same William Loder whose estate was associated with a major New Jersey court case against John Summers, Esq. and his sons. This researcher has located some letters in Canadian archives that were written from John Kinney Jr. in New Jersey, who was an executor of the William Loder estate there, to Loder descendants who had relocated to Canada but who still had an interest in the New Jersey case against the Summers. Kinney was writing to the Loder relations to explain the long delays in getting the case settled. In fact, it appears that even after the case was decided (against the Summers), payment to the Loder descendants for debts owed was not forthcoming by the stubborn Summers. William Loder died in 1817, and according to the Canadian researcher, the Canadian Loder descendants did not receive final settlement on the New Jersey property in question until 1855! That's a long time.<br />
<br />
It's hard to imagine what might have caused this situation which almost seems to have escalated from a property dispute to a feud. Did it have to do with bad feelings between American and Loyalist allegiances? Or was it really a case of fraud and swindle on the part of the Summers? It's hard to understand given that John Summers Esq. had himself been serving in the New Jersey judicial system. What we do know is that the oldest son of John Esq. died in 1814, shortly after the War of 1812. Another son died in 1825 just before John Esq. himself died in 1827 in the middle of all the legal proceedings. Then a third son, William, died suddenly in 1832 from a lightning strike. The remaining two Summers sons, John and Jacob, packed up nearly all the remaining Summers families and migrated to Michigan by the mid-1830s leaving behind in New Jersey this unresolved Loder case and no good will.<br />
<br />
But the good news is that the reasons that fuel conflict often melt away with time. While in SLC recently, I was able to locate the 1818 Sussex deed that started the Loder-Summers dispute, and we were amazed to find a map drawn at the end of the deed, which shows the house of Judge Summers and the Loder land surrounding it. How cool is that? In locating a few other Loder deeds, we were further able to establish the names of the previous Loder generation, which had previously been unknown to our Canadian researcher. Yeah! I love genealogy, working with other researchers, and making peace in time for Xmas.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-33022536760198589052016-02-07T13:15:00.000-08:002017-06-07T19:37:53.116-07:00Matthias Sommer of Moncton, New Brunswick?As we know, I've recently been looking at the possibility of other Freistett Sommer relations having come to America, in particular, the <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2015/12/matthias-sommer-oldest-freistett-brother.html" target="_blank">oldest brother</a> of our family group, Matthias Sommer. I've been going over my previous studies of <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/DiffMatthias8.pdf" target="_blank"> men named Matthias</a>, and so many of the same questions still remain.<br />
<br />
But given that the names of Matthias and Christina appear as sponsors on the first-born child in America to my ancestor Georg Sommer, I started looking again at that story. A number of people have done some <a href="http://www.ourgenealogy.ca/Canada/NewBrunswick/NewBrunswickMaps.html" target="_blank">wonderful research</a> on the subject of Matthias Sommer and wife Christina who went from Philadelphia to Moncton, Nova Scotia (now New Brunswick) in 1766. Is it possible that the Matthias Sommer who went to Canada was the oldest brother from my Freistett family group?<br />
<br />
<!--
Well, I say a definite maybe! A couple of clues have surfaced which I wrote about <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/NewMatthias-6.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. I would love to hear from other researchers about these ideas. This might be a tough case to prove, but it's interesting nonetheless. -->
Well, I say a definite maybe! A couple of clues have surfaced which I would love to discuss with other interested researchers. Feel free to contact me for more discussion.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-47537176630090355852016-01-23T22:39:00.000-08:002016-01-24T10:09:01.329-08:00Jacob Sommer - A FootnoteSince this blog is meant to record not only discoveries, but also lessons learned, let me share with you a real head slap: Whenever I find a source mentioning my ancestor, LOOK FOR THE FINE PRINT!<br />
<br />
When I previously recorded in my blog <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2014/04/jacob-summers-phl-judge-part-2.html">the sources where I had found mention of Jacob Sommer who served as a judge</a> in PHL, I was operating under the assumption that the occupation of judge was Jacob's main lot in life. Now we know that Jacob was a judge toward the end of his life, but before that, he was many other things. Piecing all that together has been rather painstaking, I'll admit.<br />
<br />
And then I stumbled upon a source I had missed previously. Here is the citation:<br />
<br />
Mitchell, James T., “The District Court of the City and County of Philadelphia, An Address Delivered at the Final Adjournment of the Court, Jan. 4, 1875”, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=8PZDAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP5&dq=Report+of+the+Fifth+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Pennsylvania+Bar+Association+held+at+Wilkes-Barre,+PA,+July+6+and+7,+1899&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYwZaq5cHKAhXpxIMKHR_EDY0Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%27jacob%20sommer%27&f=false" target="_blank"><i>Report of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar Association held at Wilkes-Barre, PA, July 6 and 7, 1899</i></a>; pp. 273-284. Mitchell was one of the judges of the Philadelphia district court, and the address was reprinted with his permission and with some additional notes by him.<br />
<br />
On page 283 of this new source begins a description of Jacob Sommer that can be found, almost verbatim, in some of the other sources I have mentioned. It's entirely possible that I saw this source 'in passing' during various searches, but I saw only the snippet that matched text I knew had been used in other sources. But this time, thankfully, I looked more closely. Unlike the other sources, there is a footnote in the description of Jacob Sommer - not one, but three footnotes, the last of which reads:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TSYbTwGlApQ/VfehfQ5XHsI/AAAAAAAAATk/MX2TrJz8iKQ/s1600/AboutJudgeJacob.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TSYbTwGlApQ/VfehfQ5XHsI/AAAAAAAAATk/MX2TrJz8iKQ/s640/AboutJudgeJacob.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
There you have it. Except for the detail about Jacob being a prisoner in the Revolutionary War, the story of our Jacob Sommer is all there, and with a few additional details thrown in. And when I followed up on the Westcott's History of PHL reference, the detail about Jacob having been taken prisoner was confirmed. All my digging and analyzing and documenting about the life story of Jacob Sommer of Moreland can, in the end, be largely substantiated by this single footnote which I previously failed to notice or read.<br />
<br />
So the lesson is, Beware of Snippets when you're looking at search matches. If the source title is different from others you've used, take the time and really look. I can't say I would trade the journey I've been on to find Jacob's story, but knowing about this footnote might have saved more than a few long hours while in the pursuit.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-86081417883149287962016-01-23T16:42:00.000-08:002016-03-02T11:19:38.294-08:00Sarah Summers HoHI doubt that anybody ever dreams of becoming a HoH - Head of Household - but once you are one, it's official that you're in charge of something! And in looking over the 1830 U.S. census, there were a whole lot of men in charge, and for those very few households headed by women, we modern onlookers often assume those women were widows. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't?<br />
<br />
Case in point: the 1830 census of Oxford, Warren, New Jersey shows Sarah Summers sandwiched between Jacob and William Summers, with John Summers just two doors down. So given that three Summers brothers are listed in the census, and two Summers brothers had died by then, and one of the deceased brothers (George) had a wife named Sarah, then we almost have to assume that Sarah Summers in the census was George's widow. <br />
<br />
But the 1817 Orphan's Court record that made John Summers (Sr) guardian of 2 boys and 2 girls, orphans under 14, didn't quite make sense when compared to the 1830 Oxford census. I figured the very youngest of George's orphans, 2 boys and 2 girls, would have been 14 in 1830. But what do we see in 1830 in the household of Sarah Summers? 3 boys 5-15 and 1 girl 15-20. How could those be the children of George and Sarah?<br />
<br />
As mentioned in my post <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2016/01/testimony.html" target="_blank">Testimony</a>, we recently found more court records that tell us, among other things, that Sarah remarried to John B. Innis in 1818. Then six years later, Innis died in 1824. Did Sarah change her name BACK to Summers by the time of the census? Even if she did, who are all the kids? Even taking into consideration Sarah's kids, Innis' kids from previous marriage, some kids dying or marrying, new kids being born, still I have not been able to make sense of the household of Sarah Summers in 1830 Oxford. Who the heck was Sarah Summers????<br />
<br />
When I realize I'm asking the same question over and over again, and the answer isn't getting any closer, either I'm asking the wrong question, or I'm asking the right question but I'm already anticipating a certain answer in my head. Hmmmm. In this case, the only Sarah being considered was the wife of George, and there was the expectation blocking my view.<br />
<br />
Start over. Looking over the Michigan deeds, the censuses, and maps yet one more time, I started to see possible connections between some Summers family members that I wasn't expecting, so I started some shuffling around on the tree. It seemed that two males who I thought might belong as sons of William could possibly have been sons of David. And then a new name, Alfred Summers, might also have had connections into David's family. So a little Musical Chairs, shuffle, shuffle, and now the family group of David Summers - the one who died in 1825 - contained 8 children, 7 boys and 1 girl. And who was the girl? She jumped off the page at me - SARAH! Yes, Sarah H. Summers who would have been 19 years old in 1830, the age category of one of two females in the 1830 Oxford household of Sarah Summers.<br />
<br />
Let's look at that 1830 census just one more time. If David had 8 kids when he died, where did they go? Checking his brothers' households, sure enough, Jacob's household had two "extras", both males. We also know that Charles Summers petitioned for and was granted a guardian (William R. Longstreet). So that's three males added to the younger males in Sarah's household, which accounts for all the males in David's reshuffled family except one of the oldest, who we might expect was off on his own at that point. Suddenly it all fits. <br />
<br />
In all likelihood, the 1830 Oxford household of Sarah Summers was really the household of Polly Horn Summers, widow of David Summers. Even though Polly was in fact enumerated in her own household, for some unknown reason, the census taker wrote down the name of Polly's only daughter, Sarah. Maybe Sarah was the one who answered the door that day of the Oxford census, and maybe she was pretty and easy to talk to. Or maybe Sarah was standing there in a Supergirl pose, the oldest sibling in a home with 3 little brothers and a recently grieving mother, and it was clear that Sarah Summers was the acting HoH.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-76631360676405337942016-01-14T19:25:00.000-08:002016-10-04T22:25:30.873-07:00Third Time CharmBy my calculations, the five sons of John Summers of Sussex, New Jersey, namely George, John Jr., William, David, and Jacob, had 40 children between them, and the majority of those (34-35) came to Michigan. Given the scarcity of records at the time - oh those darned pioneers, not stopping to record every little thing! - it's no wonder that piecing together which children belonged to which families has been a seemingly endless challenge.<br />
<br />
So this post is about one of those many children, Jacob Summers 1808-1885, referred to during his lifetime as Jacob 2d. Which of the five Summers brothers was his father? Here is the history of me trying to find the connection:<br />
<ol>
<li>First, I believed, like many, that Jacob Summers 1787-1864 was the father of Jacob 2d. The death record of Jacob 2d stated that his parents were Jacob and Mary Summers, so that's clear enough. The problem is that a) we don't know who reported that information, and b) Jacob and Mary Summers were married in 1811 while Jacob 2d was born in 1808. Of course Jacob 2d could have been born out of wedlock, but there seemed to be cause to look more closely. Who else might have been the father of Jacob 2d? </li>
<li>Next, I considered that John Summers Jr. 1784-1843 was the father of Jacob 2d. John Jr. was my next choice because: </li>
<ul>
<li>I came up with the bright idea that the older Jacob Summers was called "<a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2015/09/uncle-jake-summers.html" target="_blank">Uncle Jake</a>" because he was truly the uncle of Jacob 2d </li>
<li>besides Jacob, John Jr. was the only other brother to live long enough to migrate to MI (this particular thought was, it turns out, flawed - it doesn't matter if the father of Jacob 2d lived to migrate to MI....)</li>
<li>John Jr. and his wife Jane were married in 1807, and the first child who we believe belongs to this couple was born in 1810 - so there was room for Jacob 2d to fit into this family group.
But the more time we've spent looking at probate records and deeds associated with John Jr., the less and less likely it seems that Jacob 2d was his son. Now what? </li>
</ul>
<li>Now I am concluding that David Summers 1782-1825 was the father of Jacob 2d. David was one of three brothers who died in New Jersey before the family migration to MI. He married Mary Horn in 1806, and again, the first child who we believe belongs to this couple was born in 1810, so again, there is room for Jacob 2d to fit into this family group. And what other evidence do I have to support this idea? The process of elimination. If not Jacob and not John Jr., then of the brothers who died in NJ, I can make a case for why Jacob 2d was not the son of George or William. That leaves David. To read more details about this latest and greatest theory, click <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/AboutJacob2d.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. </li>
</ol>
So there is my third swing at determining the parentage of Jacob Summers 2d, having already two strikes against me. If this one is a swing and a miss, I shall have to say I Tried. If it's a hit but a fly ball or a throw-out on first, I shall have to say Oh Well. If it's a hit that's headed past the outfielders, then I'll join the spectators in cheering for the home team. For all we know, perhaps one of those spectators is Jacob 2d himself.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-90614072052310351302016-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:002016-01-14T10:17:55.569-08:00TestimonySome time ago, I stumbled across a link at the <a href="http://www.monmouthhistory.org/images/Subjects-Alphabetical.pdf" target="_blank">Monmouth County Historical Association</a>, which listed a number of sources, including this:<br /><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="background-color: white;">COURT OF CHANCERY, 1822-1828; John B. Innis vs Sarah Innis and John Summers, report of matters, [1822 Nov 9]. </span></span><br /><br />Well, Monmouth county is nowhere near Sussex/Warren county where my Summers family lived, and what was <a href="http://www.nj.gov/state/archives/catsjchance.html" target="_blank">Chancery Court</a>, any way? I nearly skipped over this sideline clue but the Innis name was ringing a faint bell. I remembered finding a reference in Sussex county court files that referred to John B. Innis and wife Sarah vs John Summers. I never understood that reference, and the Monmouth reference seems strikingly similar. So I got online and ordered a copy of the Monmouth county case. The folks at MCHA were friendly, accommodating, and quick. They sent me the best genealogical Xmas present ever, a preliminary transcription of which can be found <a href="http://yesteryours.net/mann/docs/SummersInnis-Transcript-noRemarks.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />There are two facets to this court case. One is that it brims with genealogical specifics. It names names, places, and dates - can't get much better than that. Here is the basic take-home pay from this document:<br />
<ul>
<li>George Summers, son of John Esq., died 1 Oct 1814.</li>
<li>The wife of George Summers was Sarah Hoagland, and they had five children together, two of whom were twins.</li>
<li>The Summers family helped take care of Sarah and some of her children after the death of George until Sarah remarried to John B. Innis in 1818. For reasons not explained, however, Sarah then separated from Innis and again returned to the Summers family for room and board. At some point, Innis came to retrieve Sarah. The case had to do with who owed who what for her upkeep.</li>
<li>One of the witnesses was Sarah's daughter, Ann. Additional research has told us that Ann later married Alexander Innis and they joined the migration to Michigan.</li>
</ul>
Unlike most other genealogical sources, however, this one contains personal testimony from a number of witnesses, most of them from the Summers family. We get to hear about all manner of details from food and furniture and one particular cow, to how "the defendant John Summers frequently sent flower to Mrs. Innis by a black man". Then there's my favorite tidbit about the loom, the spinning of wool, and the making of sheets and blankets: "she wove 52 yards for uncle John Summers 30 for Mrs Innis and between 30 and 40 for her grandfather and 15 for Mrs. Lomeson and 17 for William Summers". Details like these abound along with sad observations like this one made by daughter Ann in reference to Sarah, "her mother was scarce of the necessaries sometimes which was the reason she assisted her".<br /><br />It's been a very long time since I got to experience the very words, or very close to the very words, of the ancestors themselves. Testimony, it turns out, is like a second-hand letter filled with details and insights specific to the time, thus giving us some depth to the historical human experience, which is, maybe, not so different from our own. <br /><br />This particular story is about one woman's loss, her destitution, her struggles to carry on in a family obsessed about financial justice, and her return to a second marriage that was apparently less than ideal. But at the same time, these testimonies also give us personal moments flung from 1820 to 2016: the picture of Sarah Hoagland Summers Innis and Ann Summers Innis Trim, mother and daughter, sitting together weaving. This is not a fact that requires citation; this is part of the precious legacy we can only hope to preserve.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-16744122126313464922015-12-20T21:11:00.000-08:002016-04-30T22:58:33.393-07:00The Wives of Charles SummersCharles Summers was, apparently, a son of David Summers and Mary "Polly" Horn. David was one of the five sons of John Summers Esq. of New Jersey, and David died in NJ in 1825. His widow, Mary, removed with her four children to Michigan in the 1830s when the most of the other New Jersey Summers decided to relocate.<br />
<br />
We have known, or thought we've known, that Charles Summers married Laura Tower, mostly by virtue of her gravestone in Michigan which states her maiden name. But recent correspondence from a Tower researcher has lead us to realize that Laura was probably the second wife of Charles Summers. We have located the marriage record of Charles Summers to Laura Gibbs in 1839 in Michigan (see familysearch), which seems to suggest that Laura Tower was previously married to somebody with the Gibbs surname (we don't know who). But it also appears from the 1850 census that there was a son in the Charles Summers household named Samuel who was born in New Jersey. This would mean that Charles Summers probably also had a first marriage in New Jersey.<br />
<br />
And as long as we're on the topic of Charles Summers, it is worth noting that he is the one and only Summers who has SOME connection to the surname LONGSTREET. The Longstreet surname has long haunted us, because when I first started this Summers research, every crowd-sourced family tree out there claimed that my 6th g-grandfather, Georg Sommer, was married to Anna Barbara Longstreet. This claim is very widespread, but after years of hunting, I can find no source other than DAR/SAR applications. What the documentation does support is that Georg Sommer married Anna Barbara Rub in Freistett, Germany and they had several children prior to emigration to America in 1752. Georg died in NJ in 1785, and perhaps Anna Barbara remarried to a Longstreet, but so far, I've not found any documentation to support that idea.<br />
<br />
But then three generations later comes Charles Summers. In 1828, Charles petitioned the Orphan's Court in New Jersey requesting William R. Longstreet as his guardian, and indeed in the 1830 census of Vernon, Sussex, New Jersey, we find William Longstreet enumerated with what appears to be a young couple, which could well be Charles Summers and a first wife? Speculation, to be sure. But it was not random that Charles Summers requested William R. Longstreet as a guardian. William R. Longstreet seems to have had connections with the Van Deren family, the family name of Charles' grandmother, Anna Van Deren. Hmmmm.....<br />
<br />
So there we have it: Charles Summers requested William Longstreet as a guardian AND additionally, apparently, had a first marriage and a son in New Jersey before moving to Michigan. The Sommers surprises just keep on coming....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-61899622479701782882015-12-17T15:04:00.000-08:002016-04-30T22:55:04.104-07:00Martin Summers of Waggoner's AlleyHere is yet another report pertaining to my quest to better understand the life of the <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2015/12/martin-sommer-youngest-freistett-brother.html" target="_blank">youngest Freistett brother, Martin Sommer</a>, who died in PHL in 1799. It was my initial belief that of the several children born to Martin and his wife, Margaretha, at least two sons survived him, namely Martin, a blacksmith who died in 1811, and George, a grocer and blacksmith who died in 1810. After churning through lots of records with the names Martin and George, it is still my belief that these two blacksmiths probably belong to our Freistett clan via Martin Sommer who died 1799.<br />
<br />
So this post is about Martin Summers, the blacksmith. A 1794 deed indicates that Martin purchased a lot on the east side of Waggoner's Alley in South Mulberry ward in PHL, and he is found in the city directories in that location thereafter, at least until his death in 1811. What's been frustrating is that the last census that shows this Martin shows that he had seven children in his household, four of them males under 10, so this Martin appears to have had descendants, but what happened to them?<br />
<br />
Introducing Cecelia Kinderman (sp?). In 1831, she petitioned the Orphan's Court with the following information:
<br />
<ul>
<li>that Cecelia had been affirmed as guardian of Sarah Somers, minor under 14</li>
<li>that Sarah had nothing but was entitled to one-fourth of real estate on Waggoner's Alley (!)</li>
<li>that Sarah was the minor child of John H. Somers, and he had been dead one year</li>
<li>that Cecelia was Sarah's grandmother</li>
</ul>
The thing that ties this find to Martin-Blacksmith, in my mind, is the mention of real estate in Waggoner's Alley. So given the information recorded by the grandmother Cecelia, the picture we are getting is this:<br />
<ul>
<li>One of the sons of Martin-Blacksmith was John H. Somers</li>
<li>John H. Somers married a woman who possibly had the maiden name Kinderman. I think it seems that she must have predeceased John.</li>
<li>John H. & wife probably had 4 children who survived them because of the reference of “one fourth” that was due to Sarah.</li>
</ul>
So far, the only additional information I've found about John H. Somers (or Somer - notice the spelling of the surname seems to have morphed, dropping one "m" and sometimes the ending "s") is an 1827 deed where John is noted as being of Dauphin County, PA, he was a house carpenter, and he was selling his share of a piece of ground on the east side of Waggoner's Alley to Peter Smith. The history of the parcel is then given, going back to Martin Somer who left a will bequeathing his properties to his children of whom the said John H. Somer was an heir. All of which is interesting but a tad confusing, because in 1831, Cecelia was saying that her granddaughter, Sarah, was entitled to one-fourth of rents being collected at Waggoner's Alley. If John H. had sold his share, how did his daughter still have rights to real estate in Waggoner's Alley? Maybe there was more than one property at that location in the family - research continues.<br />
<br />
And just in case we wonder where Waggoner's Alley was, we can again thank another Sommer-Researcher/PHL-Expert who informed me that location is presently under the PHL Police Dept. Headquarters. Maybe they can find these missing Sommer relations?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-54426980158455685222015-12-15T09:04:00.000-08:002015-12-15T09:04:16.151-08:00ProvenanceI generally like to keep the content of my posts to the details of the families I'm researching, my research process, and my findings, and not so much about general genealogy topics because I figure people can find that information in other places. But this fall while participating in a study group about the genealogical proof standard, the word "provenance" came up in several discussions, and that was a new one on me. I trust that others can still look up what this term means in genealogical context, but I thought I could share here what it means in relation to our Sommer research.<br />
<br />
As previously posted in "<a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2015/12/sommer-originals.html" target="_blank">Sommer Originals</a>," I have located several original documents pertaining to the Moreland Sommer branch of our family. But I was feeling uncertain about how to cite that information "officially," so I wrote to Elizabeth Shown Mills, the author of <i>Evidence Explained</i>, via her website. You can read my questions and her answers <a href="https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/custodial-history-source-evidence" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I subsequently found myself once again writing to the Hagley Library to inquire about the history of the collection where the Sommer papers were found. Here is the reply I received from the archivist there:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #a64d79;">The materials in the Longwood Manuscripts, Group 8, were materials acquired by Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) through either purchase or gift. All of the other materials in the Longwood Manuscripts are items he inherited from various family members. P.S. du Pont was known as an avid collector of materials concerning the du Pont family, DuPont Company, and the explosives industry in general. Many of the items in the Longwood Manuscripts, Group 8 and other collections in our library were originally acquired through his collecting.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #a64d79;">Specifically, for the Potts materials, his source is listed as “Unknown Source”. So, unfortunately, we have no way of knowing where P.S. du Pont acquired these papers.</span></blockquote>
And there we have it, the provenance of our precious original papers pertaining to the Sommer family. How in the world did DuPont end up with the scrapbook of Howard Newcomb Potts, 1819-1906? Potts, who had no children, left quite an extensive estate to nieces, nephews, and charities. I've looked to see if there were any obvious connections between Potts' nieces and nephews and the DuPont family, but I haven't found any yet. I imagine that DuPont acquired these papers almost accidentally, i.e., they were part of something he inherited from some family member, which then remained in his collection even though their subject matter was not his primary focus.<br />
<br />
Well, if anybody has ideas on this one, how to tie the scrapbook of H.N. Potts to Pierre DuPont, I would appreciate hearing from you. Otherwise, I'm going to have to lean on a lot of logic to make the case that these papers do, indisputably, belong to our Freistett Sommer family. It seems obvious, but this business of proof can be a challenge.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-33096895284497956382015-12-15T08:55:00.000-08:002016-10-29T14:51:35.211-07:00Sommer OriginalsAs the end of the year approaches, I realize I am still sorting through all the information garnered from the flurry of my Sommer research this year. So it's a good time to belatedly report on a highlight of my research adventures in 2015, and that was a visit to the <a href="http://www.hagley.org/library" target="_blank">Hagley Library</a> in Wilmington, Delaware in late July.<br />
<br />
In case you're wondering how I ended up in Delaware, I suppose I have google to thank. Awhile ago, I found a partial index on google books, you know the snippets that tantalizingly don't show you the whole book but just a sentence or two? The book in question gave hints about Jacob Sommer, but said book can no longer be found, no library within a 1000 miles has it, etc., etc. So it took some research on that source alone to find that the material being referenced in it currently resides at the Hagley. It took nearly a year of me writing emails and finding a local researcher (a friend) to go there and make a copy of some things from that collection. What he sent me was enough for me to add the Hagley to my travel list. And boy, was it worth it! First of all, the Hagley is located on the most beautiful grounds in the most beautiful old yet modernized building I've ever worked in. What an absolute pleasure. Second, the box that got delivered to me in the research room was full of original documents written in the 1775 era, most of which had everything to do with our Sommer family of Moreland. This might be one of the few times I can recall having a swooning sensation while doing genealogy research.<br />
<br />
While the images I now have of those precious documents cannot be reproduced or otherwise published until I get proper permissions from the Hagley, I can probably share the <a href="http://yesteryours.net/mann/docs/Catalog.JPG" target="_blank">catalog description</a> of the documents I viewed. I can say that to hold these original documents, which ranged across four generations from 1775 to 1899, to experience the close-to-crumbling paper, some of it appearing to have been scorched, to read the fading ink in the old handwriting, and take in the first-hand words of ancestors who lived through the birth of a new nation, was to be very personally moved. The document that stays with me most was this one:<br />
<br />
On 18 Jun 1823, the Democratic Committee of Arrangement wrote a letter to Jacob Sommer Esq. informing him that he had been unanimously appointed to read the Declaration of Independence at the celebration of the 47th anniversary of the national independence. In 1823, Jacob Sommer was himself 65 years old. His parents had been German immigrants who had resisted the British through the days of the Philadelphia Campaign. Jacob, having joined the PA militia, had been captured by the British and held prisoner on Long Island for four years, and then returned home to become a PA state senator and later an associate judge. He had written and delivered addresses that expressed the passion of his belief in national freedom, and he continued to stay active in politics until the end of his life. Jacob Sommer had defined himself as an American Patriot.<br />
<br />
Given that the family line of Jacob Sommer ended with his grandchildren, there has been nobody to remember this part of our Freistett family history. But now, thanks to technology and spirit of preservation held in places like the Hagley, we can know and appreciate a legacy that is now ours to proudly pass along.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-64557950160054117002015-12-14T16:54:00.001-08:002017-06-08T13:26:06.733-07:00Matthias Sommer - Oldest Freistett BrotherI don't think it's very often in family histories that the oldest sibling gets lost, but that might well have almost been the case for the oldest brother of our Sommer family from Freistett. We have known all along about Matthias, the oldest brother, born in 1715 in Freistett, but we (I) skipped over him because:
<br />
<ul>
<li>The inheritance customs in Germany at that time were for the oldest son to inherit, leaving all younger siblings to make their own way. I therefore assumed that Matthias Sommer had inherited whatever there was to inherit, he stayed in Germany, and the younger brothers subsequently left for America.</li>
<li>The list of names on the ship Brothers, which arrived in PHL on 22 Sep. 1752, did indeed include only the three younger brothers - no Matthias - thus supporting my probably-wrong assumption.</li>
</ul>
But all the research this year into the lives of the younger Sommer brothers in early PA has inadvertently lead me to the possibility that Matthias also came to PHL. Here was the trail of clues:
<br />
<ul>
<li>Georg and Barbara Sommer's first child born in America in 1753 was sponsored by Matthias Sommer, Margareta Haas(in), and Christina Sommer(in). So right out of the gate, there is the name of Matthias in direct relation to our family, and whom we have not previously accounted for. Second is the appearance of the surname HAAS. The progenitor of all these Sommer brothers was Matthias Sommer 1690-1732 who married Anna Barbara Huebscher (surname spellings vary). Anna Barbara remarried to one Mathaus Haas in Freistett in 1733. Whether there were any more children from this second marriage is unknown, but you can see why we should have an interest in the HAAS name.</li>
<li>Then came the catalyst for looking more closely, the will of Jacob-Moreland written in 1823. The very first item in his will mentioned, ever so briefly, the name of Martin Sommer, and naturally without stating a relationship. For over a year, I have been shaking out all the records I can find trying to identify the mysterious Martin Sommer mentioned in Jacob-Moreland's will, the details of which you can read about <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/MartinOxfordRev2-0.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. The highlights of that research to date are:</li>
<ul>
<li>
I thought it reasonable to assume that the Martin Sommer mentioned in Jacob-Moreland's will was related in some way to Jacob and to the Freistett clan. This assumption COULD BE INCORRECT, but I decided to start with the idea that was true. So if the mentioned-Martin was indeed related to Jacob-Moreland, how is it that I can find no Martin Sommer of the Freistett clan who was alive in 1823 when Jacob-Moreland wrote his will?</li>
<li>
I finally remembered the oldest Freistett Sommer brother, Matthias, and when I looked at the known children he had in Freistett, I found that his oldest child was named - wait for it - Martin, born 1737! So if the oldest brother, Matthias, did come to PHL before the other brothers and he brought his German-born children with him, then....? Indeed, the StM&Z church records did show a number of records for a Martin Sommer and wife, Maria, who were having a number of children starting in the mid-1760s. And lo, the last record I find among the American-born children was Martin Sommer, born 1772.</li>
<li>
All of which leads to a Martin Sommers who recently bubbled to the surface in my recent records search. He showed up in censuses, in Orphan's Court records, and even in the book by G. Byron Summers. This Martin Sommers lived in Oxford Twp., PA and died in 1824. If indeed the Martin Sommer noted in the previous bullet as having been born in 1772 in PHL was the same person as Martin Sommers of Oxford, then he was the grandson of Matthias Sommer of Freistett, and he was both related to Jacob-Moreland and alive in 1823 when Jacob wrote his will.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
There are a number of details both to tell and to learn about Martin-Oxford, but at the moment, I consider this scenario to be one well worth considering. And such a scenario would open up our Freistett story in a whole new light, presenting, of course, all kinds of new questions:
<br />
<ol>
<li>
When did Matthias Sommer come to PHL? Was he married? Did he bring his German-born children? When and where did he die?</li>
<li>
Who was Matthias' son Martin, born 1737 in Freistett? Who was the Maria he apparently married? What happened to the other children from that marriage? When and where did this Martin die?</li>
<li>
Then there is Martin-Oxford. According to G. Byron Summers, this Martin married Sarah Copart, and a number of descendants are listed. Was it really Sarah he married? And what of all the descendants?</li>
</ol>
See what I mean about the Freistett story just got much bigger? We Freistett descendants should all be going back to look over any DNA matches again. There could well be many, many more Freistett Sommer relations in America than we have realized.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-61287875569833261872015-12-14T14:19:00.000-08:002017-05-16T08:15:46.105-07:00Martin Sommer - Youngest Freistett BrotherAs we know, I have been interested in rounding out the story of the Sommer family of Freistett, Germany who arrived in PHL in the 1750s. The youngest brother to arrive was Martin Sommer, born 1729 in Freistett, which means he was about 23 years old when he arrived in PHL. Based on Communion records at StM&Z, it appears that this Martin remained unmarried until the early 1760s when baptism records begin to appear for Martin Sommer and his wife, Maria Margaretha. Unfortunately, we still don't know who Margaretha was, but according to the church records, a couple named Martin and Margaretha, presumably this couple, had 10 children between 1764-1784. Among those children were two sons, one named Martin and one named George, who, it appears, both worked as blacksmiths in Philadelphia - but more about the sons later. In this post, I want to focus on Martin Sr. and some interesting details that emerged recently about him.<br />
<br />
First, after all my recent research on Jacob Sommer of Moreland, and his father, John (Johannes, one of the three brothers to emigrate from Freistett), I am inclined to associate Sommer/Summers surnames in Moreland with the Freistett clan. Indeed, we find there was a Martin Sommer on Moreland Twp. tax lists for J. Northrop's estate between 1767 and 1780. There was also a Martin Sommer in Northern Liberties tax lists for George Bender's estate between 1779-1787. In the 1780 tax list, Martin was noted as "Smith". I take this to mean our Martin Sr. was, himself, a blacksmith. Interesting!<br />
<br />
But where was this Martin Sommer in 1790? The only one I found was in downtown PHL, and there I made a discovery. This 1790 census of PHL listed the address of each person enumerated, and for Martin, it was #46 N. 7th St. For some reason, both familysearch and ancestry indexed this as an enumeration of Water St. East, but if you look at the previous page of this enumeration, it says 7th St. from Market to Race Sts. East. Sure enough, in the PHL city directories for 1791, 1793, and 1794, we find a Martin Summers at that address with occupation as laborer or carter. In the 1800 directory, there is no longer a Summers listed at that address.<br />
<br />
So why is this significant? The 1799 burial record of Martin Sommer from StM&Z recorded not only his age at death to the year and month, matching the baptism record we have for this Martin in Freistett, but also that he was living at 7th and Arch Sts. when he died, which is pretty much the address we see in the 1790 census. In fact, this location is also close to the U.S. Mint, and I would almost worry that we have some how mixed up Freistett Martin with H-W Martin, 1740-1804, who is the one we've associated as having worked at the U.S. Mint. But H-W Martin left a will that mentioned both his wife, Anna Barbara, and his Mint job. It can also be noted that the 1806 and 1807 PHL City Directories listed Mrs. Summers, widow of Martin, at 131 Cherry St., which would have been after the death of H-W Martin, and was also very close to the Mint. So the proximity of the Mint to the address in this 1790 census is seemingly a coincidence. <br />
<br />
But now we get to the really good part. Thanks to another Sommer researcher whose knowledge of old PHL is fantabulous, I learned that "On the corner of 7th lived <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rittenhouse" target="_blank">the famous David Rittenhouse</a> in his mansion. Next is Martin apparently renting from Rittenhouse (so says the 1798 Direct Tax List). The next person up the street is Eliza Sergeant who is a widowed daughter of the Rittenhouses. The modern day analogy here is that Martin living in Rittenhouse's back yard would be like living at the back of Stephen Hawking's house!"<br />
<br />
Here are some notes from my research about all this:<br />
<ul>
<li>The 1798 tax list actually shows Martin was renting from the Rittenhouse widow, David's second wife, Hannah Jacobs, which rang a bell. During my recent research trip to SLC, I had looked up the will of Catharina Wolff Menge (wife of our Ernst Menge's brother, John), who died in 1795. Her will mentioned that she (??) had purchased a plot of ground from John JACOBS situated in Kensington, Northern Liberties. Was this the same John Jacobs, a brother of Hannah Jacobs Rittenhouse? </li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #990000;">"John was the last speaker of the assembly before the revolution, and of him Benjamin Rush reported that he has been in favor of a Republican form of government for twenty years before that time." (from "Bebber’s Township and the Dutch Patroons” page 4). </span><br />
<ul>
<li>The other name that jumps out is SERGEANT. We have a letter written from a John Sergeant in PHL to our Jacob Sommer, the PA state senator, and indeed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sergeant_%28politician%29" target="_blank">this John Sergeant</a> would himself later become a US Congressman. This John Sergeant was the son of Jonathan Sergeant and Margaret Spencer. After Margaret died in 1787, Jonathan Sergeant remarried to Elizabeth Rittenhouse, the daughter of David Rittenhouse, the mathematician! </li>
</ul>
My goodness, look at all the almost-connections! I have looked and looked for some connection between any of the known daughters of Martin Sommer and Rittenhouse, Jacobs, or Sergeant, but so far, nothing. Who knows, maybe the connection was through Martin's wife, Margaretha? Otherwise, the best I can figure at this point is that Martin Sommer Sr. was somehow acquainted with these PHL families via his nephew, Jacob-Moreland, and was being employed in some capacity. But to be honest, I'm sure the Rittenhouse family had any number of employees, and yet the name of Martin Sommer appears on its own. Curious, eh?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-45187575661452121242015-11-11T09:21:00.001-08:002021-08-13T12:32:51.086-07:00Salute to Sommer Revolutionary PatsOf the three Sommer brothers who hailed from Freistett, Georg, John, and Martin, here is what I know of each brother during Revolutionary times:
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #990000;">Georg Sommer</span>, the elder, lived in Oxford, NJ and has long been credited as being the Ensign in Capt. Mackey's company (First Regiment, Sussex). I never questioned this until I realized our understanding of Georg's obituary had been incorrect (click <a href="http://mann-genealojist.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-straw-church-is-alive.html">here</a> for more info), and that Georg had suffered from cataracts for 11 years at the end of his life, leaving him blind. This would mean in 1776, he was 54 years old and having sight problems. For this reason, I tend to think that the man from Oxford who served as the Ensign for the New Jersey militia in 1777 was instead the son, George Summers, 1747-1825, who later moved to Bucks, PA.</li>
<ul>
<li>However, if indeed George, the younger, served for New Jersey, maybe it was not he who served as a drummer in the 6th PA Regiment? This article about the <a href="http://www.fifeanddrum.army.mil/kids_fife_drum.html" target="_blank">fife, drum, and bugle</a> during the Revolution is interesting. What's notable for our discussion is that if drummers were either boys or old men, George, the younger, was neither in 1777 - he was 30 years old. And, we must remember to consider there were likely <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/ManNamedGeorge2.pdf" target="_blank">other men of the name George Summers</a> in Pennsylvania during the Revolution....</li>
</ul>
<li><span style="color: #990000;">John Sommer</span> of Moreland did not serve in the military, that we know of, but we do now know two related things about his involvement in the Revolution:</li>
<ul>
<li>John buried his deeds when the British took over Philadelphia, and when he later dug them up, they were so damaged, he had to address the PA Assembly to have his lands recognized again. </li>
<li>John's only surviving son, Jacob, an Ensign in the PA militia, was taken prisoner and held on Long Island for four years; Jacob would later become a PA State Senator. </li>
</ul>
<li>I have not yet found any indication that <span style="color: #990000;">Martin Sommer</span> served in the Revolution, and his sons were too young at that time to have served in the military; research is ongoing. </li>
</ul>
There's good news and bad news here.<br />
<br />
The bad news is that the various approved DAR/SAR applications that claim either George Summers, 1722-1785, or George Summers, 1747-1825, as Revolutionary ancestors are probably incorrect (see my article <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/GeoSummersJr-Upd.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>) because:<br />
<ol>
<li>George Summers Sr. was older and going blind at the time of the Revolution - so he likely never served in any military unit, though this point could still use more study and discussion. </li>
<li>George Sr.'s son, George Jr., had only one son, John, who died in 1791 - so even though we know that George Jr. did serve militarily, we also know he did not have descendants to survive him. </li>
</ol>
The good news, in my opinion, is that it's not <u>our</u> association to Revolutionary Patriots that really matters. I consider all these Sommer ancestors Patriots because one and all, women and children included, they participated in a collective desire for freedom which changed history, and continues to influence some of our deepest-felt values today.
So thank you to all veterans of military service and their families for embodying the struggle of so many to lead better lives. On Veteran's Day and every day, thank you.
<br />
<br />
I dedicate this post to the memory of my father, Major Richard C. Schaefer, USAF, 1933-2009. He did love history.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-24680440489890084992015-10-28T08:20:00.000-07:002017-05-16T21:26:53.521-07:00Philly SommersOne of the early themes of my Sommer research was to <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/DifferentiatingSommerSurnamesUpdate3.pdf">differentiate Sommer families in early PHL</a>, which has lead to the identification of two family groups: the Freistett clan, arriving 1752, and the Hoch-Weisel (H-W) clan arriving 1754. So now all one has to do is go through subsequent records coming foreward from that point, and apply the records we have to each clan. Oh my, where DO I get these ideas?<br />
<br />
So to make it "simple," I decided to look ONLY for people (ok, men) with the name George and Martin. Why? Because I would like to know more about the line of Johann Martin Sommer, 1729-1799, the one line from the Freistett immigrants who we know the least about. This Martin Sommer had two sons born in PHL, George and Martin, who apparently survived to adulthood. So, theoretically, I should be able to sit down and find those of the next generation in censuses and other record groups.<br />
<br />
With that in mind, I went about creating tables that combine all the characters named
<a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/ManNamedGeorge5.pdf">George</a>
or
<a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/ManNamedMartinRev6.pdf">Martin</a>
from both the Freistett and H-W clans, adding a couple more tables to associate ages and locations. The result? It looks to me like a great big mess.<br />
<br />
Let's just take one example. To my knowing, of the two Sommer clans, there would be a total of three Martin Summers in the 1800 PHL area who were of the age to be enumerated. But I count four Martin's enumerated, so ????. As for occupations, there was a Martin and a George who were both blacksmiths, George a carpenter, one or more Martin and George farmers, and of course, the Martin who worked at the U.S. Mint. It should be easy to pick out which George's and which Martin's belong to which Sommer clan, but no, a thousand times Nein. Why am I surprised?<br />
<br />
At this point, I have the following observations:<br />
<br />
<b>Observation one:</b> I believe the data that both Freistett and H-W family researchers have been working with could well be incomplete, and by that I mean there could well have been some additional Sommer/Summers children, sons particularly, who were born along the way to these families for whom no baptism record has been found. I think this problem has impacted the genealogy efforts of researchers of both Freistett and H-W clans. Nevertheless, there is no reason to think, especially during the time period in question, that the list of family members for each clan is necessarily complete.<br />
<br />
<b>Observation two:</b> Moreover, there is no reason at all to think that other people with the Sommer surname, i.e., those NOT from Freistett or H-W, could not have arrived from other places and settled in the PHL area. William Penn's offers for land were likely appealing to many, and one didn't have to be a German getting off the boat to apply.<br />
<br />
<b>Observation three:</b> It's time to share the collective Sommer/Summers genealogy brain. It doesn't matter whether your roots are with the Freistett clan or the H-W clan, or whether you're unsure or don't know. If you are looking for the Sommer/Summers name in PHL between 1750 and 1830, you have a good reason to participate in this discussion. If you have the time and interest in helping to untangle Sommer family groups, I'll be happy to share research I've done to this point, and coordinate the sharing of whatever additional observations bubble to the top of all our Sommer searching.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-76275909904318598182015-10-22T15:14:00.000-07:002016-08-24T16:32:12.260-07:00William Summers of ConshohockenEver heard of this guy? Born 1833, died 1921, notable all around Montgomery County, PA for his dedication to Summers genealogy? He was a member and librarian for the Montgomery County Historical Society. He subscribed with the Lewis publishing company and ended up having his genealogy published in three local history books. He personally replaced the falling-down grave of Philip Summers at St. John's Lutheran Churchyard, and donated a memorial plaque for George Summers to the Upper Dublin Lutheran Church. He is the guy who inspired <i>A history of George Summers of Douglass and Lower Dublin townships, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania </i>by G. Byron Summers, and probably inspired the Summers Family Association that used to hold reunions in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. (I've only heard bits about this latter part from very old message board posts, but have not been able to find any further information about this group, or who organized it, and when.) There's probably even more to be said about this William Summers that I still have no idea about. My gosh, where have I been?<br />
<br />
And yet.....<br />
<br />
I've just spent an afternoon writing a genealogical proof that aims to correct William Summers' published genealogy: click <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/docs/WilliamSummers.pdf">here</a>. In essence, William had most of his ancestry right, especially the generations closest in time to himself. But he got the original immigrant to his line wrong: William thought his progenitor was "my" Georg Sommer 1722-1785 of Freistett who arrived in PHL in 1752, when evidence exists to show the progenitor of William's line was Hermann Sommer 1699-1767 of Hoch-Weisel who arrived in 1754. For reasons I don't really understand, Hermann Sommer, who had five sons, at least two of whom served in the Revolution, was all but forgotten in name even though the accomplishments of his descendants were well-remembered. And on the other hand, while the name of Georg Sommer was extolled as being the progenitor of Hermann's five sons, in reality, Georg had moved to New Jersey where he raised his family of two sons (one named George, who also served in the Revolution and later died in Warrington, PA) and five daughters. By the 1830s, the majority of Georg's descendants were on their way west.<br />
<br />
What it comes down to lately is me arriving at different conclusions from what has been previously published (see my growing list of <a href="http://www.yesteryours.net/mann/mann-somm-biblio.htm">misTaken sources</a>), and why is that? It's this thing called the internet, I suppose. Somebody like William Summers probably could have chased the Hoch-Weisel clan back several more generations if he had electronics. He could have had instant access to lots of other family trees and other people researching the same family and satellite maps and spreadsheets and evernote and google and webinars and omg, RootsTech. Maybe he even would have become certified and published in genealogical journals, just to be sure his genealogy was really, truly, officially official. But I would tell William to never mind that stuff. All this genea-hubbub is really just about remembering connections and the stories they create. Our job, to the best of our knowing, is to overcome forgetting, which comes much, much too easily and much, much too soon.<br />
<br />
With that said, I think I'm going to adopt William Summers, even though he is not a blood relative of my Freistett Sommer family. I'm going to remember him as well as his example to commemorate those who came before. Sadly though, I see only a partial entry for William Summers and his family on <a href="http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=137403959">findagrave</a>, Montgomery Cemetery, Norristown, PA. Seems like a situation that could rightly be corrected....<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-68404823336416906312015-10-21T13:30:00.000-07:002015-10-22T09:10:35.454-07:001765 Ernest Mange DeedThis blog continues to be the source of unexpected but delightful contact with other researchers. Last week I heard from a Sommer/Summers researcher in Vermont. This person, who has access to a Philadelphia database of deeds (yes, I will be subscribing to that myself sooner than later), decided spontaneously, in the true genealogy spirit, to look up the surname Mange, and then to email the resulting deeds to me!<br />
<br />
In a nutshell, we now have a 1765 deed from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Penn_(governor)">John Penn</a> to Ernest Mange of the Northern Liberties, "German," who paid around 88 pounds for just under 5 acres in, I believe, the Northern Liberties. If anybody can tell me what 88 pounds would be worth in today's dollars, I'd love to know, but meanwhile, I tend to think it was alot of money. Where did Ernest get that kind of money? The one thing I can think of is that his first wife, Catharina Klockner, was a widow who had previously been married to Georg Ernst, who had been a Philadelphia tavern-keeper. Given that Ernest later applied for a tavern license in New Jersey (1776), citing his experience running a tavern in Philadelphia, perhaps we can assume that the tavern-keeping business was lucrative for him.<br />
<br />
We've also discovered a subsequent deed written in 1771 from Ernest Mange and Mary his wife of the Northern Liberties to William Will of the same place and recorded in 1774. The details of this one will have to wait until a future snow day when I have more time and, hopefully, patience to attempt transcription of a hard-to-read document.<br />
<br />
And finally, there is also, apparently, a 1770s deed from Ernest Mange to John Mange, who was Ernest's brother. That one would be interesting to find - still looking on that one.<br />
<br />
So wow. In 1765, our Ernest Mange was 33 years old, had been in America just over 10 years, and was married to a widow who had children from her previous marriage. It would be less than a year later when his wife would die weeks after childbirth, and Ernest would shortly thereafter marry a 17-year-old young woman named Maria Magdalena Sommer. And so would begin a new family whose descendant would find herself writing this blog.<br />
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Thank you many times over for the generosity of those who share insights and resources associated with discovering and telling these kinds of stories. And may somebody else out there find this story, in turn, of some personal use.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7003966123500146145.post-76864426755743371092015-10-01T14:01:00.000-07:002015-10-01T14:01:17.944-07:00Restoration of the SpiritI've slowly been learning to expect the unexpected on my research trips, and here is my favorite story from genealogy travels this year.<br />
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While visiting Michigan in August, I made an unplanned detour to visit the Mt. Avon Cemetery in Rochester, MI and find the grave of one of my favorite subjects of interest these days, namely Jacob Summers, 1787-1864. We already have pictures of the Summers obelisk, but I always like to look around the area for clues that can't be seen from an internet photo. <br />
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So I scoped out ahead of time where to find the oldest graves in the cemetery, but much to my surprise, a number of cars and people were there when I arrived. I was puzzled because I thought it unlikely that somebody recently deceased was being buried in the oldest section of the cemetery. And besides, the people mulling around the graves were not exactly dressed for a funeral. So what was going on?<br />
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It took my brain awhile to register what I was witnessing: gravestone restoration in progress. Broken stones were being plastered back together, and stones that have been blackened with years of lichen and soot were being cleaned, and I mean whitened! I was flabbergasted.<br />
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I immediately went to find our Jacob Summers to see if his obelisk had been done, but there it stood, rather darkened and leaning to one side. I found the person in charge to ask if Jacob's obelisk was in the queue to be cleaned, but he wasn't sure because the list of graves to be restored came from the city clerk. Well, it took me about 30 minutes to find a computer and WIFI to send a note to the city clerk to ask about Jacob's obelisk, and by the end of the day, I had confirmation that Jacob's obelisk was indeed to be included in the effort. Yeah!<br />
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So it has taken awhile to get the post-restoration photos, but it's all been worth waiting for. I wish to bestow giant kudos upon Dave Carter at Carter's Cemetery Preservation, Lee Ann O'Connor, city clerk for the City of Rochester, and the citizens of the Rochester community. What a wonderful service has been paid to the past, present, and future to preserve the memory of our Michigan pioneers and settlers in such a way. We can all be proud of such efforts to honor those who came before when turning ourselves to look ahead.<br />
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