UNCLE Jake Summers

We've had a long-standing question about our Summers family of Macomb, Michigan, which is this:

How was Jacob Summers 1787-1864 related to Jacob Summers 1808-1885?

The older man was a Michigan state legislator, who was also involved in banking, agriculture, and civil service. Two local histories as well as several newspaper articles referred to him as Uncle Jake.

The younger man was mostly a farmer, and was also involved in local civil service.  Deeds, court cases, and even his own will use the suffix "2d" after his name.

It has been easy to believe that Jacob 2d was the son of Uncle Jake because of the Michigan death register that states the parents of Jacob 2d were Jacob and Mary Summers (Mary having been one of three wives of Uncle Jake). But we have no way to know who reported that information, and the fact that Jacob 2d was born four years before Uncle Jake and Mary were married has always bothered me enough to wonder....

Where to go with this problem? First, let's talk about the suffix "2d." Wikipedia has this to say about numerical name suffixes:

“Alternatively, Jr's are sometimes referred to as "II". However, the original name carrier relative of a "II" is generally an uncle, cousin, or ancestor (including grandfather).”

So, hmmmm. Maybe the answer to the question has been staring us in the face. I have been taking the familiar name of “Uncle Jake” to mean that the public somehow saw the older Jacob Summers as a kind and wise gentleman - and how my brain came up with that association, I'm not exactly sure. What I've learned in researching the older Jacob is that his reputation was instead one of being rather eccentric and rough around the edges. So why was he called Uncle Jake?

This would be one of those AHA moments when I always wonder what took me so long to see the obvious. What if the “uncle” reference was literal? Of the two Jacob Summers in the area, the older man was the younger man's uncle! And interestingly, the references to “2d” did not appear in the records until after the death of Uncle Jake's brother, John Summers, Jr. in 1843. At that point, I believe, John Jr.'s son, Jacob, started calling himself '2d,' and others referred to his uncle, Uncle Jake, accordingly.

Considering that John Summers Jr. married his wife Jane in 1807, Jacob 2d could easily have been their oldest child. So this theory holds some water, in my opinion, and while still not proof of anything, I like the utter simplicity of this conclusion: Uncle Jake Summers and his nephew, Jacob 2d were both early pioneers to Macomb County, Michigan. During their lifetimes, there was likely no confusion about the identity of either Jacob Summers or their relationship to each other. But over 150 years later, it takes awhile to collect the puzzle pieces, put them together, and step back to see the big picture! At last, I feel like I'm looking at a picture of two Jacob Summers in Macomb, Michigan that makes sense.

Addressing Misinformation - Michigan Summers

I can't believe it's been four years since I first stumbled upon Michigan historical accounts that included how my Summers family got to Michigan and their various familial relationships. The research journey since then has been interesting but frustrating, involving a good deal of chasing my own tail. And why? Because I initially put much too much value on the assumed validity of said sources.

So in hopes that others may benefit from my tail-chasing, I'm going to list here the sources that researchers of Michigan Summers genealogy (Macomb and Oakland counties) should take with a grain of salt, but only where the narratives about Summers ancestry are concerned. I cannot vouch for the veracity of everything printed in these sources, yet I have found much of the historical content has definite research value.

1. History of Macomb County, Michigan: containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, etc., published 1882, pg 738; available on ancestry.com
2. Early History of Michigan with Biographies of State Officers, Members of Congress, Judges and Legislators, published Lansing, 1888, pg 623; available on google books

What follows here are various details from these sources with my comments inserted. Realizing that a picture is worth a thousand words, I am also including here a simplified diagram of what I believe is true about my Sommer/Summers family (please do not publish or re-use without permission, esp. bcs it is subject to update). To understand better what I'm talking about, compare the diagram to the details given from the listed sources, which include:

• The head of the Summers family was John Summers. [Depends on how you look at it. John Summers Esq. was first-generation born in America, and the father of the five sons repeatedly mentioned, so in that sense, he was the head of his family. But John Summers Esq. was born in America to his original immigrant parents, Joh. Georg Sommer and Anna Barabara Rub. In this sense, Georg Sommer was the head (one of the heads) of original immigrant families to America.]
• John Summers came from Germany in 1752. [Incorrect. As mentioned, John Summers Esq. was born in America. HIS father, Joh. Georg Sommer, was one of three brothers who arrived in PHL in 1752 from Freistett, Germany.]
• John Summers came with five sons, of whom the names Jacob and John are remembered. [Incorrect. John Summers Esq. died in New Jersey, and he had five sons, three of whom died in New Jersey, and two, Jacob and John, migrated to Michigan (thus they were remembered, at least in Michigan).]
• Jacob was the youngest son of five born to Judge Jacob Sommers and wife Mary Hiles. [Incorrect. We believe Jacob was the youngest of the five sons mentioned, his father having been John Summers Esq. This Jacob, youngest son of John Esq. had three wives, and one was named married Mary Hiles. He became a Michigan state legislator and later in his life, he was an associate judge.]
• The father of Michigan Jacob Summers was a Judge of Records in Philadelphia. [Incorrect. Jacob Sommer of Moreland (PHL), though related, was not connected to the Michigan Summers. Jacob of Moreland was, coincidentally, a PA state legislator and later in his life, he was also an associate judge. His will named only one son, Dr. John Sommer.]

In summary, the existing historical narratives mentioned here about the Michigan Summers family of Macomb & Oakland counties are full of details that in themselves have some truth, but when combined into the published narrative, the resulting story is altogether incorrect. It almost doesn't matter how the story got so mixed up, whether it was family members who simply repeated family myths or confused multiple people named John and Jacob, or publishers who mistranscribed or misunderstood certain details. What matters in 2015 is that we cannot corroborate these published stories. I would like to encourage other researchers to think twice before you build any part of your family tree based solely on the genealogical narrative published in these mentioned sources.

Missing Daughter of John Summers Jr.

First, I want to say that I've had a busy summer (!) of traveling and have much to post on the subject of Sommer in Philadelphia as well as Summers in Michigan.  But I'm still sorting and analyzing, so the write-up(s) will come soon - stay tuned!

Now on to the subject of the day. In looking more closely at the 1830 (NJ) and 1840 (MI) census for John Summers Jr., I noticed there was a female being enumerated who we haven't really accounted for in John's known children. The missing daughter was of an age in 1840 that she could have married before 1850, so I checked the Dibean marriage index.  Lo, there are two marriages before 1850 that I haven't seen before (additional details are shown in images on familysearch):

• Caroline Summers, age 19, married H. H. Proctor, both of Shelby, Macomb, MI on 20 Jan 1842.  Witnesses: RM and Elizabeth McCracken. Minister: Abel Warren
• Maria Summers, age 22, married Francis R. Chapel, both of Shelby, Macomb, MI on 16 Jan 1845.  Witnesses: Charles W. Chapel & John H. Kaple. Minister: F.B. Baug

In both cases, the bride was born in/abt 1823. Which one might have been the missing daughter of John?

It took me awhile, but I finally realized that Caroline Summers was the daughter of William Summers and Rachel Hoagland.  Mr. Proctor must have died soon after marriage because then in 1847, Caroline Proctor of Avon married Calvin Potter, and by 1860, Caroline was a widow (apparently) again.  What's interesting is to note that Caroline was of Shelby Twp in 1842, and her witnesses, the McCracken's were of Avon (just across the county line).

So that leaves Maria Summers. I believe she must have been the unaccounted-for daughter in the household of John Summers Jr. The witnesses to her marriage were of Sterling Twp. in Macomb. And then Maria must have died shortly after her marriage because on 25 Jan 1849, Francis R. Chapel married Freelove Covell. It does not appear that Maria had any children before she died, or if she did, the child probably did not survive.

Peter Mann - A DNA Connection?

Earlier this year, I found an autosomal DNA match that was “Extremely High” in confidence of a match, in the range of 4th-6th cousin. When I looked at the family tree for that person, five surnames matched between our two trees, and of those surnames, the only person that looked even remotely familiar to me was Peter Mann. According to the matched tree as well as other public trees, this Peter Mann was born in or around 1783, probably in New Jersey, and died in 1857 in Lawrence, Illinois. Could this be the Peter Mann I've been looking for?  (See my previous post here.)

I've done a little more digging on the subject, and you can read more details in my research article here.  We haven't proved the case yet, but maybe you have some clues or information that might help?  Feel free to contact me.

Wandling Connections

As often seems to happen in these times of internet genealogy, stories sometimes cross where details can easily get wrongly attributed to the wrong people/places. I believe a case in point is the Wandling family of early Sussex County, New Jersey. I am going to here add an overview of my research showing connections I believe to have existed between the Wandling and Menge/Mann families.

1. Most crowd-sourced trees seem to agree that the original immigrant to America was Jacobus Wandling born before 1740, and died in 1816 in Columbia County, PA, married to Anna Maria. But right away, there is disagreement about where Jacobus came from in Europe. Some say he was Dutch (original name spelled Van Der Lin), others say he came from the upper Rhine Vally in Germany. As far as I know, we don't have documentation that supports either case.

2. Combined crowd-sourced trees say that the children of Jacobus and Anna Maria were: Elizabeth, Henry, Adam, John, Mary Catherine, and Jacob. Of the sons, Adam stayed on the family homestead in New Jersey while Henry, John, and Jacob migrated to Pennsylvania.

3. The oldest son, Henry, is of particular interest to me. The records of St. James Lutheran Church in Greenwich, NJ show a marriage between Henrich Wendling and Catarina Mange in 1788. But who was Catharina Mange, and who were their children? According to my research, Catharina Menge was born 12 Jan 1766 in Philadelphia to Ernst Mangen (original German spelling was something like Menge, and later in America MANN) and his first wife, Catharina Klockner, who subsequently died only weeks after her daughter was born. Ernst Menge quickly remarried to my 5th g-grandmother, Maria Magdalena Sommer, later in 1766. The Mann family moved from Philadelphia to Sussex County, New Jersey around 1780. There Ernst's oldest child, Catharina, married Henry Wandling in 1788.

4. Ernst Menge wrote his will in 1804 where he bequeathed one-eighth of his estate to Jacob and Mary Vandolin. This bequest was confusing for the longest time because Ernst's daughter Mary was already named in the will as the wife of Andrew Banghart. But then I found New Jersey deeds and orphan's court records that were filed after Ernest Mann died in 1816. Those records refer to Jacob and Mary Vandolin as heirs-at-law, children of Ernest's deceased daughter Catharine. At this point, I realized that Jacob and Mary Vandolin were not a married couple, nor were they children of Ernst Mann, but rather they were his grandchildren by way of his daughter, Catherine, who was born of Ernst's first marriage and who later married Henry Wandling. Because Ernst's will was written in 1804, we must assume that his daughter, Catherine Menge Wandling, died some time before that date.

5. There is some evidence that Henry Wandling/Vandling, who had likely moved to Northumberland County in PA, might have married again around 1810 to Elizabeth or Sarah Follmer, who also must have died prematurely. Orphan's Court records there in 1826 indicate that somebody named Henry Vandling requested that the court appoint a guardian for his children Abraham and Henry Vandling, who were also legatees in the will of George Follmer. It seems likely that Elizabeth Follmer, named as daughter of George Follmer, died before 1820 and her only children were Abraham and Henry Vandling. I have yet to see any conclusive documentation that tells us whatever became of Henry Wandling.

6. Let us now return to the children of Henry Wandling and Catharina Menge, namely Jacob, born 1790 and Mary, born 1791. It was this Jacob Wandling who married Keziah Meyers and died in Morgan County, Ohio in 1847. Mary Wandling married Andrew Seydel and died in Crawford County, Ohio in 1848. All the descendants of these two Wandling families also have roots in the Menge/Mann family of Södel, Germany!

7. The only point that still has me somewhat puzzled is that some family trees state that the brother of Henry Wandling, namely Jacob Wandling, born about 1766 and died 1847 in Chillisquaque, Lycoming, PA, married somebody named Mary Mann. Additionally, in the New Jersey deed records transferring shares of the estate of Ernst Menge in 1819 to Benjamin Hunt, TWO Wandling couples transferred their shares: Jacob Wandling and wife Keziah (son of Henry Wandling and Catharina Menge) and Jacob Wandling and wife Mary. Who is this latter couple? I have not seen this deed myself, but it could be that the transcriber made the same mistake I did when looking at Ernest Mann's will, assuming that Jacob and Mary Vandolin were a married couple. So if the wording does not actually say "Jacob and wife Mary" but rather "Jacob and Mary", then we are still talking about two siblings who were grandchildren of Ernest Mann. I will look this up next time in SLC, so stay tuned.

8. As a final note and aside, a different branch in my family tree includes other names from Sussex County, New Jersey, including the name TAYLOR. In 1791, Jeronemus Taylor wrote his will in Sussex County and named his friend, Jacob Wandling, as one of the executors! Curious, right?

As usual, I hope this information is helpful to other researchers and I welcome any comments.

(Note: in order to help search matching, I include the following spellings in this article: Wendling, Vandling, Vandlin Vandolin, Van Der Lin)

Jacob Sommer - Carriage Maker

I'm seeing more and more family trees where there is great mixing of different Sommer's families. I wish there was an official place to register our family lines so this mixing-up wouldn't happen because I think the mixing-up is a damaging thing to all of us. Sigh. All I can do is try to share my research and perspective and hope that other serious researchers will care as much as I do about getting it right. Let's put our heads together and see if we can untangle things!

Meanwhile, here's an article I wrote with more specifics about the particular question of which Jacob Sommer descended from Freistett, Germany and lived in colonial Philadelphia - Jacob, the Judge, 1758-1827, or Jacob, the Carriage-Maker, 1749-1817?

Update: As it turns out, both of the Jacob Sommer's mentioned here lived in the Philadelphia area and both served in the Revolution. Jacob Sommer of Germantown was the carriage maker, and Jacob Sommer of Moreland was the one taken prisoner by the British, and who later served as PA State Senator. See my article Jacob Sommer of Moreland PA in the American Revolution, as well as the later footnote added to this blog about Jacob Sommer of Moreland.

The Mystery of RIEß Sisters - Part 2

My Assertion:  Anna Catharina Riess, wife of Joh. Ernst Menge, and Anna Elisabeth Catharina Riess, wife of Joh. Ernst Christian Kreuter, were sisters. Both Riess women were the daughters of Joh. Clemens Riess and Anna Margareth Kleberger of Södel, Hessen, Germany.

Given this assertion, the Södel Familenbuch (page 266) is mistaken to list Anna Elisabeth Riess, wife of Joh. Ernst Christian Kreuter, as the daughter of Hans Martin Rieß. She was instead the daughter of Martin's brother, Joh. Clemens Rieß, and a sister of Anna Catharina who married Joh. Ernst Menge.

My Argument:

The first question is if indeed the two Riess women were sisters, who were the parents they had in common? For the time period in question, the only Rieß in Södel who had sons who might have been father to these girls was Johann Riess and his wife Anna Margreth. Their sons were:

• Johannes Riess had a daughter named Anna Catharina, 1670-1671.  He did not have any daughters with the name Elisabeth.
• Joh. Clemens Riess had daughters named 

     Anna Elisabetha 1684-1694

     Anna Catharina born in 1690, married Joh. Ernst Menge

     Catharina born in 1694

• Hans Martin Riess had daughters named

     Anna Elisabetha, 1685-1761, married Joh. Ernst Klein

     Catharina, born 1692                                                 

     Maria Kat, 1700-1775, married Johannes Sommer

Given this information, I eliminate Johannes Rieß as the possible father of the sisters in question. That leaves Clemens and Martin, both of whom had daughters named Elisabeth and Catharina. Remember we are looking for one sister who married Menge and the other sister who married Kreuter.  

In the case of Clemens, his daughter Elisabetha died when she was 10 years old, and supposedly his daughter Anna Catharina married Menge in 1709.  

In the case of Martin, two of the three daughters who can be considered for this scenario married someone other than Menge or Kreuter. So even if it was Martin's daughter Catharina who married Menge, Martin does not appear to have had another daughter who married Kreuter. I therefore conclude that Clemens was indeed the father of Anna Catharina who married Menge, and so by extension Clemens must also be the father of the wife of Kreuter. But how can that conclusion be supported given this evidence?

In looking again at the daughters of Clemens, it happens that the death of the first daughter, Anna Elisabetha, is very likely significant. The daughter baptized as Catharina on 17 Aug 1694 was born 7 days after her older sister Anna Elisabetha died on 10 Aug 1694! In cases like this, it was the custom to name the next born child of the same gender with the name of the child who just died. There must have been a godmother with the name Catharina, thus it seems entirely probable that the daughter of Clemens baptized as Catharina in 1694 had three names: Anna Elisabetha Catharina - Anna Elisabetha for her dead sister, and Catharina for her godmother, whoever that was. This would also explain how all three of these names appear in various combinations in reference to the woman who married Kreuter.

In this scenario, not only were Anna Catharina Riess Menge and Anna Elisabetha Catharina Riess Kreuter sisters as the church documentation stated, but they were close in age and probably close emotionally, especially after both their parents died when the girls were still minors. After the sisters each married, the Menge's and the Kreuter's each served to sponsor a child from the other's family. And indeed, children from their two families ventured to the New World to the same city (Philadelphia) to the same church (St. Michaels and Zion Lutheran Church) where they continued to sponsor each other's families.  

But then we have to wonder what happened to Martin's daughter named Catharina, born in 1692? Where previously the same question applied to the daughter of Clemens named Catharina and the answer was Unknown, now the same answer applies to the daughter of Martin named Catharina. It is Unknown what became of her.

So there rests my case. I am in the process of taking a class that will help me learn to write a genealogical proof argument, so maybe I can use this as my test case in class! I'll let you know how that turns out. Meanwhile, I welcome comments and feedback.