When I was collecting information on the descendants of immigrant Christian Burkholder there were a couple great-granddaughters in Ohio I could not trace. In the Lancaster County archives on Tuesday I found documents related to the settlement of Christian's daughter Anna "Nancy." She was never married so her estate was divided among her nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and nephews. Those papers gave me the married names of the mystery girls and the names of at least some of their children.
One of them was Mary Weaver, daughter of Henry and Barbara (Zug) Weber. (Henry was the son of Christian Burkholder's daughter Barbara, sister of Anna/Nancy.) Henry and Barbara moved to Stark County, Ohio. Their three oldest children remained in Lancaster County but the others went with them to Ohio and changed the spelling of their name to Weaver.
Mary Weaver married John Garman. She died before her aunt Anna/Nancy's estate was settled in 1873 so her children received her share of the inheritance.
Now here's the part that still has my head spinning. John Garman (1811-1889) had three wives
Magdalena Dickerhoof (1810-1849)
Mary Weaver (1825-1862)
Catharine Hane (1838-1920)
He had a family with his first wife and married Mary the year after his first wife's death. She was 14 years younger than him and he had a second family with her. After she died he married his third wife who was 27 years his junior and had a third family. His three families totaled 29 children. You heard right. Twenty-nine children! In the 1880 census he was 70 years old and had a 9-month-old son. Wow!
Can you top that? It's the record for any family I ever found in the United States of America.
1 comment:
Greetings Romaine,
Can't top that, but can come close---Joseph Rutter(1735-1838), my great-great-great-great grandfather in Leacock Twp, Lancaster Co. was married 3 times--1. Margaret Bashore (9 children, and my line) 2.Mary McNeal (8 children) 3.Sarah McGallicker (9 children) for a total of 26 offspring! Joseph Rutter was the great grandson of Conrad Rutter, one of the 13 original families to settle in Germantown in 1683. He later settled in Leacock Twp in 1716.
Dates for his wives are not given in my reference, but I am now writing and researching about a couple in Juniata Co in the early 1800s --David Garver(Amish 10/9/1792-3/23/1868) & Fannie Brubaker(Stauffer Mennonite 6/23/1812-5/23/1868). He was nearly 20 years her senior and they had 9 children. Your sister Betty Ann Landis will be publishing this story in the Juniata Co Mennonite periodical ECHOES late this year.
It seems events like this occurred more frequently in centuries past, when marriages were formed under much different circumstances.
Gary Good
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