Peter Burkholder's Children

When I was at Lancaster on Tuesday I picked up my free copies of the April issue of Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage magazine. It contains the Burkholder genealogy I slaved over for at least eighteen months, tracing the first four generations of the descendants of Ulrich Burkholder. He is often confused with another Ulrich Burkholder who immigrated in 1732 and settled in Lebanon County. I thought this genealogy would be helpful in resolving the confusion.

Ulrich was the older brother of my Burkholder ancestor, Bishop Christian Burkholder. Ulrich's will indicates he had six children but only three of them are mentioned by name--John, Christian, and Mary. Through a long process I managed to track down and confirm the other three--Elizabeth, Peter, and Anna--and their descendants.

Peter's descendants were especially difficult to trace. He owned no property and left no will so there wasn't much of a paper trail to follow. He died between the 1810 and 1820 census for his wife is listed as the head of the household in 1820. Census records before 1850 list only the name of the head of the household and the rest of the family is identified only by gender and age range. Names have to be obtained from other sources. I was able to identify Peter's wife as Catharine and found three children---Isaac, John, and Elizabeth. The 1790 census indicates the oldest child was a daughter born about 1790 but I could not find anything on her. The 1810 census shows Peter had a son and daughter under age ten, which means they were born between 1800-1810. I found the daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1807, but nothing on the son.

When I was at Lancaster on Tuesday, a fellow historian/genealogist told me he had just come across a Nancy Burkholder born in 1801 and wondered if I knew where she belongs. I didn't. But since I have all the children of Ulrich's other children I immediately began to suspect she was Peter's daughter. She fit right in that slot, except that the census says there was one son and one daughter under age ten. It probably should have said two daughters. This would not be the first time I found a mistake in the census.

I came home and began searching. I need to do a little more digging to confirm but from what I have found so far I am 99% convinced Nancy was the daughter of Peter and Catharine Burkholder.

What I can confirm is that Nancy was born in 1801 and married an Irish immigrant, William Martin. They were expecting their second child when he died in January 1824. He requested that if the child was a girl she be named for his mother, Mary, in Ireland, which she was. Nancy then married Jesse Harting and had six more children. They lived at Hinkletown. She died in 1896 at the age of 95 and was buried with her second husband in the Terre Hill Cemetery.

Nancy's children were:

 

1. Isaac B. Martin, Jan. 10, 1822-Dec. 4, 1910; m. Mary Ann Haldeman;  bu. Bergstrasse

2. Mary Ann Martin Winters, Mar. 6, 1824-Apr. 23, 1909; m. Richard Winters; bu. Bergstrasse

3. Louisa Harting, Jan. 19, 1832-Sept. 7, 1922; m. George W. Selvert; bu. Bergstrasse

4. Phoebe Harting, Nov. 9, 1834-Dec. 30, 1932; m. John H. Kemper; bu. Bowmans Cem., Ephrata

5. Davidson B. Harting, March 1837-May 29, 1905; m. Cordia Ann Carpenter; died Canton, Ohio

6. Wellington Harting, Nov. 25, 1839-Dec. 3, 1904; m. Emma ___; bu. Bergstrasse

7. Jesse B. Harting, Oct. 1842-aft. 1930; m.(1) Julia ___;m.(2) Laura Bell Littrell; died Roanoke,Va.

8. Julia Harting, July 26, 1845-May 12, 1936; m. William Overholser; died Sioux City, Iowa

 

So there you go! I worked so long and hard to have everything correct and the ink is barely dry when I find more. But that's typical of genealogical research so I shouldn't be surprised. I had a lot of fun doing it and now I can go on chasing down one more.