OCTOBER 1991 NEWSLETTER Enclosed with this letter you will see some pictures sent to me by Ruth Lundquist. If you can identify these ancestors please give Ruth a phone call or write me. Ruth has a large collection of photos which she will share with us periodically to help get those ancestors identified. A good idea for all of us is to label our photos!
Tedi Jeen and I went to the FHL in September and spent a Saturday working on the records of Hornbach, Germany and finishing up some records of Bedford, Pennsylvania. The Hornbach records are in German script, but that is OK, we will labor through them, and this work we can do ourselves.
I have been in contact with Jim Petty our professional genealogist. He has made a preliminary conclusion that we have indeed found our MAURER ancestors in Germany, based on the fact of the Martin BRILL connection. This is a case in which one family has substantiated the other family because they associated and married on both sides of the Atlantic.
IMPORTANT SUBSTANTIATING FACTS 1. Mary AMICK was the wife of Henry MOWER Sr. and the daughter of John and Anna Maria (BRILL) AMICK as documented by John AMICK'S Will and Christopher BRILL's land deed.
2. Anna Maria BRILL married John AMICK in America as documented by Christopher BRILL's Will and land deeds.
3. Christopher BRILL was the son of Martin BRILL and married Anna Margaret MAURER, daughter of Michael MAURER and wife Elizabeth, as documented by Nockamixon Luthern Church records of Bucks County, Pa.
4. Anna Margaret MAURER was the sister to Andrew MAURER as documented by Lutheran church records.
5. Andrew MAURER was born in 1752 as documented by Lutheran Church records in Bucks Co., Pa, the son of Michael MAURER and Anna Elizabeth.
6. Andrew was the father of Michael, Jacob, Sarah, and Molly MAURER as documented by the Nockamixon records. These birthdates match the census records of 1800-1820 Bedford County, Pennsylvania as to the ages of Michael MOWER, Sarah (MOWER) DIEHL, Molly (MOWER) AMICK, and Jacob MOWER---the children of Andrew MOWER as documented by his Will of 1813 of Bedford Co.
7. Anna Margaret (MAURER) BRILL and her husband, Christopher, lived near Andrew MAURER his whole life as documented through census records, tax records and church records of these counties: Bucks Co, Pa; Loudoun Co., Va; Bedford Co., Pa.
8. Martin BRILL also moved with his son, Christopher BRILL and with Andrew MAURER as the families moved from Bucks Co., Pa to Loudoun Co., Va as documented by county tax and church records.
9. Martin BRILL died at the age of 81 in 1791 in Loudoun Co., Va as recorded in the New Jerusalem Church records.
10.Martin BRILL'S father is unknown. (His son was named Christopher BRILL.) Martin's marriage place is not known at this time.
11. Martin's immigration to America is documented on the passenger ship Halifax list as occuring in 1754. In 1755 he bought land near Michael MAURER and wife Elizabeth in Bucks Co., Pa and attended Church with them as documented by the Bucks Co. land records, and Lutheran Church records of Springfield Township, Bucks Co., Pa
10. The evidence is clear that Martin BRILL and wife, Anna Maria MAURER are the same individuals who lived in Bucks County, Pa and Loudoun County, Va where Martin died. The fact that their son married Anna Margaret MAURER, sister to Andrew MAURER and moved where the entire family moved during the 1750-1813 time frame links the MAURER family and BRILL family together.
11. The fact that Anna Margaret and Andrew are brother and sister and children of Michael and Elizabeth MAURER links the MAURER family to the MOWER family.
12. The fact that Andrew's children identified in his Will, match the ages of the MAURER children christened in Bucks Co. links the families together.
CONCLUSION BASED UPON THE FACTS: Andrew MOWER was born in 1752 in Bucks Co., Pa, the son of Michael and Elizabeth MAURER. Some of his children were Michael, Sarah, Jacob, and Molly MAURER.Also spelled MOWER. The BRILL family married into the MAURER family in America following the immigration of the BRILLS to America in 1754. The families stayed in Bucks Co., until following the Revolutionary War when both families moved to Loudoun Co., Va. They lived in this area and neighboring Frederick, Md until both families moved to Bedford Co., Pa where they both show up on census and tax records following 1800. Following Andrew's death in 1813, the BRILL family moved to Guernsey County, Ohio. In Bedford County, Pa the descendants of Martin BRILL and Andrew MOWER married again when Henry MOWER Sr. married Mary AMICK. Henry MOWER Sr. was a great-grandson of Michael and Anna Elizabeth MAURER. Mary AMICK was a great-grandaughter of Michael and Anna Elizabeth MAURER.
The above represents many hundreds of hours obtaining documentation and was not done to disprove any previously identified pedigree. The documentation leads to the above conclusions and we willing submit it to open examination, with love and appreciation expressed to those who helped pioneer the research in years gone by. Research is an on going experience open to constant scrutiny. Many of the records used to obtain this documentation were not even microfilmed until the 1980's and thus were not available to previous researchers. It is with love and respect to Ella Cragun and Mary Tiffany we offer these corrections. It is a very difficult task to research history, anyone who thinks otherwise is welcome to try it. We have a great respect and love for these women who worked so many years on this line.
Where do we go from here? Well, now the work starts. We are going to dive into the Hornbach records. We are not at the end of the line, but just at the beginning. I have a feeling that eventually we will end up with these Maurers in Switzerland. I am using Petty to make connections with European contacts, Palatine Emigration Index people, local Church researchers, etc. When Petty is of no further use to us in the Maurer phase of the research, with your permission I am going to turn him loose on the GEISSINGER line, to which we are all related. That line must also be pushed into Germany or Switzerland. Records there are sparse, but isn't that always the story? We have much to do. Thank you for your support, letters, encouragement, help.