+John Jacob BANKERT Sr --Six sons and six daughters
+Julianna BANKERT
+Anna Margretha BANKERT
+Margaretha Elenore BANCKERT
+John Jacob BANKERT Sr --Six sons and six daughters
+Julianna BANKERT
+Anna Margretha BANKERT
+Margaretha Elenore BANCKERT
[10931]
Our Bankert family background has a great depth of historical association with our home area. The name has been variously spelled Banckert, Bankard, Banker, Bencher, Benchert, and Bankert. It's possible that it is of Holland (Dutch) origin because in the late 1600's there were Bankerts in the New York area who are known to have come from Holland. Also, in the Armorial General by Rietstap, a set of books having nearly a hundred thousand coats of arms of European background, the author gives the name of Banckert as being found in the Zeeland area of Holland. Thus even it our Banckert ancestors were to have come form the German Palatinate, the chances would be very food that originally our family name came from Holland.
Our immigrant Bankert ancestors were Christophel and Anna Eva Banckert. Both were probably born around 1685- 1690. They sailed from Rotterdam, Holland on the Ship Mortonhouse, John Coultas, Commander, stopped briefly at Deal in England on June 15, 1728 and after a voyage of nine weeks they arrived at the port of Philadelphia on Aug 23, 1728. The next day Aug 24 the passengers composed of about 207 persons of which 80 were men, left ship. All males sixteen years and over were taken to the Court House in Philadelphia on High (now Market) Street where they signed oaths of allegiance to the British Crown and were then released to their waiting families.
For several years, our Banckert family undoubtedly lived in one of the many German settlements just outside the Philadelphia of that day.
It appears that our Banckert family came to what is now the Hanover- Littlestown area in early 1731. A careful study of the meager data available indicates that they were among the very first settlers to arrive here.
The sites which they and other early comers chose for their new homes were to be a source of contentions as to ownership and boundary lines for many years. In 1727, a John Digges of MD received a grant of 6,822 acres of land from Lord Baltimore. This grant, known as Digges' Choice, was in an area claimed by both Maryland and Pennsylvania. Roughly, it extended between what is now Hanover and Littlestown, with the main part being in Adams Co and the townships now known as Conewago, Germany, and Union.
In the "History of York County" by George Prowell it states in Vol. 1 page 71 that in 1731 and Adam Forney and other German settlers procured form John Digges a bond of agreement for lands in Digges' Choice. Some of these, including a colony of thirteen families from Eastern Pennsylvania, went on to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. (It is possible that one or so of these last mentioned families were known to Johannes Stonesifer who was mentioned earlier in the Stonesifer Background, and that is why he and his family moved on from Silver Run to later settle in Virginia also.)
Adam Forney, who was of French Huguenot ancestry, was a remarkable and industrious settler. He was noted for having been a tailor, farmer, and innkeeper. Eventually one of his granddaughters became the wife of a grandson of Christophel and Anna Eva Banckert. It is due to the preservation of some of his early papers by family descendants that we know a good bit about him. His land agreement with John Digges, dated Oct. 5, 1731 was for 150 acres of land at a place called Conewago - now part of the site of Hanover. Among the first settlers, in addition to Forney, who would have procured land also from Digges are the names of Bandkert, Sell, Unger, and Sheets- all of them bound together through numerous marriages among their descendants and with the Stonesifer family. However, all records of their early land transactions, with the exception apparently of Forney, were likely filed somewhere in Maryland by the authorities of that time, and probably are now buried in the MD Hall of Records in Annapolis. Thus we must try to utilize other means to prove the early arrival of our Banckert family in this area.
Prowell in his "History of York County" listed quite a number of the early baptisms performed in this area. In Vol. 1 and on page 146 we find two such cases which are of great importance to us. There Prowell has recorded the baptisms of two children of Martin and Julianna Banckert Kitzmiller: John Jacob on April 19,1731 and Johnannes on Dec 27, 1734. Sponsors for both occasions were the paternal grandparents John Jacob Kitsmiller Sr. and his wife.
In the "History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania", by various writers, we find on page 23 of the Adams County section a list of names of purchasers of land here in 1734 as found in public documents of the day, and on this list is the name of Martin Kitzmiller. On page 24 of the same work it says a Jacob Banker purchased land in 1742. Jacob Banker was the brother of Martin Kitzmiller's wife, Julianna.
Another work which has a bearing on our situation, and one that is an excellent study of the early settlers, is "The Beginnings of the German Element in York County "by Dr Abdel R. Wentz, himself a descendant of one of the early families. On page 76 of his book, he lists Jacob Banker as having taken out a land purchase grant before 1737.
Based on the above indications, this writer feels justified in concluding that our Bankert Family arrived early in 1731 or shortly thereafter.
In 1734 the first permanent settler of the Littlestown area of Adams Co arrived. This was Andrew Shriver with his wife Anna Maria Kaser (Keiser) Shriver from the Trappe-Goshenhoppen area just north of Philadelphia. He was born Sept. 6, 1712 and died Aug. 12, 1797. She was born Sept of 1710 and died May 8, 1801. In due course he purchased some one hundred acres of land from John Digges. As He was a shoemaker, we are told that he paid for his land with one hundred pairs of Negro shoes. The location of this plantation was about two miles east of the present town of Littlestown and the old German Reformed Christ Church.
In the late 1800's his site was becoming known as the George Basehoar farm. It is also recorded that for a number of years after his arrival the Indians lived in many places throughout the region. Each spring for some years Indian war parties would stop off at the Shriver plantation for rest and provisions, and if on their was home from an attack on another tribe, they would take delight in showing off the fresh scalps of their Indian victims. The settlers (Shriver and his neighbors) were never harmed because, obviously, it was best to appear friendly and cooperative - an show and interest in scalps.
All this is being mentioned because there is a very strong possibility that our great, grandmother Anna Eva Banckert - was an aunt or older relative of Andrew Shriver. In the book on the Shriver Family History there are several women of her name mentioned for the late 1600's part of the family line. This possible tie could be the reason why the Banckerts and Shrivers came to this area about the same time. Instead of settling in the numerous German areas in and around Philadelphia, or going north of the city to the areas of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Reading of today where Germans were locating, but came here to Digges' Choice could have been a result of relationship.
Also some years after the Banckerts and Shrivers had settled in Digges' Choice, Anna Eva Banckert was the sponsor for a little daughter of the Shriver family when the child was baptized. The little girl's name was Elizabeth, and she had been born on Jan. 21, 1747. It was the custom in those days, perhaps more so than today, to have a close relative act in this capacity of sponsor. In the Christ Church baptism entry for this event it mentions that Andrew Shriver was from Alstenborn in the Pfaltz (The Palatinate), and that his wife was from Reichenheim. Alstenborn could very well be the place from which the Bankerts came from in Germany. In recent times the Shriver farm or plantation was in the ownership of the Millard Basehoar- a descendant of George Basehoar who bought the original property for the Shriver family. The location is at the end of Christ Church Rd on the left. Deeds in the Adams Co court house in Gettysburg support this understanding.
[10932] [S14] "History and Genealogy of the Stonesifer Family of MD and PA"
[14369]
pariah register records the date of Dec 1733 however he wrote his will in Nov 1732 and it was probated in March 1732/3
He left to daus Susanna and Rachel the tract of land "None so Good in Finland" to be divided equally. To his wife Mary, extx., entire estate during widowhood. Should she marry, 1/3 of personal estate, remainder divided between three children, Viz., Thomas, Susanna and Rachel. Witnesses Henry Ward, Charles Makane, John Thompson
[14370] [S208] "Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland Vol 6"
Grace MORELOCK
Marguerite MORELOCK
David E MORELOCK
Dennis L MORELOCK
Ira Milton MORELOCK
child name and dates unknown MORELOCK
____________________________
|
_____________________________|
| |
| |____________________________
|
_Uriah MORELOCK ______|
| (1841 - 1909) m 1862 |
| | ____________________________
| | |
| |_____________________________|
| |
| |____________________________
|
|
|--Edwin J MORELOCK
| (1879 - 1947)
| _ KUMP _____________________
| |
| _Jacob KUMP _________________|
| | (1816 - 1903) |
| | |____________________________
| |
|_Mary Elizabeth KUMP _|
(1843 - 1932) m 1862 |
| _Abraham Daniel STONESIFER _+
| | (1800 - 1846)
|_Maria Eliza Ann STONESIFER _|
(1824 - 1903) |
|_Rachel HOPPE ______________+
(1805 - 1846)
[370] [S14] "History and Genealogy of the Stonesifer Family of MD and PA"
Sarah Catherine ZEPP Baltimore MD
[9893] [S14] "History and Genealogy of the Stonesifer Family of MD and PA"
_John Daniel Jr STONESIFER _+
| (1780 - 1849)
_John Joseph STONESIFER _|
| (1811 - 1891) |
| |_Elizabeth BAUER ___________
| (1772 - 1846)
_Joseph Oliver STONESIFER _|
| (1835 - 1911) m 1866 |
| | _John Henry ROUTSON ________+
| | | (1784 - 1860)
| |_Lydia ROUTSON __________|
| (1809 - 1881) |
| |_Barbara BEGRIL (BECTEL) ___+
| (1785 - 1850)
|
|--Clarence Thomas STONESIFER
| (1875 - 1946)
| ____________________________
| |
| _________________________|
| | |
| | |____________________________
| |
|_Catherine S MILLER _______|
(1837 - 1908) m 1866 |
| ____________________________
| |
|_________________________|
|
|____________________________
[11931] [S14] "History and Genealogy of the Stonesifer Family of MD and PA"
_Joseph VOSHELL _____+
| (1754 - ....)
_Obediah VOSHELL ____|
| (1774 - ....) |
| |_____________________
|
_Major VOSHELL ______|
| (.... - 1822) m 1818|
| | _____________________
| | |
| |_____________________|
| |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--John J VOSHELL
| (1819 - 1894)
| _____________________
| |
| _____________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Lydia JONES ________|
m 1818 |
| _____________________
| |
|_____________________|
|
|_____________________
[3740]
DEA card file has a date of 6/28/1894 at age 77 son of Major and Lydia Jones- they were married 12/16/1818
1850 Census Farmer 30 DE Dover, Margaret 27 MD, Mary 2 DE, Robert 1/12 DE.
1860 Census Farmer 40 $4500 Dover Margaret and three children Mary H, Robert and Ella
1870 Census farmed 50 near Hazlettville, DE. Margaret and 4 children
1880 Census as 60 DE, Margaret 60 born in MD Children Robert 30, Ella 20, Martha 19 all born in DE
[3741] [S88] DE Archives Probate File
[3738] [S16] DE Archives Death Card file
[3739] [S62] "Souls in Heaven, Names in Stone Kent County Delaware Cemetery Records"
[15526] [S65] DE Archives Marriage Card file
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