Hello once again,anyone referencing John Souder.
I am taking one more shot at trying to correct very inaccurate data on my ancestor, John Souder, and specifically the error about his father, Jacob Souder, our Original immigrant ancestor.
I am trying once again with you as your name is the most associated and perhaps you might help with this.
For years, the ancestor Jacob, John's father has been misidentified by many with no solid research. In the case of Geni, they trace to the wrong Jacob Souder, and constantly keep connecting John to a "Rosenberg" line.
This is NOT correct! And I can't seem to get it corrected on Geni.
For brevity, anyone may go to FamilySearch and see the notes for John (L1JF-CYQ) which has been extensively researched and counteracts the connections shown on Geni. John's father, Jacob, is Hans Jacob Suter (Sowter) LH1Z-NK1.
We have solid facts about both men...
Here are brief summations of these facts which in NO WAY involve any Rosenbergs.
For the Original Immigrant Jacob:
We know from references in his Will proved in 1788 that John Souder/Sowder of Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, was the son of a "Jacob"Sowder/Sowter from whom he had inherited land. Analyses of land, tax,and other records indicate that Jacob Souter of Lampeter Twp., Lancaster County, whose 1733 Will was entered in 1737, was John's father.
Jacob "Souter" made his Will in 1733, written in either German or "High Dutch." In his will, Jacob refers to his son "Hans" which is a German "nickname" for Johannes [i.e. Anglicized = John] or other given names. Entry of a reference to his Will was made in Lancaster County records in 1737 [it could not be formally "recorded" because it was not inEnglish].
It is interesting to note that this 300 acres of land had originally been patented to Hans Graf by William Penn's commissioners on 16 June 1718. Hans Graf had warrented the land on January 31,1714; had it surveyed to him October 23, 1716; and had patented it on June 16, 1718. Hans Graf and his wife sold the land to on 16 May 1719, but the land entry was not presented at court and formally recorded until 22 May 1797.
The John and Maria (Souder) Rohrer Bible indicates that Maria Souder was born in 1716 in Germany. While the Bible is very faint and the available photocopy poor, other researchers feel that it states her birthplace was Manheim, Germany. The writing is in German Script, but appears as Manheim (or Marheam) in ?Eunqadele, Germany. In the Bible of Martin and Susanna (Souder) Funk, Susanna's birth year is 1720, but no birthplace is shown. Other researchers have indicated, undocumented, that Jacob Souter himself was born in Manheim, Germany, about 1680 or 1690.
Baptism is recorded as Jan. 27, 1678.
While some Rohrer researchers claim Jacob's daughter Maria came to America with her father and John Rohrer about 1734, there is no proof ofthis. It is possible, however, that John Rohrer arrived shortly beforehe witnessed Jacob Souter's will in 1733, although that seems unusualunless he was an old family friend. Another consideration is that theJohn and Maria Rohrer family Bible states that John and Maria were married "about" 1834, implying the owner of the Bible did not have exactdocumentation. Also note that Jacob Souter does not refer to eitherofhis daughters as married in his Will, and, in fact, would not havehadJohn Rohrer as a witness thereto if he was a son-in-law in 1733 when he dictated his Will. Therefore, 1734 seems a reasonable date for Maria's marriage [at age about 18] to John Rohrer, a witness to her father's Will. It also implies that John Rohrer and Maria Souder were married in America.
Some researchers believe that John Souder, the first of Jacob's threechildren by his second wife Ann, was born about 1724 or 1726, which seems reasonable. It is this researcher's current "educated guess" thatJacob came to America with his first wife and their daughter Maria born1716, that his first wife died in Pennsylvania a few years after daughter Susanna's birth in 1720, and that Jacob (with two young children to raise) had quickly remarried to Ann Graff who, according to the "Graff Book," was born about 1705 and would have thus been the common marriagable age of 18 by 1723.
We know that John was the son of Ann (Graff) Sowder because it is so stated in the land record wherein she relinquishes any rights to the land he inherited from his father. We also know that John paid cash to his brother Jacob and his sister Ann for their share of their father'sestate. On the other hand, both the Will and the eventual land recordsregarding the release of widow Ann Sowder's rights to the land inherited by Jacob's daughters Maria and Susanna make absolutely no reference to her being their "mother;" she is referred to as Jacob's wife orwidow. It is important to note that Jacob Souter's 1733 Will states that John is to pay to his "siblings" for their share of the land. Thisimplies that he and his wife Ann already had, or were about to have, atleast two other children besides John. Since we know that Jacob wasdeceased by 1737 due to probate records, John's siblings, Ann and Jacob,were both born in or before 1737, and probably in or before 1734 based on Jacob's use of the term "siblings" in his son John's inheritance.
UPDATED NOTES FOR JACOB SOUTER, ENTERED IN JUNE, 2012 BY ROBERT H. SOUDERS, JR.
As a general note, at this time, research has confirmed the lineage of the Souders family by land records, Bible records, and other genealogy methods including DNA testing of the decendants of the Immigrant Jacob Souter first identified by a land transaction in 1719 on the purchace of land from Hans Groff in Lancaster County, PA. that is in the area of the village of Soudersburg. This village was named for Jacob and his sons.
Over several years, there has been a great deal of research to determine the lineage of Jacob himself.
There are many inaccurate and misused sources that have pervaded connections in the Old World and New World with Jacob, the original Immigrant ancestor. The noted Mennonite genealogist Jane Evens Best has written two articles that at this point serve as the definitive probable outline of this Jacob's ancestors. These articles are the basis for Jacob's ancestors.
These two articles were "Bauman and Sauter Families of Hirzel, Switzerland" in the April 1991 issue of Mennonite Family History, and "Bauman and Sauter Families An Update" in the January 1993 issue of Mennonite Family History.
There was also a visit to the Staatsarchive in Zurich, Switzerland in 2006 by Robert H. Souders, Jr. that confirms the assumptions that Best has proposed. This was also followed up with a visit to the farm in Chalbisau, Hirzel, which this information suggests was Jacob's last home in Hirzel, Switzerland. Jacob's mother, Regula Kleiner, sold the farm in 1690 as Jacob's father, Heinrich Suter, abandoned the family. As an interesting side note, the family next door to the property in 2006 had the last name of Klein.
Jane Evans Best writes in 1993:
New information so kindly sent to me by Erika Rubel-Kern from Zurich, Switzerland, has caused numerous revisions in my article "Bauman and Sauter Families of Hirzel, Switzerland", in the April, 1991 issue of Mennonite Family History.
The research of Mrs. Rubel-Kern has also provided information of ancestors of Harman Suter of Hirzel, Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a major correction in the parentage of the immigrant Jacob Souder who died in 1737, and for whom Soudersburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was named.
Ulrich Suter in 1342 was a Lehensann (vassel) in Suterhofes in Zimmerberg, Hirzel. The Ulrich Suter who died in 1503 was also a vassel in Suterhofes. A descendant, Hans Suter, was married to a Magdalena, and was a farmer of Suterhof with his brother Ulrich.
According to Mrs. Rubel-Kern, the family of Heinrich Suter appears to be a more likely one from which the immigrant Jacob Souder came.
Heinrich was a farmer in Kalbisau, but he left his family in 1690 because of debts and disapeared. His wife, Regula Kleiner, sold the totally debt encumbered farm in 1694 and died in 1699. He may have gone to Jebsheim, Alsace, where his sister Barbara Suter and
her husband were recorded in 1692. They returned to Hausen by 1700, but their two sons, Hans Heinrich Huber and Jacob Huber are believed to be the ones who died in Martic Township, Lancaster County in 1757 and 1743 respectively.
The immigrant Jacob Souder who would have been twelve year old when his father left Hirzel in 1690 and may have gone with him.
His baptism is recorded as Jan. 27, 1678, Hirzel.
His name is recorded in a census of Mennonites living in Mannheim, Germany in 1717.
As research as confirmed, Jacob's daughter Mary (or Maria) by his first unknown wife was born in Mannheim on Feb. 24, 1716. We know from family Bible records that Mary married Johannes Rohrer.
An absolute link to Jacob being the original immigrant in America who purchased land from Hans Groff in 1719 has not been disocovered at this point, but the preponderance of evidence is convincingly strong. Research in Mannheim, Germany and/or more detailed DNA testing of documented descendants in America and Europe could further soldify the evidence to date.
FOR JOHN SOUDER:
John states he is "of the Township of Lampeter in the County of Lancaster" in his will. The township where the Souder brothers lived about 1800 is now "East Lampeter," which includes the Post Office district of Soudersburg, a town predominantly owned and created by the Souder Brothers, sons of John Souder. In his will, John also refers to himselfas a "yeoman," a descriptive title used for landowners.
The Bible of Jesse Mahlon Coe, son of Thomas and Mary [Souder] Coe ofSeneca County, Ohio, shows that a John Souder married Anna Bowman in 1751. From all appearances, and since the same Bible also refers to a David Souder, born 1770 [in Pennsylvania per 1850 Census], it would appear that the John referred to in the Bible is John Souder who died inLancaster County in 1788, and whose wife was Ann and his third son David. This is especially likely since Jesse M. Coe shows his 1823 birthplace as Frederick County, Maryland, which is where Benjamin and JacobSouder [the first two sons of John and Ann Souder of Lampeter] lived with their families until their deaths in 1818 and 1820, respectively.Several other researchers and submitters to the DAR are in agreement that John's wife was Anna Bowman.
As part of the instructions in his father Jacob Souter's 1733 Will, John in 1758 paid to his siblings Jacob and Anna a cash payment for their share of the estate, whereby he retained the title to the land itself. At that time, his mother Ann also signed a release of her rights,if any, to the property - a legal formality of the time. Note that John also had two older half-sisters, Susanna and Maria, from his father's first marriage.
John's lands in the Soudersburg area of Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were in the lower right corner of Lampeter County, and extended "over the border" into Leacock Township on the East and Strasburg County on the south. Most of these were lands originally owned by his father Jacob. It is important to note when reading land records for John and his sons Benjamin and Jacob, that John's land literally straddled Pequea Creek in its lower portion. John's lands left to his sons Benjamin, Jacob, and David can be viewed as an "upside-down letter L" with the southern portion of the property reaching over apart of Pequea Creek. [The same observation applies to his father Jacob Souter's lands since most of these lands were inherited by John.]
An interesting observation can be made that John's land in the Village of Strasburg in Strasburg Township, Lancaster County, was, according to "The Graff Book" adjacent to the home of Jacob Bear, "innkeeper," who purchased the land in 1783 from "Benjamin Groff, his uncle." The house is said to be "west of land owned by John Souder, who willed it in 1788 to his son Joshua Souder. John's younger sister Anna was married to a Jacob Bear as his second wife. Is this neighbor of John thesame Jacob Bear or his descendent? If it is his brother-in-law Jacob Bear, it would infer that John's sister Ann was his "neighbor" in Strasburg.
John is shown on Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Tax Lists:
(1757 - John Souders, Leacock (probably [John] Adam Souder of Leacock1771)
(1758 - John Souders (crossed out), Leacock, "of Joel Ferys Land" [John Adam Souder?])
1770 - John Souder, Lampeter
1771 - Jno Souder, Lampeter, 200 acres, 4 horses, 4 cattle
1779 - John Sowder, Strasburg
1780 - John Souter, Lampeter - taxable land
Land Transactions Involving John Souder:
In 1758, John's mother Ann Souter released her right to the 233 acresof land on Pequea Creek left to John in his father Jacob's 1733 Will.Ann also, for 5 schillings, revokes her right to live on the propertyashas been ordered in Jacob's Will. The entry also documents that John had already paid money to his sister Ann and his brother Jacob for their share in the estate. This was also as ordered in the Will of hisfather Jacob in his 1733 Will.
In 1759, Joel Ferree of Leacock Twp. and his wife sold 340 1/3 acres land in Leacock Twp. to John Souder of Lampeter for £400. The land hadoriginally been patented to Abraham Dubois, and the and had thence passed to his daughter Leah, wife of Philip Ferree, from whom it descended to Joel Ferree.
In 1764 in a sale of 203 acres of land in Strasburg owned by Henry Stoner and personal property of Barbara Bowman by Sheriff John Barr, John Sowder is shown as owner of a neighboring property.
Just making a last attempt to get Geni to make a change...I don't know how to execute it.
Thank you.
Robert Souders
