Poffenbarger (Papfenberger, Poffenberger, Poffinbarger, etc.)

George Poffenbarger
George Poffenbarger1, born ca. 1700, a Lutheran, probably a citizen of the Palatinate, sailed from Holland to Philadelphia in the pink “Mary” in 1733 (Peter Virkus, The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. I, P. 775). He brought with him his wife Mary and his son Valentine Poffenbarger2. They settled for a while near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They had much in common with the other settlers in that area, many being German Protestants fleeing religious persecution in the Rhineland.
We do not know when George or Mary Poffenbarger died, but they had at least one son:
1. Valentine Poffenbarger, born ca. 1720?
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Valentine Poffenbarger (George1)
Valentine Poffenbarger2, born ca. 1720? In Germany? Or Holland?, moved to the Antietam area near Hagerstown, Maryland prior to 1778, and probably as early as the 1760s (Virkus, loc cit). He married Mary _____?. Valentine is listed as one of the males over sixteen years of age to whom the oath of allegiance was administered on March 2, 1778 in Washington County, Maryland (Gaius Marcus Rumbaugh and Robert Hodges, Revolutionary Records of Maryland, p.13). Valentine had bought a farm in Sharpsburg Hundred, Washington County, Maryland (Frederick Tilberg, Antietam, pp. 21, 50; Virkus, loc cit).
During the Civil War, a century after the farm’s establishment, it was wasted by the Battle of Antietam. By that time it was Valentine’s son John’s descendants, Joseph and Samuel Poffenbarger, who owned the land originally settled by Valentine (Tilberg, loc cit; Virkus, loc cit). Samuel’s portion of the farm and his residence, a large stone house built in 1805 (photo taken from Drums along the Antietam, p. 194) is important in our family history for more than this reason. Reverend _____?, in Drums along the Antietam, pp. 193-196, describes the house and the events it witnessed:

“Samuel Poffenbarger had a lovely home…. On September 17, 1862, his farm (see a 1978 photo here ) had the misfortune to be in the rear of the Twelfth Corp’s advance…. Like so many others, Sam had been warned by army authorities to take his family to safer quarters. Thus he took his wife to the home of his father-in-law, Samuel Doub, in Keedysville. Hurrying back the farm, the young farmer tried to hide his livestock lest it be carried off by the soldiers. His prize horses he took to the basement of the house and wrapped their feet in grain bags, so those upstairs would not hear their hoofs. The Poffenbarger house, like … many others was receted over a spring of water….
Approximately 125 wounded soldiers were carried to the Samuel Poffenbarger farm…. Sam’s beds were all cut up to provide bedding…. Piles of arms and legs came off the soldiers carried (there). These bones were buried in the orchard. One young officer, a Captain Tayne, died from his wounds in Sam and Catherine’s (Doub Poffenbarger) bedroom. Following the war, his widow came to the Poffenbargers and stayed awhile. She painted pictures of the house…”

Still another reason to remember Samuel Poffenbarger’s farm: James Atkinson, former historian at the Antietam National Battlefield Site, has gathered strong evidence that Samuel Poffenbarger’s barn provided the field hospital where Clara Barton began her service to the wounded.
According to Historical Handbook number 31, a publication of the National Park Service, it is claimed that Joseph Poffenbarger’s barn provided this site; in any case, one portion or another of the land settled by Valentine Poffenbarger2 in the 1760s or 1770s furnished the site for the beginning of the Red cross service to the wounded in battle.
Yet another sidelight of the Civil War in this area of Maryland is the incident of the Joseph Poffenbarger family Bible. It was found on the battlefield by ______? Cooper of Loudon County, Virginia. He took it home and gave it to his adopted son, William Frye, who in turn, gave it to his daughter, Vira. She married a railroad man and went to Ohio. Vira then moved to West Virginia, then to Maryland. In 1961, Vira Frye Knight have the Bible to Mrs. Casper Knight, who was then biving in Hagerstown, Maryland near Antietam Battlefield. After 100 years, the Bible had come back to Antietam. It is now in the possession of the Washington County Historical Society in Hagerstown, Maryland (Notes on Washington County, collected by the DAR, shelved in the DAR Library, Washington, D. C.)
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John Poffenbarger3 (Valentine2, George1)
John Poffenbarger3, born ca. 1738, probably in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, married Mary _____? Ca. 1758 in Pennsylvania or Maryland. On March, 1778, John took the oath of allegiance, along with his father, Valentine in Sharpsburg Hundred, Washington County, Maryland (Rumbaugh, loc cit). He is almost certainly the same John Poffenbarger who had enlisted in the service of the Revolution January 10, 1776. In the Revolutionary War Records on deposit at the National Archives, his name appears in the records of the Second Pennsylvania Battalion of Continental Forces, commanded by Colonel Arthur St. Clair. John Poffinbarger3 was missing at Three Rivers on June 8, 1776, during a battle while he was serving in a regiment under the command of Colonel Joseph Wood. Private John Poffinbarger was returned to regiment July 12, 1776, in company with General Thompson. John had been a prisoner of war in Quebec from June 8 to July 12, 1776. For this, he was paid seven pounds, ten schillings in back pay by order of General Thompson (Revolutionary War Records on deposit at the National Archives – copy of pay roll in our family papers).
At the time John Poffenbarger3 was taken prisoner, he was serving in the third Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by Colonel Joseph Wood. Colonel Wood was a resident of Houver Districk of Frederick County, Maryland, a distance of 20-30 miles from Hagerstown. Woodboro, Maryland is named in his honor (Thomas J. C. Williams, History of Frederick County, p. 11). Colonel Joseph Wood’s father, also named Joseph Wood, from England, had settled in the Frederick County (later Washington County), Maryland area as early as 1755 (Thomas J. Scharf, A History of Western Maryland).
Life in this region of the colonies bore the stamp of the Pennsylvania Germans who settled there: small farms with large barns and tidy fields, a population which practiced the various German and Swiss sectarian Protestant religions and tolerated all religions. There were Dunkards, Moravians, Mennonites and, of course, Church of Englanders and Lutherans, as well. The Poffenbargers were Lutherans when they came to America and remained so for two more generations beyond Private John Poffenbarger’s time. St. John’s Lutheran Church in Hagerstown, Maryland houses many family records.
John Poffenbarger’s3 will was probated 1796 in Washington County, Maryland (Will Book A, folio 384):

“In the name of God Amen. I John Poffenbarger of Washington County and State of Maryland being of sound and disposing mind and memory do make and ordain this my las will and testament in manner and form following that is to say first I will and devise that my just debts and funeral charges be paid and discharged by my executors hereafter mentioned.

I also will and desire that my beloved wife Mary is to keep my whole estate real and personal under her care as long as she lives. Namely the plantation that I live (on) and any individual that is on it and also I will that the land in Virginia consisting of eight hundred and six acres more or less shall not be disposed (of) not till after my wife’s decease and then I will that all my whole estate shall be sold only some small legacies hereafter mentioned and be divided as follows, first I will that my son Adam Poffenbarger shall have fifty pounds Extraordinary, and also I will that my daughter Polly shall have fifty pounds and kitchen dresser, and one bed and all that belongs thereto, one cow and saddle this legacy also is to be Extraordinary and then I will that the remainder of the whole amount of my whole said estate shall be divided to my eight children hereafter mentioned is the money, the money be (once due?), namely Adam, Vallentine, Henry, John, Simon, Christian, Caty, Eade, and Polly shall each have share alike. Excepting the above-mentioned legacies and it is further my will that my executors hereafter mentioned shall make deeds for the lands the(y) sell namely the place I live on above mentioned containing one hundred and fifty two acres and for the land in Virginia above mentioned, and I do hereby name constitute and appoint Robert Smith and my son Henry Poffenbarger my whole and sole executors of this my last will and testament dated this eight day of October seventeen hundred and ninety five.

Witnesses: Peter Light, Michael Hammond, Peter Hammond.

John Poffenbarger3 and Mary (Hammond?) Poffenbarger had children:
1. Adam Poffenbarger4, born ca. 1760; married ca. 1781 (This family history follows this line.)
2. Valentine Poffenbarger4
3. Henry Poffenbarger4
4. John Poffenbarger4
5. Simon Poffenbarger4
6. Christian Poffenbarger4, died 1826 Washington County, Maryland
7. Caty Poffenbarger4
8. Eade Poffenbarger4
9. Polly Poffenbarger4 (one of these daughters was married to Robert Smith at the time of John Poffenbarger’s3 death (1795-96)
Mary Hammond? Poffenbarger probably died in 1809, because her husband’s plantations were sold at that time “according to the provisisions of the will” by the executors Henry Poffenbarger and Robert Smith (Maryland Land Records, Vol. I, pp. 625-26, copies in our family files). At the public notice (sale) of the lands, Adam Poffenbarger4 and his son, Christian Poffenbarger5, born 1782, bought parcels “Fairly Got” and “Delaware” (Ibid.).
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Adam Poffenbarger (John3, Valentine2, George1)
Adam Poffenbarger4, born ca. 1760-65, married ca. 1780-81. In 1809, he and his son, Christian Poffenbarger5 bought portions of “Fairly Got” and “Delaware” at the sale of John Poffenbarger’s3 lands, according to the terms of John’s 1795 will. By 1821, Christian5 and Adam4 were forced to mortgage the land back to Henry Poffenbarger4, Adam’s brother, and executor – with Robert Smith – of John Poffenbarger’s3 will. The land was deeded as security against a loan of $3089.50 from Henry4 to Adam4 and Christian5 (Ibid.). The land records do not show whether this land was ever redeemed into the legal possession of Adam and Christian Poffenbarger. Adam and his wife had at least one son:
1. Christian Poffenbarger5, born 1782, Washington County, Maryland; married November 24, 1813 Mary Brantner (Clerk of the Circuit Court, Old Records, Hagerstown, Maryland) born 1792 (another source says Mary was born November 5, 1794, Washington County, Maryland; died January 25, 1851, Jefferson County, Iowa). This family history follows Christian’s line.
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Christian Poffenbarger5 (Adam4, John3, Valentine2, George1)
Christian Poffenbarger5, born 1782 Washington County, Maryland; married November 24, 1813 Mary Branter, Washington County, Maryland by Reverend Craver. Mary was born November 5, 1792 or 1794 in Washington County, Maryland to George and Barbara ____? Brantner. Christian had “gone partners” with his father to buy some of his grandfather John Poffenbarger’s3 land in 1809, before his marriage to Mary Brantner. It appears that the partnership lost this land through default on a loan (1821-23) from Henry Poffenbarger4, Adam’s4 brother. In 1821, the same year he and his father borrowed $3089.50 from Henry4, Christian sold “Brantner’s Lot,” a piece of property he and his wife had inherited from George Brantner, Mary’s father, who is listed as deceased in the 1821 sale of the lot (Maryland Land Records, Vol. FF, pp. 83-84). The next year Christian and Mary sold “Well-Done” or “Resurvey,” 47 1/2 acres of which they inherited from George Brantner. In 1828, Christian and Mary sold off what might have been the last of their Maryland property (Washington County Land Records, Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland – copies in our family files).
Some time between 1830 and 1838, Christian and Mary Poffenbarger moved West, first to Ohio and then to Jefferson County, Iowa (pedigree chart of Velma Mae Chatt, compiled by Henry E. Voss of El Toro, California lists birthplace of (Nancy) Jane Poffenbarger, daughter of Christian5 and Mary Brantner Poffenbarger as August 22, 1836 in Columbus, Ohio). They lived in Polk Township, Jefferson County, Iowa as early as 1838, because Andrew M. Poffenbarger6, their son, born 1824 in Maryland died May 14, 1838 and is buried in Myers Cemetery, Polk Township, Jefferson County, Iowa. The 1850 Census of Jefferson County, Iowa lists Christian Poffenbarger as living in Polk Township and owning real estate worth $2000.

An excerpt from the Fairfield Tribune of July 5, 1905, p. 3, cols. 1-5 writes of early times in Polk Township:

“The first school house in the township was built on Christopher (should be Christian) Poffinbarger’s place, three-fourths of a mile west of L. T. Gillett’s house. L. T. Gillett, Benjamin Robinson and Isaac Campbell took a very active part in securing the erection of the school house, which was a log house… used … until the Winter of 1864, when it caught fire from the flue and was burned…”

Christian and Mary Brantner Poffenbarger5 had brought a large family to Iowa with them, at least 7 children, perhaps as many as 12. Young Christian Poffenbarger6 was born in Iowa in 1846, just five years before Mary Brantner Poffenbarger died on January 25, 1851, and was buried in Myers Cemetery, Jefferson County, Iowa. See an account of Mary Branter’s ancestry following the list of hers and Christian’s children.

Christian Poffenbarger5 and Mary Brantner Poffenbarger had children:
1. Lavina Poffenbarger6
2. Barbara Poffenbarger6
3. George W. Poffenbarger6
4. Samuel W. Poffenbarger6, born ca. 1820, Maryland; married ca. 1844-45 Louisa Mariah ____?, born March 31, 1825. Samuel and Louisa Mariah might possibly be the parents of :

4.A. Christian Poffenbarger7, born 1846, the same year that Louisa died. Mary Brantner Poffenbarger would have been 52 years old when young Christian was born; therefore he is more likely a grandchild than one of her own, though he is listed with Mary’s children on the 1850 Census. Young Christian was probably taken in by his grandmother when his mother died.

5. Emmanuel Poffenbarger6
6. Mary Poffenbarger6
7. John Poffenbarger6, born 1823, Washington County, Maryland; married ca. 1847 (probably in Jefferson County, Iowa) to Sarah _____? This family history follows this line.
8. David Poffenbarger6, born 1829 in Maryland or Virginia; married ca. 1855 Nancy _____?
9. (Nancy) Jane Poffenbarger6, born August 22, 1836 near Columbus, Ohio; married (1) before 1854 John Carson [See important information below which casts serious doubt on this marriage]; married (2) January 29, 1865 Phillip H. Welch, Jefferson County, Iowa; married (3) November 2, 1873 Frederick Sollenberger, Jefferson County, Iowa. Nancy Jane Poffenbarger6 and John Carson had a son:

9.A. William Henry Carson7, born July 29, 1854, Iowa; married January 1, 1880 Ida May Larue. William and Ida had a daughter:

9.A.(1) Jennie Laverne Carson8, born November 28, 1882, Burt County, Nebraska; married July 25, 1909 John Henry Chatt, born december 1882, Tekamah, Nebraska. Daughter:

9.A.(1)a. Velma Mae Chatt9, born April 1, 1910, Tekamah, Nebraska; married May 4, 1933 Henry E. Voss. This information on descendants of Nancy Jane Poffenbarger Carson Welch Sollenberger is taken partly from the pedigreee chart of Velma Mae Chatt on file with the Iowa Genealogical Society; information on Jane’s last two marriages is from Jefferson County Courthouse records in Fairfield, Iowa, bonds numbered 2479 and 4105. 

[See extensive note below on the mystery surrounding the relationships among at least three different women by the name of Nancy Jane "Jennie" Poffenbarger living in this part of Iowa in the early 1800s. -- editor]
10. William C. Poffenbarger6, born 1834, Maryland
11. Andrew M. Poffenbarger6, born 1824, Maryland; died May 14, 1838, Polk Township, Iowa; buried in Myers Cemetery of that county.
[Important Note on the information on the Nancy Jane Jennie Poffenbargers: It has been brought to my attention that we are probably dealing with two different women with the name Nancy J. Poffenbarger (Poffinbarger) (besides our third Jennie who was of the following generation) living and marrying in this part of Iowa at approximately the same dates. Paul Dunton offers the following information on the Nancy Jane -- Jennie -- Poffenbarger who married John Carson, courtesy of the research of his father on this family line. Paul writes to me in personal correspondence: 
"My father has transcriptions of two local newspaper articles about Jennie and her husband John Carson. The first is:
"MARRIED 63 YEARS
Mr & Mrs John Carson of Creston Enjoy This Distinction
Sixty-three years of married life. This is the distinction that falls to the lot of Mr & Mrs John Carson who reside at 411 Northeast Chestnut St. in this city. The custom of bringing the children together nearly every year was not followed this year owing to the stormy weather. However, the aged and highly esteemed couple was remembered by all of the children and by many old friends and neighbors. Numerous cards and messages were received.
Mr & Mrs Carson have resided in Creston for eleven years, and previous to coming to this city resided on a farm near Prescott. They are numbered among Union County's most highly esteemed people, and have a multitude of close friends, who extend sincere good wishes upon reaching the 63rd milestone of their wedded life.
Thirteen years ago, or upon this couple reaching their Golden epoch in married life, an elaborate celebration was held at the home, and upon that occasion the couple received many valuable presents. An elegant wedding feast was the crowning feature of the event, to which all eleven children again sat down to the family table with their aged parents.
John Carson was born in Highland County, Ohio, September 8, 1831. His wife, Miss Jennie Poffenbarger, was born near Columbus, Ohio, August 22, 1836. After a courtship of several years the couple were married in Jefferson County, Iowa, January 22, 1852. 
Later Mr and Mrs Carson went to Adair County where they resided a number of years, and then moved to a farm near Prescott. Eleven years ago they came to Creston [that would have been 1904- PLD], and have resided here continuously since. Mr Carson is an honorable member of Company M, 4th Iowa Cavalry, and a charter member of the Jewitt Post No. 6, now disbanded. Mrs. Carson is a faithful member of the Jewitt W. R. C. No. 2. 
To this union were born thirteen children, eleven of whom are still living. They are, Mrs M B Oshel, Creston; Phil F Carson, Creston; Mrs A J Faust, northeast of Creston; Miss Lilly Carson, northeast of Creston; Ottie Carson, northeast of Creston; Grant Carson, northeast of Creston; Mrs E L Wilmeth, Spaulding; Eugene Carson near Williamson, and Charles, Russel and H H Carson, all of Kansas City, MO. The departed children are Henry and Bert."
The other article is the obituary of John Carson, who died 3/13/1915. In it, Jennie's name is spelled Poffinbarger, and it turns out two additional children were born, who died in infancy.
Here Paul Dunton notes: There are definitely enough similarities to make me believe your Nancy Jane and my Jennie are the same person, but the two extra husbands and the lack of a son named William Henry (unless the H H Carson referred to in the newspaper is a typo, or the son Henry Carson who died is really William Henry) are concerns. 
Editor's note: based on this well-documented marriage of one of the Nancy Jane Poffenbargers of that generation in Iowa, I would say that we now know of three different Nancy Jane "Jennie" Poffenbargers who lived in that area at least part of their lives-- Ann Garner. Any help in clearing up this mystery would be appreciated.]
After Mary Brantner Poffenbarger’s death, Christian Poffenbarger5, her husband, married Elizabeth ____? ca. 1852-54. Elizabeth was apparently afflicted with a painful disease for which the doctor started giving her morphine. To this day, Box 43 at Jefferson County Courthouse in Fairfield, Iowa, the record of loans from practically every associate of Christian Poffenbarger5 and the number of debts owed by his estate, reveals that Christian had a very sickly second wife and was plagued in his last years by heavy financial burdens for her health care. From an apparently prosperous farmer in 1850, he declined in his financial status to where he owed several people a goodly sum of money, including the doctor, when Christian Poffenbarger5 died in 1858. Elizabeth, his ill and drug-addicted wife was named executor, a situation which was challenged by Samuel Poffenbarger6, Christian’s5 son, who protested that Elizabeth was incompetent to manage the estate settlement (Drawer 43, Jefferson County Courthouse, Fairfield, Iowa. Copies of some of the documents are in our family papers.
Mary Brantner3, the first wife of Christian Poffenbarger5 was a descendant of the Brantner family of Maryland, possibly originating in Pennsylvania. Their line – so far as my research reveals – starts with:

John Brantner1, married to Susanna _____? Brantner (Maryland Land Records, Vol. II, pp. 385-86), probably of Pennsylvania, where George2 returned before his death (Washington County Land Records, Vol. Y, pp. 797-99). John and Susanna Brantner had at least one son:

1. George Brantner2 was born ca. 1760, probably in Pennsylvania; he married, ca. 1780-90 (1) Barbara _____? (Maryland Land Records, Vol. M, ppl 421-423); married (2) Eleanor ____? ca. 1811-1818 (Maryland Land Records, Vol. FF, pp. 83-84). George Brantner2 died before 1821, when he is listed as deceased on Washington County, Maryland Land Records, Vol. FF, pp. 83-84). George and Barbara had at least two children and maybe even a third:

1.A. Mary Brantner3 (See her story above.)
1.B. Michael Brantner3
1.C. Andrew3, born 1811, may have been the son of George Brantner2 and his second wife, Eleanor, since Barbara Brantner died in 1810-11.

George Brantner2 owned land in Booneborough, Maryland and also owned stock in the Boonesborough Turnpike in the early 1800s.

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John Poffenbarger6 (Christian5, Adam4, John3, Valentine2, George1)

John Poffenbarger6 was born in 1823 in Washington County, Maryland; he married ca. 1847 Sarah E. ____? Born 1827 in Indiana. John reached adulthood in Polk Township of Jefferson County, Iowa. He was instrumental in the establishment of Cross Lanes Presbyterian Church. He was the settled member of a family with an extremely restless generation either side of him. John and Sarah had children:
1. Nancy Jane (Jennie) Poffenbarger7, born 1849, Jefferson county, Iowa; married (1) November 18, 1866 John F. Welch; married (2) unknown (3) Erb Sumpter (see the section on the Welch family ). Nancy (actually she was always called “Jennie”) lived in Iowa, in Kansas City, Missouri, and was married the third time near Webers Falls in Indian Territory, possibly spent some time in Arkansas and finally died and was buried as Jennie Sumpter in Marble City, Oklahoma, ca. 1913. For an account of her descendants, see the Welch section of this family history.
2. George W. Poffenbarger7, born 1852, Jefferson County, Iowa
3. Mary Etter Poffenbarger7, born 1855, Jefferson County, Iowa
4. Lydia C. Poffenbarger7, born 1858, Jefferson County, Iowa
John Poffenbarger6 and Sarah _____? Poffenbarger moved their family to Kansas City, Missouri in the early 1870s, after John F. Welch had deserted Jennie and her three children. In my collection of family photos, there is a snapshot of Mary Etter, Lydia C. and their husbands posing with George Washington Welch, their nephew; the photo dates from the 1940s. The ladies were very old. The picture was taken in Kansas City, Missouri while George Welch was there for a visit.
John Poffenbarger6 and Sarah ____? Poffenbarger probably died in Kansas City and are buried there. Much of the later history of the Poffenbargers and Welches was related to me by Annie Parnell Dougherty Welch during the 1970s.
INDEX OF RELATED FAMILIES

Early Families: Pre-1700 Arrivals to America from British Isles (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales) and Europe                        

— Index Page 

To explain how I was able to gain information on some of the major family lines in our family's ancestor charts: 

My parents lived to be quite old, as did all my grandparents. From them I was able to go back in their own personal memories to the end of the Civil War (War between the States). My grandparents had known their grandparents, whose memories in turn took us back to the early decades of the United States of America. My grandfather, Mitchell Mullins, knew his grandfather, William Dow Mullins, who had lived near his own grandfather, Terry Mullins , who had moved to Madison County, Kentucky when James Madison had just become President of the United States. And so it goes, in one line after another. The memories were kept alive of where the family had "come from." 

Seldom do the collected memories reach all the way back to the immigrant ancestor, except in the one case of an immigrant ancestor in the early 1800s. All the others were much, much earlier, and we have to resort to public records to trace beyond the collected family vital statistics.  I have gathered much more family history from John Caspar Branner's genealogy of the Garner-Keene lines, from county clerks in regions where our ancestors once lived and from other genealogists,.  

I am very grateful that my ancestors remembered and shared their memories with me. It is also a valuable gift in locating and tracing our family lines in the public land records, court records and church records in Colonial times in America.

Surname Index: 

GARNER: 1580-PRESENT  From the Anglo-Saxon settlement of England to the mass immigration to the New World and the settlement of the American West, the Garner family was there. Visit their pages to learn their genealogical record and to see photos of their ancestral home which dates from the 1700s in Kinsale, Virginia. 

MULLINS: 1652-PRESENT Follow the wandering Mullins family from Europe to Virginia, then North Carolina, their settling down in Kentucky, and then to Arkansas, Oklahoma and on to California.  CLICK HERE to read about the possible origin of the first immigrant to Virginia in this Mullins family branch.  Mullins Memorials and Obituaries , Mullins Photos , Mullins Deeds , Certificates, etc.

 PINKSTON: 1695-PRESENT
The earliest record of a Pinkston (Pinkstone) in America is a land warrant issued October 25, 1695, to Peter Pinkston for 200 acres named Pinkston's Delight in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. In 1699, Peter bought another parcel in the same county on a branch of the Pattuxent. (Anne Arundel County, Maryland Land Records on deposit at the Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland.) 

WELCH: 1667-PRESENT
In the 1650s, when Lord Baltimore was looking for settlers for his proprietorship, the colony which became Maryland, he advertised his religious tolerance as one of the incentives to immigrants from any other country or New World settlement. As a result, the Annapolis area of Anne Arundel County was soon populated with Virginia Non-Conformists (the Lloyds, Owens, Bennetts and others), with Quakers such as the Galloways (Calloways), with Huguenots (the Duval family) and with Welshmen (Snowden, Davis, Griffith and Welsh). However, many of the Welshmen were not religious dissenters: they conformed to the doctrine of the Church of England and established St. Anne's and All Hallows Parishes in their settlement. 

In the 1660s, John Welsh immigrated to this community, probably directly from Wales. By 1667, John Welsh (Welch) was serving the County as a Justice. He was called Major John Welsh. The earliest record of land owned by Major John is a survey dated June 1, 1669. 
DOUGHERTY & ALLEN related to WELCH: 1844-PRESENT   John Lewis Dougherty was born in 1844 in Glasgow, Scotland to Irish immigrants -- Peter and Bridget Doughrty -- fleeing the famine in Ireland. Landing in New York in 1848, John was old enough to fool the recruiters for the Union Army and was mustered into the Union Cavalry, 5th New York Regiment at Albany in 1862. After serving time as a POW in Andersonville, John married a Southern girl, Permelia Ann Allen and headed West, ending up in Oklahoma around 1908. Read more of their story in the later dates of the Welch section.

POFFENBARGER: 1700-PRESENT
First let me say that the spelling of this name varies a great deal, but those who wear the name are all at least as closely related as cousins. This family was one of the later arrivals in our line; George Poffenbarger, born ca. 1700, a Lutheran, probably a citizen of the Palatinate, sailed from Holland to Philadelphia in the pink, "Mary" in 1733. He brought with him his wife, Mary, and his son Valentine. They settled near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This family contributed heavily in wealth and in suffering during both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.   


BRANNER, BLACKBURN, DOHERTY & GOFORTH : 1565-PRESENT
The first public records that we have on these families as a group locate them in the Western reaches of Virginia in the period 1758-1783. The frontier Blackburns were apparently descendants of old Tidewater Virginia settlers from very early colonial times. The Branners were more recent immigrants. 
George Goforth, born ca. 1565, had a son, Miles Goforth, born ca. 1600 in Knedlington, England. William, a son of Miles Goforth, immigrated to America on the fly-boat, "Martha" in Autumn, 1677 from Hull, England to Delaware Bay, arriving October 28, 1677. Read more of the story of these folks and their relationships.

LEWIS - ROBESON - ESTEP: 1794-PRESENT
John Lewis, whose death is recorded in the family bible in my personal possession, as March 31, 1855. He is the first ancestor in this branch of the family that we can document. But Lewis is definitely a colonial name. John Lewis was a resident of Gilmer County, Georgia, where the 1850 census reveals that he was born in South Carolina in 1794. The Lewis family were inveterate pioneers, ending up in Newton County, Arkansas by 1856.

PHOTOS    (page in progress)
      -- Family Photos with descriptive captions
      -- Family Gravestone Photos with Burial Data
              -- Mullins Memorials

WILLS, DEEDS, CERTIFICATES AND OTHER DOCUMENTS   (page in progress)
An index pointing to images of the family papers, including hundreds of photographs as I can catalog them and post them to the site, but also documents which trace the history of these various individual families and their allied lines. 

FAMILY GENEALOGY REFERENCES : An extensive index of the sources on which I based my research.  

Acknowledgements:

(1)John Casper Branner, Casper Branner of Virginia and His Descendants. Privately printed, Stanford University, Calif. 1913. (2)J. D. Warfield, The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Md. Baltimore, 1973. (3)Ruth Ritchie, The Garner-Keene Families of Northern Neck Virginia. I hope I may be excused for leaning so heavily on these three books; I was forced to do much of my writing and research long distance, while I lived in Amman, Jordan. Therefore, I could not check all the original records myself. However, I have amassed a great number of copies of deeds, marriage records and other county and federal records which I keep as family archives.