Weiser 1996 edition

Weiser Families in America, in 2 Volumes
Weiser Families in America compiled by Pastor Fred Weiser
New Oxford PA: Penobscot Press, 1997.

Our cousin, Fred Weiser is the translator of over one hundred Pennsylvania German church records, and secretary of the Weiser Family Association.

See also: Chapter Headings.

1. When nearly all four drawers of a legal-sized filing cabinet were filled with the orginal documents generated by the 1960 Weiser Family Association and the many supplementary sheets returned by descendants, correspondence seeking to clarify points of lineage, and large blocks of data of branches of the family scarcely mentioned in the earlier issue, all piling higher and higher, the editor began -- against all reason -- to think of a second edition of The Weiser Family. The Board of Directors of the Weiser Family Association encouraged the idea and established a five-year payment plan to permit early purchasers to acquire the book and the society opportunity to build a fund towards publication costs. A series of steps were taken to prepare the book before you.

a. Members of the board met several times to sort the unfiled, thirty-some year accumulation of information. All of it was refiled to reflect the material as now constituted.

b. Primarily at the hands of Paulette J. Weiser, the descendants of John Conrad Weiser (1696-1760) were entered into a word processor. Winthrop de V. Schwab and John Christopher Schwab organized and entered the Muhlenberg family. Alfred Achtert worked on CP33 John Weiser (1779-1824). Barbara Karr and Lois Weise did the family of CRF1 Hannah Weiser Fisher (1780-1858). Helen Kahle Kolbe did CD15 Jacob Weiser (1784-1846). Grace Maier Walker did all of the CF5 Peter Weiser (1762-1829) family as well as most of the descendants of RF Christopher Frederick Weiser (1699-1768). Kelly Kersjes entered all of the CS Samuel Weiser (173501794) family and some of the RF branch.

2. Correspondence over a number of years with Dr. Edward Weiser of Raleigh NC made us aware of his work in tracing the many Weiser/Wiser.Wysor families not descended from John Conrad Weiser the elder who died two hundred and fifty years ago in 1746. Ed Wiser has prepared his material in the format we have used and entered it all into a work processor, greatly adding to the perspective of this book. He also, in the course of his research, read every single United States Census return from 1790 to 1920 (the last opened for research; the 1890 return was accidentally destroyed) for persons with any surname like Weiser. This data has enabled us to find many of the family members considered lost in the 1960 edition. We are now reasonably certain that most make lines that continued somewhere in the vast United States have been located and that the rest died in youth, without issue or after siring a small family before 1850 when the census began to list every person in every household by given name and age.

3. Early in the 1960s we became aware of the studies in Weiser history made by Rudolph Weisser (1878-1970) of Stuttgart through contact with Katharine Weisser Martin (1903-1993), his niece, of Buffalo NY. Subsequently, Rudolf Weisser and his wife Helene of Stuttgart-Rohr opened his files to us and presented us a copy of his limited edition Die Geschlechter der Wasser aus Klein Aspach 1475-1959. Extremely pleasant contacts have remained with this family, described below in chapter 12, prepared by Katharine Martin's son, Francis. Independently, Gudrun Weisser, a descendant of John Conrad Weisser (1642-1720), the namesake uncle of the first American immigrant, the man who was town clerk of Backnag near Gross Aspach, contacted us and visited in the United States later in the 1960s. Through her we also learned to know her brother Dr. Wolfgang Weisser, also of Stuttgart, and of his extensive studies of our family. The initial results of his work were published in 1985 in Weiser Family Documents. Dr. Weisser has prepared the initial material in this volume and is continuing to examine the early history of the Weissers in the area. Marianne Mueller Beterke, resident of Aspach and a teacher there, has continued to enrich our knowledge of the community and its development as well as providing answers to all sorts of requests and hospitality in our ancestral home.

4. As portions of the genealogy, based on what had appeared in 1960 and what had been submitted since, were entered into the word processor, print-outs were mailed to known descendants, most of those who could be found were members of the Weiser Family Association, with a request to verify and add to them. Some of these were returned quite completely and carefully; some were returned with many matters unresolved; and some were never returned at all. Any corrections or additions supplied were entered in to the text. A complete copy of the manuscript was available for final verification at the celebration of the tricentennial of Conrad Weiser's birth in June 1996. Since most material was submitted in handwritten form, we cannot promise that every word is read correctly. And we deeply regret that many people have not bothered to return their data, even as we are sorry that we had no contact anymore with thousands of descendants.

5. As the work progressed, trends in contemporary American family life became evident and required special consideration. The high number of divorces and remarriages has made many entries much longer than in 1960. The problem of children technically born out of wedlock but to parents living together and raising the child with the father's surname remains a difficult one to describe genealogically. It became necessary to formulate a policy about children adopted by Weiser descendants upon marriage to a divorced person with children, as indeed about adopted individuals generally. A genealogy (as the root of the word suggests) is about biological family. Most of us, however, think of "family" in cultural or sociological terms. To some people adoption is a secret not discussed. The policy we have assumed is: adopted children without lineal descent may be listed without a number and with a clear statement that they were adopted by a descendant. This will prove useful to future generations utilizing this book. We have not generally attempted to list children born to a Weiser descendant but adopted out of the family at birth or soon thereafter, records of which often are or have been closed in much of the United States. From a practical Point of view, these variations in family life have required great alertness in editing and considerable tact, but consistency, in gathering material. It is highly likely that some names have been incorrectly described with regard to the facts involved simply because the facts were not fully reported to us. Another consequence of this policy to list adopted children without number is that many persons who died in youth or without issue who were listed in 1960 without a number now have been assigned one to avoid confusion. In the process the numbering scheme in the 1960 edition has been altered. Many descendants will find they have a new number in this book.

6. As a result of expanded horizons of the work, the title has been changed from The Weiser Family of 1960 to Weiser Families in America. This is not inconsistent with the purpose announced for compiling the first edition – to clarify who is and is not in the Weiser family from Aspach. The additional material presented here, largely through Dr. Edward Weiser's labors, only makes the clarification more obvious than in 1960. The Weiser Family Association has, in fact, long since abandoned restricting membership to descendants of Conrad Weiser the elder (died 1746) and has in its ranks persons who descend from the other American Weiser families or no Weiser at all. The material in the concluding chapters represents the status of research in 1996. It is our hope to continue studying these families and even learn something about how they might be related to one another.

7. Since 1960 we have become even more aware than were of the fact that many descendants preserved by word of mouth the fact that they were part of a significant colonial German-American family. Many people knew the names of their ancestors directly back to Conrad, the interpreter, before any genealogy was issues. More than one document from Conrad himself was preserved among his heirs, perhaps because they were divided up among descendants. The Weiser Association has become the recipient of many documents pertaining to the family's history by donation, purchase, and the gift of the undersigned. This collection, along with the data supporting the genealogy will eventually be placed in a public agency for safekeeping.

8. It would take someone of questionable sanity to undertake another comprehensive revision of the Weiser family's genealogy. The sheer quantity alone would render publication difficult and costly. Had all the persons named in the 1960 edition been followed to the present the book would be double or more in its current size. Nevertheless, the Weiser Family Association invites and welcomes corrections and additions to this genealogy whether large blocks of material or individual records of birth, marriage, and death. Anything submitted will be carefully filed and preserved for use by subsequent generations of this family. And in many cases the extremely terse biographical data given about persona below does not reflect the quantity of material in our files.

9. The following information was requested about each descendant and his or her spouse:

Date and place of birth
Date and place of marriages & divorces
Date and place of death
Place of burial (municipality name, not cemetery, street address, or hospital is intended by "place." We are aware that these places may not reflect where a person lived; see residence below.)
Education which culminated in a bachelor's, master's or doctor's degree or registration as a nurse
Military service: rank, unit, branch of service, dates and/or military engagement Occupation as simply stated as possible, generally without the name of a firm
Residence, for living persons' residence at the time the genealogy was prepared

The association decided to include pictures of all descendants of Conrad Weiser to the fourth generation, that is his great-great grandchildren. Some success has been achieved in finding these, not a few of which had been given to the association over the years. It was also possible for persons to place their own, or their families' pictures in the book for a fee.

10. (Pastor Weiser lists numerous individuals in expressing his thanks for their assistance.)

All of this has been a labor of love with no one receiving any compensation and most of them hardly anything for their expenses. On your behalf, I thank them here with a lovely German saying: Vergelt's Gott! May God repay.

Pastor Frederick S. Weiser

Parreof Near New Oxford, Pennsylvania

Abbreviations

B = born
Bp = birth place
D = died
M = married
Bur = buried
Div = divorced
Ch = child
Chn = children
d .y. = died young unm = unmarried
? or [ ] = indicate questions about accuracy J
CWFA or WFA = John Conrad Weiser Family Association
BCHS = Berks County Historical Society, Reading, PA
PA = published volumes of the Pennsylvania Archives
All states are abbreviated using US Postal Service abbreviations.
All nations are abbreviated by standard international country abbreviations CH = Switzerland D = Germany PI = Philippines ROC = Republic of China
Academic institutions: U = university Col = college S = State
N, E, S, W or combinations for directions in institutional titles. before a name indicates this person has entered life membership in the Association.

How to Use this Book:

Using the index, find yourself.
Take the number assigned to you, delete the final digit and you will have your parent with Weiser Descent.
Repeat the process as often as needed to trace your own lineage.
Please refer to the table of contents for the abbreviations used for various branches of the family.
Please not that after nine children letters of the alphabet indicate birth sequence, i. E. 10 is A, 11 is B, 12 is C, 13 is E, 14 is F, 15 is G, 16 is H, etc.