Monday, February 05, 2007

Irion-Yarian Descendants on Find A Grave

A distant cousin, Carl Bennett, has notified me that he has created four virtual cemeteries on Find A Grave for descendants of our ancestor Matthias Irion. The virtual cemeteries can be accessed from Carl's Bio and Links page. These include a memorial for every known child, grandchild, and great grandchild of Matthias. The Irion surname has been found in records as Jerion, Jargon, Jurian, Jergan, Jergon, Jurgon, Gorgon, Gorger, Yerian, Yerrian, Yerion, Yurrion, Yearyean, Yarian, Yarrian, Yerien, Yarien, Yurian, and numerous other variations. The majority of present-day descendants can be found as Yarian, Yearian, Yarien and Yerion.

Matthias Irion is my 6th great grandfather, and Carl's 5th great grandfather. Our most common ancestor is Matthias' son George Yerion. Carl is descended from George and his first wife Anna Barbara Fosselman while I am descended from George and his second wife Margaretha Williams.

In the mid-1970's Carl developed an interest in genealogy, specifically in the Yearian/Yarian family. His research has evolved into a database of over 30,000 people related to Matthias Irion. Carl assisted Jim Weaver with his book "The Yerian-Yarian Family" (which was published in August 1989) and also with the "Fosselmann/Fusselman and Allied Families" compiled by Alice Ann Askew.

On October 11th, 1732 Matthias Irion arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Pleasant with forty two Palatines and their families. In "Pennsylvania German Pioneers" (Strassberger and Hinke) he is listed as Marthiy Jargon, Matthias Jurian, and Mathias Jergon. In the volume that has the facsimiles of the signatures, Mathias signs with his initials "M I" which has also sometimes been interpreted at "M J".

Matthias was indentured after his arrival to farmer David Kaufman of Oley, Pennsylvania for a term of 3 years and 9 months. By 1744 Matthias had his own farm in Linn Township, then in Philadelphia county (after 1752 it became Northampton county, and in 1812, Lehigh county). In his will which was signed November 6, 1761 Matthias named five children: George, Conrad, Elizabeth, Susannah, and Jacob. Jim Weaver's book identified the first four generations of known descendants of Matthias Irion and provided some clues as to Matthias' origins. Additional research by others found that he was born in Talheim, District of Tuttlingen, on the Danube in Germany and lived in Graben, District of Karlsruhe, on the Rhine prior to his emigration in 1732. A marvelous piece of detective work on their part, for which I am grateful!

5 comments:

Cheryle Hoover Davis said...

I just found this, and have to tell you I have a Yerian in my family tree. Rebecca Yerian, wife of Daniel Halterman (my 3rd great-granduncle).

Rebecca was born 17 Sep 1822 in Muskingum, Ohio. Her father's name was Jacob Yerian b: 23 Jan 1798 in Donegal, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. His wife's name was Jane Vernon.

I haven't researched this family much, but I remembered the name, Yerian. My line is through the Halterman family that Rebecca married into.

Have you heard of Rebecca or her father Jacob?

Becky Wiseman said...

Well, hello cousin!

This information below is from "The Yerian - Yaryan Family" published in 1989 by James Weaver. The numbers after the names are his numbering system.

Jacob Yerian (04.006) was the son of John Frederick Yerian (03.002) and his second wife Elizabeth Dorn (who appears to have been a younger sister of his first wife, Anna Maria Dorn). John Frederick had five children by Anna Maria and Jacob was the oldest of his 11 children with Elizabeth.

John Frederick was the son of John George Yerian (02.001) and his first wife, Anna Barbara Fosselman. They had five children. By his second wife, Margaret Williams, he had seven children, one of which is my 4th great grandfather, Conrad Yarian. (This means that you and I are half-cousins).

John George Yerian was the oldest of the five known children of Mathias Jurian (01.001), our immigrant ancestor who arrived in Philadelphia onboard the ship "Pleasant" on or about October 11, 1732.

If you can't locate the Weaver book, let me know and I can send you the pages that refer to your family.

Cheryle Hoover Davis said...

Amazing! I will look for the book you mention, and let you know if I can find it or not. I appreciate the information and the offer! Always good to meet more cousins! :-)

Cheryle Hoover Davis said...

I am the 1st cousin, four times removed of the children of Daniel H. Halterman and Rebecca Yerian. There is no direct relationship between me and the Yerians, until this generation, since I am directly related to the Haltermans.

But, you and I are related by marriage, and share a relationship with Daniel and Rebecca's children, since John George Yerian is their 2nd great-grandfather!

Conrad Yerian would be their half-great granduncle!

What a small world blogs, Facebook and the internet make! Love it!

Mike Bowen said...

Fabulous work Becky putting all of this together... than you for sharing. We've just started corresponding via e-mail... I'm looking for to the exchange of family history.
My family tree websites are:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mbowen/mlb.htm
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SHOW&db=mlbowenpe
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46911866&MSid=46911866&
It was my great-grandmother Emma Yarian Flohr that got me interested in family history back when I was about 10... over 40 years ago. She was born in 1875 and loved to tell stories about the old days. She lived through a fascinating period... from horse & buggy to landing on the moon... she went home to be with the Lord in 1972.