Where were they in 1808?

Donna Pointkouski at What's Past is Prologue has issued a challenge to genea-bloggers in her post 1808: Where was your family 200 years ago? Thanks, Donna, this was an interesting exercise.

In my mother's lines, there are 59 documented ancestors that were alive in 1808 including 6 Third-Great Grandparents, 26 Fourth-Great Grandparents, 22 Fifth-Great Grandparents, and 5 Sixth-Great Grandparents.

Since I haven't done quite as much research on my dad's side, there are only 23 ancestors known to be living in 1808, including 1 Second-Great Grandparent, 12 Third-Great Grandparents, and 10 Fourth-Great Grandparents.

And no, I'm not going to list them all here ;-)

With the exception of the Phend, Fisher and Wiseman families, all of my other ancestral lines had arrived in the United States by 1808. Most of them were farmers. In 1808 they lived in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Still on the other side of the pond in 1808 were: Susanna Kübla, single and 23 years old. She may still have been living at home with her parents Jacob and Verena Laederich Kübla near Gsteig in Bern, Switzerland. Susanna would later marry Johannes B'hend, who with his first wife, Barbara Wys, were probably living in the Interlaken district of Bern. My Wiseman family also came from Bern but Charles wouldn't be born until 1815 and we don't know who his parents were. Michael Fisher and Christena Houck would have been young children. They reportedly came from Germany but since Germany didn't exist yet, it's anybody's guess. We don't know their parents either.

The longest-lived father-son ancestors were probably William Washington Alexander who was born in Feb 1777 in Cecil County, Maryland. He died at age 94 on 16 Feb 1871 in Marysville, Union County, Ohio. His son, William Alexander was born on 20 Nov 1805 in Erie County, Pennsylvania. He died on 07 Apr 1899 at age 93, in Washington Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana.

Born in the year 1808, on January 8th, Elizabeth Ann Schuder was the daughter of Christian Schuder Sr. and Anna Eva Christina Stoever. They lived in Berks County, Pennsylvania at that time. Christian and Anna both lived to be 80 years old. Elizabeth would later marry William Lavering who was born on 28 Aug 1797 "somewhere" in Pennsylvania. In the "History and Genealogy of the Levering Family" by Col. John Levering, published in 1897, the Colonel described our William as "a dropped stitch in the family fabric in the sixth generation" because he could not place him within the context of the known descendants of either of two brothers, Wigard and Gerhard Levering.

A rather long-lived couple was Anna Eva Christina's parents, Johann Casper Stoever III and Anna Maria Barbara Nagel. He was born on 10 Mar 1735/36 in Earltown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and died in Jul 1821 in Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio at age 85. She was born on 13 Feb 1740/41 in Blackenlock, Baden-Durlach, "Germany" and died on 21 Sep 1821 in Montgomery County, Ohio at age 80. Johann and Anna are also "double-ancestors" being Third-Great Grandparents as well as Fourth-Great Grandparents.

Eleven year old first cousins, Samuel Bray and Susannah Ball, both born in Kentucky in 1797, would marry 13 years later, in 1821. Samuel's parents were John and Nancy Bray and were probably living in Nelson County while Susannah's parents, James and Margaret "Peggy" Bray Ball were most likely living in Owen County.

A Dutch and New York connection comes into play with the Van Curen family. Henry Van Curen was born on 09 Feb 1783 in New Hurley, Ulster County, New York and was the son of Jacob Van Keuren and Elisabet Terwilliger. Henry's wife Rebecca (surname possibly Ostrander) was born about 1793 somewhere in New York. The names of her parents are not known. Just as a side note, and because I think it's kind of neat, in 1646, 162 years earlier, Jacob Van Keuren's 2nd Great Grandfather (and my 8th Great Grandfather), Mathij Jansen Van Keulen was granted a patent by the Dutch Government for 100 acres of land located on the north eastern tip of Manhattan Island that was known as Van Keulen's Bouwerie.

A Lutheran minister, William Foster (born Wilhelm Georg Forster) was 59 years old in 1808. A year earlier he had moved with his wife, Magdalena Daniel, and their 12 children, from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the wilderness of what would become Perry county, Ohio. From 1805-1807 William had served as a "traveling preacher" in Ohio. Prior to that he had served several congregations in Virginia for 15 years. He organized at least three Lutheran congregations in what is now Perry County, Ohio. In addition to being a Lutheran minister, William became a large landowner. When he died in 1815 his bequest to each of his 12 children was 160 acres. That's pretty incredible. But what I think is even more amazing is that all except one of his 12 children were still living when he died!