The good thing about on-line genealogy databases is the search feature. Enter a name and hit search and any instance of that name appearing in any of the many records that have been computerized pops up.

So many years ago, when I became aware that Henry Yerger was my ancestor, I did such a search and I got many “hits”, of course, but the one I found especially intriguing was this:

• A John Tobias of Bern Township, Berks County died in 1809 with letters of administration for his estate issued to his wife Magdalena, his son Daniel and his son-in-law Henry Yerger. The only Henry Yerger living in Berks County then was my ancestor of that name, who I know was in fact already married by then. Moreover, since Henry’s own father died in 1811, the ages fit for him to have have had a father-in-law who died in 1809.

Henry’s wife’s name was Maria. Unfortunately, that Estate Administration did not give the name of John Tobias’ daughter, just that his son-in-law was Henry Yerger. And also unfortunately there were other Henry Yergers (and also a Henry Yeager) in that general area of Pennsylvania in that period of time.

Then I found a baptism record at Hain’s Reformed Church in Berks County of Anna Maria Tobias, daughter of John born 15 Nov 1782. Unfortunately, Maria Yerger’s tombstone gives her birth date as 28 Aug 1785 -- and the two dates have no correspondence to each other so it is not a matter of a typo somewhere or even someone not remembering their birth year.

So, back then, I decided I didn’t really have enough real evidence to conclude anything.

That all changed in 2019 when I submitted my DNA to Ancestry.com and among the things I learned is that I share DNA with two persons who seem to descend from John Tobias, in one case from his son Daniel and in the other case from his son Joseph. I did not see any other obvious ancestors I may have in common with either person.

That led me to do a little more work on John Tobias and when I found that a petition was filed after his death naming all his heirs including Maria wife of Henry Yerger, I felt the case was conclusive.

That birth record of Maria, daughter of John Tobias, is not a problem, in my opinion. Maybe that was a different John Tobias, there were several. Or maybe that Maria died as an infant and her parents used the same name for the next daughter and that next daughter’s baptism went unrecorded.

Ancestry DNA Thrulines posits that John and Maria Magdalena (Ketner) Tobias were my ancestors because they were the parents of Maria Tobias who married Henry Yerger who heretofore I knew only as Maria.

There is a lot of evidence of this possible relationship, Henry and Maria started out in Berks County where John Tobias lived. When John died, a petition to the OC named his heirs including Maria married to Henry Yerger. There are no discordant notes.

But Ancestry is basing their suggestion on DNA.

“P.T.”
There is a person who has identified themself to Ancestry only as PT. PT and I share a certain segment of DNA sufficient for the DNA science to say we are about 4th-6th cousins.

PT has a rather complete tree on Ancestry — and there are several surnames that can be found in PT’s tree and my own — but I have looked at all those “like-named” people in PT’s tree and see no obvious linkage.

So let’s consider PT’s Tobias ancestry. PT’s father was Harold Alvin Tobias (1914-1989) who lived and died in Lycoming County, PA. He said on his SSA that his parents were Harry A Tobias and Elsie J Colley.

Harry A Tobias (1890-1963), according to his PA DC, was born in Sunbury and died in Lycoming County and was the son of Elmer Tobias and Lena Kreisher.

Elmer Tobias (1875-1918), according to his PA DC, died in Blair County, PA and was the son of Samuel Tobias and Elizabeth Particher.

Samuel T Tobias (1844-1893) is buried in Shamokin and was reported as a 7-year-old boy in the household of John and Nancy Tobias in Schuylkill County.

There is another Samuel Tobias, also age 6, reported in the 1850 household of Daniel and Catherine Tobias in Schuylkill County. This was Samuel A whose PA DC confirms that parentage.

John Tobias (1821-1893) — called John Thomas Tobias — is said in PT’s tree to be the son of Daniel Ketner Tobias (1792-1897). Daniel’s family (in her tree) is a little strange — there is this son born in 1821 and then three more children born 1843, 1844 and 1846. The latter was apparently named Thomas J Tobias and when Daniel died, the Administrator of his estate was Thomas J Tobias (or was it really John Thomas?). (Find-a-grave links more children to Daniel with birth years 1821, 24, 35, 40, 43, 45, 47 — still an interesting unexplained gap).

So I probably should do some more work on this Samuel A, Samuel T, Thomas J and John T confusion — but in any event both paths take us back to Daniel Tobias (1792-1877) (called Daniel Ketner Tobias but I see no real evidence of that middle name) and he is the son — seemingly the oldest son — of John Tobias as when John died, the Administrator of his estate were the widow Magdalena, son Daniel and son-in-law Henry Yerger.

After I came to the conclusion that Heinrich had first married Catharina Gilbert, it all made sense.

From their tombstones, Maria seems to have been about 10 years younger than Henry. That often is a sign of a second marriage. From her age and the birth of our Henry in 1804, I have guessed that Henry probably married Maria no earlier than 1803 -- thus he was age 28 at the time. That is quite late for men in those days and was clearly another indication it was a second marriage for him.

In any event Henry Jr. was clearly born after Catharina died -- so he was surely Maria’s son.

There is a death record for Henry Yerger, with dates matching his tombstone, saying he was born in Berks County and his father was Michael and his mother Margaret. He was a shoemaker, he died of dropsy. He died in Center Township and was buried in Centerville Burial Ground. The information was provided by Henry Yerger of Middlecreek.

Being able to connect Henry Yerger of Union (Snyder) County to Michael Yerger of Colebrookedale, Berks County who worshipped at New Hanover Lutheran Church in Montgomery County led to the identification of Michael’s ancestry.

On 24 Dec 1813, David Overmeyer of Center Township, Union County deeded to Henry Yerger, cordwainer of Berks County, for £870, 126 acres. Cordwainer was an early term meaning shoemaker.

1800. Henry Yerger lives in Douglass Township, Montgomery County age 16-25. The age is right. Douglass Township abuts Colebrookedale and I believe New Hanover Lutheran (where Michael of Colebrookdale worshipped) is in Douglass -- so it is very nearby his father. A neighbor is David Yerger 26-45, but I don’t know who he is.

1810. Henry Yerger lives in Colebrookdale where his father Michael and brother Jacob also live. He has a son 10-15 which is probably the son who was 0-9 in 1800, thus a son younger than Henry, born before 1800.

1820 and 1830. He is in Centre Township where we also find a man named Henry Yerger Jr.

1840 is a mystery. I can not find him.

1850. He lives with son John in Centre Twp. He is 74.

Henry Yerger -- a different one -- died 5 Nov 1888 and his death is listed in the records of New Hanover Lutheran and he was age 86y 6m 13d -- implying a birth date of 23 Apr 1802. So that is the problem, too many men named Henry Yerger. I have found the baptism of this Henry though and he was the son of George and Susanna. He may have been the same Henry who married Emma, as that couple baptized a number of kids at New Hanover over the years.

Another Henry Yerger was married to Mary Ann Ziegler. I do not think he was part of our family either.

Wagensellar’s Snyder County cemetery transcriptions list these Yergers at the Lutheran and Reformed Church, Centreville:

–Henry died 18 Dec 1852 age 77y 3m 26d — implies 23 Aug 1775
–Maria, wife of Henry, died 16 Jan 1845 age 59y 4m 18d — implies 29 Aug 1785
–Charles born July 1806 d.22 May 1884
–Mary, wife of Charles
–Hetty, wife of Israel
–Several children of Charles and Mary and one child of Israel and Hetty

I believe we can be fairly certain that Henry’s sons included Henry, Charles and Israel. An Ancestry.com family tree also lists Jacob and Ephraim among his sons. Ephraim is buried at Globe Mills (Middlecreek) 1812-1885.

On 31 Dec 1852, letters of administration were issued to Henry and Israel Yerger for estate of Henry Yerger of Centre Twp with sureties Fred P Baus and Michael Kleckner. I believe this is evidence that connects Henry who died in 1852 to Henry born 1804.

Henry Yerger, born 1775, is the pivotal person in this family. I can easily establish that Ella Yerger was the mother of Radie Diehl and that Ella was the daughter of Henry B Yerger and he the son of Henry Yerger born 1804.

But the death certificate I found provided all the evidence I needed by connecting the younger Henry to the older Henry and he to Michael and Margaretha of Berks County. Michael who worshipped at New Hanover Lutheran married Anna Margaretha Ehrhart there and they were the parents of son Henry whose baptism record gave his birth date matching his tombstone and death certificate. Everything fits neatly together.

In those church records, the name was spelled variously: Yerger, Yoerger, Yorgey, Jorger, Joerger, Jorgey and even, in one important case Ioerger. But I learned a lot from those records.

Henry’s birth and death dates and place of burial all are taken from a listing of tombstones for Snyder County. That his wife was Maria is taken from her tombstone next to his and that she and Henry were the parents of Henry Yerger (born 1804) is based on Census listings which list the younger one as Henry Jr. as well as a few other sources.

Henry Yerger served with the PA Militia in the War of 1812 as a private.

In a published County History of Snyder County which I found at the County Historical Society, I copied a section about the Yerger family. I also copied a section about the Kramer family which, while not totally inaccurate, was incomplete in several respects. What they wrote about the Yergers though makes no sense to me. It said:

”In or about 1770, as nearly as can be determined with insufficient records, the first Yerger’s (then named Yarger) settled in the Kreamer and Middlecreek Township area. They were Efram Yarger and his wife Betsy.....they had four sons named Daniel, Harvey, Emanuel and Wilson. They were the forefathers of all the descendants of Efram, who now reside in the Snyder, Union, Northumberland and surrounding counties.”

So what it says is that his sons were the forebears of all of his descendants — and so assuming that he had just four sons (and no daughters), that statement is of course true. And absurd. I think what the author was trying to say is that Efram was the forebear of all of the Yergers in the area. And that is equally absurd because clearly he was not the forbear of our Yergers.

• But I do find it curious that our Henry, born 1775, named a son Ephraim. Did the article simply get everything totally scrambled? Or, was there another Yerger/Yarger line they were talking about -- one having nothing to do with ours? Not my problem.

Henry’s death certificate said he was to be buried in the Centreville Burial Ground. Unfortunatlety there is no cemetery with that exact name. Centreville is the old name of Penns Creek and the best candidate Penns Creek cemetery that might have been what was being referred to is today called Union Cemetery Company of Penns Creek. Find-a-grave calls it Penns Creek Union Cemetery and Henry and Maria’s memorials are in that cemetery. They note that the cemetery has also been called Emanuel Union Cemetery, Emmanuel Cemetery and Union Cemetery of Penns Creek.

I have walked that cemetery, though, and couldn’t find any tombstones for them.

Their Family Search profiles say Henry and Maria are buried in the Centreville Burial Ground, Penns Creek.