Annette Burgert documents that among the descendants of Melchior Bär of Ottenbach, Knonau, Canton Zurich, Switzerland were men named Melchior, Johannes and Christophel Bär who, by 1719, lived in Nunschweiler, Germany and that men of those three names appear on the passenger list of the ship Phoenix arrived 1743 and then also were named repeatedly in the records of Whitehall Township, Northampton (now Lehigh) County in the later 1700’s. There seems little doubt it was all this one large family.

Moreover, Burgert cites the records of the Orphan’s Court of Northampton County regarding Johannes Baer who died there in 1755 leaving a widow Regina and children named: Johannes, Barbara, Jacob and John Adam. Now she doesn’t say directly, but she clearly implies, that this Johannes was one and the same as Johannes, son of Melchior, who married Elisabetha Haberlig in Nunchsweiler and had 12 children from 1719 to 1741 and came to America in 1743.

Among his 12 children were sons named Melchior, Christophel and Johannes. Now the younger Johannes may be part of the confusion as he was born in Germany in 1741 and was about the same age as Johannes, the son named in those Orphan Court records. But nothing else about Johannes, the father documented in European records, matches known facts about Johannes, the father documented in Northampton County. I believe they were two different men. I do not know if they had any blood relationship.

• Comparing the other three children named in the Orphan’s Court records to the remainder of Johannes’ eleven European children -- there was no Barbara nor John Adam in Europe and while there was a Jacob, the age does not match.

• Burgert did not even attempt to explain this discrepancy, nor did she acknowledge that those Orphan’s Curt records said Johannes was of Weisenberg Township, while all the other members of the family apparentlysettled in Whitehall.

• And finally, she did not address that to make it all work, Johannes’ first wife must have died, then he married Regina -- with whom he must have had those other children (whose names did not match) and that none of those older children bothered to get involved in the settlement or handling of Johannes’ estate.

Whitehall and Weisenberg are not that far apart, but far enough, in my opinion, that I just won’t take for granted that there was a connection between Johannes of Weisenberg and Melchior and Christopher of Whitehall. And I absolutely am convinced that the known facts associated with Johannes of Weisenberg totally rule out that he was the Johannes who married Elisabetha Haberlig in Germany and had 12 children by her.

Not only can it not be proven, in my opinion, that Johannes was related to the Melchiors and Christophel, but those who believe he was are totally inconsistent in who was who. Here are some of the players, though I’m sure without too much trouble I could find contradictory information about even these men.

There was apparently a Melchior born in Ottenbach, Zurich, Switzerland on 23 May 1643 who died there on 5 Apr 1706. He married Anna Gross (1648-1708).

Melchior had a son Melchior born 28 May 1689 in Ottenbach and who died on 2 Oct 1771 in Lehigh Co, PA. This presumably was the Melchior that historians suggest was “the ancestor of the numerous Baer family in Lehigh County”. This Melchior married Elizabeth Abecky (abt 1697-3 Feb 1795).

What gets confusing then is that in certain versions of things, the Johannes to whom is attributed facts I know are true about my Johannes, was in one version a brother of Melchior the immigrant, while in other versions his son.

IMMIGRANT. On the ship Phoenix, arrived Philadelphia 30 Sep 1743, we find Johannes Baer, Melchior Bär, Melcher Bär and Christophel Bär. Yes, the name of Johannes was spelled differently than the others. Should it have been spelled differently? Was that significant? Was he related to them or was it total coincidence he happened to be on the same ship? Was this Johannes one and the same as the man of that name who died in Weisenberg in 1755? I have no answers.

I believe there is confusion between several men named Johannes Baer and possibly even one named John Adam Baer among various researchers attempting to document this family. In one place, it says he was born in 1694 and in another that he was 48 years old when he died in the mid-1750’s. Nothing that is known about the life of Johannes documented in German records matches what is known about the Johannes of interest to me.

I can sketch a fairly complete and totally consistent picture of my ancestor Johannes Baer. I know he died in 1755, I know he was living at the time in Weisenberg Township, I know his wife when he died was named Regina and I know that he had minor children when he died named John, Barbara, Jacob and John Adam.

And I know about when he was born. The Lehigh County history sketch of this family -- the one that only adds to the confusion about who was related to who among the various Baers of (now) Lehigh County -- says that he was buried at the Weisenberg Cemetery and that in 1912 enough of his tombstone was legible that his age, 48, could be read.

After John Baer died, there were any number of Orphan’s Court petitions by John Bear/Bare, eldest son, and Barbara Bear/Bare -- minors, but both over the age of 14 -- and on behalf also of their infant siblings Jacob and Adam. The earliest petitions merely requested guardians be appointed but then later petitions contested the handling of their father’s estate by their mother Regina and her second husband Peter Grow.

One of these later petitions said they had taken title to his land and rightfully it should go to his heirs and another petition said there were several unreasonable and unjust charges apparent in their estate accounting. In all cases, the court ruled in favor of the children.

These petitions also tell us other things about the family. In 1761, the children said their father died 6 years past. In 1762, they said he died about 1755. And by 1765, Barbara, the minor in the first petition was said to be the wife of Henry Fetter.

From the estate documents, I know for a fact that Regina was the name of Johannes’ wife when he died and it seems proven that she was Jacob’s mother as he named his daughter after her and she was a sponsor at her baptism.

Now, clearly, Regina could have been a second wife. But any suggestion that she was would be based on Burgert and various Internet trees documenting that Johannes had married (in 1719) and had many children back in Germany before emigrating. But what happened to all those children? Why weren’t they mentioned in the Orphan’s Court proceedings? And how could Johannes have been only 48 when he died in 1755?

My answer to those questions is that Johannes who died in 1755 at age 48 was not Johannes that Burgert says married Elisabetha Haberlig in 1719 and had children from 1719 to 1741 in Germany.

Jacob Baer, son of Johannes and Regina, was our ancestor. He married Elizabeth Peter. Elizabeth’s father made it clear in his will that he had six daughters, but he only named the one who was deceased. For the five others, he named their husbands, his sons-in-law. They were: Jacob, John and John Adam Baer as well as Adam German and Peter Schopp.

The names John and John Adam Baer are interesting in that they were the names of Jacob’s brothers. In the records of Lowhill Church, the names of Jacob, John and John Adam Baer, and their wives, appear many times. Often, when any one of these couples baptized a child, one of the other couples stood as sponsor. Even though Elizabeth’s father did not name his daughters, I am convinced that three Baer brothers married three Peter sisters -- and I have deduced the names of the sisters from the church records documenting these many baptisms.

So, there is a little bit of circular reasoning going on here -- but that is the way I work. I try to put a theory in place to fit the known facts -- and then look for more facts to either substantiate my reasoning or prove it wrong.