Mertz Genealogy - Person Sheet
Mertz Genealogy - Person Sheet
NameJohn Hamscher 
My Comments notes for John Hamscher
I have an ancestor named John Hamscher who lived for awhile in Lancaster County, married Anna Maria Charlotta Heckert there, relocated to York County and died there in 1785. Many people say he was the John Hamscher who arrived in 1772 on the ship Morning Star. He was most certainly not the same man. Whether he was related in any way I don’t know -- he may have been but I’ve not bothered to try to figure that out.
The easiest way to know for a fact that John of Lancaster/York was not the John who arrived in 1772 is that it is totally obvious that John of Lancaser/York was here in America well before 1772. Even the people that say he was the same man, have all this contradcitory inforamtion in their family trees that you would think they would notice. They say he married Charlotta in about the early 1750’s and had children with her, born in America, a few years after.
The harder way to know they are not the same man is to do the work necessary to track the John Hamscher who did arrve in 1772 and find out what happened to him. The best effort at doing this I have seen is a paper written by Gifford Hampshire rebutting the work of David C Homsher who had confused the two men.
Gifford made these points.
• John who arrived in 1772 came with a son named Jscob and a sister, presumably, named Mary Elizabeth.
• He was bound as a servant for five years to Sarah Davis of Stow creek Precinct, Cumberland County, New Jersey. Mary Elizabeth too was bound out. in her case to John Duffield.
• By 1778, though, John would have been free from his indentured servitude and as a free man eligible to buy property which he apparently did as he was taxed in that same place in 1778 and shows up alos on later tax lusts there as late as 1803.
• Jacob the son married in 1795 Catherine Ulrich in Philadelphia and baptized five children in Philadelphia in te years 1802-1815.
• A Jacob Hampshire died in Philadelphia 25 Mar 1842 age 70.
So while my ancestor John did also have a son Jacob, born much earlier than this other Jacob, the life of (my) Jacob cn be tracked to Louisiana where he lived out his life.
The easiest way to know for a fact that John of Lancaster/York was not the John who arrived in 1772 is that it is totally obvious that John of Lancaser/York was here in America well before 1772. Even the people that say he was the same man, have all this contradcitory inforamtion in their family trees that you would think they would notice. They say he married Charlotta in about the early 1750’s and had children with her, born in America, a few years after.
The harder way to know they are not the same man is to do the work necessary to track the John Hamscher who did arrve in 1772 and find out what happened to him. The best effort at doing this I have seen is a paper written by Gifford Hampshire rebutting the work of David C Homsher who had confused the two men.
Gifford made these points.
• John who arrived in 1772 came with a son named Jscob and a sister, presumably, named Mary Elizabeth.
• He was bound as a servant for five years to Sarah Davis of Stow creek Precinct, Cumberland County, New Jersey. Mary Elizabeth too was bound out. in her case to John Duffield.
• By 1778, though, John would have been free from his indentured servitude and as a free man eligible to buy property which he apparently did as he was taxed in that same place in 1778 and shows up alos on later tax lusts there as late as 1803.
• Jacob the son married in 1795 Catherine Ulrich in Philadelphia and baptized five children in Philadelphia in te years 1802-1815.
• A Jacob Hampshire died in Philadelphia 25 Mar 1842 age 70.
So while my ancestor John did also have a son Jacob, born much earlier than this other Jacob, the life of (my) Jacob cn be tracked to Louisiana where he lived out his life.