Lancaster County Family Ties

My gr-grandmother, Cora M. Groff, was a descendant of "Swamp" John Groff. Her parents were Joseph Groff 1856-1926 and Josephine (Myers) Groff 1866-1934. It is believed they married about 1884 but I have not really looked for records yet. Both my mom and I called her "Grammie Garner" when talking to her or about her. She married Benjamin F. Garner, the son of Charles and Elizabeth (Musselman) Garner in the April of 1906 per the marraige license #1625. As discussed on an earlier post: https://lancastercountyfamilyties.blogspot.com/2012/01/marraige-certificate.html Cora was pregnant and that child was born in Aug. 1906.  I've noticed in Ancestry that at least one of the family trees lists the first child as born in 1907 - which is a mistake.  The oldest child was Ralph who was born in Aug. 1906.  In the 1900 census for Colerain Township in Lancaster County, PA: Joseph is 43 and Josephine is 34. The children listed are: Charlie (15), Cora (12), *Abra

Being a patriot did not always involve going into battle - it also involved giving supplies, money, medical help, and general support to the Colonial troops or individual soldiers.  Many Mennonite and Amish non-combatants can fulfill the description of patriot because they helped in other ways besides actually killing the enemy.  If I ever get around to gathering together the documentation to file for "supplemental" patriots for my DAR lines I am currently aware of 6 - 8 "patriots" within my own family line - most were Mennonite and refused to actually kill other human beings but they valued their personal and religious freedom and did contribute to the cause. There is now a wonderful book available " Revoluntionary Patroits of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania 1775-1783" by Henry C. Peden, Jr. published in 1998 by Family Line Publications. On pages 105-106 are listed these Grof/Graff/Graeff men with brief descriptions of their service.  I have chosen to

My Groff line goes back to "Swamp John Graf of Martic".  I greatly admire people such as Clyde and Walter Groff along with Jane Evans Best who spent years and money along with probably much frustration trying to separate and organize the Graf/Groff/Grove/Graeff lines of Lancaster County into a reasonable pattern. I have both Vol 1 and 2 of the Groff Book.  I understand there are some mistakes, and disagreements with exactly who some of the people are and how they are related - it is certainly not a project I would want to take on. If nothing else, these books give a rational foundation and starting place for anyone searching for Groff roots in Lancaster County, PA. According to the Groff Book Vol. 1 (pg. 1): the Graf family was recorded as living in Bettswil, Switzerland in 1469. In 1541 there are three Graf families listed as living there.  I have seen previous articles that the Grafs and Barr/Bear/Bahr/Bare families were from the same area and very interconnected, even to

Henry Applebach was the son of Henry Applebach (Johann Heinrich Afflerbach - emigrant) and Anna Elizabeth Triede (Trude) Applebach. At this point, exact years are conflicting and sketchy but it appears that he was born 1814-1817 and died sometime between 1870-1878. #1. According to "Six Afflerbach Emigrants Who Came To Pennsylvania and their Descendants 1750-1930" by Jane K. Thompson, pg. 178 lists his siblings as: Mary 1810-1883 - married to Jacob Rorerbacher Henry (approx) 1814-1878 married to Catherine (Mary) Stehr/Stahr in 1840 and Ellen Shelly after 1855. Louise 1815- _____. Married to Mathias Weaver Susan 1817 - ____. Married to Joseph Clark. William 1818 - _____.  Married to Elmira _________. Charles 1825 - _______. Married Margaret __________. According to the same source above, Mary Stehr/Stahr may be the one christened at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Beaver Township in Clarion, PA on 10 July 1825 and that list says she was the daughter o

I recently read a book "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan that was eye opening to me about the Dust Bowl years. Growing up in the wheat and cattle areas of Montana and North Dakota, I remember people mentioning the Dust Bowl and how it changed farming methods in the western plains.  But I never really connected it to my own family - after all, in the 1930's my parents and their families were in Lancaster County - the Dust Bowl was half a continent away. After reading this book, and finding and watching the 1936 film, "The Plow That Broke the Plains" the light bulb suddenly went off in my head. My grandparents would have read articles in the newspaper and listened to news broadcasts on the radio that included references to the Dust Bowl. So... fast forward to 1960 when my father announced he was going to Bible college in Omaha, Nebraska, and he and mom would be moving.  To my maternal grandparents, this was not only an awful sin by removing family members fr

Frank & Bertha Ressler had 4 sons: Clarence, Andy, Victor, and Charles and all saw battle - I believe in WWII. They all married, had jobs or their own businesses, and seemed to have adjusted to civilian life fine - at least from what I could see. None were drunks, drug addicts, wife or child beaters, etc.  They just seemed to be settled, responsible community members. Source: personal collection During my teen years in the 1980's when Vietnam and Vietnam vets were still spoken of as if they were curse words I was privileged to overhear a few comments by my gr-uncles as they discussed "the war". When there was a break in their conversation, I quietly asked what did they think the cause was for the Vietnam vets coming back and having such adjustment problems back into "real" life? By the looks on their faces, this was something they had discussed among themselves before.  Uncle Andy was the spokesman for the response, which started as "troop ships

1843 - PG. 1 1843 - PG. 2 Source: Metzger, Madeline M.    The Ressler Family: descendants of Johann Heinrich Rossler, born in Germany ca. 1730.  Published 1994.  This book is available from the LDS Family History Library or I physically was able to use it for research at the Lancaster Menn. Historical Society in 2017.

Source: Metzger, Madeline M.  The Ressler Family: descendants of Johann Heinrich Rossler, born in Germany ca. 1730   published 1994. This book is available thru the LDS Family History Library, or I physically was able to use the book for research at the Lancaster Menn. History Society in 2017.

1970 pg. 1 1970 pg. 2 I found the above translation of a letter about the Ressler family in among Grandma Garner's papers.  Over the years I have also seen it in other places.  I have never seen the letter that this is the response to or the original German version. I believe Grandma had this because she helped her cousin Nina Breidenthall gather together all the documentation that Nina needed to join the DAR back in the 1960's.  However, in the same envelope were the following pieces of paper, obviously some kind of continuing correspondence regarding family history. Remember to click on the image to make it easier to read.

Grandma was great about remembering birthdays and holidays - she sent cards out for all of them.  I found this list among mom's papers, but it is Grandma's hand writing.  There is no date or greeting. The list covers birth dates for Pappy's siblings, parents, and paternal grandparents: Benjamin Garner & Cora Mae Groff married April 14, 1906 Ralph Groff Garner   Aug. 5, 1906 Mary E Garner          Dec. 29, 1908 Ella Mae Garner        Nov. 29, 1910  (my note: married name Roop) Clyde J. Garner         July 25, 1913 Lester C. Garner       May 28, 1915 Benjamin Franklin Garner       Aug. 20, 1885 Cora Groff Garner                   Aug. 13, 1887 Ben's parents: Charles Garner 1863 - died 1943 Elizabeth Musser Garner 1864 - died 1925  (my note: Musser was her mom's maiden name)

As I was going thru the boxes of letters and photos trying to organize all of it, I ran across a letter written by Pappy to mom - I had never seen him write anything so this letter was special simply from that perspective.  I also found the letter from mom that Pappy was responding to.  Thought I would put both on here simply to share.  I remember Pappy reading the newspaper and his Bible without problems, obviously writing was not easy. Mom's letter to her folks was four pages long, below is the paragraph asking about Pappy's health. It is dated 10 May 1967. It's hard to read because of the thin paper and being written on both sides: "In June's letter (meaning June Kann, sister of Jim Applebach) she said she stopped at Watt & Shand's (Lancaster department store where Grandma worked) to see you Tuesday and you weren't there. Another saleslady said Daddy was sick....How is Daddy? Was he sick or is he sick? What is wrong? Get one of the kids to write

Taylor & May married in 1909. I remember his nasty temper - it apparently did not improve with age.  In 1920, physical abuse was not a usual reason for granting a divorce to the woman, so my thought is that the abuse was very severe.  I find it interesting that his mother wrote a statement about the abuse he dished out to May. I do not know all the details but one of Grandma Garner (Reba) first cousins and I went to clean family tombstones in the fall of 1986, and he told me that when Taylor & Jennie lived in Conestoga he lived across the road.  Apparently the Applebach house had a large window in the living room and he saw Taylor push Jennie thru the glass window. So I have to think that abusive behavior to his wives (maybe children as well) was a normal action of his. None of his children actually do use or have used the term "abuse" when describing Pop, however, they say or have said things such as "not nice", "mean", "yelled a lot"

When Taylor & Maggie married in March 1905, they had to have parents signature because both were minors.  I have to wonder if Maggie was pregnant, however, so far I have found no mention of this in documented history.  Mom told me that Grandma Jennie was convinced he had a son in Maryland. Did he??  Maggie being pregnant would be a reasonable reason for 2 minors to marry and both fathers sign the license but I honestly don't know. A side note here would be that Aunt Romaine told me once that she met a man in downtown Lancaster who looked exactly like Pop (Taylor) when he was younger.  He seemed to know who she was and spoke a few words and walked off.  She had no idea who he was and never saw him again.  If he was a son of one of the twins (Taylor or Scott) so far I have found no documented evidence of that. However, by Feb. 1906 he had deserted her and apparently moved back in with his parents and she to hers. The divorce was granted on grounds of desertion in May 1908.

These 2 letters are the only ones that I found in among the papers and letters that mom kept that were from her grandma (my gr-grandma) Cora (Groff) Garner.  I just thought I would share them, if nothing else so others could see her handwriting. Click on the images to make them big enough to actually read. The first is dated Sept. 29, 1970 and was after a visit she made with Ralph & Reba Garner out to see us in Idaho.  The cut off word at the bottom is "never" as in "and never expect to see again."  Pappy & Grandma drove out to see us and brought Grammy Garner with them. The second letter is dated Feb. 24, 1971. We saw her again on our trip to Lancaster in the summer of 1971, which she mentioned hoping we would make in the below letter.