WITMER, KAUFFMAN, others

Ellen's great-grandmother Nellie KLINE Glover (1879-1959) was born and died in Lockport, Niagara Co., NY. Two of Nellie's three siblings had "Witmer" as middle names, and their mother was:

• Catharine K. WITMER (1851-1922) m. 1870 Joseph KLINE (1844-1928). Both were born and died in Niagara County, NY, like Catharine's father
  • Joseph WITMER (1812-1898), who m. 1846 Catherine KAUFFMAN (b. 1825 in Lancaster Co. PA, d. 1907 in Niagara, NY).

Joseph WITMER and Catherine KAUFFMAN are Ellen's gateway to the prolific, but often well-documented, Pennsylvania Dutch: German-speaking settlers in Lancaster County, PA, many of whom were Swiss Mennonites. Ellen's notes on their ancestry are filled with dozens of Lancaster County surnames (including two of the more famous, HERR and HERSHEY). Dates and towns are sketchy, however, and sources nearly nonexistent; her Lancaster County lines all come from an uncle via a distant cousin, and though she's compared notes with others researching Lancaster County Mennonites, she hasn't verified any of the data yet. When she has a lot more spare time, she hopes to join the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society and delve into the wealth of Pennsylvania Dutch resources in earnest.

WITMER

• Abraham WITMER (1771-1851) and Barbara HABECKER (1782-1859), m. 1804. Their tombstones are in Witmer Cemetery, Niagara Co., NY, on their original homestead property. They moved in 1811 from Lancaster County, PA to Niagara County, NY (land granted from the Holland Land Company) in a Conestoga wagon. The homestead, we're told, is now on the site of a vanadium plant near Niagara Falls on Witmer Road (Route 31), town of Niagara.

The line beyond Abraham and Barbara is too undocumented to list here, but probably includes the surnames DARIG, ERISMAN, GEUNDER, HABECKER, HERR, HERSCHE/HERSHEY, KENDIG, LAMERE, MUSSER, and SHELLENBURGER.

Ellen has been in touch with other researchers working this line, and found at least one online GEDCOM with new details on Abraham's parents and siblings (and his mother's parentage); this is a lead to pursue soon.

KAUFFMAN

Catherine KAUFFMAN's ancestral surnames probably include BERG, BOMBERGER, COBLE, NEWCOMER, and SHELLENBURGER. (Even more than the WITMER line, the KAUFFMAN one is too shaky to outline here!)

Ellen plans eventually to order the standard reference work in this family: Charles Fahs KAUFFMAN's monumental 1940 work,

A genealogy and history of the Kauffman-Coffman families of North America, 1584 to 1937: including brief outlines of allied Swiss and Palatine families who were among the pioneer settlers in Lancaster and York counties of Pennsylvania from 1717 on, viz., Becker, Baer, Correll, Erisman, Fahs, Kuntz, Kneisley, Hershey, Hiestand, Meyers, Musselman, Neff, Martin, Ruby, Snavely, Shenk, Shirk, Sprenkle, Witmer, and others.

If this work is available on microfiche, as rumored, all the better!