BANKERT
LINKS
DOCUMENTS including:
Johann Jacob Bankert’s
Baptismal Record
Griffith’s 1794 map of
Maryland Showing
Banker’s Mill
Johann Jacob Bankert’s
will
Johann Jacob Bankert,
Jr.’s will
Land Records
Family
Artifact Page
personal and memorable
things that we have unearthed relating to the Bankert/ Banker/Bankard
families
FAMILY LINES
When
you see this symbol on the family line charts, it will link to the “cemetery photo page”
Christofel BENKER (c. 1680-?) descendants
(first 3
generations)
Johannes Jacob BANKERT (1746-1825)
descendants
Johannes BANKERT (1749-<1789) descendants
Peter BANKARD
(?-<1810)
descendants
Christopher BANKERT (c. 1755-?) descendants
Jacob H.
BANKARD (1848-1883) descendants
SURNAMES
OTHER FAMILY
LINE LINKS
Kitzmiller Line
Miracle Line
Bankert,
Lohr, Yingling, etc.
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Arrival
in America
On August 23, 1728, Captain John Coultas'
ship Mortonhouse reached Philadelphia after
a long voyage from the Dutch port of Rotterdam that included a stop at
the port of Deal on the southeast coast of England near the entrance to
the English Channel. Among the 205 men, women, and children on board
was Christofel Bankert, his wife, Anna Eva (Shriver [? According to
family tradition]), four of their five daughters (Maria Salome,
Juliana, Anna Margaretha, and Margaretha Elenora), and one surviving
son, Johann Jacob, who was born in 1717. Another daughter, Anna Maria,
came to America later, in 1752.
Christofel and his
family were from Wachenheim, a small town in the Rheinland- Palatinate.
Born
around 1680, in 1695 Christofel was considered a "servant" and "day
laborer," later a "tenant" on the farm of Dr. Emrich of Spire in
Wachenheim. He owned a house that was burned
down in time of war. In 1718 he was a tenant on the farm of Baron von
Sax, a successor of Dr. Emrich.

Old Town Wall |

95 Banhof
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Lang Alley |

Rear of Dr. Emrich's
structure |
The above pictures of Wachenheim were taken by Van Sauter during a trip
to Germany in 2004. One of the residents pointed out the stretch
of town wall that serves as the back wall of the Dr. Emrich building,
that was probably a residence. The building itself fronted on what was
later known as Banhof Street, No. 95. Christofel's property that burned
was on what was known as Lang Alley, which is about a block up from the
Emrich site. Lang Alley runs perpendicular to Banhof Street. What was
95 Banhof has been plastered over and new windows installed, making it
look quite modern. The back of the house, however, is quite medieval.
The house next to Dr. Emrich's bears a sign indicating it was built in
the 1600s.
Settlement in America
After the family’s arrival in Philadelphia, all records concerning
Christofel disappear. His family, including
his daughters and sons-in-law, moved to southcentral Pennsylvania,
settling on “Digges’ Choice” in the
region between Hanover and York. Christofel’s
wife, Anna Eva, shows up as a sponsor for her grandchildren in
baptismal records in that area.
By the late 1730s and mid 1740s, Johann Jacob
appears in records relating to land in Digges Choice. In
1751 he set his sights south, purchasing acreage in what is now the
Union Mills area of northcentral Maryland. His will divided his
property between his four oldest sons and oldest daughter. Portions
of his property – his “plantation,” including his mill property – were
put up for sale in the late 1790’s, leading to a long court battle
between the purchasers, Andrew and David Shriver, and Johann Jacob’s
children.
Johann Jacob Bankert’s
Family
Johann Jacob Bankert married
Esther Sell in 1742. They had 14 children, 7 sons and 7 daughters.
Six of each survived to adulthood and are mentioned in Johann Jacob’s
will.
After Johann Jacob Bankert’s death in 1789, and
the finalization of the sale of his property in 1797, most of his
children and their descendants remained in the Frederick/Carroll
County and Baltimore, Maryland and York/Adams County, Pennsylvania
region.
Johann Jacob's middle son,
Christopher, sold his inheritance in 1803/1804, and apparently moved
out to Ohio with
his children, primarily to Butler, Warren, and Montgomery
Counties.
They settled near, and often intermarried with, a number of other
Maryland
and Pennsylvania families, such as Butt, Barkelow, Bachman, Selby,
Catrow,
Keister, Kercher, Kemp, Gebhart, Dotterer, Long, Lucas, Deardoff [or
Deardorff],
Morningstar, Erb, Nail, Rohrer, Selby, Sell, Stull, and Yingling, some
of the
same
families they had intermarried with in the East. Click here for
more
information on the Ohio Bankers.
The
Family Name
The
family name has gone through a number
of variations, right from the very beginning. The Mortonhouse
passenger list has it as "Bencker," although some of the transcriptions
of that list render it "Benker" or "Benders."
Johann
Jacob's surname was rendered "Banker" in his 1783 will and on a 1794
map of Maryland showing the location of his mill, "Benker" on his
headstone at St. Mary's Cemetery in Silver Run, MD, and "Bankert" in
many of the legal documents surrounding the sale of
his estate.
Christopher,
Johann Jacob’s son, is listed as “Bankard” in the 1790 and 1800 federal
censuses of Frederick County, Maryland, and “Bankerd” in the legal
documents of the sale of his inherited estate in 1803. The family that
moved to Ohio was noted “Bankard” at first, but it was quickly changed
to Banker in further documentation.
Variants
of the name that are current in the Pennsylvania-Maryland region
include Banker, Bankert, Bankart, Bankard, Bankerd, and Bangert.
In Ohio it is currently almost always Banker.
Who We Are
We are descendants of various parts of the Banker/Bankert/Bankard line.
We welcome any additional information, photographs, etc., that will
help us in our research.
Please contact us with any questions or further information:
We
also have a new e-mail address for the Bankert Family Roundtable:
bankert1728@aol.com
Family Reunions
2001
The first Bankert/Banker/Bankard (and other
variations) family reunion was held on August 25-26, 2001, close to the
date of the 273rd Anniversary of Johann Jacob Bankert’s
arrival in America. IT WAS A HUGE
SUCCESS!! We
held part of the reunion – a picnic on August 25 --
in Union Mills, Maryland, at the Lions Club park right next to the
property
that Johann Jacob owned. To find out more about the first reunion, and
see
pictures of the gathering, click here.
2002
Our 2nd annual reunion
was held
on August 24 & 25, 2002, at St. Mary's United Church of Christ in
Silver
Run, Maryland, and it was even better than the first one!!
Activities began at 6:00 PM on Saturday, August 24, with a
meet-and-greet followed by a wonderful catered dinner and the telling
of the story of the sale of Johann Jacob Bankert's mill property.
Sunday morning included attendance at the UCC church service for those
who wished to attend, followed by the cemetery tour, led by Jan
Bankert. A catered lunch was served at noon, followed by an
opportunity to share pictures and documents relating to the
family. Something new was added this year -- an "artifact table,"
filled with family bibles, photographs, and other memorabilia from the
various Bankert/Banker lines. Maybe next year we'll need two
tables! To see pictures of the 2nd
Annual Reunion, click HERE
2003
The 3rd annual
Bankert/Banker/Bankard
Family History Reunion was held at St. Mary's United Charuch of Christ
in Silver Run, Maryland, on August 23 & 24, 2003. The turn-out was
unbelievable, with lots of new family groups attending. Activities
began
at 6:00 PM on Saturday, with a meet-and-greet followed by a catered
dinner
and a talk focusing on "The Second Generation" by Gary Stein and Jan
Bankert.
Sunday morning included attendance at the UCC church
service, followed again by the cemetery walk. The Sunday
afternoon activities included a family history workshop for children
led by Roberta (Banker) Stein, and the opportunity
to share pictures and documents relating to the family. For photographs of
the 3rd Annual Reunion, click
HERE.
PIONEER
CHRONICLES -- Family Newsletter Available!!
One of
the decisions coming out of the 2001 reunion was to start a family
newsletter to provide research notes,
historical sketches and stories, more photographs as we uncover them,
and
to keep the family informed of what is going on. We have completed the first year of our
Bankert/Banker/Bankard
family (and related lines) newsletter. We call it Pioneer Chronicles. To view an image of the
first page of past issues of the newsletter, click
here. We plan on issuing the newsletter quarterly. At the
reunions
in 2001, 2002, and 2003, we developed a mailing list for the
newsletter. If
you were unable to attend the reunions and would like to subscribe to
the
newsletter, please e-mail us at bankert1728@aol.com. If you have any family stories, recipes,
photos, etc. that you would like to share, contact Roberta and Gary
Stein at steingaryst@aol.com or call 540-434-3763.
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