Longacre/Longaker Family Page


Longacre/Longaker Surname Page

Longacre Family of (primarily) Montgomery and Chester Counties, PA

My earliest known Longacre ancestor was Jacob Longacre. He was born December 6, 1751 and died May 21, 1837. His wife was Juliana, maiden name unknown. She was born April 2, 1751 and died December 13, 1817. They are buried in East Vincent township, in the Vincent Mennonite Cemetery. Jacob is probably a grandson or great-grandson of either Rev. Daniel Longacre or his brother Ulrich. Both settled in Eastern Pennsylvania, Daniel in the area of Mingo, which is now Montgomery county, and Ulrich a few miles away and on the opposite side of the river in Coventry township, Chester county. Many early genealogies state that Ulrich and most of his children then removed to Lancaster county, but it has recently been shown that there were two Ulrich Longacres, and that the one who was the brother of Rev. Daniel, remained in Chester county. Through land records, we know that Daniel had a son named Jacob, called Jacob Jr, probably to distinguish him from an older cousin of the same name who was the son of Ulrich. One possibility is that the Jacob born in 1751 is the son of Jacob Longacre, Jr., but this is still unproven.

When Jacob Longacre died in 1837, he did not leave a will. He did however, have property and thus his heirs (children and the grandchildren of his deceased children) are identified in Orphan's court documents. One of his daughters was a widow named Mary Garner. I believe that she is the "Magdalena" Longenecker who married John Garner on March 12, 1795. John was from Gwynedd, in present-day Montgomery County, PA. His family was also Mennonite. After his marriage, John Garner purchased property in Warrington, Bucks County, PA. He died there about 1805. Orphan court documents for his estate show that he was survived by three children: Jacob, aged 10, John, aged 5, and Anne, aged 2. I believe that after John's death, Mary and her children moved back to either Chester of Montgomery county. She may have gone to her parents, who were living in Pikeland, Chester county, PA, or she may have gone to other relatives who were living just across the Schuylkill River in Mingo. By 1830, both Jacob and John Garner show up as heads of households in Chester county. John Garner, who was my 3rd great-grandfather, married Mary Pennypacker. Her parents, Henry and Susan (Zublin) Pennypacker were also from Pikeland township.

In the course of searching for the Longacres in my direct line, I have come accross quite a bit of information on the other descendants of Daniel and Ulrich. I have included this information in the resources menu below. For now, I have my Jacob connected in as the son of Jacob Jr, who was the son of Daniel because this is my best guess given the information I currently have. As, stated above however, this relationship is still unproven and I am still looking for more information to either support or refute it. Also note that after a couple of generations, some descendants chose the spelling Longaker, and a very few went by Longnecker or Longenecker.


Longacre/Longaker Resource Menu