Two Jacobs

The two Jacobs

One of the more exasperating dilemmas faced by researchers of the early Barnhart family, was the fact that there were actually two Jacob Bernhards in the Falckner Swamp German Reformed Church at the same time. Early researchers had found documentation, by working backward from the then present time, that the spouse of "our" Jacob was Anna Marie Miller. In looking through the Church Book of the Falckner Swamp Church, there is an entry of Anna Marie Dotter marrying a Jacob Bernhard on November 1, 1774. We know Anna Marie Miller was still living in 1783, as her father, Conrad Miller, had written in his will "I give thirty pounds to my daughter, Anna Marie Miller - Barnhart". Also, the baptismal records of the German Reformed Church in the Friedens Church listed the mother of Jacob Barnhart’s children as being Anna Marie Miller in 1790. Considering that very few persons sought divorces in the 1700’s, we needed to do some more research about this Jacob and Anna Marie. My first thought was that the chances of another Jacob Bernhard in the same church at the same time, with a spouse named Anna Marie was almost impossible. Thet.htm">

While doing some research in one of our local Family History Centers, I mentioned this problem to a lady working behind the desk. In our discussion, it was mentioned that there was a man by the name of "Dutter" who frequented the library and he had donated a history of the Dotterer family. We looked up the book and found that Anna Marie Dotter, of this family, did in fact, marry a Jacob Bernhard. But, the Jacob Bernhard in this case, moved to Baltimore with most of his family about 1800. Also, in his family were a musical instrument maker and a sail maker. This was definitely not our family, as we had documentation that our family lived in Somerset County, Pennsylvania beginning about 1774 and then had moved to Ohio approximately 1800. Also, in communicating with Larry Dutter, we found that he and I lived in adjoining communities! Via Email he discussed this problem with some researchers in his family and it was the conclusion of all of us, that there were definitely two Jacob Bernhards in the same church at the same time.

In 2001, my wife and I visited the Falckner Swamp Church and I discussed this with the church secretary, who, at that time, was working on updating the church history. She insisted that there were no Jacob Bernhards (or Bernhards at all) in the church and there were none buried in the church cemetery. Since that visit, we have definitely proven that our Jacob, Sr. (the immigrant) baptized two of his children there (Jacob, Jr. and Elizabetha) and he is listed as being buried in the cemetery in several historical books. Also, we are convinced that Jacob, Sr. had a brother, Peter, as there is a record of an Elizabeth, child of Peter Bernhard buried in the cemetery in the late 1700’s after the other Bernhard family had moved to Baltimore.