AUGUST 1991 NEWSLETTER:
I was very encouraged at the report and the materials which the genealogist enclosed with it. The materials included about 50 pages of photocopied material he had found on Maurers in Pennsylvania churches. I was able to identify some Maurers he found with some I had found in Bedford County, thus linking two different Maurer lines in Bedford County with our Mowers.
I now have several cases of our name being spelled Maurer, Mower, Mowrer, Mowry, etc. as the Maurer families moved from eastern Pennsylvania where they appeared to have settled upon immigration to Virginia and western Pennsylvania in later years. The original spelling as it occurred in German Lutheran church records is "nearly" always Maurer, but not always. The genealogist has found our family almost always associated with the Reformed Lutheran Church in eastern Pennsylvania.
We are still looking for the marriage of our Andrew Mower to wife Barbara and wife Margaret as well as the confirmation records of Andrew's three sisters: Maria Catarina, Marie Elizabeth, and Anna Margaret which should have occurred about 1759-1764. If we locate the church where those records are recorded we may learn more of Michael Maurer and wife Anna Elizabeth. Our connections to Switzerland are looking strong and we are investigating possibilities of our people as coming from there. They might have stayed in Germany prior to coming to the USA.
I have located a Michael Mowrer in Germany with whom I am corresponding. He is a genealogist who lives and works in Germany and who very well might be a relative since his line stems from the general area where our ancestors are from. Our genealogist is writing him and offering to trade information and utilize his services on that side of the Atlantic to search records we need searched. Although this is a long and tedious process, I am encouraged. We are making progress. Enclosed find documentation to prove we are on the right line.
If there are those who feel we should be pursuing the New Jersy "Moor" line, please provide the same kind of documentation so that we may evaluate it. Thanks.
ANDREW MAURER (MOWER) DOCUMENTATION POINT 1: In the early 1800s we find Andrew Mower, wife Margaret, children Michael, Jacob, Andrew Jr. and daughters Phoebe, Sarah, Molly living in Bedford County, Pa. [Andrew's Will of 1813]. Andrew Jr. is at least 14 years old but not 21 in Nov of 1813 [Orphan Court records]. This means Andrew Jr. was born no sooner than 1793. Our Andrew would have been 41 years old at this time. Also living in Bedford at this time was Anna Margaret (Maurer) Brill, she was Andrew's sister [Trappe Church Records, Montgomery Co., Pa] She and her husband, Christopher Brill were sponsors of the christening of Michael Mower, who was the father of Henry Mower Sr. [ St. Luke's Church records, Bucks Co., Pa]
POINT 2: In 1787 Andrew and Margaret Mower lived in Loudoun Co., Virginia near Christopher and Anna Margaret Brill [1787 Virginia Census]. They attended the same church when Andrew had moved a couple miles away across into the state of Maryland by the year 1790 [New Jerusalem Church Records and St. James Church Records, Loudoun Co., Va.] The families both moved to Bedford, Pa following 1800 [U.S. Census records]
POINT 3: The ages of Andrew's children listed in the 1800-1820 Bedford County census records match perfectly with the ages of the children of Andrew Maurer christened in the St. Lukes Church in Bucks County during the 1780's, proving that Michael, Jacob, Sarah and Molly born in Buck's County are the same children mentioned in the Bedford Census records. These children are also mentioned in Andrew's 1813 Will linking them to Andrew.
SUMMARY: The evidence is clear and documents that: 1. Andrew Mower (1752) and sister Margaret (1750) were the children of Michael and Anna Elizabeth Maurer. Margaret attended the same church as Andrew and their parents, and her marriage is recorded in Bucks Co., Pa She alsowitnessed the christening of Andrew's son, Michael Mower (father of Henry Sr.).
2. The families lived near each other in Virginia in the 1780's, and again in Bedford County in the 1800's. The families attended Church in the same churches throughout their lives.
3. The Andrew Mower of Bedford, Pennsylvania (1813) is the Andrew Mower of Loudoun, Virginia (1787) and is also the Andrew Maurer of Bucks Co., Pennsylvania (1752-1780's). The Andrew Maurer born in 1732 in New Jersey is not the same Andrew. The records clearly show Andrew was born in 1752 in Bucks Co. and he can be traced through the records till his death in 1813.