Mower Family History Association
Fourth Quarter 2003 Newsletter

Research Report Trudy Schenk
2 Jan 2004

Mr. Jerry Mower
615 County Road 123
Bedford. WY 83112

Jerry Mower,

You will not believe what I received in the mail a few days ago. What I thought all along when I was searching for the Briel family in the area of Wetter that your emigrants must be from this area and I was particularly interested in the small village of Niederasphe where I had engaged Dr. Ulrich Stoehr to do a search for me and at the time he found nothing. Well he has recently started to work on a Haeuserchronik and family history project in this village and found from other than church records proof that Martin Briel from Niederasphe went to Insul (which in other records referred to as Pennsylvania).

Since you read German, I will make a copy of the letter and send it along. Dr Stoehr explains the reason why the church books did not include more entries and he found that the pastor did not enter christenings and other dates before 1756. A new pastor realized this in 1756 and had all heads of families come to him to report the names and birth dates of children born before 1756. Martin Briel and several others were not among those men, the reason was that they had left the village and were already in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Stoehr is in the process of compiling a book. I will order at least 3. It may contain other family names which came to PA. One for you, one for the library, and one for myself.

Having this information now may prove worthwhile to search the Wetter marriage contracts, which begin in 1627 and include families from surrounding villages.

I will need to send Dr. Stoehr $25.00 cash and perhaps add some more to give him the incentive to send more information.

I hope all is well with you and your family. Have you had any luck on the Emig family yet? I have made notes these last few years whenever I have come upon the name in the early 18th century.

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year,

Sincerely,


Trudy Schenk