I’ve been verifying the lineage on a few of my ancestral lines. I’m going through the Garner line for a lineage application to First Families of Pennsylvania. I’m going through the Herr line to prove descent from Reverend Christian Herr, a prominent Mennonite leader who led a group from Germany to Colonial America.
The Garner line was too easy. For every deceased generation between me and the end-of-line ancestor, there is a death certificate naming the parents. I ordered my own and my father’s birth certificates to prove the first three generations. My grandfather is listed in his mother’s family bible, which is now in my possession. For every generation that lived before 1950, I have censuses corroborating the proof. The end of line ancestor is my fourth-great-grandfather, Daniel Garner, born 1810-1812 in Pennsylvania, with an unknown death date. He’s named in his son’s death certificate. I have plenty of proof that he lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, all his life. Extending the line beyond him is where the real challenge will come in.
Gathering the documents and writing the proof arguments of the generational connections between me and Daniel Garner has taken under two hours thus far.
The Herr line comes out of (or goes into) the Garner line. My second great-grandparents on the Garner line are Phares Smith Garner and Anna Elizabeth Miller. She is the daughter of Howard Bealler Miller and Hettie Frey Herr. Hettie is the daughter of Tobias H Herr and Elmira Frey. I have vital records and censuses to prove these relationships.
Tobias Herr, according to his death certificate, is the son of John and Anna Herr. Finding additional evidence here will be tricky. I have found evidence that he was orphaned and that there was another Tobias Herr, his same age, living in the same town. The other Tobias eventually moved to West Virginia.
Which of these will be more fun to research? Extending the Garner line is something I have attempted before, but with less research skill. I might have more success now. Proving the parents of an orphan sounds exciting. Would the informant of Tobias Herr’s death certificate really have known his parents if he was so young when they died? I will need to rely on evidence other than censuses because the father and son may not have been named on the census together.
