Maria Elizabetha (Dieffenbach) Ernst (abt. 1705 - bef. 1797)

Born about 8 Jul 1705 in Wiesloch, Baden, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Ancestors

Wife of Johann Michael Ernst Sr — married 1723 in Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died before May 1797 before about age 91 in Hardy Co., Virginia

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Eliza (Dieffenbach) Ernst was a Palatine Migrant. Join: Palatine Migration Project Discuss: palatine_migration

Biography

Based on extensive documentary research done by John L. Tevebaugh, the correct name of the wife of Michael Ernst (aka Michael Harness Sr.) was Maria Elisabetha Dieffenbach, usually called Elizabeth. What little is known about her came from her father's will which identified her as his daughter, "Maria Elizabeth Ernst...." The Dieffenbachs and Ernsts -both Germans families--were close neighbors in the Tulpehocken settlement of today's Berks Co, PA. Both Michael Ernst and Johann Conrad Dieffenbach are listed on the 1725/6 and 1726/7 tax assessments for Tulpehocken Township, and on the Oley Road petition of 1727. Michael's 1779 will gives her name as Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was one of three children in Conrad Dieffenbach's family. She was baptized on 8 July 1705 at the Reformed Church in Wiesloch, Baden, Germany and, at the age of 4, she left for America with her family on 15 May 1709. It appears that the Dieffenbach family was part of the Palatine migration to New York, living first in the camps on the Hudson River then moving north to the Schoharie Valley before coming to the Tulpehocken settlement in then Chester Co, PA (now Berks) ca 1724.

Elizabeth and Michael Ernst appear to have married between 1720 and 1725, either in Schoharie or after arriving in Pennsylvania. At least some of their children, perhaps as many as six, were probably born in Pennsylvania. In her husband's 1779 will, she is given her dower rights and two slaves. In the 1785 and subsequent Hardy Co, VA (now WV) Personal Property Tax Lists, she is referred to as "Widow Harness" or "Elizabeth Harness," paying taxes on horses, cattle and one or two slaves.

Her last appearance in Hardy Co. tax records was in 1796 when she is 90 years old and undoubtedly died there soon after.

Some Harness researchers are investigating the possibility that the Elizabeth mentioned in the will and subsequent tax records was a second wife by the same given name.

See John Tevebaugh's work below for documentation.

Sources

• Johann Michael Ernst Hoerner and His Harness Children: What the Documents Say by John L. Tevebaugh, 2001
• Johann Michael Ernst Hörner; His Birth Family, Marriage and Life Span (2013) by John L. Tevebaugh
• The Parents, Birth & Siblings of Johann Michael Ernst Hoerner aka Michael Harness, Sr. by John L. Tevebaugh
• Henry Z. Jones, Jr., The Palatine Families of New York: A Study of the German Immigrants Who Arrived in Colonial New York in 1710 (2 vols., Universal City, CA, 1985) and Henry Z. Jones, Jr., and Lewis Bunker Rohrbach, Even More Palatine Families; 18th Century Immigrants to the American Colonies, and Their German, Swiss and Austrian Origins (3 vols., 2600+ pp.; 2002)
• Helen Yoakum Black Letters (contributed by Sara Patton)