Ursula Ifert (1764 - 1771)

When Judge Oscar Ogburne Efird wrote his book "The History and Genealogy of the Efird Family", he thought that he used everything that was available to him and the two genealogists who he hired to help him in his research. He already had a lot of information that he had gathered before he began work on his book in 1953. He had to stop his work of gathering more in 1958 because he had to have cataract surgery. It may have been then that the mistake was made, possibly by the hired genealogists, the mistake that gave the wrong information about the parents of Jacob and Martin Ifert "Efird". Judge Efird's book has so much wonderful information in the beginning about Johann Georg and Chatarina Barbara Ehrenfried being their parents, but the Ehrenfrieds weren't Jacob and Martin's parents. Their last name was Ifert and they came from Rümlingen in Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland in 1771, not from Baden-Wurtemburg, Germany in 1773. Their parents were Matthias Ifert (Ifert-6) and Barbara "Barbel" Bürgin (Burgin-425), not Johann Georg and Chatarina Barbara Ehrenfried. Somehow the book "Lists of Swiss Emigrants in the Eighteenth Century to the American Colonies" by Albert Bernhardt Faust and Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh was overlooked, the one book that has the correct information about the Efird family forebears. Maybe, since it seems that Judge Efird was so convinced that the family was German, the book wasn't even considered. It should have been if it wasn't. If Judge Efird had seen the names of Hans Jacob Ifert (Ifert-2) and Martin Ifert (Ifert-4), and their wives, he surely would have come to the conclusion that they were the Original Immigrant Ancestors of the Efird family. In June of 2013 I was looking on the Internet to try to find as much as possible about the early Efird family as I could. I don't remember exactly how but I found a "Sarah Arnfreedt Hays" on findagrave (the memorial has since been changed to 'Sarah Ehrenfried Hays"). There were flowers and a comment about being a Grandmother left by someone whose name was Laura. Taking a chance that this might possibly be the Sarah Ehrenfried from the Baptismal Record from the Church in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, I sent an email to Laura. She answered. We corresponded by email a couple of times and then had a three-hour-long telephone conversation. Laura turned out to be a very nice older lady in her early seventies who has researched her family for over thirty years. She did it the old-fashioned way, by actually going to the different locations and looking for the relevant records herself, with no help from the Internet or genealogy libraries. I asked her questions, she told me what she had found out about her Ehrenfried family. I went away from the conversation convinced that George, as she calls him, and his wife Chatarina Barbara were the parents of only Catharine, Sarah, and, I found out, Mary Ehrenfried (I've since found out that they had another daughter, Anna Margaretha.). She told me about Anna Margaretha Crites, the sister of Andrew Crites, who was the husband of George and Chatarina Barbara's oldest daughter Catharine, who was George's second wife, and their baby David Ehrenfried who was born and also died in in Westmoreland County in Pennsylvania in1792. I had already found something about a Margaret Ehrenfried, and a mention of a Sarah and a Mary Ehrenfried, but I thought that they were "George Jr's" family. It turns out that "George Jr" never existed. He was Johann Georg Ehrenfried himself after he had moved to Westmorland County, Pennsylvania. Laura also told me why that present day Efird female descendants find it to be impossible to get into the Daughters of the American Revolution under Johann Georg Ehrenfried. The DAR has done its' own research about the Ehrenfried/Efird connection, and they found no connection at all. There is a "Red Flag" for Efird descendants who want to join the DAR as descendants of Johann Georg Ehrenfried. Laura IS in it under George, because she can prove that she is descended from him and his daughter Sarah. She has a copy of Sarah's actual Christening Record from Northampton County with George's name on it, a copy of Sarah's marriage record to Abraham Hays, and a copy of George's Will from Westmorland County, Pennsylvania, which mentions Sarah and Abraham as recipiants of some of George's land and property in Westmorland Counnty after he died. She also has a copy of the Baptismal record for David Ehrenfried listing George and Margaret Ehrenfried as his parents. Laura said that she has never found any information supporting the story in Judge Efird's book, nothing at all, so she knows it is a mistake. I have corresponded more with her, and we have talked for several hours several more times. Johann Georg and Chatarina Barbara Ehrenfried had four children only, Catharine, Sarah, Mary, and Margaret. There was never a Jacob or Martin Ehrenfried. Their last name was "Ifert" and they came from Switzerland in 1771. The proof is in the book "Lists of Swiss Emigrants in the Eighteenth Century to the American Colonies" by Albert Bernhardt Faust and Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh. Judge Efird said that there were "rumors" about the Efird family being Swiss but he had no research to prove it. He didn't have that book. That book is the proof. If you have any questions I would love to hear from you! Carolyn Pinkerton