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Ancestry of Christian Stutzman (bef 1730-1770)

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Location: Pennsylvaniamap
Surname/tag: Stutzman
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Christian Stutzman (bef 1730-1770) was probably born in Europe but first appears in historical records living in America in 1747 as a member of the Amish Northkill settlement located in modern Upper Bern Twp, Berks, PA. His ancestry is uncertain, but it has been suggested -- possibly a family tradition -- that his father was the migrant Johann Jacob Stutzman who came to America on the Adventure in 1727 (Strassburger 1934 vol I, p 15). This has led to the conjecture that his father was Johann Jacob Stutzman (Stutzman-26), who very likely was the 1727 migrant.

This conjecture has been accepted in the profile Johann Jacob Stutzman (Stutzman-8), the WikiTree father of Christian Stutzman, and has led to a proposed merge of (S-8) and (S-26), but there are a number of good reasons why this identification is incorrect.

There is a coherent biography of S-26 from his birth in Kallstadt, Pfalz in 1706 to his death in the Conococheague Valley MD/PA (his homestead straddled the boundary) in 1775 (Estes 2015, 2016, 2018), but almost nothing definite is known about S-8. His wife (widow?) Maudlin Stuedsman obtained a warrant for 50 acres in 1738 (Lancaster Warrants, p 193) which their son Christian Stutzman had surveyed at 108 acres in 1747 (PA Surveys, Book C-75 pp 263-264); this tract lies within the Amish Northkill settlement located in modern Upper Bern Twp, Berks Co., and this Stutzman family was evidently among the early settlers in this community. Christian's future father-in-law Jacob Hochstetler obtained in 1739 a warrant for land about one mile north of the Stutzman tract (Lancaster Warrants, p 90), and Christian married Jacob's daughter Barbara about 1751.

At the beginning of his book Descendants of Barbara Hochstetler and Christian Stutzman (1938), Harvey Hostetler discusses the ancestry of Christian, and cites The Hertzler Gen., "generally a good authority" that Christian was a son of Johan Jacob Stutzman, an immigrant to America who arrived in Philadelphia in 1727. However, this is dubious since most Amish migrated after 1735. An alternative theory is suggested by Hugh F. Gingerich and Rachel W. Kreide, in their book Amish and Amish Mennonite Genealogies, (1986, p 432), that Maudlin's husband was also named Christian: "Christian and Magdalena (Steck) Stutzman were banished from Switzerland in 1711 for their faith" (quoting an unidentified source).

Given these uncertainties about his identity, it seems advisable to regard the profile S-8 as a placeholder for the husband of Maudlin Stuedsman / father of Christian Stutzman. Unfortunately, speculation that he was the same person as S-26 has apparently led to their (mis)identification, and the current bio for S-8 has been fleshed out by borrowing information from S-26. But this identification is not possible, for a number of reasons:

  • S-8 was probably born in Switzerland; S-26 was born near Kallstadt, Pfalz
  • S-8 was Amish; S-26 was a Dunker
  • S-8's wife (widow?) Maudlin was acquiring land in the Amish Northkill settlement in 1738; at the same time S-26 was a founding member of the Little Conewago Dunker congregation near Hanover PA, nearly 80 miles away
  • Male line descendants of S-8 and S-26 fall into different Y-DNA genetic families (FTDNA Stutzman Project), genetic distance (GD) about 18 for Y-37 (separated by at least 40 generations)
  • There is no evidence that S-26 was ever in Upper Bern Twp, where Maudlin and her son were living 1738-1770.

Along with setting aside the proposed merge of S-8 and S-26, a number of edits need to be made to these profiles:

  • S-8 be assigned a single wife Maudlin Stuedsman, with son Christian
  • The profile for S-8 should be drastically edited, removing accreted material borrowed from S-26 and adding a genealogical note that there has been speculation that they were the same person.
  • S-26 be assigned a single wife Hannah (Davis) Ulrich (abt.1724-abt.1790), with the six children named in his will

An alternative is to merge S-8 and S-26, and then create a new profile for the husband of Maudlin Stuedsman / father of Christian Stutzman, but that would require more work to achieve basically the same result.

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