Christian and Barbara Meyer

Date: 1675 to 1748
Location: Pennsylvania
Surnames/tags: Meyer Swiss_Anabaptist

The puzzle : Where are Barbara's grand-daughters?

Barbara is named as the wife of Christian Meyer (1676-1751), who arrived in Pennsylvania in the early part of the 18th century and settled in Franconia Township, Montgomery, PA. Barbara's last name is unknown, and neither is it known whether she died before the family emigrated or whether she accompanied Christian and their children to Pennsylvania. She was probably born in Switzerland, and travelled with Christian in the Netherlands prior to the emigration to Pennsylvania.

Why do we care?

If we could work out who Barbara was, we would have a clear connection between two pre-immigration families.

This would help us to locate both families in Europe c.1695 (when Barbara and Christian might be expected to have married).

Ultimately, it might also help to trace the Meyer family to their ancestral town or village in Switzerland. At the moment, there are at least 4 possible ancestral couples from whom the Meyer family might descend.

Additionally, Barbara and Christian had 3 daughters, all of whom are reported to have had daughters of their own, However, the families of many of these women are untraced, and the connections to their descendants have been lost.

What could mt-DNA testing tell us?

Barbara is assumed to have been the mother of Christian's 3 daughters :

1. Barbara (b.c.1701) m. Abraham Reiff of Lower Salford, Montgomery, PA - mother of 4 daughters
2. Anna (b.c.1706) m. Heinrich Funck of Franconia, Montgomery, PA - mother of 6 daughters
3. Elizabeth (b.c.1711) m. Nicholas Oblinger of Northampton, PA

We would hope to :

• Locate matrilineal descendants who would be willing to participate in mt-DNA testing.
• Explore their mt-DNA matches to see if any of those matches are also descendants of Mennonite families.
• If links to other Mennonite families are found, consider whether those links support or contradict existing hypotheses about family connections.
• Create a new hypothesis about family connections, if necessary.

If you are a matrilineal descendant of one of Barbara's daughters, please leave a message, or send a PM to the profile managers.

(Return to Swiss Anabaptist mt-DNA)