Peter Overbaugh of Greene Co.,NY
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In reply to:
Re: Overbaugh of Greene or Ulster Co., NY
4/21/01
I think we are going to have a productive exchange, Cousin Lyla. One of our scenarios is probably right, the other probably wrong. Which will it be?? Peter (as I call him) is also my 6th GGF. I have heard of the work that Shirley and Ken did but have not read it.
My reconstruction of the history of the Deitz family is based on the excellent research of Henry Z. Jones, Jr., which he published in 1991 in More Palatine Families. In it he presents very convincing evidence that he discovered the baptism records of the children of Johan Peter Dietz in the books of the Nordhofen Parish church, Vielbach, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
In my research I also relied heavily on William V. H. Barker's excellent 1999 genealogical compendium, Families of Herkimer, Montgomery & Schoharie. I believe it is an essential resource for anyone seriously interested in early Schoharie and Berne families.
[Jones has quite a bit to say in The Palatine Families of New York 1710 about the family of Peter Oberbach s/o and Heinrich Oberbach. In it Jones references Shirley M. Overbagh's "excellent family history..." Jones found the ancestral origins of the Oberbach in Zurbach in the Parish of Maxsey (11 km. south of Hachenburg), and in Maxsain (2 km. further s.w.)]
Finding the German ancestral home of the Dietz family led Jones to discover that Johan Peter Dietz was baptized in the parish of Nordhofen 27 Jun 1690, son of Johann Wilhelm Dietz and Maria Sturm. On 6 Jul 1712 he married Anna Eva Becker. Jones found the baptism records for eight children, although Barker says there was probably a ninth, Rosina. On 18 Jan 1730, only four days after their last child was baptized, Johan Peter died. It now appears that all of the living children, with the exception of the youngest, emigrated with their widowed mother some time between their father's 1730 death and 1740. Jones says that Henrich P. emigrated in 1744.
Johannes, his sister Maria Elisabetha, and their mother Anna Eva, spent their early years in their new country near Loonenburg (now Athens), Greene Co., NY, while the rest of the family continued west to finally settle several miles east of Schoharie; just south of what is now Berne, Albany County, NY.
Jones says that Peter Oberhach's brother Johann Peter md. Anna Ludovicha on 10 Jan 1703 according to the church book at Nordhofen, which is near Maxsain. Nordhofen is where the Dietz family is from, and would perhaps explain why Maria Elizabeth and Johannes first settled in Loonenburg near Peter Oberbach who had immigrated in 1710.]
Jacob Weidman, who Barker says is probably the Hans Jacob baptized 28 Oct 1720 Steinmaur, Switzerland (son of Felix Weidman and Anna Huber according to an IGI record). Barker also says he is undoubtedly the (Hans) Jacob Weidman who was unmarried when he emigrated from Bachs, Switzerland about 1738 - 1743 (according to Faust's "Lists of Swiss Emigrants...")
More Palatine Families (MPF) has conflicting information as to when Jacob Weidman married Maria Elisabetha Dietz. Jones has Jacob Weidman first marrying Elisabetha Oberbach bpt. 10 weeks old 19 July 1727 at Zion Lutheran Church (d/o Peter). Jones says that the 15 Sept 1743 Zion Lutheran Church marriage records say Jacob md. Elisabetha Scheid [although I understand the records actually has the last name as "Schieds." This becomes significant as I will explain later.] Jones goes on to say that the sponsors of their children's baptisms show her to be an Oberbach.
Elisabetha Scheid Oberbach would have been 16 years old if she was the one who md. Jacob Weidman in 1743; and the marriage name of Schieds suggests she was already a widow.
Since then Jones has obtained additional from Bruce Wideman, a direct descendant of Jacob Weidman. Bruce has shared this evidence with me; as well as a letter from Henry Jones with new conclusions regarding the marriage of Jacob Weidman. Jones will be publishing this change in