Albany Twp, Berks County & West Penn Twp, Schuylkill County - Help

[Don in SJ]

Albany Twp, Berks County & West Penn Twp, Schuylkill County - Help

I was looking at some of my old maps I have stored on the computer and there is one from 1753 for Albany Twp, Berks County. At first I thought perhaps Jeff sent it to me but with the markings that are written on the map, I think it is from someone doing genealogy that sent me the map, since it appears that it shows one of my 5th great grandfather's 150+ acre farm on the map.

Right now I am having a bit of trouble of figuring out exactly where the farm would be located, no roads show, it is a property outline map and only streams and few other possible lanmarks show, but the farm was straddling what is called Pine Creek not far from a church called New Bethel Church in 1753.

Hawk Mtn appears north and maybe a tad to the west of the site, just not sure. The church is on another stream that joins the one named Pine Creek on the map.

I have not looked at all the online maps yet and I am sure I can find it, but when I do, I might want to get together with someone in that area and do a hunt. Jeff knows I also had relatives in his county, in West Penn Twp, East Brunswick, Lynn Twp and McKeensburg plus some others I can't remember right now.

So, I am attaching the map, and would like to know where the church is located by road name on modern maps, My 5th great grandfather and his wife are most likely buried there.

Note: the highlights on the map are not mine, nor do I think my relatives, this map came from else.

Don

 

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[jeff of pa]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

1876 Map Look under Dist. 5



Mike is also adding a Recent Metro map Shortly

 

[Mike in Berks]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

i'll try to help you Don ? once you get a road map of pa. or berks co. i'm not sure
what roads you're coming up on but, you could try 61 north of I - 78 61 past pt clinton
you'll come to a traffic light make a right 895 west follow that about 3 miles and look for
Hawk Mountain Rd go right you can only go right from there it's up the Mt to the top
and then back down the other side at the bottom you'll see a road on the right Pine Swamp Rd.
that's where pine creek will start on the right side of the road keep going and watch your left
side for New Bethel Church Rd. OR you could take I - 78 east past Hamburg next exit would be
143 North to Kempton before Kempton there is a little gas station on you right they could direct
where you want to go the road you want is right across the street from the gas station Hawk Mt Rd.
61 NORTH you approach from the West 143 NORTH - Kempton you approach from the East
here's a map i hope it helps you lower left Hawk Mountain Rd thats the bottom of the mountain
from the west


i hope your search is successful !! you're gonna see many old stone farmhouses a relic hunters paradise

 

[Mike in Berks]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

i added some to Jeffs map the YELLOW is Hawk Mountain RD the RED New Bethel Church Rd

by the way the ground is frozen up here for at least the next 2 weeks

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

Thanks Mike, I sure I can find the church, now trying to figure out where the farm is. I won't be coming up for detecting or looking this year, I was just in Reading area on Sunday, next trip won't be till Christmas week. Hoping to have a list of several farms of ancestors in Northern Berks and Schuylkill County to check out in late winter/early Spring. I still am trying to gain permission to hunt the one in Exeter Twp. Last trip, no one home at all three places I stopped.

I think I have about 4 other possible farms in your neck of the woods that I need to find out about. I just stumbled on this one today, then had to spend a few hours making sure it was my relative's name on that map, and it was, it all matched with church records, land warrants, birth and death dates and the will of one of the son's.

Genealogy and metal detecting research can go hand in hand sometimes.

Don

I think I told you before, years ago, I used to bow hunt alot on the State Game Lands, former Manbeck Estate? Also used to go to Hawk mountain almost every year for decades,(fall migration) so I am somewhat familar with the area, although we usually did not continue on the Hawk Mtn Road to the other side, usually turned around and headed back to Rt 61.

 

[jeff of pa]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

If you can give me names, townships & Dates

Or as much info as you can on the Schuylkill county ancestors

I can do some searches on those

 

[jgowans]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

These are from MSN Maps



Looking at the stream names Maiden and Kistler I was further east though.
On the New Tripoli Quad. Along the Berks / Lehigh county lines.
But the sketched map could be way out of scale.

 

[jeff of pa]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

If you are Speaking of the Peter Wiemer Property
my uneducated guess would be the approximate area
inside the Purple Dotted Lines



the Green Circle Lists a Jonas Werner
in 1875. being Names were not always spelled correct back then
And as JG Mentioned, The hand drawn map may not be to Scale,
I wouldn't completly rule
out that area.

a P.S.

the town listed as MOUNTAIN P.O. Just south west of
the Werner home is listed as a Ghost Town
in the U.S. Treasure Atlas.
this may be due to there no longer being a Post Office there.
(Most Treasure Book writers use Postal Records to find Ghost towns)
or all may be gone.

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

I think I will have some time today to research and narrow down for sure where my grandfather's farm was.

I just did a google and found out he supposedly was a donator of land to New Bethel Church, not sure if that means where the church stood, the cemetery or some nearby land.

Here is the burial info : Burial: JOHANN NICHOLAS STRASSER New Bethel Church Cem. Kempton, Berks Co. Albany Twp. PA (Died 1790) I noticed his will was probated, so I might get a copy of the will from the Berks County Courthouse, the wills sometimes describe the land to be divided up and who the neighbors were, which is helpful in locating properties.

So I am not sure if the present church is on the original site, assuming the church there now is not from the mid 1700's, since it also says he was married in the church approximately in 1740.

This branch of my ancestors is just about the earliest of them to come to America, records indicate:
Emigration: 11 Aug 1732, Port of Philadelphia, Ship Samuel from Rotterdam

I have only one other branch of my ancestors that came earlier (1726) and they settled in a community called "Goshenhoppen", which is now known as Upper Hanover Twp in Montgomery Twp.

I am lucky to have been able to find so many of my ancestors came to America so long ago and almost all were farmers, so it is a nice project first off, just trying to verify the relationships, then finding documentation and finally the actual farms where they lived. Luckily there are great records for the early Germans who settled in Pennsylvania, which helps considerably in my research. Counties involved for my direct relatives are Montgomery, Berks, and Schuylkill, as far as modern day counties go.

Jeff, not Peter Wiemer, the property listed as 153 acres for Nicholas Strausser (spelling variants)


Don

P.S. I would think you all who live up in that part of the state would be interested in finding more maps from approx 1753 that might exist like this for other nearby areas, unless you already have them. Sure wish I had maps this old for my present area where I live.

 

[Mike in Berks]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

hey Don, i was looking at PASDA Image Viewer there are at least > 7 or more farms < between
the base of Hawk Mt. > (Eckville(a small hamlet) on Hawk Mountain Rd - to New Bethel Church Rd.
you might want to consider contacting the Albany Township Historical Society they do have a
web site and they might be able to provide some information for you on locations ?
here is another map that you can put aside of the one i posted it has H.M.Santuary and Eckville
Eckville is where pine creek starts on the right side of H. M. Rd.


i just read your last post i'll be posting in a few minutes i'm sure you will want to see this.......
there is an old farm right across the road from the church could be the one you're looking for ?

 

[jgowans]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

Just on a whim I saw this.

Johan Nicholas Strasser Rev. Daniel Schumacher 0 27,45,47,78 CR-S392 1754 1774

http://www.berkshistory.org/library...Schumacher&vol=0&page=27,45,47,78&cat=CR-S392

Not sure if it is the same though. The dates are not the same.

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

Just on a whim I saw this.

Johan Nicholas Strasser Rev. Daniel Schumacher 0 27,45,47,78 CR-S392 1754 1774

http://www.berkshistory.org/library...Schumacher&vol=0&page=27,45,47,78&cat=CR-S392

Not sure if it is the same though. The dates are not the same.

He had a son born in 1754 with the exact same name.

 

[Mike in Berks]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

thought you might like this Don ?

and here is a photo of the church notice the one room school house on the other side
of the road same side as the farm on the other side of the road i've often wanted to
drive back that lane and ask permission to detect to far out of my area though
i sure hope this is the farm you're looking for

 

[Kiros32]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

Excellent research Mike!! How cool would that be if that is the farm in the photo!!

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

I got a few hours this afternoon to play around a bit and I think I have found the Names and Addresses of present day landowners of my ggggg grandfathers 153 acre farm.

The new map drove me a bit up the wall, since the boundaries on the new map don't seem to line up much of anywhere with the mid 1700s map. But, I am fairly certain the contact list I entered on the one photo, will be owners of the former Strasser homestead, which one would own where the original homestead is, who knows, but I will followup on this one and at least now have possible names to contact.

I think I got the general area correct, the church property I filled in as yellow and the possible landowners are marked.

Going to look now to see if I have any more data on the Strassers in my tub file on genealogy. If not, I will research a bit more and then move on to another grandfathers farm in the general area. I think the next name will be from West Penn Twp. Jacob and his son Johannes Daubenspeck, both grandfathers of mine, Jacob married one of the daughters of Nichalus Strasser. Both born in Heidelberg Twp but are buried in West Penn, I will post this information and hopefully get another farm found.

Don

 

[jeff of pa]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

WEST PENN TWP

so far M. Daubenspeck
in District #3 in 1875



along RT.895 Summer Valley Rd.



I Believe it is this Place
because of distances between each farm
compare to 1875 Map






Tax site only lists house as 1900

But May have been redone in 1900

owners since 1924

Sales History



0487 0115 3/21/1924 i $ n MALONE CHARLES L & LILLIE I
0411 0096 8/31/1998 i $86000 q ZORICHAK, DANIEL J
0411 0096 8/31/1998 i $86000 q ZORICHAK, PRISCILLA K
2117 0605 8/11/2004 i $195000 q ZORICHAK, DANIEL J BRACKLEY JULIE A
2117 0605 8/11/2004 i $195000 q ZORICHAK, PRISCILLA K BRACKLEY JULIE A

 

[jeff of pa]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

Also West Penn TWP Schuylkill county
District. 14 on top
District 10 Under it

R. Daubenspeck



Bottom District 10
just to the right of the Tamaqua Area School District Building







Built 1850



Owners Since 1937

0567 0266 8/18/1937 i $ n LUTZ, H & M
1072 0769 10/16/1956 i $ n LUTZ, H & M REED, W & V R
1129 0551 10/2/1970 i $ n REED, W & V R LEONE, E & D
1636 0337 11/20/1995 i $1 u LEONE, ELI
1636 0337 11/20/1995 i $1 u LEONE, DOLORES

=============
==============

Upper Property





No Age Listed



Owners since

1943 Listed

0654 0299 12/30/1943 v $ n MILLER, L O
1094 0123 1/9/1968 v $ n MILLER, L O MILLER, A R & K F
1348 0638 8/28/1984 v $ n MILLER, A R & K F MILLER, ARNOLD R & KAY F
0010 0149 2/10/1997 v $1 n MILLER, KENT L
0010 0149 2/10/1997 v $1 n MILLER, JENNIFER A
0010 0149 2/10/1997 v $1 n MILLER, LEON O (LIFE ESTATE)

Total Property



I need a Break Will look fruther tomorrow

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

Jeff, not sure if any relationship to my Daubenspecks, I do know most of the families moved to the midwest or western Pa, not sure, the birth and death dates of the father and son are: Jacob 1755-1827 and Johannes 1795-1865.

However, you have found a R Daubenspeck and one of Johannes sons name was Reuben.

I'm still looking for more data on Strausser.

Thanks for looking, I know my eyes are cross-eyed from going thru the Berks genealogy site this afternoon...

Don

 

[jeff of pa]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

Jeff, not sure if any relationship to my Daubenspecks, I do know most of the families moved to the midwest or western Pa, not sure, the birth and death dates of the father and son are: Jacob 1755-1827 and Johannes 1795-1865.

However, you have found a R Daubenspeck and one of Johannes sons name was Reuben.

I'm still looking for more data on Strausser.

Thanks for looking, I know my eyes are cross-eyed from going thru the Berks genealogy site this afternoon...

Don

Same here on the Crossed Eyes
add an Empty stomach,
A Wired feeling Nicotine ain't Helping
& Time to do a little work here
Before Ghost hunters at 9

I Havn't found any straussers in West pen yet.

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Albany Twp, Berks County - Help

OK, I have the wills and estates of a couple of the Daubenspecks, will look tomorrow. The Daubenspecks seem to be all buried in Zion Stone Church cemetery, wherever that is, although I did visit the site and photograph the tombstones back in the late 90s.
Another surname and of course Grandfather of mine, who married a Christina (Dina) Daubenspeck is Solomon Kleckner (1820-1881)...

Don