My great-great-grandfather was John Hammer (#18), born in Hagerstown, MD in 1806. He married Elizabeth Witmer (also spelled Whitmer) in 1832. They moved to Illinois.
John was the son of George Hammer and Catherine Hall, who married in Lancaster, PA. His wife was the daughter of John Witmer and Barbara Newcomer of Maryland.
I won't go into all the other data because you can read all about it on the Newcomer's fine site. Other surnames of my ancestors mentioned there are Gerber, Weber, Coffman, Hall, Rowland, Miller, and Kendig. Newcomer was once spelled Neukommet, Weber was sometimes spelled Weaver and even Weller, Coffman was also spelled Kaufman.
My gggggg-grandfather Wolfgang Newcomer is said to have been born in Bern, Switzerland around 1715. He came to America with his parents in 1717. (Father was Peter Neukommet.) They were Mennonites who left Europe to escape religious persecution. Wolfgang moved to Leola, PA in 1749 (Lancaster County). His farm is said to still exist there.
Postscript: I updated the link to Newcomer genealogy in 2013: http://www.newcomer-genealogy.com/. Also there is an interesting history in PDF form that mentions Newcomers and Witmers: http://www.doubsmill.com/Doubs_Mill_History_4.pdf
Linda- I am excited to find this information on the Hammer/Witmer family. I am a decendant of Cora E. Hammer, daughter of John and Elizabeth. I really have just started my search, but would love to share information on that family to compare what my grandmother Jean Wolf shared with me so long ago.
ReplyDeleteTwo television clowns are direct descendants of Newcomers. They are Howell Eurich and his son Robin D. Eurich.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I looked up Howell Eurich and learned that he played Bozo the Clown in Texas.
ReplyDeleteSo glad I have you to keep of track of all this.... and, so glad to have a few (more) clowns in the fam.
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