The German (Edenkoben) family — one household, three branches, ~1680–today
Click any pin on the maps to jump to that place’s chapter. The separate Swiss Welty family is noted only where the two families overlapped on the ground.
Die Pfalz — in English, the Palatinate — is the historic region along the middle Rhine that was ruled by the Prince-Elector Palatine (the Kurpfalz), one of the patchwork of principalities that made up the old Holy Roman Empire. It was repeatedly wrecked by war: the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) and then the French invasions of 1688–97 burned its towns and emptied whole villages — which is exactly why this research keeps hitting register gaps (Neckargemünd’s baptisms are missing 1650–1701; Kirchheimbolanden’s 1690–93). It was rebuilt partly with Reformed migrants from Switzerland, and then, in the 1700s, sent tens of thousands of its own people down the Rhine to Pennsylvania — so many that “Palatine” became the catch-all English word for German emigrants, and their descendants the “Pennsylvania Dutch.”
Two more things the region explains about this family: there was no civil registration — church registers were the only record of births, marriages and deaths, kept separately by Lutheran and Reformed congregations (our family is Reformed — the detail that finally located the right books). And geography: Bischheim sits in the hills near the Donnersberg, the highest peak of the Pfalz; Edenkoben lies 50 km southeast on the Weinstraße wine road; the bride’s Neckargemünd is across the Rhine plain, up the Neckar past Heidelberg. Today it’s all part of the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz.
Bischheim (the apex village) → Edenkoben (the family household); the bride’s side reaches to Neckargemünd. Click any pin for its story; drag to pan.
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Brown = direct line · green = Weltytown branch · blue = Manchester branch · gold = shared trunk. Click any pin for its story.
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Bischheim (Donnersberg), before 1709. Johann Georg Wäldi (d. before Apr 1707) — the apex of the proven line, Bürger of Bischheim near Kirchheimbolanden. Named as the late father of Hans Jacob in the 1709 Edenkoben marriage record (Archion reg 54933, image 63) — the entry that broke the wall and pushed the line back a full generation (found 1 Jul 2026). A second son surfaced 2 Jul 2026: Hans Philipp Wäldi (b.~1693), whose Easter 1707 Edenkoben confirmation already calls Johann Georg deceased — tightening the apex’s death to before April 1707.
The surname was in the village at exactly the right time — as the pastor’s family: Bischheim’s Lutheran pastor 1681–1690 was Johann Jacob Walth/Waltz (wife Maria Barbara; son Johann Daniel bapt. 2 Feb 1682 in his own hand — reg 47031, images 7 & 149). The Pfälzisches Pfarrerbuch (Biundo Nr. 5699) tracks him on to Lauterecken and Reichenbach, d.1715. Whether apex Johann Georg was the pastor’s kinsman (son? brother?) is the open hypothesis at the top of the tree.
Johann Georg has no burial in the Bischheim book 1683–1709 (every entry read, 2 Jul 2026) — and no Reformed Bischheim register exists at all. Bischheim was pastorless 1690–99, and the fallback book — Kirchheimbolanden reg 46155 — is now 100% swept: zero Wäldi as a family (a 1690–93 war gap leaves Hans Jacob’s ~1691 baptism untestable there, not negative). The 1709 marriage entry got its full high-zoom re-read (2 Jul): the bride, Anna Catharina, was the surviving daughter of the late N. Durchsteinbach, Hüfner zu Neckargemünd — a farmer at Neckargemünd near Heidelberg (the place-name was split across two lines, which is why it went unread). The old “von Steinbach” misparse theory is dead; the surname stands as written. Her hometown briefly made Neckarbischofsheim (Kraichgau) a serious rival reading for the apex’s abbreviated “Bischh-” — but the rival was tested and killed the same day: zero Wäldi in Neckarbischofsheim’s burials 1684–1712 and zero Durchsteinbach in Neckargemünd’s Reformed burials 1654–1709 (her own baptism is untestable — the Taufen have a 1650–1701 war gap). The needle tilts back to Donnersberg-Bischheim. Remaining probes: Neckargemünd Konfirmanden 1686–1705; offline, Landesarchiv Speyer F22 Ausfautheiakten + C 38 rent rolls.
Edenkoben, 1709 – ~1752. Hans Jacob Wäldi marries Anna Catharina here in Sept 1709. The 1713 baptism entry calls him der Müller (the miller); the marriage entry’s own occupation word, re-read at high zoom 2 Jul 2026, seems instead to say der Seiler(?) — rope-maker? — putting a caveat on the “milling family” premise. The family is Reformed, not Lutheran — the detail that finally pointed to the right register book.
Their sons, all baptized in the Edenkoben Reformed register (Archion reg 54930, entries found 1 Jul 2026): John Jacob (14 Oct 1710, image 52 — found by hand), Georg Wolfgang (~1716, image 66), and Philip Jacob (7 May 1719, image 71 — the eureka that proved his parentage). Same mother across all three: full uterine brothers of one household.
The full register sweep (finished 2 Jul 2026) grew the household: two more siblings — Johannes (bp. 2 Feb 1713) and Anna Barbara (bp. Aug 1714) — plus the uncle Hans Philipp above. And it settled a question: there is no Michael Wälti anywhere in Edenkoben. Since the family demonstrably named children for their godparents (Philip Jacob for godfather Philipp Jacob Haaß; John Jacob for a Neustadt baker Joh. Jacob), our Michael’s namesake must be his Chester-side godfather — doubling the stakes on the baptism hunt in the Chester chapter.
Georg Wolfgang marries Anna Maria Keibel of Deggelsheim here 7 Jan 1750 (reg 54933, image 89); their first son Johan Jacob is baptized 14 Jun 1750 (reg 54927, image 57) — grandparents Hans Jacob & Anna Catharina standing as godparents.
The old family lore — “three brothers came over” (1897 letter, 1902 autobiography) — is literally supported. The lore’s Swiss/“river Aar, Berne” wrapper is rejected: that story belongs to the unrelated Swiss (I2b) Weltys (GAMEO). The papers’ “Michael Welty Sr., 1740 immigrant of Gettysburg” is likewise explained as a graft from the 1754 Richard & Mary ship list.
Philip Jacob (age 31) lands at Philadelphia 15 Aug 1750 on the ship Royal Union — “Phipps Welde” with a sick-mark on the oath list (Strassburger & Hinke, Vol I p.433; the long-circulated p.230 cite was wrong). Re-verified at the page image 2 Jul 2026: he crossed alone — the full index shows no other Welde/Weltz/Welter variant aboard.
The brothers followed within a year or two, but which ship is now a genuine two-way fork: (A) the Janet, 7 Oct 1751 — “Georg Welter” + “Johann Jacob Weltz” side by side, fitting Georg Wolfgang’s last Edenkoben sighting (godfather, 10 Jun 1751); or (B) the snow Ketty, 16 Oct 1752 — “Jacob Welde” + “Geörg Welde” together, both self-signed in Kurrent (Vol I pp.496–97 + facsimile plates), and spelled “Welde” exactly like Philip’s 1750 clerk. A wildcard “Johannes Welte” also arrived solo on the Neptune, 23 Sep 1751 — possibly John Jacob crossing alone. Discriminator: signature hands + John Jacob’s earliest Chester-side record.
Philip Jacob marries Elizabeth ~1754. The First Reformed Philadelphia theory is closed-negative (2 Jul 2026): the right volume’s full marriage list 1748–1810 holds no Welty and no Philip × Elizabeth 1752–56 — so the marriage happened at a congregation whose register hasn’t been read yet. He’s absent from the 1753 Chester tax lists, so the family may still have been near the Philadelphia/Germantown landing point then.
Michael Welty born ~1757. His baptism is the big open hunt — and the field narrowed hard 2 Jul 2026: East Vincent is closed-negative (the IGI batches cover the register’s entire 1733–1880 run — zero Welty variants under every spelling), and Falckner Swamp (New Hanover) Reformed — Leydich’s own book — is closed-negative too. The Lancaster-side registers (Waldschmidt/Cocalico) were already clean. That leaves Brownback’s Reformed (Chester, Ancestry coll. 2451) as the last venue standing. The “Joh. Jacob & Maria Margareth Welte” cluster that briefly pointed at New Hanover appears in neither New Hanover register book — its source is unidentified, so it’s handled with caution.
The namesake angle sharpens the hunt: by the family’s documented godparent-naming custom, Michael was almost certainly named for his godfather at that missing baptism — and godparents were usually kin, often the mother’s side. Finding the baptism and finding the namesake are the same search, and the witness line could crack Elizabeth’s maiden surname in the same stroke.
John Jacob arrives 1751–52 (ship fork above), settles on the Chester/Lancaster county border, and marries Christina Marie Braff 28 Mar 1757 — the same year and neighborhood where nephew Michael was born. That’s the strongest clue to which Reformed congregation the whole family used, and why Michael’s baptism hunt centers here.
Son John Henry born 4 Nov 1764, Lancaster Co — the one who will carry the line west. John Jacob dies 16 Sep 1791 in Lancaster County.
A candidate sighting (2 Jul 2026): an Ancestry-indexed “Joh. Jacob & Maria Margareth Welte” baptizing children 1762–66 at “New Hanover” — right window, right corridor. But the evening full-text sweeps found the cluster in neither New Hanover register book (Reformed nor Lutheran), so its true source is unidentified — downgraded to unverified until the underlying record surfaces. His baptism (Edenkoben image 52) was found by hand, 1 Jul 2026 — proving the same mother as Philip Jacob.
Philip Jacob in Dover, 1779 – ~1789. He farms 100 acres in rural Dover (taxed 1779–1783 — PA Archives 3rd ser. vol XXI). The tax rolls carry a land fingerprint of a father settling his sons: in 1782 his 100 acres drop to 80 while a new “Jacob Welty, 80 ac” appears beside him and Michael holds 44; in 1783 “Weldy Phillip 100” and “Weldy Jacob 100” sit adjacent. The ~1787 return (coll. 2497, image-read 2 Jul 2026) has John at 80 ac with zero livestock, Jacob at 10 ac with a team, and Philip in Dover town with a house + two lots — all in one alphabetized return, so adjacency there proves nothing; and the old “through 1788” reading is now suspect (the collection’s year index turned out to be broken). A July 1786 Quarter Sessions roster lists him among Dover’s established men. He’s gone by the 1790 census and 1793 septennial: death bracketed ~1788–90 — though a fork opened 2 Jul 2026: Jacob Welday’s 1800 Somerset household holds an unexplained second man 45+, the first record-grade datum compatible with an aged Philip Jacob having gone west with his sons (killer test: the 1810 follow-through). No will, no administration, no recorded deed, no grave — every York index exhaustively swept (York Co Archives); the informal family transfers explain the empty estate. And he never remarried: the register’s only “Philip Jacob” marriage (× Anna Maria Wild, 1780) belongs to a third Philip Jacob (b.1759, d.1813 Conewago) — who is also the “Welty, Phillip” of Newberry Twp in the 1790 census.
Michael in Dover & York, 1779 – 1789. He appears as a single freeman 1779, holds 44 acres by 1782, serves in the York militia as a private (pay certificate #12,706, £10.10.0 — the family “Lieutenant” tradition isn’t supported), and marries Christina Ruthrauff at First Trinity Reformed, York, 18 May 1784 (register transcription, Ancestry coll. 4946, event 7965 — corrects the pedigree’s “10 May”). Christina — baptized at Quickel’s (Conewago), daughter of Johannes & Anna Barbara (Hoffman) Ruthrauff per a 1943 genealogical query — grew up close by: her father farmed 195 acres on the same 1779 Dover roll. The family letter tradition (1897, preserved in Hoover’s 1925 history, ch. XIX) says the couple “wedded without consent.” An unpublished DAR typescript (GRC ser. 2 vol 170, p.149) puts Michael and Jacob Welty in the same York militia company — fresh, direct support for the brother pairing; the copy pages are on order. A full federal sweep (Fold3, every Rev-War collection, 2 Jul 2026) returns no Michael and no Jacob at all — consistent with York militia service living outside the federal rolls, and leaving that roster as the only known service paper.
Michael didn’t marry alone: First Trinity’s register holds eight Welty marriages 1775–85 (Elizabeth × Gauf 1775, John × Hilienfritz 1783, Christina × Messerle 1784 — five weeks before Michael — Catharine × Boehm 1785, and more). Working hypothesis: a sibling set, children of Philip Jacob’s 1754 marriage, tangled with Manchester-branch kin — each marriage still needs a family assignment. The three candidate sisters now ride the family tree as clearly-flagged hypotheses. On the 1779 roll the two brothers’ households sit together: Philip (100 ac) and George (120 ac) — plus, in the same township, the genuinely unrelated Swiss (I2b) Welty family. Two unrelated Welty families on one tax list — one of them large, and carrying a hidden Y-line break at George — is the root cause of 250 years of tangled trees.
Georg Wolfgang in Dover, ~1752 – ~1780. Georg Wolfgang & Anna Maria settle in Dover with Edenkoben-born son Johan Jacob (b.1750), and baptize three daughters at Strayer’s (Salem) Reformed — Mary Magdalene 1763, Anna Maria 1764, Margaret 1767. The wife’s name matching on both continents is what ties the Edenkoben groom to the Dover founder.
George holds 120 acres on the 1779 tax roll — the same roll as brother Philip — and dies ~1780; the “Welty Widow” (80 ac) on the 1780 roll is most likely Anna Maria. No will, no probate, no grave — and the warrant-register sweep shows he never took provincial title either: the 120 acres were held by unrecorded conveyance or improvement-right, so the founder left zero paper in York County.
The one asterisk on an otherwise single family: his ~1716 baptism sits in the same Edenkoben household as his brothers, yet his descendants’ Y-DNA is I1, not R1b. On paper and in life this is one German family — George was raised as Hans Jacob’s son, married from the same house, and stood his own parents up as his son’s godparents — so the working read is a paternity break somewhere at or above George, not a separate founding clan.
Manchester Township, 1780s – 1900s. The branch’s main spine stays put for five generations: Johan Jacob (1750–1826, m. Anna Maria Schramm at First Trinity, York, 15 May 1775 — register-verified) → Philip Jacob (1780–1835, m. Catherine Knaub; bur. Lehman’s Cem) → Jacob (1814–1901, twin brother Daniel; m. Rebecca Weigle) → Henry (1861–1919, m. Elizabeth Kauffman) → kit #102132 — now identified as a living relative, whose FTDNA match to a living relative (the Henry-b.1803 → Clark Co OH line) genetically welds that branch to the same spine (2 Jul 2026).
Johan Jacob’s 1826 intestate estate (admin bond II-089; $843.42 distributed) was cracked 2 Jul 2026 — the Orphans’ Court petition names his complete second generation: Philip (the 1780–1835 spine), John (new), Elizabeth (d.<1826, m. John Miller, 5 children — new), George (d.1819 — whose own will names “my father Jacob” and “my two brothers Henry and Philip,” paper-proving the joints), and Henry (d.<1826, widow Mary, 2 minor sons — new).
This Manchester Philip Jacob / Henry / Catherine trio is the source of most name-collision decoys in the old notes. A second branch (Henry b.~1803, m. Mary Catharine Coleman 1827) went to Clark Co, Ohio — independently confirming the branch’s I1 haplogroup. The only colonial-era Welty wills in York Co belong to this branch (George, 1819) and the separate Swiss family (Peter, 1755).
Michael moves west: Bedford Co by 1789, where son Philip is born 2 May 1789 (Milford Twp) and the 1790 census finds “Welty, Micael” — the only Welty in Bedford Co (the look-alike “Michall Wilts” of Newberry, York Co is a resolved decoy). On the 1796 Milford tax roll he’s paired line-by-line with a Jacob Weldy (b. before 1755 — the 1800 census bracket, image-read 2 Jul 2026, corrects the old “b.1759”) — a candidate brother: Jacob’s Cross Creek (Jefferson Co OH) descendants test R1b, 12/12 to our kits (Welty Y-DNA project), and the DAR roster puts a Jacob in Michael’s own militia company back in York. Then Donegal Twp, Westmoreland ~1797–1807 — John Jacob’s Weltytown descendants two townships over — and a Saltlick Twp, Fayette stop. Michael is missing from the entire 1800 census index; the same sweep surfaced a fresh 1800 cluster next door in Fayette: “John Welly” of Bullskin Twp — adjacent to Donegal, ~10 mi from Michael — a live candidate for brother John of Dover tracking west (plus Joseph + Peter Welly in Springhill Twp, unsorted).
Henry (b. 30 Oct 1790, son of Michael & Christina — birth record names both parents) stays in Fayette Co and marries Mary Byerly (b.1789, “of Lancaster county, of German descent”) on 16 Jan 1812. Nine children follow, incl. William (1816) and George W. (19 Oct 1823), both born in Fayette Co.
“Weltytown,” Mt. Pleasant Twp. John Henry takes the family to Mount Pleasant Twp, where the Weltys join the roll of leading German settlers (Overholt, Funk, Stauffer, Welty…) and grow numerous enough that the map still shows it: Weltytown, plus Welty Run (the only stream of that name in the US) and a Welty Road.
The founding household is resolved (2 Jul 2026): John Henry m. Eva Catherine (Stoner) Steiner, and Rev. Weber’s Reformed register records their children — John (1793), Henry (1794), Ludwig (24 Jul 1796 — the double-match that pinned the household to Hamman line #113729), Susanna (1798), Samuel (1800), David (1802), Elisabeth (1804), Daniel (1806).
The reunion zone: the two R1b branches become neighbors again ~1797–1810s — Michael in Donegal, his eldest son Philip b.1789 settling in Mount Pleasant itself, and the Overholt family shadowing the Weltys the whole way (Philip marries their daughter Sarah 9 Jan 1816). A “Henry Welty” is a Donegal church trustee in an 1814 deed — could be Michael’s son or a John Jacob descendant; still to disambiguate. This convergence is the log’s best vein for a record naming both branches together. Open question: kits #46885/#94256/#94578 match #98367 exactly at 12 markers — Big-Y tests would settle the exact join. Project results table.
Crooked Run, Dover Twp, Tuscarawas Co, ~1810 – 1815. Michael got his Crooked Run farm the frontier way (solved 2 Jul 2026): Abraham Forney entered the two quarters under the credit act in 1817–18 patents whose engrossing clerk genuinely wrote “Fawney” (images read at zoom) — and Michael bought Forney’s equitable interest before his death, exactly as the 1884 county history says: “Forney… entered a farm on Crooked Run, which he sold to Michael Welty.” The 1825 “Michael Welty” patent long pinned to him is structurally excluded (its cash act postdates his death by five years) and re-reads as Michael Jr.’s own quarter, beside John Welty’s 1824 and Abraham Welty’s 1818 entries in the neighboring sections. He dies in early Sep 1815 — the traditional 9 Sep is under audit, since the administration docket opened 7 Sep and administration cannot precede death — intestate; inventory shows a working farm. The county’s 1875 atlas-history names Welty among the Crooked Run settlers (worshipping Methodist) amid the in-law web the family married into: Stauffer, Mumma, Swinehart. The Overholts arrive in the same township 1810–11.
The grave: the full 1897 letter (recovered 2 Jul 2026 in Hoover’s 1925 county history, ch. XIX) places Michael’s grave slab at the Pleasant Hill Schoolhouse ground at Blicktown — now geolocated — the leading site, ahead of the earlier candidates (Sink Cemetery; the 160-acre homestead held from 1813 by the Swiss-family Abraham→Jacob Welty, an “Uncle Jake” by neighborhood rather than blood — the second place the two families overlapped on the ground).
Eleven documented children by two wives (the letter counts “10 by his first wife and 7 by his last” = 17) — first Christina Ruthrauff (our line, mother of Philip & Henry; d. before 1814), then Catharine, the widow holding dower in 1828 — and a fresh candidate sighting: a female “Catharine Walta” patented 80 ac in the estate farm’s own Section 11 in 1833 (image-verified, granted “to HER heirs”), with no household of her own in the 1830 census — an in-household widow buying land beside her dower third fits. Michael Jr. has a candidate identity: b.3 May 1796, m. Barbara Mumma, moved on to Adams Co, Indiana (Fretz 1903) — and the move reads post-1830: he’s still a Dover Twp head in the 1830 census.
The 1819 guardianship (six minors — one chose Abraham Overholt, the new sister-in-law’s brother) and the 1828 partition tie every child to Michael, Henry named as heir: “Henry Welty (son), resides Fayette Co PA.”
Stark County — Sugar Creek & Wilmot, 1820s – 1851. Two of Michael’s sons converge here. Philip b.1789 (m. Sarah Overholt 9 Jan 1816) farms at Wilmot until his death 11 Sep 1848; his descendants carry kit #98367, the pedigree that cracked this whole tree open. Henry brings his family from Fayette Co in 1833 to Sugar Creek Twp. He dies 8 Oct 1842, intestate (administration to widow Mary); Mary Byerly dies 1848. The 1850–51 partition of his estate names George as co-heir with the full register-matched sibling set — the primary record proving Henry → George.
Wyandot Co: Henry’s son William (b.1816) — the Dr. William Welty whose 1902 autobiography independently confirms the whole Henry generation — took a parallel branch to Nevada, Wyandot Co.
Hicksville, Defiance Co, ~1860s – 1938. George W. Welty (1823–1891) settles in Hicksville; m. (1) Elizabeth Frease 1853 (son Frank Frease Welty — a different branch of descendants, and a long-standing research trap), (2) Sallie Jones 1862. Buried Forest Home Cemetery. His Y-DNA lives on as kit #402746 (Y-67) — the strongest test in the cluster, held in a living descendant’s branch.
Austin (1869–1938), George & Sallie’s son, m. Martha Kyle 1905; his 1938 death certificate names both parents — the record that cemented the joint. Buried Six Corners Cemetery. Robert Warren (1909–1961), Austin’s son — born on a family detour to Mount Vernon, Illinois, raised and buried in Hicksville. Four children, including Alan Sprow (below); the other three are living.
William’s son Dr. S.F. Welty and grandson Dr. Scudder became Hicksville’s benefactor “Dr. Welty” family.
Steuben County, New York, 1840s – 1900s. A second Manchester son, Philip Jacob b.1759 (m. Anna Maria Wild 1780, d.1813 Conewago, bur. Quickel’s), fathers a branch that migrates via his grandson George (b.1819; m. Jane Paul 1843, Elmira) to Jasper/Troupsburg, Steuben Co NY — traced seven generations to participant A-1.
This b.1759 Philip Jacob is the man behind the “alive in Newberry 1790–1813” records that once masqueraded as the Edenkoben immigrant — cleanly subtracted, and confirmed 2 Jul 2026 as the register’s 1780 groom of Anna Maria Wild and the 1790 Newberry “Welty, Phillip” household.
Adams County, Indiana. Michael Jr.’s candidate arc (b.3 May 1796, m. Barbara Mumma) ends at Decatur, Adams Co — per Fretz 1903, corroborated by the Decatur cemetery cluster; the move now reads post-1830.
Cripple Creek, Colorado. A far-flung echo of the FT-only children: Michael’s son George (1792–1865, “Pikes Peak or Bust”) fathered Levi Welty (1825–1902) — the rancher whose camp mishaps named Cripple Creek; Levi’s son Alonzo became the boom town’s pioneer liveryman. George’s own tie to Michael still rides on the Tuscarawas deed test.
Clark County, Ohio hosts the Manchester branch’s Coleman line (Henry b.~1803 → a living tester) — genetically welded to the Manchester spine 2 Jul 2026.
Dr. Alan Sprow Welty (1937–2009), Robert’s son, born Hicksville; taught oral surgery at Univ. of Pittsburgh 1963–67, then ~30 years as an orthodontist in Owosso, MI. Buried back at Six Corners, Hicksville. He had four children; the family’s direct Y-line runs through his living son.
Alan’s living son carries the direct Y-line — the living Y-DNA candidate. A Big-Y on him (or on a living cousin, whose Big Y-700 order is confirmed in the project pipeline) is the keystone test that would convert the top of this tree from paper to proof.
The compiler of this research log — a living descendant, and the reason this page exists.