John Christian Singer, Sr.

Hi Elizabeth,

 Thanks for this great info- . Christian Jr.'s dad was John Christian Singer (drop the John- it is a baptismal title- so he goes by Christian.) was married to Hannah Peters- but she must have died before they could have kids- . He married Abalona Moyens- and they had several-( I have it written down) One was your Christian who was born on the day of the battle of Germantown (this according to his obit which I have not seen- but have info from Sandy-Singer Dietz who is on the Johannes friends) 1777. His birth was not recorded where we can find it- I guess because of the battle. His father Christian Sr. was in the Revolutionary war. I finally got his Patriot number- it took 2 years. Christian JR. was born in what was then known as WHitpain- now Blue Bell Pa. This is where our family settled when they arrived in 1734. Johannes and Catrina (Catherine) with their daughter Catherine- arrived in 1734- and our John Chrisitan was born a month after arrival. Christian Sr. and Christian Jr.- along with Philip- brother of CHristian Sr. and their families moved to your area-  in about 1798- they are on the 1800 census. Christian Jr. met and married Susanna Woodling there. Christian Sr. died sometime between 1800- and 1820- he is not on 1820 census. He is mentioned in will of Phillip- as Phillip having gotten his land from his brother Christian-. It is not known where Christian Sr. and Abalona are buried. I have searched through the internet and had some folks do look ups etc- to no avail.  If you go to my albums you can see the house Christian Sr. built on his mother's property in Whitpain- (now BLue Bell) Boehm's Church is near by and this is the church our family attended- and is where John Singer (brother of Christian Sr.) is buried and his grave is still there.(photo in Robert's albums- and in my albums) Boehms is where our Johannes and Catherine are most likely buried- but there graves are not marked. Lots of tombstones have been damaged over the 200 plus years-so it is thougth they are also buried at Boehms. I have a lot of info- including wills.  I also run the Singer DNA project and we are trying to find out where in Germany our Johannes was born. He and Catherine are in Ober Lustadt in 1732- where the birth of their first child Catrina (Catherine) is recorded. The records for Lustadt have burned before 1730- so if our family was from there originally- that information is lost. You can see the copy of that birth record in one of my albums. Ober Lustadt is now Lustadt- and it is near Speyer. The signature on FB of JOhannes photo is the signature of JOhannes- when he arrived in 1734 in Philadelphia. He was a carpenter- and was literate to some extent- because he could sign his name. He died in 1755. Catherine died in 1783. Through the DNA project- we are a match to a Nicholas Sanger (Singer) who came over in 1750 with his wife and children- and moved right next to one of our pieces of property. I would think that since we were neighbors so close- and a DNA match- that there must have been some correspondance to Germany. It is not known what town Nicholas was from-that is a mystery still. Our other DNA match is to Johannes Zenger ( see my friends list for Clyde Senger- a decendant) . JOhannes is thought to be the brother of John Peter Zenger- the printer whose trial led to Freedon of the Press in this country. The DNA match is a close match- putting our JOhannes and Johannes Zenger at a common ancestor not too far back- maybe one generation or two- in Germany. Johannes Zenger 's father was a school master- Nicholas Eberhardt Zenger (just google John Peter Zenger for info) and he was from the Canton of Bern (Switzerland). Through the DNA group- it appears that our family was from Canon of Bern- maybe near the Guggisberg area- as we match a family named Bingelli in that area. So in a nut shell- DNA suggests our family came from Canton of Bern Switzerland- then to Germany probably in late 1600's. Then to this country in 1734. - susan