JOHANNES BIEBER

JOHANNES BIEBER

New research on Johannes BIEBER, subject of I.M. Beaver’s Chapter 7, has now divided this family into three separate parts, totally changing the descendancies that many genealogists have presumed for decades. Beaver said that Johannes had three sons, Conrad, John, and Henry. (IMB-513), but his detailed information on these men was wrong on three counts:

(1) the Conrad described (IMB-515) was not the Conrad who was his son;

(2) the “right” Conrad (the man who inherited Johannes’s property in Berks Co. PA and lived there his entire adult life) is not included at all, and

(3) the John described (IMB-514) was not Johannes’s son either. Rather, he was the son of Christopher BIEBER and Anna Elisabetha LUDMANN, and thus was a nephew of Sara LUDMANN BIEBER.

The information in Beaver’s book about Johannes’s son Henry (IMB-515) is thought to be substantially correct. Additional information has been obtained about three of the five daughters of Johannes (see below).

The information on Conrad BIEBER/BEAVER who married Mary KNEISLEY is substantially correct as printed (IMB-515) and has been amplified in recent research activity to extend information on most of their descendants (IMB-526-532) to the present time.

Despite these far-reaching corrections, the relationship between Chapter 7 Johannes and the other Berks County Biebers is still unknown. Not enough has been found about “the other Conrad” to know if and how he may be related to the other Bieber families that emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1700s.

Johannes I

The research of Thomas Stobie, William E. Kirkpatrick and others outlines eight generations of descendants of an emigrant Johannes BIEBER/BEVERTZ (b. about 1695-d. 3 October 1748) and both of his wives. (Stobie’s research uses a German spelling, BEVERTZ, for the earliest generations of this family in America and carefully notes when records indicate alternate spellings.)

For the most part, Johannes’s descendants lived in Berks and Lehigh counties of Pennsylvania for several generations and intermarried with ECKENROTH/ECKENRODE, HENRICH, and GRETT families among others.

Stobie’s research is available on a Webpage, and Stobie can be reached by e-mail at: stobie@sprynet.com.

Annadelia BIEBER

At the time Johannes I’s will was administered (1754), his widow Annadelia had been married to Johann Jacob GRENOBLE “about four years.” She is named as Odilia in her second husband’s will dated 21 December 1762, but no further information has been found about her death and burial.

GRENOBLE (also CRONOPLE, CRENOPLE) named his stepson Conrad BEABER (sic) in his will as well as Conrad’s sister Lisa Margreth. The will also references “my daughter Mary”, “son Lawrence” and “son Henry”. The wording does not make it clear whether these are children from a prior marriage or whether these are Annadelia/Odilia’s children with the same names.

Researchers Mary Ellen Jones (WorldConnect, 1999) and Jesse F. Davis (WorldConnect, 2001) show GRENOBLE was born 4 May 1702 in Erpolzheim, Leiningen, Germany. He and his wife Agnetha UNKNOWN had a son Lorentz born at Erpolzheim 10 January 1743.

Conrad BIEBER/BEVERTZ/BEAVER (about 1738-1784)

Basic information about the Conrad BEVERTZ who should have been shown as the son of Johannes I is compared below with the Beaver book information about another Conrad Beaver.

CONRAD “A”

son of Johannes I

CONRAD “B”

son of unknown (but incorrectly listed as son of Johannes I in IMB-515)

Birth

About 1738, probably in Germany, to Johannes I and Annadelia/Mary Anna Ottilia/Odilia UNKNOWN. (Conrad was “about 16" when father’s will was presented in 1754.)

Unknown

Marriage

14 Aug 1763 to Anna Margaret ECKENROTH, daughter of Johannes Wilhelm ECKENROTH and Anna Margaret (?) in Philip Schmid’s house, Macungie, Lehigh Co., PA.

Presumably a Catholic wedding. (Conrad’s mother was Catholic at time of her marriage to Jacob GRENOBLE.)

Unknown date, to Maria Magdalena KNISELY, daughter of Hans KNISELY and Mary ?, probably in Lancaster Co. PA. (Listed as married in Mary’s father’s will, 1757, Lancaster Co. PA)

(Possibly Mennonite marriage as her parents were Mennonite.)

Death

Will dated 22 April 1784; Conrad apparently died shortly thereafter. (Widow remarried 8 May 1785 to Michael HARTMAN.)

Died intestate; unknown death date between 1771 and 1783 probably in Virginia. (Widow remarried, date unknown, to Henry MAUCK.)

Children

1. Mary Magdalen BEVERTZ,

2. Henry BEVERTZ

3. John George BEVERTZ

4. Margaret BEVERTZ

5. Christopher BEVERTZ, m Susanna Elizabeth BEYER

6. Anna Margaret BEVERTZ

7. Catharine Margaret BEVERTZ

8. John BEVERTZ/BEAVER

9. Christian BEAVER (twin to #8), m. Mary Magdalen UNKNOWN

10. John BEAVER, m. Barbara GRETT

All were christened or baptized in and around Sharp Mountain, Albany Township, Berks Co. PA.

1. John BEAVER, m1 Barbara UNKNOWN; m2 Catherine LEAR

2. Abraham BEAVER, m. Barbara KAUFFMAN

3. Michael BEAVER, m1 Susan MAUCK; m2 Mary/Molly MAUCK

4. Christian BEAVER, m. Catharine MAUCK

5. Conrad Jr. BEAVER, m. Mary SESANA

6. Barbara BEAVER, m. Jacob KOONTZ

7. David BEAVER, m1 Frances CORBIN; m2 Rebecca CLEM

8. Mary BEAVER, m. Abraham MAUCK

9. Anna BEAVER, m. William MORELAND/MORLAND.

No birth or christening information found.

Property & Residence

Rockland Twp., Philadelphia Co. (Now Berks), 1746.

Greenwich Twp., Berks Co. PA, tax assessments, 1755, 1767, 1768, 1779, 1784.

On Lancaster Co, PA, Tax List, 1758.

In Frederick Co. VA, 1771 (which became Shenandoah Co.) but there is no proof that he lived on the 400-acre property he purchased there in 1771.

Siblings

From father’s first marriage:

1. Anna Catherine, married John Adam STAUB 4 April 1743 Berks Co. PA

2. John (no further record)

3. Sarah, married Martin REISEL 16 Dec 1744 Berks Co. PA

4. Mary (no further record)

From father’s second marriage:

1. Elizabeth Margaret, b. about 1736 (named in step-father’s 1762 will, Berks Co. PA)

2. (Mary) Magdalena, m Christian HENRICH Jr. 20 Sept 1767, Northampton Co. PA.. (HENRICH was a witness to Jacob GRENOBLE’s 1762 will.)

3. Henry, m. Sally/Sarah STOY

No known information

Military Service

Maxetani and Allemangel Independent Guard, 3 April 1756-11 May 1756.

Rev. War service as Pvt. in Capt. Smith’s Company of Berks Co. Militia

No military service record known.

Sources

· Stobie research.

· Kirkpatrick research.

· Goshenhoppen Registers, 1741-1819.

· Knisely deeds and files at Lancaster (Pa.) Historical Society.

· History and Genealogy of the Bieber, Beaver, Biever, Beeber Family, Rev. I.M. Beaver, 1939.

· jlpatterson@juno.com

John (Johannes II), 1722-1762

Research done by Burgert (Eighteenth Century Emigrants: The Northern Alsace) and others is the basis for the important link that detaches son John (IMB:513-514)from Johannes I (IMB:512-515). The John described by I.M. Beaver (IMB-513-514) was actually the son of Christoph BIEBER (1702-1733) and Anna Elisabetha LUDMANN. John/Johannes II was baptized 19 Feb 1722 in Germany. His father Christoph died in 1733; his mother Elisabeth LUDMANN BIEBER married Bernard KLEIN and emigrated to America in 1741 on the ship “Lydia”. John’s mother Elisabeth LUDMANN (who emigrated ten years earlier than her son) was a sister to Theobald/Dewalt BIEBER’s wife Sara.

John/Johannes II married Anna Magdalena HEGEL 23 October 1742 at Berg und Thal Lutheran Church, Eyweiler (Germany). Several researchers believe that he is the “Johannes Biber” who arrived in Philadelphia in 1751 on “[Two] Brothers”. Although women and children were not recorded, he surely had his wife Anna Magdalena and several of their children with him. The next extant records of Anna Magdalena and John are the christening records of more of their children at Christ Lutheran (Mertz’s) church, Berks Co. PA. John/Johannes II died about 1762 on a voyage to Pennsylvania from England and was, presumably, buried at sea.

John/Johannes II had a brother named Mathias and a sister named Elizabeth who came to America in 1741 and eventually settled in North Carolina.

Conrad BEAVER: b. ?-d. bef 1783

With the discovery of a totally different Conrad Beaver as Johannes’s son, the question still remains: when and where was the Conrad born who married Mary KNEISLEY? Who were his parents? Is there any information to support a relationship between this Conrad and the Berks & Lehigh County Beavers?

A Conrad BEAVER was listed the husband of Mary KNEISLEY/KNEISSLEY at the time of her father’s death in 1757. And he appears on the tax lists in Lancaster Co., PA, in 1758. Conrad BEAVER acquired Fairfax Grant property in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1771 (he purchased it from John and Magdalena LEMMON who had purchased from Edward HUMSTON} and was listed then as living in Frederick Co., VA. His death date and burial place are unknown, but Conrad/Cunrod was listed as deceased (having died intestate) in a 1783 property transaction involving his sons John, Abraham, and Michael.

Birth, marriage and death dates for Conrad and Mary have not been found, which may be due to the fact that Mary’s family were Mennonites who did not keep church records. Most of Mary’s siblings moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia. Most of Conrad and Mary’s children moved to Ohio in the early 1800s.

Patterson has recently collected information to indicate that a family named BIBER lived in Lancaster Co. PA around 1740-50. A Conrad BIBER was listed in Trinity Lutheran Church Records, Lancaster PA, in November 1748 as “recently arrived in this country” and could possibly be the person who married Mary KNEISLEY.

Descendants of Conrad & Mary are listed (largely accurately) in I.M. Beaver’s Chapter 7, pages 515 and 526-530, and have been extended to the present by many researchers.

To date, there is no further evidence of a relationship to Valentine BIEBER as claimed by Rev. Beaver on page 515.

Despite these discrepancies in Rev. Beaver’s information, it should be recognized that he provided a valuable framework for genealogists who have already worked for several decades to extend its reach and improve on its details.