John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1895

A correspondent asks about the Nöh or Nay family, and asks, in particular, whether the eldest daughter, Gertrud, of the immigrant Johannes Nöh, became the second wife of John Kemper.  B. C. Holtzclaw mentions this as a possibility, but makes no claim or even a statement that it was the case.  Prof. Holtzclaw notes that his source is Willis Kemper in the “ Genealogy of the Kemper Family ” (page 44).  While reading Kemper, I noted several errors in his history which are unnerving.

The basis of the claim that Gertrud married John Kemper lies in the inscription on a plank found in the attic of a house in Fauquier County.  The inscription reads, “ Johannes Kemper und Gertraud, # eleld 1754 .”  The symbol that represented by the # sign in uncertain.  Kemper gave it as a diamond with two of its points at the top and bottom.  (The inscription quoted was also followed by a Biblical verse.)  The letters “eleld” would indicate they were married.

( Note from webmaster of this website :  If the symbol represented by the # sign is indeed a diamond, , as Kemper interprets it, then this could be an ancient religious symbol for marriage, one that was still being used in some parts of the world, even as late as the Eighteenth Century, to represent a religious union of a man and a woman.  It is a combination of an ancient religious symbol for man , or husband , , and an ancient religious symbol for woman , or wife , , joined together to form the "diamond".)

I believe that researchers agree that the John Kemper was the immigrant, so he is becoming a senior citizen at this point.  Whether Gertraud is Gertrud Noeh, or Nöh, or Nay, who was born in 1721 in Trupbach, is not so clear.  She would have been 33 years old.  The weakness of the attribution is that the history of the plank is unknown.  The man’s name is recognizable, but Gertrud’s history is not as clear.  Were there other Gertruds in the community?  Notice also that the date 1754 may be the date a house was built, not the date of marriage.

Willis Kemper states that Henry Hager was the pastor of the church in Fishback.  It would have been better had he said Oberfischbach , because there were two Fischbachs, an “Upper” ("Ober"), and a “Lower” ("Unter").  Kemper adds that Henry Hager left that place in 1711 to go to America.  This is an error, as his departure did not occur until 1713.  A letter of his successor (Knabenschuh) informed his superiors that Henry Hager had sneaked out of town in the morning of 12 July 1713.  The same letter noted that Hanss Jacob Holtzklau had decided he would leave for America if he could obtain permission.  (This letter was translated by Andreas Mielke and appears in the material starting on Page 899 of Beyond Germanna .)

As to why Willis Kemper thought that Henry Hager had left in 1711 may lie in a letter from Friedrich Hager, Henry Hager’s son.  This letter, written in 1711 , indicates that the father was determined even then to go to America.  The son asked the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for any assistance they could give to the father if he should appear in London.

I have not given a complete list of the errors on pages 44 and 45 of the Kemper Genealogy but there are enough to cast doubt on what Kemper writes.
(25 May 04)