York County’s widespread Ehrhart clan: ‘By now probably 1/2 of York Co. has Ehrhart blood’
Evedene Bennett is writing a book on the Ehrhart family, a deep-rooted York County group.
The Ehrharts are associated with the old Ehrhart Tavern between Loganville and Shrewsbury. The property willed to Thomas in 1781 by his father J. Wilhelm Ehrhart.
Her genealogical book, expected to be published this year, is about descendants of 1741 immigrant J. Wilhelm Ehrhart and A. Catharina Shreiner Ehrhart… .
“This is the culmination of decades of research – before the internet confusion to the cause – including a 1983 trip to Germany & finding records of their ancestors in the Archives there,” she wrote. “There were vast Ehrhart reunions there in York Co during the 1950s, at least.”
Family names at those gatherings included a large percentage of the earliest settlers in York County, she wrote, especially from southern York County’s Shrewsbury Township.
Evedene Bennett’s cousin, the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Ehrhart, gathered records, which he gave to her.
She hoped it would be possible to get out word to those many descendants of married daughters to ensure their line would appear in the book.
Some of those names: Beatty, Bowan, Brenneman, Brown, Bowers, Cassel, Cowen, Decker, Diehl, Falconer, Gemberling, Glatfelter, Heidler, Hoffman, Holton, Husson, Kerchner, Koch, Koller, Kopp, Landis, Lau, Lish, Olp, Peterman, Prosser, Reber, Rohrbaugh, Royer, Ruth, Schmid, Schreiber, Shaeffer, Shindel, Slagle, Snyder, Smith, Strayer, Swartz, Young, Zech, Zeller and Zorbaugh.
The old tavern is now used for apartments.
“Many wonder why it is not as yet a historic site, & on some preservation list,” she wrote.
She added in a subsequent e-mail: “By now probably 1/2 of York Co. has Ehrhart blood.”
If you have information on this family that you want to share, comment below or contact Evedene Bennett.
Also of interest:
Other names linked to the Ehrhart family: Anstine, Kuntz, Messersmith, Spessert, Shreiner, Shaeffer, Zeigler.
Other venerable York County families of interest:
The Laux, Loux, Loucks, Laucks, Louck, Lauck, Louks family to hold 300th reunion in York and A leading York County name: ‘Keeping it in family is the Glatfelter way’ and How come few in York know about S. Morgan Smith anymore? .
Also:
– See photographs of Ehrhart Tavern and a story about its history: Part II: York County’s widespread Ehrhart clan: ‘By now probably 1/2 of York Co. has Ehrhart blood’
Archives:
– All York Town Square posts from the start. (Key word search by using “find” on browser.)
– Of course, you can always search for York Town Square posts on Google. For example, search for yorktownsquare and Laucks, you get this.
*Edited, 3/21/11