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Surnames: Zerbe Zerby Heckert
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FFYBAEB/247
Message Board Post:
I have been searching for the identity of the wife of Henry Graham b. 6/21/1836 of Cedar
County, Iowa for some time. I have recently received information from Patrick Coughlin
that there is a marriage record for "Mary Zerby" marrying "Henry
Graham" in Cedar County, IA. I see several
Ancestry.com trees with "Mary
(Polly) Zerbe" daughter of Joseph Zerbe and Anna Marie Heckert marrying "in
California to a resident of that State" - can anyone provide more information
regarding her, and/or the migration of part of the Zerbe family west?
Our family records list Henry Graham's wife Mary or Anna Mary's birthdate as
October 13, 1844. - this date was recorded in Henry P. Graham's family bible (publish
date 1864) - her maiden name is not listed. Her parents, according to census information
from 1880, were born in Pennsylvania - by the way, we show her name as "Mary" or
"Anna Mary".
I refer to the following found on Mark's Gedcom on
Ancestry.com and on several other
Ancestry.com trees:
Page 491 of Floyd's History of Northumberland County (111(14)), "Joseph Zerbe,
son of Philip, was born in Lower Mahanoy Township, and there owned the farm now in the
possession of William Zyders, which he sold upon his removal to Iowa in 1858. There he
resumed farming, under primitive conditions at first and passed the remainder of his days,
living to an advanced age. He died in Cedar County, Iowa and is buried there. His wife,
whose maiden name was Heckert, was also from Lower Mahanoy Township, and she also died in
Iowa, surviving her husband many years. Their children were all born in Lower Mahanoy
Township, viz.: David, Philip, John, Albert (who died out West), Amanda (Mrs. Michael
Heckert), Elizabeth (who married John Tschopp and M. T. Wertz), Catharine (married William
L. Schaffer), Polly (who was married in California to a resident of that State, near Los
Angeles), and Eve (who married in Iowa)."
(source:
ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/northumberland/bios2/f468493.txt)
Can anyone comment on the general accuracy of the above record?
The 1860 Cedar County, Iowa census shows Mary Zerbe in household 1015-1037 on page 150 -
prospective future groom Henry Graham is in household 994-1017 on page 147
Henry and his brother James both served in Company "D", 24th Regiment, Iowa
Infantry - I don't know if any of the Zerbe men did as well, but that would be an
interesting aside.
Henry eventually moved on to Kansas and then to Oklahoma with his wife and children.
Janet Ivey Huffman
Charlotte, NC