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Subject: Re: [MIGRANDT] WEIDENHAMER family, Grand Traverse MI >1870
Date: 31 Oct 2006 00:15:47 -0700
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: WEIDENHAMER, REES, EDWARDS, ROCKEFELLER
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/1FB.2ACI/518.3.5.2.1
Message Board Post:
I have found no basis for the legend that Alexander Weidenhamer was related to John D. Rockefeller.
The Weidenhamer family originated in Berks County, Pennsylvania and are well documented. I don't believe there could be a connection there.
Alexander's mother, Elizabeth Rees, was also from Berks County, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of George and Maria Rees. I have no further information on this family.
I have no information on John D. Rockefeller's history.
John Alexander's family moved from Pennsylvania to Michigan and then to New York and New Jersey. Alexander was a business man (plus was married and had two children born) in Grand Traverse, Michigan, before moving to New Jersey.
Actually, it appears that Alexander's brother-in-law, Joseph Brenthal Edwards, an immigrant from Wales, a coal miner in Pennsylvania, and then an oil refiner in Rensselaer, New York, who may have given Alexander the 'in' into the oil refining business. Alexander did live with Joseph and his sister, Catherine, in 1870, before returning to Michigan to start his own business.
Census citations for John Alexander Weidenhamer:
1850 Census PA Northumberland Coal P 192 L 26
1860 Census IL Adams Honey Creek P 1035 L 15
1870 Census NY Rensselaer Greenbush P 118 L 19 w/Joseph Edwards
1880 Census MI Grand Traverse Traverse City T9-0578 P 454D
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