It took me a long time to find Mary Zerns. She was the wife of my third great-grandfather Jacob Lentz:
Now I am stuck on her and there is a blank on her portion of the tree.
Here is a death record for Mary Ann Lentz:
This does not give her maiden name but does give a place of birth. The record says she was in her 80th year.
Lentz – Zerns Marriage Record
Hopefully, this is the correct marriage record from 1840:
It is at the Methodist Episcopal Church. Kensington is the right area for the Lentz family. This church is also known as the old brick church:
A search for Zerns in Bridgeport shows a Gideon:
This could possibly be a brother to Mary Ann.
Here is an obituary:
His service is at the M.E. Church which I take to be Methodist Episcopal. Notice the three different spellings:
- Zerns
- Zern
- Zernes
Here is Bridgeport, New Jersey:
So far, I am reinforced in my belief that I have Zerns ancestors:
- Mary Ann Lentz’ death certificate has her born in Bridgeport, New Jersey
- There was a Jacob Lentz who married a Mary Ann Zerns in Kensington in 1840
- There were others who were from Bridgeport with the surname Zerns, Zernes or Zern.
DNA Matches at Ancestry
When I searched for Zerns at Ancestry under my mother’s DNA matches I only found close relatives. However, when I searched for similar names, I found RA. RA’s line goes out to Elizabeth Zern:
Here is some more information on Elizabeth:
Her parents are shown as Gideon and Rebecca Zerns. Elizabeth could be a sister or cousin of Mary Ann Zerns.
In 1830, I see a Gideon Zerns in New Jersey:
This is a small household with only two people. Here is Woolwich Township:
I do not see any Zerns in New Jersey in 1820, so perhaps they lived in Penssylvania or elsewhere at that time.
Mom and Hum
Here is Hum’s tree:
My Cousin Cindy and Zern Matches
Cindy has this Zern match:
Parent 2 is the side I match Cindy on. Here is Drew’s ancestor:
I believe that Montgomery refers to Montgomery County:
I see that my mother matches this Drew also:
Cindy’s also matches another Drew:
Drew has the same ancestor as the other Drew. The two Drews do not show as shared matches, but they may be below the threshold of 20 cM. My guess is that this is the area where my Zerns were from.
Cindy and Zerns
Here we have Elizabeth again:
This time her name is spelled ending with an ‘s’.
A DNA match between Cindy and Lois also goes back to Elizabeth Zerns in Lois’ tree:
Lois has Elizabeth Zerns from New Jersey in her tree:
Elizabeth is a common theme.
Rusty and Zern
I was so enMiccouraged by cousin Cindy’s results, that I asked my cousin Rusty if he would share his DNA matches. And he kindly did. Here are his Zern matches:
Michael
Michael has an extensive tree. Here is part of his maternal side:
He has Zurn from Germany changing to Zern in Pennsylvania. This surname morphed into Zarns and then Sarnes. This offers two new spellings of the name. Michael also has Anna Magdalena in his tree, but not as a direct ancestor:
As Cindy has a match with a descendant of Anna Magdalena Zern and Rusty has a match with a descendant of Johannes Adam Georg Zern who is potentially her father, that suggests, that the common ancestor could be Johannes Adam Georg Zern born 1732. Michael has this further information:
Here is Graben:
The name since 1972 has been Graben-Neudorf.
When I search for Zern in Michael’s tree, I get these names:
That means that it is possible that my ancestor Mary Ann Zerns descended from Frederick, Abraham or Michael Zern.
Linda
Her Zern ancestor also went by Zorn:
Bellheim is not far from Graben:
RA
My mother matches RA. His ancestry goes back to Elizabeth Zern from New Jersey as mentioned above. Speaking of Elizabeth, Rusty also matches Lois, like his cousin Cindy. Lois, as mentioned above, descends from Elizabeth Zerns.
Zerns in Philadelphia
As Mary Ann Zerns married in Philadelphia in 1840, I will look now for Zerns in that area. Here is a family living in Northern LIberties in 1850:
However, the relationships in this family are very unclear. Is Lee the last name of Sarah?
Here are Jacob Lentz, Mary and family in 1850 in Ward 6, Kensington:
However, here is a poster for the family business of a sale of meat in Northern Liberties:
Here is another Northern LIberties Zern family in 1850:
All these people are said to be born in Pennsylvania. Also note that the Lentz’ first child is named George (but possibly after George Washington). This family is clearer. All children could be from Maria Zern.
It is possible that George is a brother of Mary Ann. Further, if George named his first son for his father, then the father would be William Zern. The George Zern family is in Ward 11 in 1860:
There is a 9 year old Elizabeth Zern on the next page. They likely lived in the same area as here is Ward 11 in 1860:
This is likely George Zern in 1840:
Summary and Conclusions
- I was able to find my first DNA match to a Zern descendant by looking at my mother’s matches
- I looked at other Zern families living in the vicinity of my Lentz ancestors in 1850
- I looked at other Zerns from Bridgeport, New Jersey where Mary Ann Zerns was supposed to have been born.
- Although I found hints, I did not find any actual genealogical connection between Mary Ann Zerns and other Zern families.
- It is possible that my Zern ancestors lived in Mongtgomery County, Pennsylvania, moved to New Jersey and then some of them moved to Philadelphia.
- New DNA match information from cousin Rusty implies that our common ancestor could be Johannes Adam Georg Zern born 1732 in Graben, Germany