Jllrmnir Anh ~Rnralnyq

Jllrmnir anh ~rnralnyq of t~c ro~tcn otiginnteb in tne lttt jmptrial@;itu of <Ulm, Uiittcmbctg: 1495--1878. <!l~t 9tabt~anptmann of llllm: 1550. lntrobnctoru. URING the life of my father CHRISTIAN MAYER, of Baltimore, many D Chronicles and Family Papers were sent to him by his father, from Ulm, in Wiirtemberg, and carefully preserved by him until his death. Since that time I have added largely to this stock by correspondence with the vari ous branches of our family in Germany and America; and, being urged by several kinsmen, I determined to draw up from these materials, as complete a Genealogical Memoir as I could compile. I have been kindly assisted iu the labor of gathering names and dates from the several alliances of the Mayers in, I may truly say, all parts of the globe,-for our kindred are scattered not only over America and Europe, but have wandered to Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and the distant Ceylon. Ou ibis Continent, they are dispersed from Nova Scotia to Florida and Texas,-and from Maryland to California. I have thus reunited to the parent stocks of the Mayers of Pennsylvania and Maryland, the offshoots that went, after the War of Independence, partly to South Carolina; and partly with the "loyalist emigration," to Nova Scotia and Great Britain. I think it will be admitted that, by the kind aid of cousins in all these quarters, I have been singularly successful in obtaining such large and complete lists of consanguinities and dates. It is probable that my quest has often been annoying to kindred who were addressed for information. Many were indifferent; some perhaps suspicious; others may have considered my pursuit frivolous. But such is the common luck of all genealogical hunters, and if I have not always escaped curtness, I have borne the brunt of delay or evasion with patience until I ultimately compelled compliance. I am glad to say that my rebuffs were comparatively very few, and that I ha.ve, indeed, to be thankful for the almost universal and kindly a.id, promptly given even in excess of demands. Dates-which. are the essential life-blood of true geneal ogy,-for it must be valueless without the chronological milestones that mark the lives of families,-! commonly found to be the betes noires of the pursuit, and especially disgusting to "persons of that certain age-whieh is the most uncertain of them all." 2 6 INTRODUCTORY. None of our lineage have been intentionally omitted. I have taken pains to discover and mention those persons whose fortunes or misfortunes have made their tracks most obscure. In our Country, where the family-law may be said_ to be centrifugal,-dispersing rather than coucentrating,-it is hardly to be counted on that domestic records would be kept and transmitted by a race enduring in America over a century and a quart.er. Indeed, it is quit.e remarkable that the two main-trunks of the Mayer-Family-in Baltimore and Lancaster-have during so many years flourished where they first took root; nor is it insignificant of character that they have so long abided satisfactorily to themselves and their fellow-citizens in the places where their sires and grandsires were bom. We know our lineal Ancestry in the male and female lines from 1495. The trace of very few has been Iost-labentilms amii.s. The Chronicles of the last three hundred and eighty-three years show that the Ulmer-Mayers, in the father-land, have usually belonged to the industrious Biirgerscltaft or citizen class of that" Free Imperial Gity"-as it was alwa;rs called from its indepen dent character and jurisdiction. In the XVth and XVIth centuries, some of the Wtirt.emberg Mayers served the German Emperors and Spanish Kings as soldiers, and especially in wars against the Turks. For military merit and services they were honored by their so,·ereign in 15i0,-with the heraldic arms which have descended to us and helped to trace kindred. After the middle ages our ancestors seem not to have concerned themselves wit.Ji soldiership; for their occupations,-as I suppose their tastes to have been,-were peaceful. They made themselves noteworthy among their townsmen not only by industry and cleverness in their callings, but by education. As far back as our records or legends run, the Mayers were always well taught people.-They were brought up to work, thrift, and independence; and given all the advantages of teaching and tmvel within their parents' means. This genealogical research has beeu made less with the hope of tracking onr family backward through tbe ages, to a Noble or Patrician Origiu in Suabia, than with the desire to sbow to those who shall come after us a level pedigree of honest, educated folk, who, without foolishly boasting iu a Republic the "blueness of their blood," can take a rank-from their uniform, houorable respectability-which is above the power of Royal bestowal. Since the middle of the XVIIIth Century the Ulmer-Mayers and their alli ances by marriage, in the great majority of cases, have been occupied either with commerce and finance, or engaged jn learned calliugs as engineers, authors, lawyers, or professors; while some have served their Cities, States, or the Nation, in civil or m.ilitary positions of trust and honor. Some have been mechanics; very few clergymen or physicians; and uone, I am glad to say, "professional politicians." It is to be observed with pleasure, as indi cative of genial character, that friendly intercourse has existed generally INTRODUCTORY. 7 between all tlte branches of our very large connection; resulting, in a few cases, in intermarriage. Though we had not only the "House of Baltimore," but the "Houses of York and Lancaster," we have had "no War of the Roses;" and I mention it as an honorable trait which should always be held in remembrance, that in nearly four centuries of recorded history no member of the family in Europe or .America has been known to cast a disgraceful shadow on the name. I thank the kindred cordially who have contributed in the preparation of this work, by tracing, setting down, and sending to me complete accounts of their families and alliances. My gratitude is due to my nephews Lewis and Frank Mayer of Baltimore; to my cousins Keim, Franklin and Dieltl of Penn sylvania; to Mr. R. Thomson, of Beaufort, S. C.; Mrs. Anna E. Mayer of Savannah, Ga.; Mrs. Kearney and Mrs. Grant of Halifax, Nova Scotia, for their fruitful quest in England and America; and especially to my kinsman Andrew Jackson Steinman, of Lancaster, Pa., for his long, untiring and pro ductive researches. In conclusion, I must express my obligations to others, outside of my family, who took pains to discover for me traces of kindred whose footsteps had become dim on the ''sands of time;" and, in this class, to none do I more cordially offer them than to Wm. Gral·son Mann, Esq., of Savannah, who was instrumental in re-introducing me to numbers of my cousins in Georgia, Florida and Texas;-and to Professor F. A. Porcher and \Vm. G. Whilden, Esq., of Charleston, who so effectually helped me to recover the remnants of our kindred in South Carolina. Since this manuscript was completed, the condition of my sight has com pelled me to refrain from overlooking its passage through the Press. This task has been generously assumed by my nephew Lewis Mayer, Counselor at Law, whose familiarity with the task, in publication of his own works, will insure even greater accuracy than I could have promised by my own super vision. BRANTZ MA YER. BALTIMORE, 1st September, 1878. T is usual to address a few words to the reader about the scheme on whi-Oh I such a work has been put together, so as to make it easily referred to and understood. My system is the simplest, being that of the human growth of a family from a single pair. I begin with a sket:ch of the European genealogy of the MAYERS from 1495, the birth-date of a common ancestor for all of us. I show the branching of the family in Ulm into two stocks,-in the year 1681 in which GEORGE BARTHOLOMEW MAYER, ancest.or of the emigrants to America of 1752, was born; and, in the year 1684, in which GEORGE BARTHOLOMEW'S hrother, MARCUS MA YER, ancest.or of the emigrant of 1784, came into the world. These two brothers, accordingly, are the respective common ancestors of these separate emigrations from Germany; and, taking them as starting points, I have set down their issue in chronological order, grouping each family, its intermarriages, descents, births, deaths, and hist.ory, in regular sequence, through all generations to the present date. Thus, my memoir is a descriptive Family-Tree, with trunk, branches, twigs, leaves, and-I hope-a few flowers as well as fruit ;-proceeding in the regular order of Nature,-free from the references and cross-references by letters, figures, signs, or symbols, which, in my judgment, complicate rather than clear a family history. And so, keeping Nature in mind, while paying strict attention t.o the family and its consanguinities, which he is considering, the reader-aided by a copious index,-will not fail to learn accurately the genealogy of any particu lar person, or, to get a satisfa-0tory idea of the whole race of the Mayers and of their alliances. lllm. HE Suevi, or "wanderers," were the parent stock of the Suabi~ns whose T land is contained in the modern Kingdom of Wiirtemberg.

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