Hans
Jacob came to America on the ship Phoenix, arriving in Philadelphia on
22 November 1752. There was apparently only one early immigrant with
this name; as far as I have ever found out, all Lupfers and Luphers, and
a lot of, but probably not all, Lupers, in America today are his descendants.
He married Anna Gumbert
(the name is also given as Kumbert and several other variants. Recent
researchers are tending to agree that it was probably actually Gamber, a family that is found nearby, but not much is known about her family), who was also of a 'Pennsylvania Dutch' family,
and they settled first in Berks County for a number of years.
In 1787 they moved to Cumberland County, that part of it that is now Perry
County, near the town of New Bloomfield.
Jacob was a farmer
and sawmill operator who apparently had amassed a considerable estate by
the time of his death, most of which passed to his eldest son Caspar Lupfer, the
progenitor of that branch of the family which remained in Perry County
for several generations, and retained the original spelling.
Jacob and Anna
had eight children; the Bible in which their births were recorded has been
preserved. The old German writing is hard to read; my translation
is below.
The three sons
of Hans Jacob Lupfer gave rise to the three main branches of the family
which exist today. Caspar the eldest remained in Perry County
and inherited most of his father's land and property. Most
of his descendants continue to spell the name Lupfer. Johannes,
my 4th greatgrandfather, called John, moved to Venango County in
Northwestern PA shortly after the Revolution; most of his descendants now
spell the name Lupher. Johann Jacob, called Jacob, also moved to
Northwestern Pennsylvania, to Crawford County, at about the same time.
Many of his descendants today use the spelling Luper.
These three spellings
are not the only ones that have occurred, but they are the only ones still
in use today as far as I know. In old records I have seen,
in addition to these, Luffer, Lupper, Luphfer, and more. What
I think happened is that English speakers had a lot of trouble with the
German 'pf', and found a variety of ways around the problem. In time,
the branches that moved to areas where there were few Germans lost the
'pf' in one way or another; that branch that remained in SE Pennsylvania
where there were more people familar with German, retained it.
In hopes of somewhat
lessening the confusion, I have created three pages for the three branches,
Lupfer, Lupher, and Luper, or descendants of Caspar, John, and Jacob respectively.
Links to the main pages for each branch are at the bottom of this page. I
am aware that this is an oversimplification, but they are all together in
the database; if you cannot find the one you are looking for under one spelling,
check the others. I have used the spellings the people used themselves, when
I know. When I don't, I use the one their parents and/or
siblings used. If all these fail, the default is Lupfer since
that was the original form.
I always say that
the descendants of Hans Jacob Lupfer are distinguishable because they are
carriers of a gene for genealogy. It seems that in every generation,
in every branch, there is always at least one person, and often several,
collecting information about the family and looking for more. This is simply
not true of any of my other families. These pages would not exist
without the information these people, and there are and have been many
of them, have passed to me. I owe them a great debt of gratitude.
I do not generally put the names of living people on my website, but they
know who they are. If any that I have not met yet, and I am sure
there are some, are reading this, please email me or sign my guestbook!
A consequence
of this passing around of information, often for several generations, is
that inevitably some errors will have crept in. If anyone finds
any, I want to hear about it.
