Tag Archives: Jacob Roland

Roland

Jacob Roland & Catharina Brechbuhl of Oberentfelden, Aargau, Switzerland

2 Comments

Jacob Roland lived in difficult times. He was born 19 June 1659 in Oberentfelden, Aargau, Switzerland, the son of Ulrich Roland and Verena Meyer. War and economic hardship had taken its toll. The Thirty Years’ War had ended just a decade earlier in 1648, but life was still quite difficult with Germans and Swiss families moving to new areas to try for a better life.

Jacob moved twice, once from Oberentfelden to Miesau, a distance of about 220 miles, which was quite a move in the 1600s, and then back again to Switzerland. In 1721, in his old age, he applied to the Berne Council (local authorities had to give permission for families to move about) to move back to the Palatinate. His request was denied, much to the pleasure of the elderly women and children who wanted to remain in Switzerland. [Note: This anecdote was found in Beiträge zur Aargauergeschichte, volume 16 (2009).]

Jacob married Catharina Brechbuhl, c1688, who was from Lauperswil, a bit over 40 miles away from Oberentfelden in the canton of Bern. How they met isn’t evident given the distances between the villages. However, Jacob and Catharina must have lived in or near Lauperswil when they left the Palatinate area and returned to Switzerland because it was the Bern Council that denied Jacob’s request to migrate once again.

Not much else is known about Jacob and Catharina’s lives.

Children, all born in Oberentfelden:

1. Hans Rudolf, born 23 June 1689
2. Hans Jacob, born 7 August 1692
3. Hans Melchior, born 28 February 1689; died 1 March 1749; married Anna Maria Lang
4. Johannes, born 1 August 1696

The Beiträge zur Aargauergeschichte says there were also three other children, but birth/baptismal records can’t be found for them. I am not sure how anyone knows then that there were other children. Perhaps there is a Swiss probate file for Jacob or Catharina?

 

 

Hon, Roland

Jacob Roland & Mary Keithley of Rowan County, North Carolina, 1700s

2 Comments

Jacob Roland was born c1750, probably on or near Big Conewago creek in York County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Gaspar (Caspar) Roland and his wife, Mary Hunsaker.

Jacob married Mary, whose maiden name is reportedly Keithley, c1772. The Rolands were living in Frederick County, Maryland about that time. However, I have not found any proof of this marriage. The closest I can come to placing a Keithley near the Roland family is John Kighley, who received a land grant in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1785. One John Keithley sold the land to Adam Elrod in 1791. As Jacob Roland died in Rowan County before 22 November 1779, it is possible that this John Keithley could be a brother of Mary (Keithley?) Roland.

In any case, Mary’s German name would not have been spelled Keithley, it would have been more like Kuechle or Kicheli, which are phonetically similar.

What is the source for Mary’s maiden name? We’ll get to that in a minute.

Jacob and Mary had two children living when Jacob passed away, a young man only in his late 20s.

Children:

1. (Veronica?) Frina, born 3 February 1776, Frederick County, Maryland; died before 1840, probably Muhlenberg County, Kentucky; married Jacob Hendricks, 25 June 1792, Rowan County, North Carolina

2. Gaspar, born c1777, probably either Frederick County, Maryland or Rowan County, North Carolina; died after 1860, Ralls County, Missouri, where he had lived since obtaining land there on 1 April 1829; married Elizabeth Roland, 13 February 1806, Warren County, Kentucky.

Jacob Roland may have died in 1778, as by the recording of his estate administration on 22 November 1779, his widow was already remarried to Jonas Hon.

Jonas Hon was born c1750, place unknown and died after the 1830, Nicholas County, Kentucky. Mary appears to have still been living, too, in 1830, as the household had one male and one female, each aged 70-79. His name seems to be consistently indexed as How.

The Hons left North Carolina not long after the close of the American Revolution as Jonas Hon is found on the 1787, 1790 and tax lists of Fayette County, Kentucky.

By 1800, he appears on the Bourbon County, Kentucky list. The family still lived there in 1810:

By 1820, Jonas Honn was purchasing land in Nicholas County from John and Millicent Fowler [Deed Book E:427], where he and Mary lived out the rest of their days.

Children:

1. Peter Keithley, born 10 October 1791, probably Rowan County, North Carolina; died 21 March 1876, Nicholas County, Kentucky; married Elizabeth Clark, 20 February 1808, Bourbon County, Kentucky

There it is – Peter Keithley – which is why it is believed that Mary who married Jacob Roland and Jonas Hon was a Keithley.

No probate has been found for Jonas Honn, nor have I been able to figure out who sold the 160 acres of land he purchased in 1820.

Bourbon County marriage records show that one Jacob Honn married Anne Jones, 21 March 1810 and she was probably a second wife since there are young children at home in the 1810 census. Jacob was aged 26-44.

One John Honn also married in Bourbon County to Chloe Jones on 3 November 1806. He is also 26-44 years old in 1810.

Given their age range, and that Jonas and Mary married by 1779, John and Jacob could also be Mary’s children, but might be Jonas’s by an earlier marriage.

I did a double take when I looked at the birth date on Peter’s gravestone – 10 October 1791 – and the marriage date of 20 February 1808 – when he would have been 16 years and 4 months old. I have a hard time believing a male married at the age of 16, but he and Elizabeth were both under the age of 21, as their fathers’ permission note is extant:


Loose Marriage Records, Bourbon County, KY
Source: FamilySearch

I will leave the Keithley line alone since Mary’s purported origins appear to be as much of a hot mess as they were when I first looked at the family in pre-internet days. Her parentage remains unproven, although I tend to think that John Keithley in Rowan County at the same time the Rolands were there may well be her brother or some other relative.