I have been researching an ancestor from Pennsylvania named Jacob Fisher for over a decade. I discovered him as the father of Hannah Fisher and have put together details about his life in little bits of time over the years. He is the subject of the fourth generation in my 4-generation project for accreditation. My goal has always been to eventually discover his parents but I knew in-depth research would be involved. Over the last few weeks I have been pulling together all my research about Jacob and his children to write up my report for this generation. As I looked over my research log and the sources I had used to discover birth, marriage, and death information for each of Jacob’s children, I realized I had never searched the valuable database “Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709-1950” at FamilySearch for a birth record for Jacob. Or, if I had, I hadn’t logged the search. As soon as I realized this, I searched the database and made a very interesting discovery:
The parameters for my search were Jacob Fisher, born between 1759-1763. Philip Jacob Fischer was the only Jacob Fischer that came up in the search. He was baptized at Jordan Lutheran Church in Whitehall Township, Northampton County Pnnsylvania. His parents are listed as Adam Fischer and Magtalina. My Jacob’s birthdate as calculated from his age at death inscribed on his tombstone is 20 May 1761, one day off from the birth date of May 21st 1761 recorded in this record. Even with this very similar birthdate, had I discovered the baptism record a year ago, I may have immediately written it off for two reasons:
1 – The individual named in this record is Philip Jacob Fischer. I have never seen my Jacob Fisher referred to as Philip Jacob in any other record.
2 – Philip Jacob Fischer was born in Whitehall Township, Northampton County, which is on the opposite side of the state from Westmoreland County where my Jacob Fisher lived.
Fast forward a year and a lot of hours of additional in-depth research on Jacob Fisher and his family. I have discovered a will and birth records connecting Jacob to 5 additional children that were all born in Whitehall Township in Northampton County. Because of these records, I know Jacob and his family lived in Northampton County prior to their residence in Westmoreland County. Jacob very well could have been born there – in the same township where his children were born.
I have also read about 18th century Pennsylvania German naming customs and learned that at baptism, if a child was given two names, the first name was a “spiritual” name. The name was given to honor a favorite saint and used repeatedly, often being given to every child in the family of the same gender. The middle name was a secular name, or call name. This was the name the person was known by to family members and also in legal and secular records for the rest of their lives. Therefore, Philip Jacob Fisher would have been known not as Philip Fisher, but as Jacob Fisher by his family and on all records created throughout his life.
For these two reasons, I am optimistic that I have discovered a baptism record for Jacob Fisher and learned the names of both of his parents. This is definitely one of my favorite recent discoveries and I’m excited to continue researching the family and gather more evidence to support this record. It is amazing how reasonably exhaustive research can reveal evidence that might be missed when casually perusing databases to find easy-to-obtain records about an ancestor.
What are some of your favorite discoveries?
