Confused Duplicates Powers/Bauer Family Pennsylvania/Virginia 1700 Forward

Question

Working on the children of minister John Valentine Powers I have found what appear to be quite a number of duplicates (upstream and among his children) but they have enough errors that sorting them is challenging. An additional piece of this puzzle is the Americanization of the German surname Bauer into Powers in some family branches and not in others. Due to a lack of primary records, there is considerable misinformation on this family throughout Ancestry, multiple error-laden FamilySearch pedigrees, etc. The best work I have found on this and allied families is by Emmert Bittinger from 1990 (using Church of the Brethren records) which is linked from the John Valentine Powers profile.

I am proposing to merge the various duplicates which appear to be involved. Some have active PMs, some are already orphaned, and some have inactive PMs.

If there is someone else in WT conversant with these families, I would appreciate a review of the various merges being proposed because the given names repeat in different family branches. Likewise, can USSC and Virginia look at the suggested merges as they are added as may be relevant to time frame.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bauers-34 appears to be a duplicate of https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bauer-2191

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Powers-5514 -- unclear who this may represent. Edit: the dupes are such a mess that my original notes here were meant for a different profile.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-446518 is an unsourced duplicate of https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Powers-10558 (Note: the Hyre family was not in Rhode Island, Swiss dissenters.)

Thanks for all assistance--it's quite a muddle.

Comments

Eve (no profile just yet), daughter of Valentine Powers was married to William Clark. The birth and death dates of that William Clark whose parentage is documented in his death record along with his place of birth are the dates being used on the profile of what appears to be a different William Clark https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clark-40373 with a different wife. Comment posted on the profile with links.

Edit: this has been resolved with Eve here and her husband William Clark was already in WT but unconnected here.

Note: Valentine's brother Martin Bowers had a daughter whose name appears as Eva in the earliest record of her. She is here.

Answer 1

I have ancestors who my dad always told me were spelled BAUER (his grandmother was one). They were in Pennsylvania from the 1700s and I find that, particularly in later dates, the name was spelled BOWER or BOWERS. I have not run across any Powers, though.

Comments

Thanks, Betsy. In this case, once the families have moved to Virginia we do have clear records indicating Bauer spelling used by one brother (Martin) and Powers used by the other (Valentine). It's one of the few times I have found documentation supporting this sort of thing.

Answer 2

I am glad to see someone trying to untangle this mess. I descend from Henry Fink-10. For ages, his wife has been shown to have been Magdalene Powers-2938. However, she was the wife of his son Henry Fink. The basis for this connection is the reference in Valentine Power’s will to “the fatherless and motherless Children of Henry and Magdalene Fink deceased.” To me, this wording implies that the children were relatively young. The children of the elder Henry Fink were born in the 1750s and 1760s. The elder Henry Fink died about 1790, and his wife’s name was Hannah. I have been hesitant to tackle this family because of inactive profile managers and the general repetition of inaccurate information.

Comments

Thanks, Jason. I'll check this connection and agree with you that Valentine's will indicates that these children are young. I was not aware of Emmert Bittinger's 1990 research until recently but am finding it quite useful as he gives citations, clearly states when info is 'received' info, says when something is speculative, and also notes previously seen errors. While his work is online (available an hour at a time), I went ahead and ordered a hard copy to make cross-referencing between families easier. Mentally putting all the bits and pieces on Valentine together a fairly good profile of the man emerges. I hope to do a complete rewrite of his profile in the coming months.

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Jason, I have added you as PM on Powers-2938 so she can be detached from her father-in-law (Henry Fink Sr) and attached as wife of Henry Fink Jr now at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fink-3085.

Answer 3

Thank you for identifying and tackling these duplicated profiles. If you run into delays getting merges approved for those in Virginia pre-1776, please reach out to me directly. If any of these are frequently duplicated or controversial, we can also review for possible project-management.

Ken Spratlin

Managed Profiles Coordinator

US Southern Colonies Project

Comments

Thanks, Ken. I think my next step to avoid incorrect merges is to check the children of Valentine’s brother Martin (who used the Bowers spelling). Then, I think I can safely work upstream on dupes.

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Ken, Martin Bowers is here. While brother to Valentine Powers, Martin did use the Bowers spelling of the surname and that is how he appears in most extant records. The father of both was Bauer(s). Do we want to change the LNAB, CLN or both on Martin? In PGM we follow the spelling found in docs of the period rule but I wasn't sure if USSC had established a standard for this. I think each of the involved profiles where the surname was changed needs a standardized statement so we avoid the creation of more dupes.

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USSC practice sounds similar to PGM, and we should weigh the nature of the source (did the person sign it themself or was it written by someone else). Lack of a "birth" record and later document signed by the person, as well as multiple spelling variants by others can make this a difficult task and require judgement.

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His birth and baptism were recorded

https://archive.org/details/recordsofrevjohn01stoe/page/22/mode/2up?q=Martin+bauer

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Since that citation does not name parents and includes "name wanting," do we find the sponsors on other children of father John Michael or another source that helps establish that this birth/baptismal record is for this Martin?

Edit: a transcription from Pennsylvania Historical Society lists the father as Michael Bauer. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/8681782?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a227150672f6f4352496575466156536e68725251614f6d6647754e3747456b42574667737a694673705932413d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d

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The records you want are on the bottom right of page 23 in the book.  When I cut and copied the link, it was not for the page that was showing on my screen. Sorry!

The record you mention is for a different Matin Bauer whose child was not yet named.

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Ken, responding to you in the thread above. The research of Emmert Bittinger in this area (in which he cites the work of several local historians) is nicely summarized in his 1990 work. Effectively, the offspring of Martin (brother to Valentine) used the spelling Bowers as did Martin which appears to have been an actual preference of Martin. Valentine and offspring used Power and Powers. Various uses in period records are found but these appear to be by various clerks or those writing for Church of the Brethren annual meetings. My suggestion is that we use Bowers for Martin's descent unless finding something different in something written by the descendant and Powers for the descendants of Valentine on the same basis.

Answer 4

I have been following your work with admiration.  Twice a descendant of the immigrant Michael, the name Bauer/s Powers and Bowers all appear in my tree, along with many from the Church of the Brethren. Your proposed merges appear to be correct to me.  Thank you for taking this on.

I have wanted Bittingers book for years, but could not find a copy.

Comments

There’s a seller found on abebooks who says they have multiple copies but ask a stiff price. Worth a check they don’t appear on the “book jackers” list at Zubal Books ( which does not have a copy as of the other day). Also check Biblio.com which is where I found a more reasonably priced copy.

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Hello, M. I sent a private message but adding it here as well as several descendants are following this thread. I believe Bauers-34 and Bauer-2191 both represent the same man. If you agree, either of us can propose a merge. This will then have WikiTree show Martin Bowers and Valentine Powers as brothers (yes, they used different anglicization of the surname Bauers).

Answer 5

I have corrected the profile of his daughter Mary Magdalene Powers who married Henry Fink, Jr. She was previously connected to Henry Fink, Sr., but I have added sources showing that she belongs to the next generation and was considerably younger than previously shown.

You are doing an admirable job!

Answer 6

A related G2G has been opened for the father of the Bauer immigrants at https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1681562/german-research-assistance-andreas-bauer-spock-baden-1680

Answer 7

I'm not related to this family but found a similar situation of multiple duplicates for the ancestors of an aunt by marriage.  When I contacted the PM of the first one I found, she asked why was I entering info on HER tree.  When I informed her that all trees here were collaborative, she dropped out & orphaned all the profiles she had entered.  Even so, I found a comment that I believe was made by her but is attributed to "[deleted]."  I'm just wondering if the dupes in the case of Bauer, etc, can be the same type of situation.  Good luck on yours.  I'm still working on mine after several weeks.