261. Hershey

Outline

1. Andrew Hershey (d. 1792) m. ____; Hempfield Twp., Lancaster Co., Pa.
2. Andrew Hershey (d. 1806) m. (1) Magdalena Baughman (d. bef. 1763); Donegal Twp., Lancaster Co., Pa.
3. Catharine Hershey (ca. 1760–1833) m. Martin Bear (1753–1795); East Pennsborough Twp., Cumberland Co., Pa.

Sources

This family is briefly outlined in Phillip E. Bedient, Descendants of Benjamin Witmer of Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Part 1, Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 14, no. 2 (April 1991): 12-28, at 19-20. The abstracts in Abstract of Lancaster County, Penna. Wills, 3 vols., Collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. 24 (Philadelphia, 1896), 1:459, 481, contribute some chronological grounding. According to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Will Book F, vol. 1, 368-9 (1792), and Book I, vol. 1, 217 (1806), however, the wills of both Andrew Sr. and Andrew Jr. were written in German and could not be recorded in sequence in the books. The abstracts were evidently prepared from the holographic wills.

There is controversy on the parentage of the elder Andrew Hershey, with some authors placing him as the son named in the undated will of Christian Hirschi of Chester County. See, for example, Richard Warren Davis, Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners (an Aid to Mennonite Family Research), 3 vols. (Provo, Utah, 1995–9), 1:209-10, 2:202. David R. Johnson, The Early East Petersburg Area Hershey Family, Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 1, no. 1 (Jan. 1978): 6-16, at 6, 8, and n. 17, dissents from this conclusion, and points out that there was another Andrew Hershey in the area who died much earlier, and who could just as well be Christian’s son.

Related surnames

523. Baughman · 65. Bear