Merle and all, I have added a link to my Donner records on World Connect. You will see most of my information has proof or at the least good evidence. Merle, I having been reading everything I can find on the Danner's in Muhlenberg, Ky. and the more I read and compare to what I have researched and mainly what I have proven regarding my Donner family I am more and more convinced there may not be a direct connection between the two families. I note that Samuel Danner was born in 1784 and George Donner, Sr. was born in 1752 - pretty big age gap for them to be brothers. George's birth date comes from his obit, published in the Sangamo Journal in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois. By 1817 George Sr., had left Jessamine county, Ky. and is paying tax in Jefferson County, Indiana, along with him are sons, John, Tobias, and Jacob. Son George (Capt. of the Donner Party), daughters Elizabeth, Lydia and Susannah are in Decatur County, Ind. I have found no George Danner/Donner in Muhlenberg. The only one who I have ever found in Muhlenberg is Ann Mary who md. John Dick, Jr. I have only one piece of evidence that Ann Mary is their daughter and that comes from a county history, which we all know are not always reliable. Bottom line is perhaps she isn't the daughter of George Sr., and Mary Huff Donner after all. Tobias does move on to Ripley county, Indiana where he marries Nancy Bettis in 1820, so the father and sons were in Jefferson, Decatur and Ripley counties in Indiana before they moved on to central Illinois. Elizabeth and her husband William Walters are the only ones who stay in Indiana. Do you know if there were Brethren settlements in the early 1800's in those Indiana counties? I have a lot of evidence concerning the family in Rowan County, N. C. and Jessamine County, Kentucky, but absolutely nothing prior to Rowan County that I can prove. I do believe, from the Records of the Moravians in N. C., that George Sr.'s father was a Jacob, but which one I have no idea. I can also prove from a will that George Sr., had a brother named Jacob. Jo Ann Schmidt _RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Joe Ann Brant Family File_ (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=joannbrandt&id=I1334) **************Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com! (http://www.tourtracker.com?NCID=aolmus00050000000112)

Thank you Now where did I get that they were in Muhlenberg Co KY? Oh, from John Dick Jr, who was a Brethren minister (wife was Anna Mary Donner). I do not have a death date for John Dick Sr (wife Elizabeth Roland, who was mentioned as possibly a daughter of Gasper Rowland [no Roland info] - John Dick Sr filed for divorce, "abandonment'). John Dick Sr was from Maryland to Carolina. His children went on to Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri - I have that he moved to Warren Co TN about 1820. There were a Samuel Danner Sr (born 25 Jun 1756 Chester Co PA - I have no death date for him, but his family Bible - a Sauer Bible is there) and then his son Samuel Danner Jr (1784-1857), who was a Brethren minister in Muhlenberg Co KY. Samuel Sr is the son of Jacob Danner, and married Anna Stoner/Steiner - of Coventry (PA), and likely Pipe Creek/Beaver Dam (MD). [Elder Jacob Danner, son of Michael Danner, moved to Israel Creek, near Frederick MD, on the Monocacy, as an earliest minister in Maryland. I am sure that it was his presence there, that led Michael Danner to mark the Monocacy Road from the Susquehanna River (York Co PA) to Frederick MD - and the source of that earliest major German migration path southward.] The Donner family migration does follow a pattern of some of those Brethren families that we had at Short Shun Creek (near Wilmore, Jessamine Creek now) in Jessamine Co KY. (But they were a migration party who had come from Washington Co MD - the Antietam.) While a group of them (Rohrers, Housers, Hoovers, Brunners, Arnspagers, ) came on to southern Ohio - Bullskin Creek, off the Ohio River in Clermont and Brown Cos - a number of them go on to Indiana (some directly from Jessamine, some via Clermont) - mostly Decatur, Ripley and Bartholomew Cos (or same and slightly north of where you mentioned). By then, 1820s, they were no longer Brethren, but had gone with the Revival and were mostly Disciples of Christ (the Bullskin Church went with the Revival, after the death of its first Elders - Abraham Houser and Stephen Bolender). A few of those children moved on to Illinois and Missouri. We had one church near there (that I know of), the Seymour Church (where my uncle, Floyd Breneman, preached for a while). It is in northern Jackson Co IN -just south of Bartholomew Co. Merle C Rummel > Merle and all, I have added a link to my Donner records on World Connect. > You will see most of my information has proof or at the least good evidence. > Merle, I having been reading everything I can find on the Danner's in > Muhlenberg, Ky. and the more I read and compare to what I have researched and > mainly what I have proven regarding my Donner family I am more and more convinced > there may not be a direct connection between the two families. I note that > Samuel Danner was born in 1784 and George Donner, Sr. was born in 1752 - > pretty big age gap for them to be brothers. George's birth date comes from his > obit, published in the Sangamo Journal in Springfield, Sangamon County, > Illinois. By 1817 George Sr., had left Jessamine county, Ky. and is paying tax in > Jefferson County, Indiana, along with him are sons, John, Tobias, and Jacob. > Son George (Capt. of the Donner Party), daughters Elizabeth, Lydia and > Susannah are in Decatur County, Ind. I have found no George Danner/Donner in > Muhlenberg. The only one who I have ever found in Muhlenberg is Ann Mary who > md. John Dick, Jr. I have only one piece of evidence that Ann Mary is their > daughter and that comes from a county history, which we all know are not > always reliable. Bottom line is perhaps she isn't the daughter of George Sr., and > Mary Huff Donner after all. > Tobias does move on to Ripley county, Indiana where he marries Nancy Bettis > in 1820, so the father and sons were in Jefferson, Decatur and Ripley counties > in Indiana before they moved on to central Illinois. Elizabeth and her > husband William Walters are the only ones who stay in Indiana. Do you know if > there were Brethren settlements in the early 1800's in those Indiana counties? > I have a lot of evidence concerning the family in Rowan County, N. C. and > Jessamine County, Kentucky, but absolutely nothing prior to Rowan County that I > can prove. I do believe, from the Records of the Moravians in N. C., that > George Sr.'s father was a Jacob, but which one I have no idea. I can also > prove from a will that George Sr., had a brother named Jacob. > Jo Ann Schmidt > >