>From reading Durnbaugh's European Origins of the Brethren, 1958, one learns that Julian Stumpf (contemporary of Elder Peter Becker) was married twice. In 1712 Julian's wife from Stockheim was baptized in Dudelsheim by Alexander Mack (Durnbaugh, page 171). In 1714 Julian was in Dudelsheim where he was listed as a resident with three children (Durnbaugh, page 183). Julian Stumpf's first wife, Elizabeth, and their children's baptisms, Johannes (1700) , Anna Maria (1703) , Johann George (1705), Johann Leonhard (1707), and Johann George (1709), are mentioned in the register of the Reformed Church of Nordheim, Hessen. Julian's second wife, Maria, and his children Jacob, George, Johann, Mary, and Catherine, are mentioned in Julian Stumpf's will, dated March 12, 1741, and proved August 17, 1741, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Wills, Vol. 4, No. 211, page 236. Children George, Johann, and Mary were apparently from Julian's first marriage to Elizabeth. Children Jacob and Catherine were seemingly from the second marriage to Maria. (Son Jacob, from the second marriage, was apparently the Jacob Stump who married Elizabeth Becker, daughter of Elder Peter Becker.) Son Johann (John) Stumpf of the first marriage was apparently the John Stump who occupied the cabin of Conrad Beissel and kept a wife with him in the cabin (sometime in 1727) without Beissel's knowledge. When Beissel found out, he put a ban on John Stumpf for marrying "too near a relation." A Maria Catherine was named as the wife of John Stumpf in John's will written 1748, proven 1749 (Lancaster County Will Book A-1-172). In the will a Valentin Becker was named co-executor. For two of the children of John Stump, the court appointed their "UNCLE" Valentine Becker as guardian (Lancaster County Orphans Court, June 4, 1754). Now, the question is: Who was the Maria Catherine who was married to John Stumpf? Could she have been the daughter Catherine of Julian Stumpf and his second wife Maria? Could Maria Catherine have been a half-sister of her husband John Stump (son of Julian Stumpf and his first wife Elizabeth)? Could this have been the "too near a relation" marriage that Conrad Beissel was outraged about, resulting in John Stump being banned by Beissel from the Brethren? Could Julian Stumpf's second wife Maria have been born a Becker, explaining why Valentine Becker was called "UNCLE" in the 1754 guardianship papers of the children of John and Maria Catherine Stump's children? Also, could Valentin Becker have been related to Elder Peter Becker? I realize, of course, that no one can answer these questions, but I raise them anyway as it seems to me to be the most logical explanation of those things that we do know. Comments appreciated. Dwayne Wrightsman