Someone posted to the KEIM list that the "Oley Valley Heritage: The Colonial Years" (not "Annals of the Oley Valley", which I confused it with), has a series of property maps in the back for just three townships - Exeter, Oley, and Amity, or the land that became them - for 1725, 1750, and 1775. I don't know if possibly this same book contains property maps of other towns, like Alsace. But it seems as if such maps must exist if they exist for Exeter, Oley, and Amity. If anyone has access to such maps, can you please look up for me where any and all Wagners of Exeter and Alsace lived, and also Johan Nicholas Gottschall (estate, by 1775, in 1750, the land would have belonged to his father if it existed.) I keep hearing about a great big Wagner spread in Exeter. EVERYONE knows where it was until ten years ago, atleast everyone in the adjacent townships, who can also see the spire of Spies Church. It was in the family for hundreds of years. Noone knows how I would find anyone who lived there and might have genealogical knowledge about the family, of course. My knowledge about Henry Wagner's wife is coming together, if my knowledge about the Gottschall's isn't - and I can put the following together. Henry, b about 1740, and brother Johannes who got a farm in Cumru, b 1751, strongly appear to have come from Exeter and to have had close family ties to the Keim, Schneider, and Ritter families among others. Spotty records prove conclusively that WAgners lived in Exeter from before 1750. At times a widow may have owned the fmaily farm. There may have been more than one family farm in Exeter. Though noone has any clue who this family was - I've heard a great deal about every Wagner family in Berks County who did NOT live in Exeter. I am aware that a Henry Wagner is on the 1790 census in Reading next to names of John Jacob Wagner from Herbrechtingen and his family (they all became Burkett's and there was no Samuel or Phillip); this more than likely is the same Henry Wagner who died in Reading in 1816. I have his will, and unless he was peculiar indeed he is not the same Henry Wagner as he left everything to a single widowed sister and did not mention any other living relatives though Barbara daughter of my Henry was alive and thriving in Alsace township. Henry WAgner "of Exeter" married Sophia Seiwertin, or Seifert, on Dec 14 1769. Apparently she didn't do well, and I'm willing to bet that any child of the marriage died at teh same time she did. Henry Wagner got married again, on Apr 2, 1771, to Elizabeth, widow of Johan Nicholas Gottschall. In 1775, they had my ancestor, Barbara. In 1784, they had the only one of their children who anyone has so far found in Berks County church records; Susannah. The deeds indexes for Berks County do not show Henry Wagner owning any land. They did as I asked and also copied alternate spellings of Wagner. I cannot find any record of his or his wife's deaths or burial anywhere. Also, they apparently left no wills and no probate. But Wagner children of both Alsace and Exeter were marrying in Reading church records between 1790 and 1810, and one of them, my Barbara, was listed as "of Alsace" when she married PHilip Burkhart, who had a big farm in Alsace that he got from Samuel Burkhart in 1798, Samuel having gotten it around 1794, in 1804. This Johan Nicholas Gottschall was baptized in Germany in 1740, don't know if he was an infant at the time, his aprents landed in Philadelphia in 1747. He was the son of Christopher or Christophel Gottschall. He was naturalized in Alsace township, Berks County, in 1761. He married Elizabeth Nuss, daughter of John Jacob Nuss, name spelled every possible way that includes a N at the beginning and an S at the end, Sept 12, 1758, by a REading minister. Johan Nicholas Gottschall died in Reading, and on May 23, 1770, Elisabeth Gottschall, his widow, was appointed administrator of his estate. Don't know why she alone was appointed administrator, it was unusual for a man's wife to be administrator. She had sole control over that estate. It'll be interesting to see what kind of reports she made to the court about the estate! People who lived in Reading so soon after it grew rapidly after the formation of Berks County in 1752, were usually prosperous farmers with big farms in the surrounding townships. ASsuming that in 12 years of marriage they had children, this estate was in probate for atleast the next ten years. Someone else descended from that family already sent for the records, they could reveal much. It'll be several weeks before I see it. I suspect that Henry Wagner and wife Elizabeth lived on land that belonged to the estate of Johan Nicholas Gottschall, could be that formally speaking, one of the latter's sons inherited it! Apparently, NIcholas Gottschall lived in Alsace township when he was naturalized in 1761, possibly on a farm that belonged to his father, Christopher Gottschall, and Henry Wagner's daughter Barbara lived in Alsace when she married in 1804. Therefore, I bet that Henry Wagner and wife Elizabeth formerly the widow of Johan Nicholas Gottschall, lived in what had been Nicholas Gottschall's farm in Alsace township. Can someone please, pretty please, look up for me, all property in Exeter and Alsace owned by WAgners on all 18th century property maps you can get your hands on - 1750 and 1775 would be ideal. I want to know the names of Wagners owning land in these towns, the location of the land, and the names of the adjacent landowners. Also, I'd like to know about all Gottschall land in Alsace and Exeter. Yours, Dora Smith __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get Yahoo! Mail � Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/