Meiser/Amerman list Johannes of Northumberland as a son of my ancestor Benjamin but I don't think that is true. For one thing, Benjamin’s wife Catherine would have been too young to have had a son in 1808 and there is no evidence that Benjamin had a wife previous to Catherine.

Also, Benjamin did have a son named John who lived and died in Monroe Township. Meiser solves the problem of two sons of the same name by referring to the Monroe Township man as John Benjamin -- but he is always referred to only as John in Census and in various other documents of that period.

Johannes of Northumberland and his wife and all of their sons and their wives are buried in Riverview and their tombstones have all been transcribed. These are the Northumberland Hummels having arrived there before Benjamin and his Mertz entourage. So who were these people?

One clue is occupation: boat builder. This makes me think he does belong closely to the Hummels Wharf Hummels since much of their economic activity centered on river related businesses. So I have placed him as the son of Captain John Jacob, brother of Benjamin. But I have no proof of that, no one else who has studied the Hummels has ever suggested it to be true, and so really it is just a place holder spot for him until I learn more.

1840. North’d Borough age 30-40.

1850. John Hummel, boat builder, age 42, lives in North'd Borough with wife Mary, 44, and Isaac 17, Edward 15 and Mary 10.

1860. He's still in North'd now with just his wife Mary. He 53, she 54. Status same in 1860, now they're both 62.

Elizabeth, widow, is in Chillisquaque Twp in 1850 age 53 -- who was her husband?

He is not buried anywhere near Benjamin Hummel.

To properly place John Hummel born 1808 into the right family, I have tried to identify the possible candidates to be his father and to also identify the other men named John Hummel of a similar age.

This analysis starts with the pioneers who came to the Snyder/Union County area between 1790-1810, three of them brothers.

1.) John Jacob Hummel, our ancestor, came to the Hummels Wharf area in the 1790’s and had a son named Johannes born 1782 who, according to Meiser, moved to Kelly Township before 1830 and was the progenitor of the Hummels of that area. He had a son named John but apparently not born until the 1820’s according to Meiser.

2.) John Frederick Hummel, brother of John Jacob, moved to the Rolling Green area in the 1790’s and had a son named John, who was born in 1799 and lived his adult life in Freeburg. Census provides some contradiction of this though in that John’s known other sons were born also before 1800, yet Census only shows 3 young sons in 1800 and 3 sons age 10-16 in 1810. Shouldn’t there be four? John Frederick’s sons for the most part ended up in Kratzerville.

3.) Johannes Hummel born 1763, brother of the two above named men, came to present day Union County in the 1790’s, was in the New Berlin area in the early-mid 1800s and died in Mifflin County in 1853. He had a son named John (Meiser calls him John E) born, according to Meiser about 1801. He is most certainly the John Hummel living in Mifflin County in 1850 age 49.

4.) George Adam Hummel, of Middlecreek, had a son John according to his will. Meiser calls him John or Jonathan and says he was born about 1805. Meiser tells us nothing more about this man.

Of the above four men, only the first named, John Jacob, had sons born before 1790. One was Captain John Jacob Hummel who was born in 1780 and had his children between 1800 and 1816. No Hummel researcher has ever suggested that Capt. JJ ever had a son named John and in total contradiction of the idea that he may have been the father of John born 1808, there never is a son of the right age in his household.

Benjamin Hummel, our ancestor, born 1788, also a son of John Jacob above married a woman born in 1795, so she really was too young to have had children by 1810. They had a son John born in 1817. Now Meiser says that a John Hummel who was born about 1808 was in fact the son of Benjamin -- without explaining the issue of the age of his wife. He does address the issue that there is this 1817 son named John by saying the younger one’s name was John Benjamin -- but there is no evidence of that whatsoever that I have seen.

So who was John Hummel who lives in Northumberland Borough and he was born in 1808. He was a boat builder. He was buried in Riverview and his tombstone gives these dates: 1808-1875. This is the man Meiser says is the son of our Benjamin. I find the fact that he was a boat builder significant in that the family of John Jacob Hummel were in “river-related” businesses, so perhaps he fits in to this branch somewhere but I do not think he is the son of Benjamin.

By process of elimination therefore, I have moved John the boat builder to son of Captain John Jacob. This is a guess and may be wrong but might also be right and I think is a better place for him than son of Benjamin.