The Jarvis Family and Other Relatives

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Holder Family

Note: These Holder pages were updated on July 30, 2000, after three years of low maintenance. Some additional dates and spouses have been added, particularly in the descendants' pages that follow (links from Joseph, George and Charles Holder below), and some corrections have been made. If you've obtained data from these pages previously, please check your information against what is here now.

Another update to all the Holder pages was made in February 2004. Most of the changes in this update are in the most recent generations.

First Generation

John Holder (1694-1784) was christened in London, England, in 1694, son of Reu Holder and Sybilla Graeff. Contrary to what's been published in several places, it seems clear from his obituary that he was baptized in the parish of St. Mary le Bow, near Tower Hill, and NOT in Marylebone Parish. Some of us Holder cousins have had a great deal of discussion in recent years about his parents' names and ethnic origin. His father's name comes from a handwritten record that could be interpreted as either Reu (Reuben? although it doesn't appear that way in any record that we know of) or Rem, which might be of Dutch origin. After re-examining this record, I'm leaning toward Reu. Reu "separated from the family very early", and Sybilla immigrated to America with her teenage son John. The obituary says they came in 1707, but other sources suggest 1710 as the more likely date. They settled initially in Newburgh, New York. Prior to his marriage, John spent some time as a sailor on a merchant ship and on a man-of-war. John married Barbara Volck (1703-1777) in 1722 in Newburgh NY, but by the time their first child was born, in 1723, they had moved to Berks Co. PA. Thanks to Wendy Hiefield, Bill D. Holder, and others, we now know much more about the Holders' residences in Pennsylvania. Although born in London, John seems to have spent all his adult life as part of German-speaking communities. We think that Sybilla was of German origin, but have not yet established a birthplace or parents for her.

HOLDER DNA PROJECT

Not sure whether these are your Holders or not? If you're a male with the surname Holder, please consider joining the Holder family DNA project at Family Tree DNA. Contact Elizabeth Harris for more information.

Second Generation

Children of John Holder and Barbara Volck

Maria Holder (1723-1785), m. John Everett (1717-1777)
They lived in Lynn Township, Northampton County PA, until 1768 when they moved to Carbon Co. PA

John Holder (1725-?), m. Rebecca Kaester (Custer).
Two of John and Rebecca's sons were Loyalists who sailed to New Brunswick, Canada with an English fleet, when they evacuated New York in 1783.. The town of Holderville, New Brunswick, gets its name from this family. For more information, contact Bob Moore. Some early research gave John's death date as 1784. Does anyone have documentation for this?

Joseph Holder (1727-1792), m. Anna Maria Vollweiler (1727-1799)

George Holder (1729-1804), m. 1) Barbara Steiner (1723-1765), m. 2) Elizabeth Biehler (1741-1815)

Andreas Hugo Holder (1731-1779) was a linen weaver at Nazareth PA. We have no indication that he married or had children.

Catharina Holder (1733-1815) m. Jacob Rubel (1725-1813); they had no children.

Sybilla Holder (1735-1750). Sybilla was sent to the Moravian community at Bethlehem, and died there at age 15. She was NOT the wife of Heinrich Beck.

Elisabeth Holder (1738-1764) m. William Angel (1729-1769).

Elisabeth came to North Carolina, and married William Angel, an Englishman, in Bethabara in July 1762. She died less than two years later, and William returned to Pennsylvania, where he died of smallpox in 1769. He is buried at Bethlehem Moravian. Confirmation that Elisabeth is the daughter of John and Barbara came from a list of Barbara's children in the files of the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem. Many thanks to cousin Bill D. Holder for procuring this document! [updated August 2, 2001]

Jacob Holder (1741-?)

Charles Holder (1744-1808) m. Johanna Elisabeth Eschenbach

Barbara Holder (1747-1816) m. John Jag

John Holder's obituary states that he had six sons and six daughters. We suspect that the missing daughter is probably a child who died young, but for completeness we would like to identify her also.

The brothers Joseph, George and Charles Holder all came to North Carolina and settled in what is now Forsyth County. George came in 1754, and made his home in the village of Bethabara, although he was one of the men who helped to build the new town of Salem, about 7 miles away. Bethabara is now within the city limits of Winston-Salem. Charles arrived in 1766, and was one of the first residents of Salem. He was the saddle-maker, and also served as a justice of the peace and constable. Joseph arrived with his family in 1767, in company with Paul Christian Stauber and a person named in the Records of the Moravians in NC [1:361] as Andreas Volz. We believe that this was actually Andreas Volck (1722-1790), Joseph Holder's uncle. Joseph Holder did not join the Moravian congregation himself, but several of his children did. Members of Joseph's family were also associated with Shiloh Lutheran church, which is near Lewisville NC, on the west side of Forsyth County.

Sources

Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, 12 volumes; Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission

Doub, Ella Holder, Descendants of John Doub, typescript

Forsyth Co. NC Cemetery Records

North Carolina Marriage bonds

Curtis, Oscar F., Holder and Allied Families, LDS film 1638369/34; also see LDS 1638368

Carter, Charles O., Branches in the Tree of Alexander Carmichael and Related Families, LDS fiche 610029

Daniels, Jeanette K.B., The Holder Family, LDS film 1697600/11
Subsequent research has shown that there are a number of inaccuracies in this work, in particular the confusion of two unrelated Holder families who were contemporary in Surry and Stokes Counties, NC, in the period from 1760 to about 1800. Daniels is however correct in her statement that a genealogy in LDS files claiming a Massachusetts origin for the NC Holders is false. Overall, the manuscript should not be considered as a reliable source for the Holder families in North Carolina.

Chambers, Sunshine Foulke, Foulke Lupfer and Allied Families, 1952; LDS film 1033943/10

Pennsylvania German Society Proceedings, Vol. 21, Old Moravian Cemetery, Bethlehem

Surry County NC will abstracts, vols. 1-3 1771-1827, abstracted and compiled by Jo White Linn, indexed by Edith Montcalm Clark, copyright Jo White Linn 1974

Note: There are other, unrelated, Holder families in the Stokes/Surry Co. NC area in the late 18th-early 19th century. For more information on these, see Bill Holder's web page. Bill also has a complete list of Holders in the 1880 U.S. census, with tentative identifications.

Many thanks to Bill D. Holder, Patricia Patton, Wendy Hiefield, Bob Moore, Jill McCracken, Bill Tufts, Pat Smith, Harry Hoppes and other correspondents who have helped to accumulate information on this family.

©, 2001-2007 Faye Jarvis Moran and Elizabeth H. Harris
faye@fmoran.com, ncgen@mindspring.com

Elizabeth Harris

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