Eleanor Waltman

Female Abt 1730 -


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  • Name Eleanor Waltman 
    Birth Abt 1730  Germany Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Notes 
    • The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

      Eleanor Waltman apparently was married to George Lutz, although LaMance thought Eleanor's husband was Michael Lutz. LaMance said Eleanor was born in 1740, but a baptismal record in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, showed that Eleanor and George Lutz had a son in 1748. This suggests that Eleanor may have been born as early as 1730, before Conrad Waltman traveled to America in 1738, and thus Eleanor may have been born in Europe. A tax record suggests that George and Eleanor Lutz moved from Montgomery County to Berks County about 1752. Eleanor was a widow as early as 1767, and tax records show she had considerable property in Amity Township, Berks County. The last record of her life was in 1781, and she must have died after that, presumably in Amity Township. One of her children, George Lutz, Jr., died there in 1802, and her daughter Susanna Lutz Ludwig died there in 1818. LaMance believed that Eleanor and George Lutz had a daughter, Eleanor Lutz (junior), born in 1767, but no evidence of this child has been found. LaMance said that Eleanor took in two children, George and Samuel, of her brother William Waltman after William was killed during the war. However, there is doubt about whether Conrad had a son named William Waltman (see below). LaMance said that William's son George married Eleanor Lutz (junior), his cousin and foster sister, but this has not been confirmed either. LaMance said that Eleanor and family moved to Bedford County in 1790, and it was there that cousins George Waltman and Eleanor Lutz were married. But Eleanor Waltman Lutz probably was dead by that time, and records show it was another Waltman family, descended from the immigrant Emanuel Waltman, that moved to Bedford County in 1790. If there was a George Waltman who married an Eleanor Lutz, one possibility is that it did not happen in Bedford County; another is that this George Waltman was descended not from Conrad and William but from the line of the immigrant Emanuel Waltman.

      There are many unknowns in the story of Eleanor Waltman, and the result is substantial confusion. The LaMance story appears to be full of errors. LaMance thought that Eleanor, a child of Conrad, was born in 1740, and that she was married to Michael Lutz, born in Switzerland in 1727.[3] Other records suggest, probably correctly, that Eleanor married a George Lutz. A baptismal record at New Hanover Lutheran Church, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, shows that George and Eleanor Lutz had a son, Johannes, baptized in December 1748. If this is the same Eleanor and if she was about 18 when Johannes was born, the date suggests that Eleanor herself may have been born as early as 1730, before her father Conrad traveled to America, and that she was born in Europe.

      There is evidence that many people named Lutz lived in Pennsylvania in this era, and LaMance appears to have attributed relationships between them that were not merited. Believing that Michael Lutz was the one who married Eleanor Waltmane said that the father of Michael Lutz was named George Lutz and that he had come to America aboard the Davy in 1738, the same ship that carried Conrad Waltman, and that therefore the Lutz and Waltman families knew each other. (At least one version of the Davy passenger list called him ?George Sutz.?) A book published in 1736 showed a Michael Lutz, born in 1697, as a member of the New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County. A church record showed that a Michael Lutz and his wife (Eleanor?) were sponsors at a baptism in 1756 at Tohickon Church, Bedminister Township, Bucks County. This is the same church where Conrad Waltman's daughter, Elizabeth Waltman, married Joseph Dreisbach two years later, in 1758. These records appear to show that the Waltman and Lutz families both resided in Bucks and nearby Montgomery counties and that they were acquainted at an early stage. This could have led to the marriage between George Lutz and Eleanor Waltman, but it is not clear how George was related to Michael.

      It appears that Eleanor's family moved from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, about 1752 to Amity Township, Berks County. At least three children had been born in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County -- George, Jr. (about 1746), Johann), and Susanna (1750). But George Lutz appeared in a tax record of Amity Township, Berks County, in 1752, and at least one child (Jacob in 1760) was born in Amity Township. Eleanor's husband George Lutz died before 1767, when the tax list for Amity Township showed Eleanor Lutz as a widow. This same tax record for 1767 also showed Eleanor's son George Lutz, a single man, apparently living with or near his mother. Tax records in subsequent years showed separate entries on this property for "George Lutz" and "Widow Lutz" or "Eleanor Lutz." She appeared in the tax lists up through 1781, indicating that she died after this date. The family seems to have remained in Amity Township. Eleanor's son George died there in 1802 and her daughter Susanna Lutz Ludwig in 1818. George appeared in the tax lists as late as 1785. He married Anna Regina Fritz in 1769 in the Lutheran Church in New Hanover Township (probably near the Fritz home). He died in Amity Township, Berks County, in 1802; Regina died there before 1800.

      LaMance named a number of children that she said belonged to Eleanor, but they seem to belong to other Lutz families. Among the names she found, LaMance said that Hiram, Andrew Adam, George and Conrad Lutz had military records,[4]butary records for people of these names exist, there is no proof that these were children of Eleanor. Research shows there were many Lutz families in the same general area, and it is possible that LaMance simply found Lutz names in the records and attributed their parentage to Eleanor. After her book was published, LaMance made handwritten notes in her personal copy of her book. Among other things, she said that, when Eleanor Waltman Lutz?s brother William Waltman died during the Revolutionary War, Eleanor took in and raised two of his children, George Waltman and Samuel Waltman, then about 10 and 13. She said that George, born in 1769, married his cousin and foster sister, Eleanora Lutz (Junior), early in 1790. (She thus would have become Eleanor Lutz Waltman, in contrast to her mother, Eleanor Waltman Lutz.) However, no evidence has been discovered that Eleanor had a daughter named Eleanor, or that there was a marriage between Eleanor (junior) and a George Waltman. Also, doubts have arisen about the existence of a William Waltman (see below) who LaMance said was a son of Conrad and brother of Eleanor. Nevertheless, this story has been copied from LaMance by others.

      A final complication is that LaMance said Eleanor and her family moved to Bedford County in 1790, and it was there that Eleanor Lutz (junior) married George Waltman. But Eleanor probably was dead by that time. It is established that des of the immigrant Emanuel Waltman, founder of a different line of Waltmans in America, moved to Colerain Township, Bedford County, from Loudoun County, Virginia, about 1790. Records indicate that some segment of the Lutz family also moved to Colerain Township from Loudoun County, over a period of years. A similar move was made by members of the Exline family, and one of them married one of the Emanuel Waltman descendants in Bedford County. The three families appear to have been part of a migration from Loudoun to Bedford counties. When LaMance was researching Waltmans in Bedford County, it seems more likely that it was descendants of Emanuel Waltman that she discovered in the records, not descendants of Conrad. Indeed, an Exline family history said that these were the only Waltmans in Bedford County at the time. There is no record that any of Eleanor's children lived in Bedford County. Also, since tax records showed Eleanor and children with substantial property in Berks County, it is more likely that Eleanor remained there rather than move to Bedford County, a substantial distance to the west. If there was a George Waltman who married Eleanora Lutz (junior), he may have been a descendant of Emanuel, or they were married in some place other than Bedford County. No evidence of such a marriage has been located.
    Person ID I34720  OurNorthernRoots
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2011 

    Father Count Conrad Waltman,   b. 1705, Bavaria, Germany Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1796, Northampton Co., Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 91 years) 
    Mother Maria Katherine Bierly,   b. 1708, Bavaria, Germany Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 25 Mar 1786, Kreidersville, Northampton Co., Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 78 years) 
    Marriage 1732  Holland Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F2176  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family George Lutz,   b. Est 1725   d. Bef 1767, Amity, Berks Co., Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 42 years) 
    Marriage Est 1745  Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. George Lutz, Jr.,   b. Abt 1746
     2. Johannes Lutz,   b. 1748, Montgomery Co., Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this location
     3. Susanna Lutz,   b. 1750, Montgomery Co., Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this location
     4. Jacob Lutz,   b. 1760, Amity, Berks Co., Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this location
    Family ID F12630  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

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    Link to Google MapsBirth - Abt 1730 - Germany Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - Est 1745 - Pennsylvania, USA Link to Google Earth
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