Germans everywhere...

Alexander and Margaret (Minor) Lantz headstones in Jacksonburg, West Virginia cemetery.

I bet you thought all our German ancestry came from our John side of the family. Well, surprise, you would be wrong.

Susanna Lantz was born on the 18th of April 1820 in Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Alexander Lantz and Margaret Minor. At the tender age of 16 she married Edmund Hays in Virginia.

Susanna's father's family was all German. Her maternal great-grandparents came to America about 1748 and her paternal great-grandparents arrived about 1747.

Susanna Lantz's family tree, showing her father's German heritage.

The Lantz surname is found quite a bit among the Amish in Pennsylvania, I do not know if our Lantz's were Amish, but if they were, they didn't stay that way, as later generations didn't appear to be so inclined.

Alexander's parents were Johannes(John) Lantz and Barbara Waggoner, which was Wagner in Germany. John served in the revolutionary war, in Capt. Henry Rush's company of the Bedford County Militia. His name appears as John Lance in the official records.

Alexander's mother, Barbara, lost her father when she was 7, to what was believed to be a Delaware/Lenai Lenape raiding party. Her father Wilhelm Waggoner, was out in the field when he was caught and scalped. Barbara's sister Mary, was kidnapped along with her brother Peter. However, Mary was killed by her fiancé during a very inept rescue attempt. Peter disappeared around the Great Lakes area for years, but eventually made it back to his family from Canada and took up shoemaking.

Barbara's widowed mother, Agnes (Fleisher) Waggoner married again to a Conrad Lutts.

The George Lantz family first settled in Maryland around the Monococy River and then moved to the Shenandoah Valley. This is the first generation of Lantz's in America. George and his wife Catherine were both born around 1707 in Germany. They had emigrated together along with a few of their children.

This is the only bit of German that I have found so far on the Shepard side of the family, but that doesn't mean there isn't more.