Bernhart Mann sailed from Germany to America with his mother in 1742. His mother died during the passage and young Bernhart, aged 2, was "bought" by a Donegal farmer named Stehman for the price of his passage. When he was old enough, he struck out on his own, eventually purchasing a farm in Manor Township, Lancaster County. His German birthplace, Huiffenhart, is near Wimpfen. His mother's name is listed as both Anna Maria Stumpen and Mary Staumb.
This all seems quite definite. However the "History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men"; Chapter LXV. Manor Township By I. S. Clare, Lancaster, states:
James McMaster and his wife Elizabeth, May 14, 1764, sold to George Mann, John Mann, and Bernard Mann one hundred and fifty acres, adjoining the lands of John Keagy, Michael Thomas, Michael Kauffman, and James McMaster's other land.
This doesn't seem to fit the then 24-year-old Bernard, unless his infant sons are included in the land title, which doesn't seem very likely.
Furthermore an immigration record shows:
Name: Georg Bernhard Mann Year: 1732 Place: Pennsylvania Family Members: Wife Maria Margretha 27; Son Johann Jacob; Son Georg Bernhard; Daughter Maria Margreth; Daughter Anna Maria Source Publication Code: 1031.8 Primary Immigrant: Mann, Gorg Bernhardt Annotation: Date and place of naturalization. Source Bibliography: BURGERT, ANNETTE KUNSELMAN. Eighteenth Century Emigrants from German-Speaking Lands to North America. Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society, 16/19. Birdsboro, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society. Vol. 1: The Northern Kraichgau. 1983. 461p.
A preferrable theory would be that this immigration record is for the father and two sons who purchased the land in 1764. Or, possibly, there are two Mann families in Manor Township from the early 1700's.
The first census, in 1800, shows both a Bernard and Bernhard as heads of family. By 1820 the heads are Barbara (undoubtedly the widow of Bernhard) and sons of the respective sons. Change: 9 Jul 2006 Time: 01:00:00.
