Karns Book Intro

The PHILIP KARNS, SR. Families
and
PETER MEARKLE Families

Jean (Karns) Ladd, compiler of these eleven volumes, is a daughter of Elmer Mearkle Karns and his wife Verna Mabel (Dawson) Karns. Jean's research indicates that the earliest known ancestors of our line of Karns families came from the Baden region of what is now southwest Germany. We have identified Philip Karns, Sr., born in Gutenbach-Unterscherenhof, some of whose sons emigrated to America. Philip's ancestry has been traced back to Thomas Kern, born 1605 in Baden, a region in the southwest corner of present-day Germany.

Our history of the origins of the Mearkle families is less extensive, with the first proven ancestor, Peter Marrikle, being born in Hartmansdorf, in what is now Schoharie County, New York on 21 Jan 1744. We do not know the names of his parents, or their country of origin. The name has been variously spelled as Marrikle, Markle, and the more recent spelling of Mearkle.

Although there is a lot of overlap in family records, partly due to intermarriages, the main focus on Karns families is found in Volumes 1 and 2. Volumes 5 and 6 contain relatively more of the Mearkle families. Each volume has the Table of Contents of the complete set of volumes, with text pages numbered consecutively through all eleven volumes, so information on major family groups can be located relatively easily. Some interspersed pages, including picture pages, are unnumbered. The index in Volume 11, however, accurately reflects the printed page numbers on which any given individual is discussed in the textual material.

Interspersed with the family histories are pages of pictures, with captions, from the different families. We have tried to insert the picture pages near to the first presentation of a given family. There are relatively more pictures in the early volumes, especially in Volume 2. Because of the overlap and intermarriage of family lines, there are relatively fewer pictures in the later volumes, since relevant pictures have been included in an earlier volume.

The print copies of these volumes can be found in the Allen County Public Library located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the books were published. Copies also are held by Jean (Karns) Ladd, Gwen (Ladd) Hackler, and Carolyn (Karns) Pate.

The volumes are in PDF-format files, so you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader and some patience to open these large files. With regard to page numbers, remember that the pages are numbered consecutively through all eleven volumes in the table of contents and at the bottoms of the pages, while the PDF page references are simply sequence numbers for that particular volume.

Volume 1 Volume 4 Volume 7 Volume 10
Volume 2 Volume 5 Volume 8 Volume 11
Volume 3 Volume 6 Volume 9