Harry's Ten Most Wanted

#1. Father of Peter Haps: Peter Haps, our earliest documented ancestor, was married to Anna Froelich. The names of their children recorded in the churchbook Toess were Heinrich Haps baptized 28 February 1602, Baerbel Haps baptized 1 September 1607, and Joachim Haps baptized January 1611. All but Joachim probably perished in the terrible plague of 1611. The only other reference to a Peter Haps was the baptism of a son by that name to Christin and Doratgea (Welt) Haps on 15 October 1564. This Peter Haps apparently is different from our Peter Haps because by 1602 - 1611 he would have been 38 - 47 years old and should have his own household or appeared in trading/transaction records with the Toess Cloister. I found no such records. Our Peter Haps probably was born about 1580 and still living in his parent's household in the early 1600s. More clues needed.

#2. Mother - daughter Haps: Elsbetha (Hoffman) Haps left Toess in the mid-1650s for the Palatinate with three young children including her oldest daughter also named Elsbetha. Reportedly they were headed for the parish of Clemens Hirtzel near Sinsheim but only Uli and Salome are seen again (in Brombach/Odenwald). What happened to the two women named Elsbetha? More clues needed.

#3. The Haps Brothers: According to the Churchbook Brombach, Uli Haps had two sons by his first wife Barbara, daughter of the deceased Wolf Preusch. They were Hans Valentin baptized 20 November 1668 and Johann Ludwig baptized 18 January 1674. In 1688, the French invaded the Palatinate and destroyed much of the area around Heidelberg. Valentin would have been 20 at this time and his younger brother Ludwig 14. What happened to the brothers Haps? More clues needed.

#4. The Missing Link: There is a Hoppes clan of considerable size near Westphalia, Michigan descended from a Hoppes family headed by Matthias Hoppes who arrived in the PA about 1852. Matthias Hoppes was born in or near the town of Relingen/Saarburg close to the French border with Germany in 1825/1826 and married Margaretha Schmidt about 1845. He apparently had a sister Barbara born there in 1830 who married Engelbert Esch in Westphalia, Michigan in 1855/1856. The genealogist Dale Calder reports that Matthias' father was Engelbert Hoppes but another publication suggests his father's name was John Hoppes. Our hoppesgenerations colleague Marlynn O'Keefe has ancestors from the same area near the current Germany/Luxembourg/ France border. The oldest Hoppeses she found there are Georg Hoppes married to Regina Knebels, who had a child Anna Maria born about 1764, Peter Hoppes married to Catherine _____ ,who had a daughter Catharine born 1768, and John Hoppes who married Sarah Jett on 12 August 1785. Can anyone link the Michigan Hoppeses to Marlynn's Hoppeses? Can anyone link Marlynn's Hoppeses to the Haps brothers in #3 above? More clues needed.

#5. John Gouge Connection: Many Gouge family sites on the Internet claim that Elisabeth (Lizzie) Hoppes born about 1762 married John Gouge, Sr. in NC in the 1780s. Unfortunately, the only Hoppes named Elisabeth born in the 1760s to Georg or Michael Happes was Eva Elisabeth Happes who had a sizeable family with John Lechleitner. In fact, all Hoppes girls born to the original two Happes immigrants are accounted for. Yet the Gouge family tradition continues strong. Help! More clues needed.

Our Solution - Solution to John Gouge - Lizzy Gouge Problem

#6. John Henry Hoppes: Denise Kern found a ship list of arrivals in Philadelphia from 1773 that included a John Henry Hoppes and a later tax list from Greenbrier County, (West) Virginia listing John Hoppes. Additionally, I found a list of individuals who were apprenticed in PA in 1773 that included John Henry Hoppes. Who was this man? Was he related to the Hoppes families from the Heidelberg, Germany area? Did he have descendants in WV or KY? More clues needed.

SOLVED - Harry traveled to Richomond, VA and viewed the original tax list and had it verified by two handwriting specialist for that time period, and the name is actually John Hippes and is no relation.

#7. Abraham Hoppes: The second son of Daniel Hoppes (1757-1816) was born 8 December 1798 according to Moravian Church records. Abraham was mentioned as co-executor in his father's 1816 will. He disappeared shortly thereafter. Did he move westward with members of the Fender family, only to perish en route? Did he move northward into Carroll County, VA. Did he die close to home? Why isn't he in the Census of 1820, etc? More clues needed.

#8. Maria Happes: This brave woman brought her family of five from Ober-Klein (Oberkleen near Butzbach between Frankfurt and Wetzlar) to Galveston, TX via Bremen aboard the bark "Solon" under the command of Cpt Balleer in May 1852. Who was she and how did her family fare in the migration of Germans to Texas that occurred about this time?

#9. Michael Hoppes: The youngest son of old Adam Hoppes born 1760 was one of nine siblings involved in the division of Adam's property in 1847. He appeared to sell his share of the estate property in McDowell Co., NC twice: first to his brother George and then to John Dobson. In any case, he was last seen there in May 1847. What happened to this man? Did he flee or perish or both? Clues needed.

#10. Tuberculosis victims: The Happes family seems to have had quite a few of its members die from TB. The father of the two Happes boys who came to the colonial US in 1751 died of TB in December 1750. Old Adam's son John was listed as having TB in the 1880 Census. Earlier Old Adam's grandson Frederick died of TB in the US Army hospital/asylum in Knoxville, TN in 1865. Another Hoppes Civil War veteran, John Hoppes of Scioto County, OH died of TB in a West Virginia asylum in 1866. Was this coincidence or did other early Hoppeses die of TB, too? If you have any information that would help identify other Hoppes family victims of TB, please come forward with your data.