I want to report the find of a family for whom I've been searching for decades, made possible by a continuing indexing project on FamilySearch.
Johannes Friedrich Berner and wife Maria Magdalena Huonker and their sons Johannes Friedrich and Johannes Ludwig came to Posey County, Indiana, in 1817 to join Friedrich Rapp's colony. By 1830 the name had become Benner. My grandmother, Ollie D. Benner, who lived and died in White County, Illinois, was fourth generation.
From FamilySearch:
Johannes Friedrich Berner
b. 18 June 1773 Altdorf, Boeblingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany (Altdorf is 60 km north of Leidringen)
son of Johannes Berner and Beata Margaretha Wolff
d. 1 January 1853 (I need to look at the microfilm; Johannes was alive in 1850 in Indiana, and possibly word of his death made it back to Altdorf, where the pastor wrote it into the parish register - Germans do such things; the 1 January date is also slightly suspicious)
m. 8 October 1801 at Altdorf
Maria Magdalena Huenker (or Hoenker or Huonker or Huoncker) (my German expert says the name is properly Huonker)
b. 15 May 1773 Ehningen, Boeblingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
daughter of Johannes Huoncker and Anna Maria Majer
Children:
Maria Salome Berner
b. 18 August 1802 Altdorf
d. 19 October 1802 Altdorf
Apparently twin boys, unnamed
b. and d. 11 June 1804 Altdorf
Johannes Friedrich Berner
b. 6 September 1805 Altdorf
d. 1 May 1817 (again, I will have to look at the microfilm; this younger Johannes Friedrich is supposed to have died on the Mississippi on the way to sell farm produce in New Orleans.)
Johannes Ludwig Berner (my ancestor)
b. 11 July 1807 Altdorf
The family applied to emigrate in 1817.
The remarkable thing is that for the last 15 years I have lived in Herrenberg, south of Stuttgart. Altdorf and Ehningen are only minutes away, and I've been to both towns many times. Who would have thought?
Regards
John