John Thompson (1780-1855), was a son of William Thompson and Jane Mitchell of Thompsontown, Juniata Co., Pennsylvania. He was called "Goshen John". He married Abigail North (1783-1852). Author's lineage comes from another son of William Thompson and Jane Mitchell, William Thompson, Jr. (1785-1834), who was born in Pfoutz's Valley, Pa., and died in Thompsontown. He was married to Charlotte Chambers Patterson (1794-1863) in 1816. Descendants of John...

Henry and Eve Earnest and their family settled along Dunning's Creek near Fort Bedford in Bedford Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania about the time of the Revolutionary War. An Indian massacre killed Henry and some visitors, and abducted Eve and her two youngest sons. They were taken to Fort Detroit and sold to the British there, and nine years later were released and returned to Bedford County, Pennsylvania, where the children who had escaped...

"The immigrant with whom we are primarily interested was Georg Christoff Oechslen. Tradition has it that his family had lived in Alsace for a generation or two already after leaving Schaffhausen, and that his father had been impressed into the Army of Frederick William I...[he] was born about 1705-1706...arrived in Philadelphia on October 2, 1727 on the ship "Adventure"...apparently lived in the vacinity of Philadelphia for a few years, joining...