Person:Hans Lauer (3)

HANS is the earliest known ancestor of the largest LAUER / LOWER family, who migrated to the USA. The first of this line to migrate was Johann "JACOB" Lauer who migrated to Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1737. By 2014 there are many thousands of his descendants in the USA.

The village of HIRSTEIN, is in the modern nation of Germany, and located in the state of Saarland, in what is now southwestern Germany, near the French border. "White Creek" has chosen to use the SAARLAND designation on most of the pages, since he does not know in what country HIRSTEIN was located, in most of years until 1871. In 1871 the Saarland became a part of the new German Empire. The Saarland was a part of many governmental entities over the centuries. Too numerous to mention here.

Jack Akerboom was a contact of "White Creek" for many years, although it would now seem we are not blood related. In his book, Jack writes: "The Lauer name is very common in Germany and translates as 'tanner'. After the first few generations in America the Lauer name was angelicized to Lower, however pronounced as if was spelled Lahr". Jack had visited the village of HIRSTEIN in the 1980s, and was not able to learn any significant information.

The HIRSTEIN Lauer / Lower family is the largest of those families in the USA who bear the surname. There is also the Lauer / Lower family from the Kingdom of Württemberg, who also settled in Pennsylvania, but no connection has been found, nor is there likely to be one. A much smaller Lauer / Lower line was that of Daniel Lower (1792-1876), who migrated to the USA in 1837, exactly 100 years after the first of the Hirstein Lauers. These "other" Lowers were Palatines, who were adjacent to the Saarland. There may perhaps be a "connection" back in the "mists of time", before 1600? The Daniel Lower family first settled in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Most of "White Creek's" postings on WeRelate.org (as of 2013) are connected to Palatine families. In almost every American county where Daniel Lower's descendants settled (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois), there were also Hirstein Lauers/Lowers!

In HANS LAUER's descendant line is DOROTHY LOWER who was formerly the head of the Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library, in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, which is the co-owner of this WeRelate.org website. Dorothy's HIRSTEIN ancestors migrated to Indiana from Tuscarawas County, Ohio, as did "White Creek's" Palatine Lower ancestors. We corresponded for years trying to find a link, before we realized that our families had different origins, and were probably not related. We are "linked" in one way - Dorothy is buried in the home town of this compiler!

This Lower researcher will not live long enough to imput all the names of Hans Lauer's descendants in this WeRelate.org website. Therefore, the reader should be advised that this data is very INCOMPLETE at best. What will be included here are "threads" to various individuals in Hans' line, such as Dorothy Lower, Jack Akerboom, Benjamin Lower of Wabash, Indiana, Susannah (Lower) Smith formerly of Wabash, and Jacob Lower of Noblesville, Indiana. Also in Hans Lauer's descent line,in these WeRelate pages, there are unknown "Watchers", who have posted significant data.

--White Creek 18:09, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

An UPDATE on this Lauer/Lower family. It was later in 2014 that this researcher discovered that indeed the Hirstein Lowers, and the family of Daniel Lower (1792-1876) are "related", but not by blood. Some of Daniel Lower's descendants connect to the Regula family of Tuscarawas County, in Ohio. Delores Regula married William Lower, of this Hirstein line in Tuscarawas County!

--White Creek 15:47, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Akerboom, Jack. Descendants of Hans Lauer Lower. (Morgantown, Pennsylvania: Masthof Press)
   807 Pages, 2002.