Notes |
- From the book, "The Witmer Family" compiled by Maxine Blankenhorn Bennett, pub. by Clifford H. Bennett, 1984
Peter Widmer was born abt. 1698 in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. He was listed in the congregation of Swiss Mennonite families who had fled because of religious persecution, to the more tolerant Upper Rhine Valley of Germany and were living there in 1731. Later he was in the congregation at Hasselbach, four miles from Bischofshelm to the South.
Peter and his wife Anna emigrated with their children on the English ship "Restauration", James Hall, Captain, from Rotterdam, last from Leith -- arrived in Philadelphia harbor 9 Oct 1747. They settled in Lancaster County, near friends and relatives who had also emigrated from the Palatinate or adjacent German Duchies. Peter and Anna were parents of several children, but only five are known.
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