Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 Hello Mumma-Moomaw researchers, cousins, family and friends - Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. [If you don't care to receive future updates, please send me a message and I will remove you from this distribution list.] DATABASE CHANGES A revised database was uploaded to the web site last night. This update includes about 600 additional individuals and many small corrections. The more significant additions include: The descendants of John Haup Moma The descendants of Octavia Mumma The descendants of Mary Ann Mumaw The descendants of Catherine Mumaw The descendants of Modena Ethel Moomaw The descendants of George Moomaw Dean The descendants of Homer Lee Reece The descendants of Adam Momma (Germany) The descendants of Johann Momma (1732- Germany) If you submitted changes, revisions or additions and they do not appear in this update or are incorrect, please let me know and I will attempt to correct the problem. All of the 42,744 people in the database are contained within 18 Trees as follows: TREE INFORMATION Indiv's Desc's REF# Top Person & notes ------- ------ ---- --------------- 34116 22019 2 Leonard /Mumma/ b. ABT. 1694 (Original 1732 immigrant) 3535 2344 1 Jacob /Mumma/ b. 1685-1690 (Original 1731 immigrant) 1191 797 U21 Samuel /Muma/ b. 10 Sep 1784 (Canadian Mumas) 1096 737 4 Peter /Mumma/ b. ABT. 1721 (Original immigrant) 670 455 U7 David /Muma/ b. ABT. 1760 (Mewmaw spelling) * * U8 Christian /Mumma/ b. 29 Aug 1791 (Clark Co., OH) 460 291 U30 Frederick /Mumma/ b. ABT 1770 421 249 U15 Frederick /Moomau/ b. 1 Apr 1796 (Moomau family) 404 281 U28 John /Mumma/ b. 1790 (m. Catharine Ament) 279 181 E1-K1 Clais /von Kettenis/ (European Mommas and Kettenis) 187 132 U32 John Haup Moma b. Aug 1791 (Augusta, VA) 137 96 U23 Jacob /Mumma/ b. 1811 (Fulton Co. PA Mummas) 120 85 E2 Leonhard /Momma/ b. 1580 (European Mommas) 54 30 U27 John /Mumma/ (Germantown, Ohio Mumma family) 46 23 U22 John /Mumaw/ b. ABT. 1787 15 11 U25 Veryle Leroy /Mumma/ b. 1 May 1921 10 5 U31 Christian /Mumma/ (Baltimore, MD) 2 0 - A /.Hog/ b. 1 Jan 1900 (my test individual) 1 0 3 Johan Lorentz Momma, d. 1752 (original 1747 immigrant) ------- ------ 42744 27736 * Note: Because of a "cousin marriage" in this tree, the analysis program sums this branch's totals in the Leonard Mumma tree. SURNAME FREQUENCY IN THE DATABASE Mumma[2473], Moomaw[1850], Mumaw[952], Muma[331], Mumau[317], Momma[230], Moomau[161], Mummau[134], Mumaugh[114], Mummah[94], Mewmaw[49], Mumah[40], Moma[49], Mummaw[17], Mooma[6], Mommal[1] **************************************************** Occurrence of the MOMMA surname in America Since the last update, I have been on a small side track investigating the "MOMMA" surname spelling in America. As many of you might know, the German MOMMA spelling is almost never found in America, while the MUMMA spelling is almost never found in Germany. This investigation was stimulated by a message I received from Nancy Kelley which said: "Hi, My mother's maiden name was Mary Grant Momma. Her father's name was Valentine Momma. I have never seen it anywhere. The Coat of Arms at the beginning is spelled the way my grandfather spelled his name. I know nothing about our history except somewhere I got the idea the family with originally Dutch. I saw your web site and just got curious. My family was located in Kansas. Enjoyed reading the information. Thanks, Nancy" Well, her message piqued my curiosity so I contacted her, fully expecting that she had made some mistake regarding the spelling of her mother's maiden name. That was not the case, however and she gave me as much as she knew. Her mother died when she was very young and the remaining Mommas had either died or moved away, therefore she had little contact with Momma relatives and history. (Note - there are no know surviving descendants of this Momma branch with the Momma surname.) Given the little bit of information, I searched the Kansas State genweb site and found information about the town of Howard in Elk County. Now I have seen small towns and counties, but this is small! The county currently has a population of about 4000 and the county seat of Howard only has about 800. Even when the county was formed in 1870, the town population was a little over 1000. (for interest, visit the Elk County web site at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/counties/EK/). I made a telephone call to the county recorder (she wears about 6 hats at the same time) and we talked about the Momma family. What fun it is to talk to someone in a small town courthouse. With only a population of 600, she knows everyone and everything. She opened up the cemetery inscription book that was sitting on her desk and confirmed the people that were buried in the Momma burial site in the local cemetery. She also looked up a few births and marriages while we were talking and gave me that information. That is something that almost never happens in a big town or county courthouse. Near the end of our conversation, she suggested I contact another lady who was interested in genealogy, had done the cemetery "readings" and had many old newspaper clippings. By the time I called her, she had already received a telephone call from the courthouse and was expecting me. News travels fast in a small town! We chatted for a while and she promised to do some lookups in the newspaper microfilms in the local library which is open a few days each week. The following week a package arrived with transcriptions of the newspaper obituaries and pages from the "History of Kansas" about the Momma family. Wow! What a treasure. Several biographies of the Mommas in the "History of Kansas" confirmed that the progenitor, Nicholas Momma, was born in Germany, was married in Berlin, and migrated to America in 1854 on his honeymoon. In his wife's obituary, it even said that she had been born in Wickrathberg, Germany. The 1900 census also confirmed the children's names and states of birth. Likewise, a check of the Social Security Death Index reveals only two Mommas and one of them, Howard Momma, was a descendant of Nicholas. The connection of the other individual I have not pursued. The good fortune doesn't stop there, but continues. Simultaneously, my good friend, Udo Momma, who lives in Konstanz, Germany has been investigating the church records near Wickrathberg, Germany, where he was born. As he was assembling the data, it appeared to him that one or more of his Wickrathberg ancestors had migrated to America. As we exchanged data, we were able to quickly find and identify the connection to Nicholas Momma who had immigrated to America in 1854. It turns out that Nancy and Udo are 5th cousins, once removed. So within the short span of about a month, Nancy was able to expand her knowledge of her Momma ancestors from just her grandparents names, back 12 generations to Wilhelm Momma who was born about 1543. Wilhelm married Anna von Kettenis and if you follow the Kettenis line back, you can go 5 more generations to Clais von Kettenis who was born before 1444. Not only that, she has "living" cousins in Germany! Not a bad months effort, if I do say so myself. Nancy got a pedigree with 17 generations, she and Udo discovered they are cousins, and I got a confirmed "Momma" sighting in America. And if that was not enough excitement, Udo also discovered a second sighting of a Momma in America while exploring the Wickrathberg records. He found a "death notice" written by a German lawyer in Washington D.C. to the mayor of Wickrathberg. This death notice was to inform him that a Johann Bernhard Momma had joined the U.S. Army in Pittsburgh, PA in July of 1847 and that he died in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in November of 1847 while serving in the Mexican- American War. It also indicated that there was a 160 acre land warrant. This Bernhard is also identified in the database and he was a brother of Wilhelm Momma who migrated to America in 1854. We have no evidence that his wife or children ever migrated to America. Needless to say, the 160 acre land warrant is very interesting. I have applied to the National Archives to obtain his military records which might reveal more details about his service and the land warrant. I am still awaiting the arrival of the records. So, you can see it has been an exciting period of discovery. I will keep you posted in the next update about the war record of Johann Bernhard Momma. Of interest, Nancy told me that her branch of the Momma family pronounced their name as "Mommy". Peace and joy be with you until we meet again in the new millennium. ================== The end!!!! ================== Douglas M Mumma 2123 Farmington Place Livermore, CA 94550-6423 Longitude 121° 46.835' Latitude 37° 39.430' Phone: (925) 447-5164 Fax: (925) 447-8202 e-mail: doug@mumma.org Home Page: http://www.mumma.org 3