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- The Fenstermacher family with which we are most familiar, and whose representatives are quite numerous in this and nearby counties, has its origin in Mathias Fenstermacher, a native of the German Palatinate, who crossed the sea on the good ship "Glasgow" which landed at Philadelphia, on 9 September 1738. On the original list of passengers his age is given as sixty years, and he was therefore born about 1678. He was accompanied to America by his two sons, Jacob, then twenty-nine years of age, and Wilhelm, twenty-five years of age. These three were preceded to the new world by a third son, Philip, who was removed to Alburtis and there carried on a general store business until he died in 1809. Altogether he followed the life of an enterprising, successful merchant for upwards of forty years. a passenger on the good ship, Samuel, and qualified at Philadelphia, 30 August 1737. He was then twenty-four years of age."
"There is a tradition that the family first settled in Oley township, Berks County. The first positive record we have, however, is in the Berks County tax list of 1753, where Longswamp Township is given as the residence of the father and of his two sons, Jacob and Philip. Concerning the other son, Wilhelm, who accompanied his father to the new world, nothing further is known at this time. The name of Mathias Fenstermacher appears in the early tax lists as late as 1761, at which time he probably died, being then eighty-three years old."
Buried Longswamp Reformed Church Cemetery, Lehigh [Berks] County, Pennsylvania
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1678 - Abt 1761 (83 years)