DEAN/WURTS
In The Deans of Gainsboro Township [Ontario] by Cecelia and Roland Botting, it is stated that John Dean and his wife Margaret Flach, the founders of the Canadian branch of this family, came from fox Hill, Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey. They are said to have been married on 29 March 1781 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Oldwick Valley, Hunterdon County, NJ, and considerable material is given on the Flachs (who are also treated in Chambers' Early Germans of New Jersey). But the only detail given for John's early life is a birthdate of 1 March 1754, no place being stated. Does anyone know where John was born?

I am also interested in the origin of the Wurts family. Charles P. Wurts, A Genealogical Record of the Wurts Family: The Descendants of the Reverend Johannes Conrad Wirz, who came to America from Zurich, Switzerland, in 1734 (1889), which seems to account for almost everyone of this name in the U.S. through to the late 19th century, does not reveal the parentage of the following persons:

JOHN WURTS (1766-1855), who about 1801 came to Markham Township, York County, Ontario. His family bible record, published by Harriette Marr Wheeler in William Marr of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and his six children (1983), frustratingly gives dates of events but no places. By his two wives John Wurts had 14 children (the first five of whom must have been born in the United States): Nancy, Abraham, Mary, Catherine, Maurice, Landon, Elizabeth, Jesse, Jacob, Joel, Susan, Elias, Barbara, and Clarissa.

CHARITY WURTS (1768-1799) married in April 1786 at Frankfort, Sussex County, New Jersey (as his first wife) John Kennedy (1761-1847) of Newtown, Sussex County, NJ. They removed in 1795 to St. Ann, Gainsborough Township, Lincoln County, Ontario. In Cecelia and Roland Botting's Descendants of John Kennedy of Sussex County, New Jersey, 3rd ed. (1989), it is stated (perhaps on the basis of their marriage record) that Charity's father's name was John Wurts. It is further suggested that he was the one of this name who died in Morris County in 1794, leaving a wife named Sarah, but the 1889 Wurts genealogy shows this man's only marriage as occurring in 1773 -- five years after Charity's birth. The names of Charity's children were John, Elizabeth, Ann, Charles, Morris, Samuel, and George.

There are various reasons for suspecting John and Charity to have been siblings, and each named a son Maurice or Morris, a name favored by the New Jersey family. According to bible records their exact dates of birth were 9 January 1766 and 23 March 1768, but no places are given. Does anyone know who their parents were?

Contact: John Blythe Dobson
(Date posted: March 7, 1999)