I am an active researcher & historian of the German families that settled in Jefferson, Indiana, and Clearfield County, Pennsylvania between 1820 and 1870. I am closely related to the Smith, Sprow/Sprau, Weber, Wingert, Elbel, McGee, Cochran, Newcome, and Wolf(e) families from near Battle Hollow, PA.

My paternal Smith/Schmitt family settled in northern Young Township with the Weber and Haag families in 1833 and were joined by the Wingerts there around 1839. They were among the founding families of the German Reformed Church in Punxsutawney. Most families involved with this church and buried in its cemetery, now defunct, were from the western Pfalz District of the Kingdom of Bavaria, some times called the Rheinpfalz or Rhenish Bavaria. Today this is section is known as Südwestpfalz Kreis and is part of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, separate from Bavaria. I am primarily interested in emigrants from the Zweibrücken and Pirmasens regions.

Having completed one article on this group, I am in the final stages of a book (genealogical history) concerning the Schmitts, Webers, Wingerts and their associated families.

My various lineages come from Punxsy, Battle Hollow, Smicksburg, Rural Valley, McKees Rocks, Chartiers Creek, and Dayton, PA.

My main surnames of interest include: Smith/Schmitt, Baas, Sprau/Sprow, Weber, Wolf, Wingert, McGee, Newcom(e), Elbel, Koffler, Opfermann, Beck, Knell/Knöll, and many others.

I have extensive research on the following families (Punxsutawney/Clearfield/Indiana): Smith/Schmitt, Sprau/Sprow, Weber, Wingert, Wolf, Elbel, Koffler, Beck, Knöll/Knell, McGee, Newcome, Baas, Lott, Zimmerman, Hoeh, Haag, Schneider, Hartzfeld, Knerr, Korb, Noerr, Zinkhan, Schlemmer, Scherer, Bissport, Wagner, Laudemann, Althaus, Engelbach, Rinn, Kurtz, Weiss, Buchheit, Schweitzer, Stegner, Kuntz, Kesslar, Oswald, Heitzenrater, Bartholomew, Trusell, and many others.