GENERAL INTRODUCTION and CREDITS
The Yoder Newsletter was founded in 1983
by
Ben F Yoder, Chris Yoder, Rachel Kreider
*** Now in its 30th Year ***
Reports from the 2012 National Yoder Reunion:
- The Yoder Family - 30 years of YNL - Powerpoint slides in PDF format; an overview of the past 30 years
- Yoder Family - script for #1
- A report to the 2014 National Yoder Reunion, "What we learned in the first 30 Years of YNL."
These files contain a collection of Yoder family data which has been assembled since 1983 by the Yoder Newsletter (YNL, P O Box 594, Goshen, IN 46527 for subscription information).
OUR POLICY ON USE: The information contained in these files may not be used for resale or profit. Yoder Newsletter readers and researchers may extract portions of it for use in family histories of their own lines or related research projects without need to ask permission. When this is done, however, appropriate credits should be cited.
Send comments to: Chris Yoder, Editor - YNL - cyoder@tds.net
PURPOSE
1. We wish to share the bounty which we have collected over the last 30 years with the help of our readers. WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICPATE IN EXPANDING THIS INFORMATION THROUGH THE "YODER GUTENBERG PROJECT" The "Gutenberg Project", named after the first mass printer of the Bible, is a "cyberspace" project started by a professor at Illinois Benedictine College. His goal is to convert 10,000 of the most used classical works from paper into "digital" form (meaning to make them readable on a computer) by the year 2001. The Yoder Newsletter intends to continue our efforts in data gathering and conversion. The "Yoder Data on Disk" represents a large amount of information, but it is only a fraction of what could be made available from our files should we have more volunteer help available to do the typing/ or scanning. In order to expand these Yoder files, the YNL is launching our own "Yoder Gutenberg Project".... if you can type, have a computer, and some available time WE ASK YOUR HELP in this effort. Contact Chris Yoder with your offer of assistance. ABOUT THE DATA A large portion of this information is about the Amish Yoder lines. This information has been collected from many sources, and hard copy Yoder Newletter Group Sheets were begun at the same time as the newsletter. There are couple of points should be made about the files you will see on these disks. Generally: NUMBERING SYSTEM Each of the original immigrants, who started a unique branch of the Yoders in North America is assigned a unique letter or letters. Example: the man who started the Amish Yoder line and all his descendants have a number that begins YR. Some other prefixes are YRB, YRC,YS, CON, etc... for Yoder families that descend from different immigrants. Each individual family member has a unique number. This number is made up in a standard structure. To reference the children of the original immigrant, eg. YR, a digit is added. YR1 for the first child, YR2 for the second. Children of YR2 are numbered YR21, YR22, etc. The digits 1-9 are followed, if needed, by a, b, c, etc... to number each offspring of a particular parent. The tenth child of YR22 would be YR22a. This system tells which family we are referring to, how many generations from the immigrant, and allows for easy movement forward or backward in a list to trace parents or offspring. A person living today will have a reference number such as this: YR233746643. This tells us that this person is 9 generations from the original immigrant (count the digits), is the third child, of the fourth child, of the sixth child (go through the list from right to left) of the man who is number YR233746. KEY FOR ABBREVIATIONS IN AMISH SECTION A number of geographic abbreviations have been used throughout the Amish Yoder section. These are as applied in the AAMG book. We have tried to include the major ones used here for your reference: SW-Switzerland The following codes appear in the Amish section for added references:
Our purposes in presenting this information are several:
2. We wish to give more researchers wide access to Yoder related family data so family members can discover their roots.
3. We wish to telescope our capabilities to collect family information by enlisting YOU in our efforts.
1. Male lines only have been followed.
2. Family groups generally have been carried forward to 1900 when possible.
3. We have only made a start in spelling out our references...we do plan to continue this over the space of further updates.
G- Germany
ILLINOIS (L or IL) ML- McLean Co WL- Woodford Co
INDIANA (I or IN) EI- Elkhart Co HI- Howard Co LI- LaGrange Co MI- Miami Co NI- Noble Co
IOWA (J or IA) JJ- Johnson Co WJ- Washington Co
KANSAS (K or KS) RK- Reno Co VK- Harvey Co CK- Rice Co.
MISSOURI (Z or MO) CZ- Cass Co
OHIO (O or OH) CO- Champaign Co FO- Fulton Co HO- Holmes Co LO- Logan Co SO- Stark Co TO- Tuscarawas Co WO- Wayne Co
PENNSYLVANIA (P or PA) BP- Berks Co CP- Cambria Co EP- Centre Co HP- Huntington Co JP- Juniata Co LP- Lancaster Co MP- Mifflin Co NP- Lebanon Co SP- Somerset Co TP- Chester Co WP- Lawrence Co
DBH- Descendants of Barbara Hochstedler and Christian Stutzman (1938)
CF/Fisher- Descendants of Christian Fisher (1972)
AAMG- Amish and Amish Mennonite Genealogies (1986), (updated 2007)
HHH- Hertzler, Hartzler Family History
MFH- Mast family History (1911)
Cemetery listings such as "K-3" are from the book "Cemetery Directory of the Amish Community in Eastern Holmes and Adjoining Counties in Ohio" by Leroy Beachy (1975)
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
It is impossible to thank all the people who have contributed information to build these records. We must, however, mention several folks whose work has been of greatest importance. For the Amish line: Rachel Kreider and her collaborator, Dr. Hugh Gingerich; for the Mennonite line: the late Richard Yothers and the late Ken Hottle; For the Oley Valley Line: Richard H Yoder, Helen V Yoder. For the German and Swiss lines: The late Karl Joder and his collaborator Otmar Jotter; For the Conrad Yoder line: the late Fred Yoder. For the Alsatian lines: Edith Joder. Last, but not least, no mention of Yoder census records could be made without citing the extensive work by Dorothy Yoder Coffman. Several individuals also deserve special acknowledgement for their contributions to the new data added in 1996.. Thanks to David Yoder of Evanston, Ill. who helped type the new generational data for the Oley and Mennonite Yoder lines. Thanks to Carl Yoders of Yardville,NJ and Donald Honeywell of Baltimore, Md for their research into the Melchior Yoder line--which includes the "Yoders" line of Southwestern Pennsylvania (shown under Melchior.doc). And thanks to Bruce S.Yetter for information on the Samuel Yetter family of Columbia County,Pa.
Also included is extensive Pennsylvania information collected by Richard H. Yoder, Bechtelsville, PA : Patent, Warrant, Orphans Court, Court House, Cemetery and Church records. A WORD OF WARNING FROM RICHARD--- "It is rare to find complete records of any older church since many churches had part-time ministers who served many churches and kept the records themselves". We have never-the-less done our best to avoid errors in transcription.
The Steffisburg, Switzerland Birth records were collected by the late Karl Joder and his fellow researcher Ottmar Jotter from the official birth registry of the village.