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Welcome! This website was created on Feb 22 2014 and last updated on Jan 08 2024. The family trees on this site contain 803 relatives and 31 photos. If you have any questions or comments you may send a message to the Administrator of this site.
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About Mast,Senft,Nestel,Forney
This site contains persons primarily born in the area of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.  The  oldest ancestors lived in Europe, of course.  It is based on my grandparents ancestry.

I hope anyone who has ancestors listed here will verify or question any of the dates or names listed here.  Genealogy has become an obsession for many of us and sometimes the need to know exceeds the need for accuracy.  I hope for accuracy.

The Mast family began in Guggisberg,Switzerland.  The earliest ancestor identified was Hans Mast born abt 1570.  More is known of his son, Peter born abt 1600.  Unfortunately, I do not have access to records in the Canton of Bern which is where Guggisberg is located.  Our Forney ancestry was validated using a professional genealogist who was able to find such records.  It is definite that our Mast ancestors were persecuted  in Europe and began to move into the Palatinate as refuge.  It is believed our Mast ancestor who is listed as unnamed here was murdered in the pulpit and caused the immigration to the palatinate and subsequently the United States.  

Our Senft ancestry is uncertain.  Our great grandfather, Christian, was born in January 1851.  His parents were Georg and Anna/Dorothea.  They came from Bavaria together and it was likely she was pregnant on board the ship since they arrived in September 1850 on the ship Kosmos in New York.  Their destination was listed as Williamsburg.  This is a small city in western Pa.  George took an oath of allegiance 10/13/1851.  It is uncertain what happened to George.  Dorothea (Anna) married John Helwig about 1852/3 and they lived in New Jersey since the 1860 census lists all of the children born there.  They had their eldest child in 1854 in New Jersey.  That second family for Anna is listed in the 1860 census for Blair County, Pa but the family name is spelled Helling.  All members of that Helwig family are buried in Columbia.  Blended families of Helwig and Senft existed in Columbia, Pa.  The fate of John Helwig is also unknown.  An additional note is that Anna's obituary lists a sister named Barbara Plempel who lived in Holidaysburg.  Barbara's ancestry lists parents who were born in Europe but died over here.  

Our Nestel ancestry was started in Europe although little is known about them other than what is shown on an internet site listing the family which mostly remained in Europe.  Our gg grandfather, Sebastian Nestel came to the US around 1850 and is found in the 1860 census for Millersville, PA where he lived the rest of his life.  He married a widow named Mary Immel Brenner in 1852.  He was a Lutheran and the family apparently experienced the early deaths of three boys who were buried in Millersville.  Our direct ancestor, Franklin was born in 1858 when Sebastian was 31. 

 The Forney line has just become our best documented line.  A genealogist from Europe named Gottfried Fahrni has published our european ancestry.  He has used church records and census forms to complete it.  Our earliest known ancestors are Christian Von Farne and his wife, Barbara Mathysenn.  More details will be added to this site.  The first of our ancestors to arrive in the US was Abraham Fahrni in Sep 1727 with his two eldest daughters and his wife, Anna Carli.  Our ancestor, Peter Fahrni/Forney arrived with his brother Christian in Oct of 1727.  Our grandmother was born a Forney in Lancaster County PA and worshiped as a member of the church of the Brethren her whole life.

 This list was created from many different sources.  I have death certificates for most of my great grandparents, grandparents and my parents.  I have since found errors do occur on death certificates since the informant sometimes never knew their grandparent.  This is the case with Susan Mast as informant for our Catherine Baer Myers who was her grandmother.  Generally, these are reliable evidence of a persons life span.   Another primary source I have used is the find a grave website which contains pictures of  tombstones.  I also possess genealogy family books for Masts, Martins, Forneys and Hoovers.  A book  was written on the History of Salisbury Township in Lancaster County which also lists some  genealogical information on my ggg grandfather, John Myers.  I joined Ancestry.com 6/5/2020 and have been finding much more information regarding our various ancestors
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