Titus Laney, I

Pioneers of old Monocacy

Please note this description. In this passage, the author notes that Teter Lany is in fact the same person as Dietrich Lehnich. The name has been butchered by bad Anglicization.

DAR

DAR Ancestor # A068848

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Life

Dietrich Lehnich / Teter Lany was of Germanic descent. He was apparently one of the earliest settlers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Lespiches / Lehnichs were mentioned in early church records around 1725-1730, including baptisms, but there seemed to be few remnants of the family in Pennsylvania after that time. Other early families went on to Monocacy, Frederick County, Maryland, or other points south, and the Lespiches may have gone there as well.

• https://ruttergenealogy.com/life-in-lancaster-co-pa
• https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/leitner/113/
• https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/laney/615/

Notes from Paul Lightner Whitehouse

I also corresponded with a Noecker researcher many years ago and I have the information she had pulled together from various sources and other Noecker researchers. It's a highly formatted Work document so wouldn't copy well here, but I could email it to you. She thought, at the time, that the Noeckers came through up-state NY, as my family had with Wilhelm Leitner, because they had settled quite early (mid-1730s) in the Tulpehocken area near the 1709ers who migrated from NY. I haven't looked into their early history - maybe they had been there a while like the Skiles family, that had been in Somerset County, MD for a while before some going north to Cecil County and then to Lancaster Co., PA with so many other families. Here are the earliest Noecker generations that were given to me:

• 1 Johannes Noecker, d. abt. 1757. Married Catherine WEIS? or WALBORN? [1]
• 2 Christopher Noecker, d. abt 1760; Was executor of father’s will; m. Anna Catherine;
• 3 Johannes Noecker, b. 28 Oct 1749 in Stouchsburg, Berks, PA
• 2 Johanna Noecker, m. Leonard LEHNICH/LENIG
• 3 Regina Lehnich, b. 1730
• 3 Johannes Lehnich, bap. 5 Jan 1735; Sponsors: Adam Leitner and Regina Noecker
• 2 Regina Noecker, m. ______ MOSSER aft. 1735; m. between 1735 and 1743 in Lancaster Co.
• 2 Martin Noecker, b. abt 1714 in NY; d. abt 12 Feb 1794; [2] m. (1) Mary Magdalena LEITNER on 19 Apr 1737 in Trinity Church, New Holland, Lancaster Co.; m. (2) Susanna Mary? in Bern Twp, Berks Co.

You'll note here that Johanna is shown married to Leonard LEHNICH/LENIG - Leonard vs. Dietrich, I don't know, but it doesn't seem Lespich was an actual name and I can imagine how Lehnich (phonetically the same as Lenig), written in the old script, could be mis-transcribed as Lespich. I haven't looked yet for Regina LEHNICH/LENIG. In fact, I'm not sure where Lespich came from in association with the baptism of Regina. I have a copy of that section of a Trinity New Holland transcript and it has:

LEHNICH, Dieterich:

Regina; sponsors Dieterich Ellrodt & Regina Noeckerin, both single

b. 17, 1730, bapt. [May] 3, 1730

Johannes; sponsors Adam Leitner, Johannes Noecker & Regina Noeckerin

b. November [ ], bapt. January 5, 1735

Monocacy County reference

Dietrich is referenced twice in "Pioneers of old Monocacy", dated in the 1740s, so we know that it's Dietrich Sr. we are talking about. Here is one reference .

The name he was given by people there was "Teter Lany".

The naming makes phonetic sense too:

• Dietrich -> Deeter -> Teeter -> Teter -> Teetus -> Titus
• Lehnich -> Layneek -> Laynee

Historical accounts of Titus Lany's origins

From Virginia Cohen, a descendant of Dietrich:

Guy B. Funderburk, in Laney: Lineage and Legacy, says "according to his son, George, Titus was born in Germany". Of course, this must have been family lore since he would have said it between 1748 and 1813. I'm trying figure out how he's born in Germany, goes to get married in Ireland, to Hannah, in Cork Co., Ireland (~1730). They immigrate to Philadelphia (~1832) with a whole host of German settlers. (Hannah is mentioned as the wife of Teter Lany in Pioneers of old Monocacy.) Laney: Lineage and Legacy says Titus Laney's homeland is Ireland.

Alternate history

Alternate history has Dietrich from Germany, married in Ireland, settled in South Carolina. This has little support in documentation, but people have built trees from this assumption.

FamilySearch.com: https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LKFV-W6L/titus-deitrich-teter...

This source tracks back further into Ireland.

Children: Anna Maria Laney 1730-1807, Jane Laney 1732-?, John Laney 1732-?, Titus Laney II 1734-1825, Samuel Laney 1736-1794, William Laney Sr 1738-1800, Catherine Laney 1740-1805, Peter Laney 1744-?, Joseph Laney 1746-1809, George L Laney 1748-1813, Wrenchy Laney

https://en.geneanet.org/fonds/individus/?size=50&ignore_each_patron...

Parents of Dietrich determined through research into his first cousins twice removed Johan Thomas Lenich and Jerg Peter Lenich. See project https://www.geni.com/projects/The-Lehnichs-of-Pennsylvania-and-South-Carolina/4503563 for details.