Darr Home Page

I actually knew/know Bothwells and Cusmans and Stantons.
There is only one Darr that I knew, Great Grandmother Maggie Lou Bessie Darr, who was an absolute sweetheart, but quite old when I knew her.
So most of these people are just names to me.
They seem to have been mostly farmers - or blacksmiths or carpenters.
And mostly quite respectable.

It seems the earliest Darrs in America came from Germany (or Switzerland).
Their name was spelled variously: Darr, Durr, Dorr, Derr, Dare.
Sometimes with umlauts or with extra vowels added to replace umlauts.
Sometimes even Tarr.
They mostly settled in Pennsylvania.
Some of them moved down into the Valley of Virginia - or the mountains of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee - but many of them are still in Pennsylvania.
My group of Darrs moved on, but they probably moved more directly west, to Ohio and beyond.
They settled in southeastern Illinois, in Wayne County, and many of them are still in the same area today.

My line - Wayne County Darrs
      Henry - born 1816, Pennsylvania
           Timeline
           Children with first wife Charlotte
           Children with second wife Sarah
      John (possibly Henry's brother) - born 1806, Pennsylvania
           Children
      Jonathan - born 1849, Wayne County, Illinois
          Timeline
          Children
        wife Emily Rebecca Lusk
      Maggie Lou Bessie - born 1884, Wayne County, Illinois
          If you are a cousin, contact me and I will send you this page.

Other Darr Lines
        Abraham Darr 1700 -1753/8 - Germany to Pennsylvania - children to Ohio (Darrtown)
        Gaspar Tarr- Germany to US (emigrated before 1760) - potter
        Gottfried Dorr(Darr) b. Prussia ~1792 - to Somerset Co, Pa
Weigant Derr ~1665 - 1713 Wuerttemburg
              his son  Johan Martin - emigrated 1725 - Pennsylvania (Philadelphia/Montgomery Co)
Sebastian -> Sebastian -> Johan George -> Johan George 1711-1770 - Germany -> Pennsylvania
       some sons to Maryland
At one time I thought that Hans Sigmund 1687 and George Johan 1687/8 were sons of Weigant, but that now seems unlikely.
Hans Sigmund stayed in Germany but all the men listed as his sons emigrated:
               sons of Hans Sigmund: Jacob, Melchior, Andreas, Valentine, Johannes, Lorentz
                       sons of Jacob: Christian, Johannes, Johan Heinrich
                       sons of Melchior: John Henry, Melchior II, George - all moved to North Carolina
                              sons of Melchior II: George Henry, Melchior III

Information Organized Geographically
North Carolina Darrs - mostly census index info, some census readings. 1850 and before.
Ohio Darrs (some McBrides) - mostly census index info, some census readings. 1840 and before.
Pennsylvania Darrs - census index info, some census readings, Rev War pension abstracts
      Pennsylvania counties with extra information (cemetery listings, church records, etc)
Bedford, Berks, Cumberland, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Northumberland, Philadelphia, York
Virginia Darrs - right now this is only Darrs from the 1810 census index

Other Random Darr Information
Emigration - Notes from Rupp's 30,000 Names . . .
            notes, Darrs etc. listed in book, some Philadelphia naturalizations
Revolutionary War Abstracts

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Comments, questions, additions, corrections?  Contact me at: lee@leesgenes.com

Page last updated 30 Oct 2005