Group 7

Lineages/Members

• 95656 – John Vance (b.1804, PA) m.Sarah Kulp
  
• 71883 – Jacob Vance (b.1814, OH) m.Edith Reck, Randolph Co, IN
  
• 100588 – William Vance (b.1820, OH) m.Margaret Wallace, Randolph Co, IN
  
• 79352 – George Fredrick Wantz/Vance (b.1819, OH - d.1909)
  
• 120721 – Johan Phillip Wentz (d.1795, York Co, PA)

DNA Analysis

DNA Results

There are only 5 markers out of 37 in which there is some difference between the men, and they are all among the faster mutating markers. This genetic evidence indicates a good probability of a common genetic descent in a genealogical timeframe.

The closest match with this group in the Vance DNA Project is participant 85282, who is a genetic distance of 4 to 6 on 25 markers (he has not tested 37 markers). Most likely a 37-marker upgrade for 85282 would reveal even more genetic distance, but a genealogical relationship cannot yet be ruled out. Among those in the Vance DNA project who have tested 37 markers, the next closest match is a genetic distance of 34.

Matches with Other Surnames:
There is one man in Ysearch who is a genetic distance of 6 from the 37-marker modal haplotype of this group:

Generally matches of this genetic distance with other surnames are not worth pursuing unless there is some other evidence to indicate a connection.

Haplogroup:
None of the members of this group have had their haplogroup confirmed by a SNP test. According to Whit Athey’s haplogroup predictor, they very likely belong to haplogroup I2b1. Jim Cullen’s haplogroup predictor predicts that they have the S24 SNP in haplogroup I2b1 and that they belong to the Cont2a clade (81% chance) or the Cont1 clade (19%), as defined by Ken Nordvedt.

The International Society of Genetic Genealogy maintains an up-to-date phylogenetic tree of the I haplogroup here: http://www.isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_HapgrpI09.html. Ken Nordvedt’s work on the I haplogroup may be found on his website.

Genealogical Overview:
Although all the members of this group are males named Vance, their surname appears to be an Anglicization of the German surname Wentz or Wantz. The German version of the surname is demonstrable for two of the lineages (79352 & 120721), one of which (120721) appears traceable to an immigrant ancestor.

Four of the five lineages in this group may be traced to either Randolph County, IN, or Preble County, OH, the county seats of which are only about 40 miles distant from each other. The fifth lineage (120721) is geographically separate, being traced to Monroe County, WV, and before that, probably to a German immigrant family living in York County, PA. This early Pennsylvania location for the lineage of 120721 accords with evidence from the census that suggests the Ohio/Indiana families moved to the Midwest from Pennsylvania. It seems likely that all of the Vances in this group may be eventually traced to one or more related Wantz or Wentz families who immigrated to Pennsylania from Germany sometime in the mid-18th century or before. The following map plots the locations of the earliest known ancestors of the Group 7 Vances and illustrates the geographic division between West Virginia and Indiana/Ohio that was present within the group by the early 19th century.

Randolph County, IN
Three of the participants (71883, 100588, and 95656) trace their ancestry to men who were living in Randolph County, IN, at the time of the 1850 census. Based on the birthplaces they gave for themselves and their children, it is clear that they all came to Indiana from Ohio.

• John Vance (95656) (b.c.1804, PA; to OH by 1827; to IN by 1829)
  
• Jacob Vance (71883) (b.c.1814, OH; to IN by 1838)
  
• William Vance (100588) (b.c.1822, OH; to IN by 1846)

There were three other Vance families in Randolph County in 1850 (a soundex search for the surnames Wentz or Wantz turned up nothing):

• George Vance (b.c.1776, PA; to OH by 1824)
  
• Jacob Vance (b.c.1816, OH; to IN by 1834)
  
• Jackson Vance (b.c.1825, NC)

Note the presence of another Jacob Vance in the county. As with the other Vances of Randolph, the census indicates that both George and this other Jacob moved to Indiana from Ohio. Like John Vance (95656), George Vance listed his birthplace as Pennsylvania. George is also a full generation older than the other adult Vances, which had prompted some to suspect that he might be the father of some of them. Loretta Mattson has been able to confirm, by means of the military records of George’s son George Jr, that both William (100588) and Jacob (71883) were the sons of the elder George.

Iris Miller, a descendant of George Vance, was kind enough to share the following records of Vance marriages that took place in Randolph County, IN, prior to 1850:

8 July 1823 Margaret Vance to Wilder Potter
12 Sept 1833 David Vance to Sarah Smith
10 Mar 1836 Jacob Vance to Edith Reck
20 Feb 1842 Catherine Vance to Smith Clark
28 Apr 1844 Elizabeth Vance to Thomas Pence
15 Aug 1844 Jacob Vance to Anna Wallace (71883)
8 Jan 1846 William Vance to Margaret Wallace (100588)

Note that Jacob (71883) and William (100588) both married women named Wallace. Loretta Mattson reports that Anna and Margaret Wallace were sisters and that both these Vance families moved together with the Wallaces to Wisconsin in 1856.

Preble County, OH
Participant 79352 is a descendant of George F. Wantz of Preble County, OH. Though the counties are in different states, Preble is quite close to Randolph (the county seats are only 40 miles distant). This is apparent from the following map, which notes the locations of the earliest known ancestors of 71883, 100588, 95656, and 79352. The blue markers denote the two counties, and the green markers are the townships where the ancestors of the 4 Vances were living in 1850.

Since it’s clear that the Randolph County Vances moved to Indiana from Ohio, it’s natural to wonder whether they might have come to Indiana specifically from Preble County and whether they might have left kin behind, including perhaps the ancestors of 79352. The July 2000 issue of the Vance Family Association Newsletter contains excerpts from Early Ohio Settlers, Purchasers of Land in Southwestern Ohio, 1800-1840. These were purchases made through the Cincinnati Land Office, and the purchases included land that ended up in Randolph County, IN. A George B. Vance purchased land in Randolph County in 1836. Could he be the same George Vance found on the 1850 census in Randolph? We know George was in Ohio by 1824, since his daughter Elizabeth (Vance) Pence listed her birthplace as Ohio and her age as 26; but it is unclear when he moved to Randolph. Interestingly, there are other entries for a George Vance in the book and these entries are all from Preble County, OH:

George Vance 1827 Preble Co, OH
George Vance 1829 Preble Co, OH
George B. Vance 1836 Randolph Co, IN

It is not apparent that these entries all refer to the same George Vance, but the dates and locations are consistent with what is known of George Vance of Randolph County, IN. Other than George Vance, there is only one other Vance mentioned in the land entries for Preble County - Jacob Vance (1811 Preble Co, OH), perhaps the same Jacob Vance who is listed as purchasing land in Montgomery Co, OH, just east of Preble, in 1807.

In 1850, there were at least 11 Vance, Wentz, or Wantz households in Preble County, OH. Following is a list of all the adult male Vances in both Randolph and Preble in 1850 (those whose descendants are known to be represented in the project are bolded):

Randolph Co, IN
George Vance (b.c.1776, PA; to OH by 1824)
John Vance (b.c.1804, PA; OH by 1827; IN by 1829)
Jacob Vance (b.c.1814, OH; to IN by 1838)
Jacob Vance (b.c.1816, OH; to IN by 1834)
William Vance (b.c.1822, OH; to IN by 1846)
Jackson Vance (b.c.1825, NC)

Preble Co, OH
John P Wantz (b.c.1799, PA)
Jacob Wantz (b.c.1803, PA)
Frederick Wantz (b.c.1804, PA)
Jacob M Vance (b.c.1808, OH)
John Wantz (b.c.1814, OH)
George Vance (b.c.1816, OH)
Peter Wentz (b.c.1825, VA; in OH by 1829)
Irwin Wantz (b.c.1825, OH)
John J Wantz (b.c.1827, OH)
Georg Wantz (b.c.1829, OH)

Further research may elucidate the connections between these families and it would probably be worthwhile to include descendants of some or all of these other Vance lineages in the DNA project.

West Virginia Branch
Member 120721 is a descendant of Philip Vance, who was living in Monroe County, VA, at the time of the 1850 census. Traditional evidence, detailed below, indicates that Philip was the son of Adam Vance/Wentz, who moved to Monroe County from York County, PA, around 1799. Adam appears to be the son of Johan Philip Wentz (d.1795, York Co, PA), a German immigrant.

The following adult male Vance heads of household were listed in Monroe County on the 1850 census. (There were no Wantz or Wentz men on the 1850 census in Monroe County; by this time, the name had become Anglicized to Vance.)

Jacob Vance (b.c.1795, VA)
Philip Vance (b.c.1800, VA)
Adam Vance (b.c.1814, VA)
Adam Vance (b.c.1823, VA) (probably the son of Philip)

The household of Philip Vance is listed as follows (note his wife Sally Vance):

The following Monroe County land grant abstracts were published in the January 2000 issue of the Vance Family Association newsletter:

Monroe County, VA Land Grants
Adam Vance 10 Carpenters Run 1807 1, 149
Jacob Vance 136 Maple Spring Run 1838 2, 138
Adam Vance 101 Second Creek 1841 2, 162
Philip Vance 58 Holsapple Mountain 1841 2, 165

The Jacob, Adam and Philip who acquired land around 1838-1841 appear to be the 3 adult Vances recorded on the census in that county in 1850. From the land record abstracts it appears that they may all be descended from the Adam Vance who obtained the grant of land on Carpenters Run in 1807, 31 years before the next Vance land grant. An article from the April 2003 VFA newsletter details numerous land transactions and marriages from Monroe County and adjacent Greenbrier County which solidify the connection between Adam Vance/Wentz and Philip Vance, ancestor of 120721, and also provide the clues necessary to tracing the family back to Johan Philip Wentz of York County, PA.

In both Greenbrier County and Monroe County, Adam Vance appears in numerous records with members of the Holsople/Holtzappple family. Other Vances are associated, including Jacob Vance, Henry Vance, Philip Vance, and Robert Vance. The estate of Adam Vance was appraised in Monroe County in April 1827, indicating that he had died by that date. A deed from Monroe County dated 27 Sept 1834 provides some details about his family:

Henry Vance and his wife, Betsey; Charles Kyle and wife, Catherine of Greenbrier Co; Philip Vance and wife, Sally; John Vance and wife Cristena to William Vance for $1 each all right to a tract of land belonging to the heirs of Adam Vance dec’d adjoining lands of Philip Holsapple and others.

This record provides more details about the family and confirms that Philip Vance of Monroe County (ancestor of 120721) was the son of Adam Vance of Monroe County. The connections between Adam Vance and the Holtsapple family are the basis for the conclusion that Adam Vance of Greenbrier/Monroe was the son of Johan Philip Wentz of York Co., PA. Church records of York County indicate that Johan Philip Wentz was married to Anna Maria Holtzapple, daughter of Erasmus Holtzappel. Hendrich/Henry Holtzappel, a son of Erasmus, moved to Greenbrier Co, VA, and Adam Wantz and Jacob Wantz (a brother of Adam’s who lived in Greenbrier) were named in his estate appraisal of 1822. Other members of the Holsapple/Holtzappel clan lived adjacent to Adam Vance in Monroe County. By the time of the 1840 census, Adam’s children were all going by the name Vance, but note the Wantz spelling on the 1820 census:

More information about Johan Philip Wentz is available at this website on various Pennsylvania Wentz lines maintained by Cathy Wentz-Eisenstadt: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~footprintsfromthepast/wentz_varitrees_adolphwentz_phil.htm.