Ziemer Family of Alleghenyville, Berks County, Pennsylvania

I found out that my grandmother, who was a Semer from Northwest Ohio, descended from the Ziemer family of southeast Pennsylvania.  They were part of the very large German-American community commonly known as the "Pennsylvania Dutch."


The Jeremiah Ziemer farm as it looks today at 889 Maple Grove Road, Mohnton, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The farm was passed to Johannes Heinrich (Henry) Ziemer, who passed it to John Ziemer, Esq., who passed it to his brother Peter Ziemer, who passed it to his son Peter D. Ziemer (Journal of the Berks County Genealogical Society, Vol. 32, Number 4).

I took a day trip to the village where Jeremias (Jeremiah) Zamer/Ziemer and his wife Anna Barbara Sauder first settled after arriving from Germany in 1738. In 1765, Jeremiah purchased 183 acres south and west of the intersection of Alleghenyville Road and Maple Grove Road in Berks County, the site of a farm that was passed along to several generations of Ziemers.



Allegheny Union Church, Brecknock Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania

This church, ten miles south of Reading, is where John and Keziah Semer, my 3rd great grandparents, had their three oldest sons baptized in 1849, two years before the family moved to Ohio. The current church was built in 1878 on the site where the previous structure had stood since 1800. The church was once shared by Mennonite, Lutheran, and German Reformed denominations.

Baptism of William, Henry, and John Ziemer in 1849

This church record from 1849 was the research clue that connected the Ziemer family of 1850 Berks County, Pennsylvania to the Semer family of 1860 Van Wert County, Ohio.  If not for this document, I never would have realized that the family name evolved from Ziemer to Semer.

Peter Ziemer's Tavern at 773 Alleghenyville Road - A sign
hanging in the house reads, "Ziemer's Tavern 1854."

On the 1850 Census, John H. Ziemer listed his occupation as "Innkeeper." The family operated a popular inn, Ziemer's Tavern, in Alleghenyville.  The building was restored years ago and is now a private residence.



The Ziemer section of the cemetery is located just behind the church building. It is one of the largest and oldest plots in the cemetery. Most of the older headstones are scripted in German.

Wilhelm Ziemer was the infant brother of John H. Semer. Wilhelm died in 1825 at just six months of age.  John also had a sister named Salome Sarah Ziemer.

Heinrich Ziemer (1780-1825), father of John H. Semer, was my 4th great grandfather.  John was just age five when his dad died. His mother, the former Lydia Hertz, later remarried to a man named John Shearer, and they moved to nearby Reading.  John stayed around Alleghenyville and apprenticed under his uncle, Peter Ziemer, in the operation of the family-owned inn.  John married Keziah Catharine Matz.  They migrated west to Van Wert County, Ohio in 1852, where they raised a family of ten children.  Their oldest son, William Semer, was my great-great grandfather, and William's son, William Lampson Semer (1882-1920) was my grandmother's dad.

Left: Johannes Heinrich Ziemer (1745-1822) was the only son of Jeremias Ziemer who arrived from Germany in 1738. Johannes was the father of Heinrich, grandfather of John H., and my 5th great grandfather. Right: Anna Catharine Scharman (1750-1827) was the wife of Johannes Heinrich Ziemer and my 5th great grandmother.  They were known simply as Henry and Catharine Ziemer.

For more information, check out my blog entry, "Whatever Happened to John H. Semer?"