The genealogy of the descendants of Jean Ranc has been thoroughly explored in the book:
JEAN A RANC was born at France in 1641. He died at Neckarau, Palatinate, on 27 December 1712.[1]
Jean Ranc was a pastor of the Reformed Church of France, forced to flee at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. According to The Ranks of the Rancks they first fled to Strasburg,[2] then went on to Mannheim, in the Palatinate. Family events were celebrated and recorded at the Reformed Church of Neckarau, which is three miles from Mannheim.
The Palatinate (called Pfalz in German) was one of the principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. It served as a place of safety for a wide variety of Protestants. However, it was also the scene of frequant wars. The Palatine War of Succession, 1688-97, led to the destruction of Neckarau and widespread destruction of the land. Somehow, Jean Ranc, his son and grandchildren, survived these troubles.
Jean Ranc had the following child:
HANS VALENTINE B RANCK was born on 1668. He died at Neckarau, Palatinate, on 1710. He married at Neckarau on 17 February 1699 MARGARETHA PHILLIPES, who was born on 1688, a child of Henry Philippes and Marguerite Weihkraws.[3]
The Ranck Family Heritage Society places the births of both Hans and Margaretha in Switzerland. I can't explain this. They had six children, named in the records of the Neckarau Reformed Church. Hans died at the age of forty-two. His father, and probably his widow, survived, left with several small children. Two children died within three years of their father's death, aged two and six. Three children survived, and came to America as young adults.
Jean Valentine Ranck and his wife Margaretha Phillips had the following children:
JOHN PHILIP1 RANCK, child of Johann Valentine Ranck and his wife Margaretta Phillips, was born at Neckarau on 31 January 1704 and died at Pennsylvania on 1783. He married at Neckarau on 21 August 1725 ANNA BARBARA SCHUMACHER. She was born about 1706.[4]
John Philip was the third of six known children. When he was six his father died; when he was eight his grandfather died. At least two, perhaps three, of his siblings died in childhood.
John Philip's older brother, John Michael, immigrated to America, arriving at Philadelphia on 24 August 1728.[5] The following year, John Philip and his wife Anna made the passage. Ralph Strassburger, in Pennsylvania German Pioneers transcribed the passenger list as follows:
Palatines imported in the ship Mortenhouse, Jas. Coultas, Mr, from Rotterdam but last from Deal p. clearance thence, dated 21st June 1729. Subscribed this declaration 19th Aug. 1729 . . . Johan Philip Ranck" [6]and elsewhere:
a list of Palatine Passangers, Imported into Philadelphia in the ship Mortenhouse, James Coultas, Commander, from Rotterdam--Aug. 17, 1729 . . . John Philip Ranck; Anna Barbara Ranck [7]Philip's sister, Susanna (Ranck) Schnaeder, arrived in Pennsylvania the following month.[8]
John Philip and Anna settled in Earl Townahip, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and affiliatd with Zeltenreich's Reformed Church. Elder Philip Ranck represented the church at the first coetus of the German Reformed Church, at Philadelphia, in 1747.[9]
John Philip Ranck and his wife Anna Barbara Schumacher had the following children:
VALENTINE2 RANCK (John Philip1) was born at Earl Township on 13 October 1737 a son of John Philip Ranck and his wife Anna Barbara Schumacher. He died on 19 February 1813. He married probably before 1760 ANNA MARIA BREIDENSTONE.[10]
Valentine and Anna Maria Ranck had the following children:
JACOB R.3 RANCK (Valentine2, John Philip1 ) was born at Lancaster County on 1 November 1773 a son of Valentine and Anna Maria Ranck. He died at Lancaster, Lancaster County on 23 November 1814. He married probably before 1802 ANN STOCK. She was born at Pennsylvania on 3 September 1780, and died at Lancaster County on 11 March 1865.[11]
Jacob was bapized at New Holland on 1 April 1774.
Jacob died at age 40, leaving his 34 year old widow with children ages 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3 and 1. It is not clear where they lived after his death. Widow Ann Ranck, in her older years, lived with her daughter Anne Eby (Mrs. Peter Eby) in East Earl Township, as reported in the 1850 and 1860 censuses.[12]
Jacob Ranck and his wife Ann Stock had the following children:
ADAM4 RANCK (Jacob3, Valentine3, John Philip1) was born at Strasburg Township on 9 June 1808 a son of Jacob Ranck and his wife Ann Stock. He died at Lancaster County on 28 March 1882. He married probably by 1833 BARBARA RESH. She was born at Pennsylvania on 29 June 1812, a daughter of John Resh and his wife Barbara Eby. She died at Bird-in-Hand, East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, on 26 April 1893.[13]
The Ranck family remembered Adam Ranck as a Brethren minister,[14] and the Ranck Family Heritage website described him as minister of Stump Memorial Church, Upper Leacock Township; however census records, for 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 called him a farmer.[16] Probably he served the church while supporting himself with farming. He resided at Upper Leacock Township in the first three of those censuses, in East Lampeter Township in 1880. The datestone on the home at 2761 Church Road, Bird-in-Hand, Lancaster County, states:
Adam Ranck and his wife Barbara Resh had the following children:
1The Ranks of the Rancks (on-line edition, accessed : 31 January 2019). Ranck Family Heritage Society, Inc., http://Ranck.org., person 13469.
2John Allen Ranck, The Ranks of the Rancks: A Ranck/Rank Family History and Genealogy, 17. (Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Sowers Printing Co., 1978).
3Ranks of the Rancks, person 13467.
4Ranks of the Rancks, person I3471 .
5Ralph Beaver Strassburger, Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia From 1727 to 1808 (Norristown, Pennsylvania: n.p., 1934), vol. 1, p. 19.
6Strassburger, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, vol. 1, p. 25.
7Strassburger, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, vol. 1, p. 23.
8Ranks of the Rancks, person I23565.
9Ranck, The Ranks of the Rancks, p. 26.
10Ranks of the Rancks, person I3478.
11Ranks of the Rancks, person I3511.
12Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population, Blue Ball, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, roll 789, p. 177B, household 143, Peter Eby family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 28 January 2019); NARA Microfilm Publication M432; Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population, East Earl, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, roll 1122, p. 200, household 327, Peter Eaby family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 28 January 2019); NARA microfilm publication M653; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
13Ranks of the Rancks, person I3608.
14Anna Ranck, phone interview by Charles A. Maxfield, 1 January 1998; privately held by Charles A Maxfield.
151850 Census, Leacock, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, roll 789, p. 119A, household 296, Adam Ranck family.
1860 Census, Upper Leacock, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, roll 1125, p. 882, household 312, Adam Ranck family.
Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population, Upper Leacosk, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, roll 1356, p. 134A, household 286, Adam Ranck family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 28 January 2019); NARA microfilm publication M593, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population, East Lampeter, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, enumeration district (ED) 143, roll 1142, p. 466A, household 487, Adam Ranck family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 28 January 2019); NARA microfilm publication T9; Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
16Personal observation.
Ranck, Anna. Phone interview by Charles A. Maxfield, 1 January 1998. Privately held by Charles A Maxfield.
Ranck, John Allen. The Ranks of the Rancks: A Ranck/Rank Family History and Genealogy. Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Sowers Printing Co., 1978.
The Ranks of the Rancks (on-line edition, accessed : 2019), Ranck Family Heritage Society, Inc., http://Ranck.org.
Strassburger, Ralph Beaver. Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia From 1727 to 1808. Norristown, Pennsylvania: n.p., 1934.
United States Department of the Census. Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.
________. Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.
________. Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.
________. Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.