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I am going to try to put my posts from two other sites on this one.....if I persist long enough it will work. Nothing like being a stubborn Dutchman. A GATHERING OF DUTCH COUSINS will be in late September in Harrodsburg, KY for those descendants of a large group of settlers from Conewago Colony from near Gettysburg, PA, York County. Some of those that followed Father Hendrick Banta 3rd and his second wife, Antie Demarest Banta to Kentucky were families named Montfort, Riker, Demarest, Banta, Brewer, Cozine, Voris/Voorhees, Westerfield, Dorland/Darling, Covert, Smock, VanArsdale, etc.

Father Hendrick himself brought the six children of his first wife, Rachel Brower, their spouses and children, plus the thirteen known children of his second wife, Antie Demarest, and any spouses that had married into the family before the move to Kentucky in 1780. By the time they came down the Ohio River from Ft Pitt, PA, Hendrick and Antie were also raising eight grandchildren of his first son and his wife..both died tragically while still in Pennsylvania.

Several of the Low Dutch were among the first to join the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing or more commonly called The Shakers, when they began the society formation in Kentucky in 1805. Among those first members were Charity Banta Montfort and her youngest daughter, Sallie [Charity was the youngest child of Hendrick Banta's first marriage and though she was always known as Charity her actual name was Geertje], John Banta and his family, Samuel Banta and his family, Hendrick/Vestus Banta and his family, Francis Montfort Jr and his family, Rachel Montfort Voris [John] and their family, Jacob Montfort and his family, Antie/Ruth Banta Bruner, Styntie Banta Verbryck and her family, Cornelius Banta and his family, Helena Voorhies Gregory [Richard] and their family, Peter Voris and his family.

I am looking to connect with more members of the Montfort family in particular and welcome any questions or inquiries.

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Comment by Megan Phannenstill on September 13, 2011 at 2:26pm

Hi Barbara,

I am actually a direct relation to the Manta bloodline. My grandmother was Dorothy Clara Banta...and Hendrick Banta would have been her gtgtgtgtgt grandfather. I just wanted to briefly introduce myself! I am just starting to get involved in genealogy and would love to chat with you sometime.

Comment by Barbara Whiteside on July 2, 2010 at 12:52pm
Hi Winifred...am glad to have you aboard...slow getting to my messages, have been out of town....I am VERY familiar with your Jacob and Leah Banta Montfort [though he was probably spelling it the Dutch way MONFOORT at the time he was living] I have someone who is interested in Jacobus, though he is not sure I am right, that this is his line......I have tracked down all the others of that name in both Ohio and KY and this is the only line left that has possibilities for him. Do you have the names of the children of Jacobus and Leah? Or know of a will or deed that might name their children? Craig is looking for anything to prove my theory. Leah is a sister of my fourth great grandmother, Geertje/Charity Banta Montfort and are both daughters of Hendrick Banta 3rd and his first wife, Rachel Brower. Jacobus is an uncle to Charity's husband, Francis Montfort Sr. Jacobus was a brother to Jan Monfoort [Kniertje Marston] who was the father of Francis Montfort Sr. Jacobus and Jan were sons of Pieter and Margrietje Haff Monfoort. I have a website and a blog on the Montfort and allied families..... at www.montfortfamilyetc.blogspot.com
and http://bar-b-k.tripod.com THE MONTFORT FAMILY: A NARRATIVE. I see you have been to Shakertown and on the blog is a picture of the gravev of Leah's sister, Charity...one of the few remaining stones left in the old cemetery at Pleasant Hil.. Both the blog and website explain my connection to the first Shakers in KY. There was a Shaker village in Ohio near Lebanon in Warren County......that flourished in the early to late 1800's....and had close ties to both Shaker villages in KY. I had read somewhere but not sure if the info is correct that a part of Kings Island once belonged to Montfort/Banta families in Warren County, Ohio. Would like to hear back from you and perhaps get you connected to Craig Montfort from Oldham County, KY. I have a strong hunch he is from your line of Montfort and Banta...one way to tell is he has the name Henry that comes down in his family...and only Montforts connected to Hendrick Banta 3rd use the name Henry consistently.
Comment by Winifred McNabb on June 27, 2010 at 11:05am
The curious thing is that my late husband and I visited the Shaker settlement in 1991 before I knew anything about the Low Dutch Colony. I have also read accounts of Daniel Ketchum's involvement with members of this community in the early 1800s.
Comment by Winifred McNabb on June 27, 2010 at 11:02am
I am a descendant of Jacob Montfort and Leah Banta through their daughter Margaret. According to the Van Voorhees Family in America, she married Cornelius Van Voorhees. They had a daughter, Leah, who married in 1818 in Warren Co., OH a man named Hosea Dean who was born in NH to a family that had lived in the Taunton, MA area since the 1630s.
Hosea and Leah Dean moved to Montgomery Co., IN in the mid 1820s and then left there about April 1850 and moved to Marshall County, IA. Hosea died in 1851 and Leah in 1877. Their son, Hosea Jr., married Rebecca Ketchum in Montgomery Co., IN. She was from Shelby Co., KY, granddaughter of Daniel Ketchum. Their daughter Kezziah Dean married David Simkins in Marshall Co., IA. They are my gr-grandparents.
The Van Voorhees book does not show the location for the Voorhees/Montfort marriage but gives a date of 8 Dec 1788. I am trying to piece together the movements of these families.
Comment by Barbara Whiteside on August 6, 2009 at 1:17pm
I have the Picoult book on my list of books to read....I might recommend to you the Shaker mystery series..all in paperback and only six of them published, by Deborah Woodworth.....her background history in each of the stories is very good on Shaker history..she grew up near a village of Shakers in southeastern Ohio.
Comment by Carolyn Preston on July 29, 2009 at 11:25am
I just read a book by Jodi Picoult called Plain Truth that takes place in a Shaker Village (historical park) in Kentucky. You might find it very interesting!
Comment by Barbara Whiteside on July 18, 2009 at 12:27pm
Getting ready for the Gathering of Dutch Cousins reunion in late Sept of this year at Harrodsburg, KY. The group will get a tour of Shakertown at Pleasant Hill, near Harrodsburg, where so many of the Low Dutch joined in the early 1800's. I will give a talk at the Shaker Cemetery and point out a couple of gravestones still standing where several of the Low Dutch Shakers are buried, including my gtgtgtgt grandmother, Charity Banta Montfort. She was the daughter of Rachel Brower, first wife of Hendrick Banta 3rd and left her husband, Francis Montfort Sr, to join the Shakers in August of 1805. By Francis Sr, she had nine children and four of the nine would follow her into the Shaker society, Sallie the youngest, went with her mother in Aug of 1805. Francis Jr and his family joined in March of 1806. They had two children, John and Charity and another on the way who would be born Dec 12.1806. That child, David W., would be my gtgt grandfather. Another son, Jacob, joined with his wife and two children in 1809. Margaret was a Banta and known by the name Peggy. They had two sons, John and Henry and expecting their third child soon after they joined...that would be a daughter named Leah or Love as she was known by the Shakers. Rachel Montfort was married to John Voris and joined with him and twelve of their children.....Peter, John, Francis, Polly, Sophie, James, Jacob, Charity, Peggy, Abraham, Samuel and Hortensia. Of the children who joined with their parents, all three of the children of Francis and his wife, Polly Banta Montfort Jr, would leave the Shakers in the late 1820's....and have descendants. Also leaving were several of the children of Rachel Montfort Voris [John], including Hortensia, Samuel, Peter and Francis. Jacob would be expelled from the Shakers along with a young girl named Nancy Lyneback in 1836. In Feb of 1837 he would divorce Peggy/Margaret in Mercer County, KY and within weeks marry Nancy and by her have two children, a daughter who did not survive to adulthood and a son Jacob Jr. The two sons he had by Peggy would leave the Shakers in the late 1820's and there are descendants from Henry still living.

I can answer any questions on the KY Montforts that were in Shelby, Anderson, Ohio, Henry and Mercer Counties in Kentucky and am curious to know more about the Montforts in Oldham, Trimble and Boone Counties in Kentucky.
Comment by Kirsten Saxe on July 14, 2009 at 7:50pm
Hi Barbara,

I just found your post. I have Demarest ancestry in New Jersey and New York, and I recognize the Banta and Voorhies surnames as other lines associated with my Demarest family. I formed a Demarest group this morning which you would be welcome to join.

Kirsten Saxe

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