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The Payers of Linthicum, MD; Formerly of McAdoo, PA

Updated May 29, 2008

Stephen Francis Payer
sfpayer@erols.com

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This site explores that branch of the Payer family begun in the USA by Josephus [Joseph(1)] Payer. He arrived in the USA from Solivar, (Sovar), near Eperjes, Austria-Hungary in or about 1882 with his two sons, Joseph(2), Stephen Francis(1) and a daughter Anna. A son, Wendele, (Wendel, Vendel, Vendelinus Fransciscus) visited the USA but remained in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Wendele's son, Emil Francis, adventurer and lion tamer, has been located at several parts of the world. Emil finally settled in Australia where he founded an extensive family. Another of Joseph's(1) daughters, Mary Anna (Marianna, Maria Anna) journeyed between Hungary and the USA, married organist and teacher George Julius Gyomber (Dumbier), and had a family of 14 offspring. Anna Payer married Joseph Paumer of Solivar who later changed his family's name to Palmer or Bauman. The oldest daughter of Joseph(1), Elizabeth, stayed in Europe and married teacher Stepan Janos Schmidt. Joseph(2), Stephen Francis(1) and Anna went on to found large families of their own beginning in McAdoo, Pennsylvania, a small Anthracite Coal boomtown of that era.

The name, Payer, is of German origin. It may be connected with the 'Donauschwaben', Swabian/Bavarian German settler migrants to Hungary in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries after that land's depopulation during the extended wars of the Holy Roman Empire against the Ottoman Turks. The Habsburg rulers offered incentives to veterans of the Turkish wars to come and rebuild Hungary. The family roots possibly go back 800 years in Bavaria/Rhineland/Pfalz.

Other (European) spellings and pronunciations of 'Payer' were Pajer, Bayer, 'Pai-err', 'Peier', and 'Pyer'. The immediate point of emigration to the USA was Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen County in Northeast Old Hungary, of further subdivison Saros. It is possible that other Pajer family members arrived in the USA from the Eperjes (now called Presov) region of what has since become Eastern Slovakia. Other marriage related family names are the German Fuchs, Krautkremmer (Krautkremer, Krautkraemer), Kurtz, Paumer and Schmidt; The Hungarian Marko, Toth, Wanyo (Vanjo), Gyomber (Dumbier) and Debrecenyi; The Slovak Maczko (Matsko), Dumbier (Gyomber) and Soltis; And on the wife's side the Tyrolean Rossi, Marches, (Marchese), and Salvaterra.

A large part of this effort has been aided immeasurably by Kathleen (Pusaver) Dorsam, a newfound fifth cousin. She had been researching her own [Pusaver, Puschauver, Buschauer] family via the LDS (Mormon) archives and found out that we hold a great many ancestors in common. As a group they were called the 'Solivar Germans'. She recounts their genealogy minutely and extensively for the years between 1700 and about 1880. My own records cover the years subsequent to 1833 down to the present.

Research for years prior to 1700 where the data is still sparse will probably take us to Stuttgart Germany, Swabia (Schwabenland) and the Rhineland. Any connections found by others would be appreciated and what we have, gladly shared.



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