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Europe at the time. He was baptized in that city as "Hans Jacob Weidman" on October 28, 1720. He immigrated to America from Bachs, Switzerland around 1740, and was not married at the time. The first record of our Jacob is his marriage to Maria "Elisabeth" Dietz Schultes on September 15, 1743. This record is located in the Zion Lutheran Church in Loonenburg (now Athens, Greene Co., NY.
The actual record has his wife as "Elizabetha Schieds", but this has been proven incorrect with the discovery of the Adam Weidman Bible that clearly shows her name was "Maria Elesabeth Deitz." The name Schieds is pronounced "Sheets" in German and Dietz is pronounced "Deets." Thus, we have a typical spelling error by the minister as we often see in these old records. We also know that Maria "Elisabeth" Dietz was previously married to (first name unknown) Schultes.
Again, the minister could have simply misspelled Schultes as Schieds. Some have speculated that her maiden name was Oberbach, and that she was previously married to a Scheid, but this information has now been corrected by Mr. Miller with recently discovered records.
Jacob Weidman's first three children were born in the Catskill area of Greene Co., NY as evidenced by their baptismal records. By 1750 the family apparently moved to Beaverdam (now Berne), Albany Co,	NY.	He had	two more
children in Beaverdam as evidenced by their baptismal	records.
After settling in Beaverdam, Jacob built his home on land located near his "mill pond" on Fox Creek (also called Foxenkill) in what is now Berne, NY. He constructed a dam at the fall that operated a mill wheel turned by the falling water. The wheel then powered a sawmill. Based on William Fox's "History of the Lumber Industry," Jacob's saw mill was in operation by 1755. Jacob is also shown on a 1757 map of the Beaverdam community.
On March 3, 1787, Stephen Van Rensselaer sold a 261 acre farm with buildings in Berne to Jacob Weidman for 365 pounds, 8 shillings. The farm consisted of mills, mill streams, dams, etc. In 1803, Jacob's son, Peter "Petrus" Weidman, sold part of the farm to his son, Jacob P. Weidman. The problem was, Jacob apparently never deeded it over to Petrus and his father Jacob, was still living! In October 1821, there is a	case	styled	"Jackson	vs.
Hubble" that was tried in the Circuit Court of Albany	Co.,	NY. This case later
went before the New York Supreme Court in February 1824. The court transcript gives our Jacob Weidman's date of death as "1806" in one place and "about 1806" in another place. They also ruled that Petrus sold the property that he did not legally own in a somewhat complicated ruling.
In the 1800 Census of Berne, NY, we have three Weidmans living in Berne: Petrus Weidman (son of Jacob), Jacob P. Weidman (son of Petrus), and Jacob Weidman, Jr. (son of Jacob). While we know Jacob Sr. was still alive in 1800, he is not listed in that census. His son Petrus has 13 people living in this home that year and two males are "over age 45." We suspect these two older males are Petrus (born 1749) and his father Jacob Sr. (born 1720) . Jacob is probably buried in the Berne and Beaverdam Cemetery located on Helderberg Trail in Berne. We feel this because this is one of the earliest cemeteries in that area. This cemetery was part of the Beaverdam Reformed Church that dates back to 1765. The earliest readable stone shows a death date of 1784. There is also the possibility that he is buried in the "Weidman Farm Burying Ground" located on
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