Descendants
of Johan Christian Bachman 
Johan Christian Bachman was possibly born in Heimberg- Steffisburg, Switzerland, and immigrated to America in 1753 on the ship "Snow Good Hope" from Hamburg, Germany to the port of Philadelphia.
They resided in Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania, and in the early 1780's, his son Anthony Heinrich (Henry) moved his family to Baltimore County, Maryland, and many of his children migrated to central Ohio in the early 1800's; part them going on to Wisconsin, Iowa, etc. My line stayed in the Licking-Coshocton-Muskingum County areas of central Ohio.
Handwritten family group sheets (in my possession) that have been circulated around the country have been identified by Phyllis J. Miller as her original work. She has shared information with me (February 2000), both her original work and updates and the following article:
BAUGHMAN By Phyllis J. Miller 1994
"Christian Baughman presents the first problem in this line. I was not able to locate him in the 1850 census, as the family was probably enroute to Iowa when the census was taken. I looked for him in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. There is no doubt that he was the son of Francis for several reasons.
In 1944 Leora Shepardson, a Baughman family genealogist, sent an outline of the family to a correspondent showing that Christian was the first child. In the 1950's I corresponded with her and she gave the same information. At that time she was about 80 yrs. old. She was a great grand daughter of Francis' brother John whose family remained in Ohio.
The 1840 census of Fallsbury Township, Licking Co. Ohio shows the four elder sons of Francis on pages 40, 41 and 42, in close proximity. Francis was listed in adjoining Perry Twp. of Coshocton Co., Ohio. The 1852 census of Iowa shows Christian with 4 females in his household, his wife, Elizabeth, his mother, and his two surviving daughters. Also Fallsbury Twp. (Mt. Pleasant) cemetery inscriptions show a daughter of Christian and Elizabeth named Isabella (named for his mother) buried in 1843, in the same cemetery in which Francis was buried.
Francis presents the next problem. There is absolutely no doubt that he was a son of Henry, as that is proven by the deed found in Baltimore Co. wherein Francis sold his share of his father's land. But the problem with Francis is his birthdate. His tombstone gives his date of death as Feb. 19, 1850 and states that he was 72 years 1 month and 7 days which would make him born 12 Jan. 1778. This is evidently wrong as his brother John was born in Jan. of 1778 according to the baptismal records of St Jacob's (Stone) Church, Codurus Twp., York Co., PA.
These same baptismal records show an unnamed son of (Anthony) Henry Bachman born 15 Oct. 1779. The male witness for both John and the unnamed son was Henry's brother John Francis Bachman. The first one, John was for the John part of this witness's name and the unnamed son, I feel sure was called Francis for the second part of the witness's name. Also Leora Shepardson in one record gave the birthdate of Francis as 14 October.
The German practice of giving a child two names and usually calling him by the second name is clearly shown in both Anthony "Henry" and his father Johan "Christian" Bachman . Henry's wife was Maria Barbara. There were a number of baptismal records in York Co., PA at about the right time for girls named Maria Barbara, but which one, if any, was the wife of Henry can not be determined. Also we do not know for sure that she was the wife "Mary" of the Baltimore Co., MD state records.
Henry seems to have had 11 children born from 1776 to at least 1812, possibly 1819/20. This would appear to be too long a span for just one wife. The first 7 were born from 1776 through 1788, then #8 whose name we are not sure of, but who was probably Samuel, married in 1813 and in census records appears to have been born about 1794 may be by the same mother as the first 7, but the last three, Rachel, Andrew and Margaret were born in 1807, 1804-1810 and 1810-1820 - at a guess about 1807,1809 and 1812, seem to have been by a younger and second wife.
1998 Addition:
Where Johan Christian and Anna Dorothea Bachman came from in Europe is not known. In Switzerland the name Bachman is very common, especially in Canton Bern. I have searched the baptismal and marriage records of the area where they most likely came from with little success. I did find a marriage record that certainly fits.
In LDS film #2041469: 6 Aug. 1747 Christian Bachman of Jassbach and Anna Wyss of Buchholterberg were the 15th marriage performed that year at Oberdiessbach. But I found no baptisms of their children and there should have been at least two. It is interesting to note that there was a Jacob Wis present in 1762 in Codorus Twp., York Co., PA. That is very close to our Bachmans."
