— born in Penn [now Washington] Twp., Northumberland [now Snyder] Co., PA:
.  George P. STRAUB, b. 13 Jun 1769
.  Andrew STRAUB, b. 30 Sep 1770; bap. 30 Jun 1771 — or b. ca. 1759 

Johann Jurg appears to have died young — for one thing, he seems to disappear and, for the other, it seems unlikely they would have named another son George in 1769 had the younger one not died.  Some secondary accounts say that Andrew, "founder of Freeburg," was Peter's oldest son.  If so, we have confused two families.  In the Archives of the STRAUB-L mailing list (online at RootsWeb.com), there is a post mentioning a bible, in the hands of a descendant of Benjamin STRAUB, son of George Peter STRAUB, which states that George had a brother, Andrew, born ca. 1759.  If the bible is correct, then we've got two Andrew STRAUBs here, one b. ca. 1759 and one b. 1770, both with parents Peter and Catherine.  On the other hand, I think there are two George P. STRAUBs being mixed up, which is another issue, but part of the problem.  Note that the only sons Fisher (1938:90) acknowledges are Andrew, George, John, and Peter, Jr.; however, he's a secondary source who often erred.

1.  Archives of the STRAUB-L mailing list (online at RootsWeb.com).  There is a post mentioning a bible, in the hands of a descendant of Benjamin STRAUB, son of George P. STRAUB, to the effect that George P. had a brother, Andrew, born ca. 1759.  If this is so, it blows the above scenario away, and we're back to square one.

2.  Marriage Record:

3.  1790 Census Index and Digital Images (online at Ancestry.com; Image #42 of 51; extracted by Diana Gale Matthiesen):¤•

1790

PA

Northumberland [now Snyder] Co.

p. 83

Ln. 22

Peter Stroup

2-2-2-0-0

These data indicate:

Gender and Type	Age Class	Therefore Born	Individuals Inferred
2 free white males	16 or over	in or bef. 1774	= Peter (b. 1724) = son?
2 free white males	15 or under	1774-1790	= grandchild? = grandchild?
2 free white females	all ages	in or bef. 1790	= Catharina (b. 1731/2) = daughter-in-law?

The young family living with our subjects could be kin or hired help.

3.  1800 Census Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com; Image #8 of 9; extracted by Diana Gale Matthiesen):¤•

1800

PA

Northumberland [now Snyder] Co.

Penn Twp.

p. 744

Ln. 18

Peter Stroup

00001-01001-00

These data indicate:

No. & Sex	Age Class	Therefore Born	Individuals Inferred
1 male	45 or over	in or bef. 1755	= Peter (b. 1724)
1 female	10-15	1784-1790	= ?
1 female	45 or over	in or bef. 1755	= Catharina (b. 1731/2)

4a.  George W. Wagenseller.  1904.  Tombstone Inscriptions of Snyder County, Penna.  Wagenseller Publ. Co., Middleburgh, PA. On p. 266:

Washington Twp., St. Peter's Cemetery, Freeburg, Pa.

Straub, Peter, d Sept. 5, 1804, aged 79 y 10 m 7 d.

This reading appears to be in error (see next source).

4b.  Tombstone reading by Mark & Lois Hross (of Rainbow City, AL) at "the cemetery across from Lutheran and Reformed Church of Freeburg, PA":

Here lieth the body of Peter Strop who departed this life Sept. 15, 1804, Aged 79y 10mo 7d.

Based on it's agreement with Fisher's biographical sketch (see below), this must be the correct reading of the stone.

5.  Birthdate calculated using Ben Buckner's JavaScript Birthday Calculator.

Entered		Result
15 Sep 1804	79y 10m 7d	8 Nov 1724

6a.  Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book E, p. 343 (photocopy courtesy of Shirley Straub Morton).
Summary below; for full transcription, please see this page. 

Grantor:	Peter STRAUB / STRAUP / STROUB / STROUP, Yeoman of Cumberland [now Snyder] County, Pennsylvania
Grantee:	George LAUMAN / LAWMAN, Yeoman of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Tract:	approx. 100 acres near Middle Creek, Cumberland [now Snyder] Co., PA
Adjacent Landowners:	Sophel MEYER, Jacob WETMAN
Original Patent:	6 Sep 1755, to Jacob YODER; later assigned to Peter STRAUB
Date Signed:	31 Oct 1767
Witnesses:	Jno P. DeHAAS, John THOME:
Date/Recorder-1:	22 May 1775, Benjamin WEISER
Date/Recorder-2:	23 Feb 1792, J. SIMPSON
Place Recorded:	Deed Book E, p. 343, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

Peter was obviously in Cumberland County earlier, when Jacob YODER assigned him his patent.  We need that deed to establish the earlier date for his arrival in the county.

6b.  Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book E, pp. 444-445 (photocopies courtesy of Shirley Straub Morton).
Summary below; for full transcription, please see this page. 

Grantor:	Peter STROUP, Yeoman, of Penn [now Washington] Township, Northumberland [now Snyder] Co., PA
Grantee:	Andrew STROUP, Yeoman,  son of Peter STROUP,  of Penn [now Washington] Township, Northumberland [now Snyder] Co., PA
Original Patent:	30 May 1792, State of Pennsylvania (Book 19, p. 462) to Peter STROUP
Plantation/Tract:	Halbourn (a.k.a., Heilbrun or Heilbrum), 253 acres
Adjacent Landowners:	Jacob MEYERS, Stophel MEYERS, Jacob YODER, Andrew MORR, William McMURREY
Date Conveyance Signed:	7 Jun 1792
Witnesses:	George CREAMER; Simon SNYDER, JP
Date Recorded:	15 Jun 1792
Place Recorded:	Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
Recorder:	J. SIMPSON

Our subject was born in Großgartach, in the Heilbronn District of Württemberg.  Is this the origin of the name of the tract?

7.  From a post by Gwen Boyer Borkman in the Archives of the STRAUB-L mailing list (online at RootsWeb.com):

Hawbaker and Groff: A New Index: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Before the Federal Census, Volume 3, Index to the 1750 Tax Records, pp. 99-102.

STAUB, PETER  East Hanover twp, 1750

This part of Lancaster Co. is now in NW Lebanon Co.  It's possible this Peter is the one whose son was baptized near Shamokin in 1771 (see next source), but we have somehow to prove he is the one who went to Cumberland [now Snyder] County by 1767.  We could be dealing with more than one Peter, and this Peter may, in fact, be Peter STAUB, not STRAUB.

8.  Charles A. Fisher.  1938.  Snyder County Pioneers.  Self-published, Selinsgrove, PA (reprinted 1991, Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD; boldface added):

p. 90

PETER STRAUB, SENIOR, was the son of Peter Straub who was born in Germany and embarked for America in the British ship "Pennsylvnia Merchant," Captain John Stedman, master, at Rotterdam, Holland, with his wife and sons Peter (1724-1805) and Jacob.  The wife was named Maria.  They arrived at the port of Philadelphia where the older Peter took the English oath of allegiance on September 18, 1733.  The Peter of this

p. 91

sketch was born in Germany on November 8, 1724, came to America with his parents in 1733, and lived in one of the eastern counties, and prior to 1768, came to what is now Washington Township, where he died on September 15, 1804.  He is buried in the St. Peters Cemetery in Freeburg, on land donated by his son, Andrew.  In 1770, Peter Straub, Andrew Morr, and Casper Roush applied to the proprietors of the colony for land for a church and school, and in 1774, a tract of 43 acres was granted to them, about a mile north of the present site of the village of Freeburg.  Soon thereafter they built a combined church and school building, which, however, was never fully completed, but regular services were held there from about 1781 on, at least a baptismal record was kept from that date. Peter was overseer of the poor for Penn Township in the years 1773, 1774, and 1775.  In 1781, he was taxed with 200 acres of land and personal property.  In 1785, he lived about three miles north-west of the present site of Freeburg, where later Jacob Haines lived.  He had a one-story weatherboarded house, painted red.  It is said that he had many unique characteristics, such as wearing home-made clothing only, he made his own straw hats, used strings instead of buttons on his clothes, cooked before an open fire on the hearth, made his own hickory splint chairs, used wooden spoons and bowls of his own manufacture, etc.  His known sons were: Andrew, John, George P., and Peter, Jr.  He served as a private in Captain Charles Meyer's (Moyer's) Company of Militia and Rangers from Northumberland County.  In 1790, his family consisted of two males over and two under 16 years and two females, and indication that one of his sons and wife, with two children lived with thim.

Fisher is an undocumented source.  His book contains hundreds of biographical sketches he cobbled together from circumstantial evidence, none of which evidence is supplied.  We cannot be certain which bios are accurate and which are not.  For example, we do not, in fact, know that the junior Pieter STRAUB who immigrated with his parents on the Pennsylvania Merchant in 1733 is the same one who died in 1804 in Snyder County.

9.  Emails from Gwen Boyer Bjorkman:

Charles H. Glatfelter, Pastors and People: German Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Pennsylvania Field, 1717 - 1793, (Breinigsville, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1980) p. 453. Mohr's, Zion.  These congregations, located in Washington twp, Snyder Co, date from the 1770's.  On April 12, 1774, the proprietors granted Andrew More, Peter Stroup and Casper Roush a warrant for fifty acres in Penns Twp,, Northumberland Co. "in trust for a Lutheran Church and School House."  A survey of 42 acres was made on 27 April 1774. (Northumberland Warrant M-223 and Copied Survey C-143, p. 40, BLR.)  The register, opened in 1781, included 70 baptisms performed through 1793.

10.  George F. Dunkelberger.  1948/1997.  The Story of Snyder County.  Rev. Ed.  Snyder County Historical Society (excerpts courtesy of Nelson R. Sulouff):

Straub, Peter p. 611, one of three men who received patent in 1774 for 42 acres of land on which to build Freeburg Lutheran and Reformed Church

Straub, Peter p. 652, one of three who in 1770 established the "Old Lutheran" or "Union Cemetery" near Freeburg

11.  Johanes Hentz (John Haines), (1735 Germany-Jan. 3, 1815 Freeburg, Pa), and Anna Regina Schuster Family History [link died]:

"Peter Straub lived three miles northwest of Freeburg in 1775.  He had a one story, weather-boarded house, painted red, on the site where the house of Jacob Haines now stands.  He dressed in homemade clothes and never had buttons on his garments; he tied them with strings.  He made his own hats of straw and wore no others; he never used candles, and the only light he used was made of pine-knots which burned in an opening in the chimney, called Kee-effly in the German language.  He had only three hickory chairs in use; they cooked in an open fireplace, and the sout krout stand was kept in the kitchen; he used wooden spoons and bowls of his own manufacture.  He had no children, but left a considerable legacy, when he died, to collateral heirs.  His wife also dressed in home-made clothes, and was an expert at the spinning wheel, an article much in need in her days." (Juniata and Susquehanna Valleys in Pennsylvania, page 1531).

12.  WorldConnect / Ancestry World Trees (online at RootsWeb.com/Ancestry.com).

13.  Emails from Shirley Straub Morton; Mark, Lois, & Carey Hross; and others.