COVERSTONE / KOBERSTEIN CONNECTION RESEARCH

While in York, PA I called Judy coverstone Stevens and she indicated that she has been unable to find the burial information or site for Hans Georg Koberstein, which should be in Shrewsbury, York county, PA.  I felt that if a resident could not find any information I would have little chance.  Therefor I proceeded to Woodstock, Shenandoah county, VA to the county court house.  I found numerous land records and probate records for Jacob Coverstone.  There was no direct written reference to the Koberstein connection, however the signatures on the land records and the will which appear to be original signatures look like old German Script version of Koberstein.   I take these to be original signatures because.  As an example I looked at a record that shows land sold by Thomas Hodson in Book H, page 98 to Jacob Coverstone (Also listed as being at the Virginia Archives, reel 146.  At the bottom of this record are signatures for Thomas Hodson and wife Catharina Hodson, both have their marks on them, so we know the clerk signed them and they just put their marks on the signature.

They would not allow me to make a copy of these signatures, stating it was hard on the book bindings and the harsh light degraded the paper.  From book I, page 40, 1790 (Also listed as being at the Virginia Archives, reel 187 or 107) I found a record of land sold by Jacob to Samuel Norris.  Jacob's signature is at the bottom of the record and no mark is given, suggesting that it was an original signature.  I made my best forgery as below:

And here is the scanned original:

The Jacob is clear enough.  The last name starts with a clear 'K', then an 'o'.  the next letter is out of place if Koberstien is the correct signature.  It will take more research, including a proper copy of the record to discover what it may be.  Next is a 'b', but oddly the upstroke is crossed.  Then there is a typical German script  lower case 'e'.  The German Script 'e' looks more like an 'n'.  See the attached old German Script alphabet for comparison.  Then comes an 'r'.  This 'r' looks more like the regular english 'r' than a german script 'r' which is more like an english 'v'.  However, I have seen cases of mixed english and german script letters.  Next comes a German script 's' which is more like an english lower case cursive 'f'.  It is followed by a clear crossed 't'.  The upper loop on the german script 's' is compromised by the need to cross over to the downstoke of the 't'.  Also the cross stroke of the 't' may have been made large and it skipped making the cross stroke on the up stroke of the 'b'.  Next there is a clear german script 'e', which looks more like a english 'n'.  Next we find a clear 'i', with a clean dot above the 'i'.  Last there is a clear 'n'.

I hesitate to publish this reasearch becasue I do not have a good copy to study, only my "forgery".  I hope to get a clean copy from the Virginia Archives soon and this hypothesis can be validated.

Also at the Philladelphia free library I found a book entitled "Pennsylvania German Pioneers" by Ralph Beaver Strassburger.  This three volume set is stated to have Facsimile Signatures 1727-1775.  It appears to be copies of the ship passenger lists.  I looked up the immigration passenger list for the 1750 arrival for Hans Georg Koberstein on the shop Osgood.  The signature is given here for comparison with the one for Jacob.

The key features here include the clear German Script 'H' starts the first name, Hans, as well the the terminating 'ss'.  The middle name looks more like "gorg".  The last name is clearly german script "Koberstein", however many of the letters are diffuse.  The typical german script 's' is evident before the uncrossed 't'.