How many Johns do you know? Probably a lot, since it is the most popular first name in the US today, with 5,298,362 males (total, not new babies). How many ancestors do we have named John? ( 🙋 Quiz - answer at bottom). A lot also, because 5.8 million Johns have been born since 1530. Add to that the cognates of John in other languages - Johann, Juan, Jean, Sean, Giovanni, Jovan, Ivan, Evan, Ian, Yannis, Jens, Jan - and you know why genealogists groan when they find a John to research. So it is not surprising that although our ancestor John B. Acker (see Acker Pedigree Chart, see Acker Family - Ester Crank and John B. Acker Descendant Chart) was the only man of that name when he lived in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, there were quite a few men named John or Jan Acker or Ecker in his hometown of Philipsburgh Manor, New York Province. Jan, pronounced YON, is the Dutch form of John, and Ecker seems to be the preferred version of Acker b...
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