Christophel Erb - Possible
Child of Nicholas Claus

There are two LDS Ancestral Files that list Christophel as a child of Nicholas. One has the gender as male, the other as female. One has the birthplace as Europe, the other as Pennsylvania. Another source, uncertain about the gender, says that Christophel was born in Warwick, Pennsylvania, "died young", and is buried there.

Instead of Christophel, the 1986 Gingerich-Kreider book lists a "Stephen" as the child of Nicholas who died young. The accompanying note explains: "'Stoffel' was the usual nickname for Stephen, and would likely be rendered as Christophel by the English-speaking ship captain who wrote the list of women and children for [the]10/8/1737 [shiplist]." [But see the discussion below about how "Christophel" was also used as an alternate name for "Christopher" and "Christ".]

If Christophel-Stephen died young, this would explain the absence of a spouse or children or any further records. Neither Christophel nor Stephen (nor Christopher) show up on the list of Nicholas's children recorded in the Swiss parish birth records researched by Richard Warren Davis. But it is still possible that Christophel was a late child of Nicholas, who was born in the Palatinate after the familiy left Switzerland and who died shortly after the family settled in Pennsylvania.

Until recently, I thought that the "Christophel" on the women and children's list was probably a feminine name and quite possibly a family nickname for Nicholas's daughter "Magdalena" -- who is otherwise unaccounted for on the ship list. (The wish is father to the thought.) After a recent internet search, however, I am now compelled to drop this mistaken notion. I was unable to find even a single instance of "Christophel" as a feminine name, but found many where it was used as a masculine name.

Almost all of these examples of "Christophel" were associated with Germanic surnames and with births in the 1700s -- some in Europe, some in America. Some men named "Christophel" went by the nickname of "Stophel" or of "Christ". Some fathers named "Christophel" had sons named "Christopher". And in at least one case the name was used by a family that originated in German-speaking Canton Bern, where Nicholas and his children came from. I found no instances where "Christophel" was associated with "Stephen".

The names of male children under 16 were included in the women and children's section of the "Charming Nancy" ship list. So Christophel could have been a young son of Nicholas, but is unlikely to have been a daughter.

As usual, however, clearing up one question -- the gender of "Christophel" -- raises several new ones:

1) If Nicholas's daughter Magdalena was not on board the "Charming Nancy" as "Christophel", then how did she get to Pennsylvania? Or did she?

2) Did a young "Christophel" die shortly after arriving in Pennsylvania -- perhaps taken ill on what was a difficult transatlantic voyage? (A contemporary diary kept on the ship says that 21 children died en route!)

Or 3) If "Christophel" and "Christopher" and "Christ" are sometimes interchangable, could the "Christophel Erbe" of the ship list have grown up to be a "Christopher Erb" (or even a "Christian Erb")? And, if so, which one?