Preface

The Loop Family in America


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PREFACE to the Online Edition

The Loop Family in America was published in 1994. The original 275 hardbound copies of this 500 page book sold out in a couple of years. I also donated many copies to libraries around the country. I estimate that, including the softbound photocopies I've been selling since I ran out of hardbound copies, I've sold over 500 copies of the book. It has never been my intention to make any money selling this book. The expenses of almost 40 years of research, which expenses were particularly high in the years before the internet, have in no way been recovered. So now it is time to put this book online and make it available to everyone free of charge. Having this book online on a hosting service where I can control the content, means that I can keep the book up to date from day to day. It also means that hyperlinks (blue or purple text, which when you click on it, takes you to appropriate place in the book) can streamline the user's movement around the document. And since users can use a site search facility to find their ancestors, there is no need for an index. Users can search for locations, or even dates, as well as names, something my original index did not allow. So enjoy the online version of The Loop Family in America as my guest. If you have any questions, corrections, or additions, feel free to email me by clicking on this hyperlink right here → vbennison@aol.com.

PREFACE to the Original Edition

I began researching the Loop family in 1973 while I was in graduate school at the University of Chicago getting a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Computer Science. I was trying to find the parents of my great-great-grandfather Henry Loop of Chautauqua County, New York. In frustration at my lack of success via conventional means, I began collecting all the information I could find on all Loop's everywhere in the hope that I would be able to find my Henry in some Loop family tree. In 1984, I obtained a list of people interested in Loop family history, and proposed to them the creation of a quarterly Loop family newsletter. Thus began the Loop Scoop quarterly. I published the Loop Scoop from 1984 until 1992, maintaining a readership averaging about 40 readers. Through correspondence with the readers of the Loop Scoop, I was able to collect a large amount of information which I began to put together into a book in about 1987. This book you are now reading is the result.

I am proud of the contributions I have made to our knowledge of the history of the Loop family. Chief among my contributions was tracing the origins of the family back across the Atlantic bridge and carrying most of the major U.S. lines back to a common ancestor in Germany. Another major contribution of mine was debunking persistent and inaccurate family myths. Beyond that, I have mostly pieced together parts of a puzzle whose major portions other people had already constructed. For though almost all the writing in this book is mine, this book is by no means the work of one person. It represents the efforts of many researchers, over a period of 150 years, who have spent countless hours trying to forge a history out of elusive and confusing facts. Let me now briefly outline the history of Loop family research.

One of the first people to show an interest in the origins of the family was Charles M. Leupp, the millionaire who, about 1840, travelled back to Germany and as the result of his minimal efforts at research, decided to change the spelling of his name from Loop to Leupp. Next came Francis Ellington Leupp, U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs around the turn of the century, who put together some rather faulty Loop family history that was published in major genealogical reference works and caused some confusion among later researchers, including myself. Around 1929, Admah Irwin Loop, Mabel Feint, and others, organized a family history society. Several reunions were held in Cortland County, New York. The group hired a genealogist named Dr. Caro S. Valentine to research and write a Loop family history. He produced a manuscript, The History of the Loop Family. It is a very sloppy piece of work. In it facts, myths, falsehoods, and wild speculations are mixed recklessly together with little in the way of clues or references to help the befuddled reader determine which is which. One of the best previous single efforts attempting to encompass all Loop lines was that of Omer Loop, who took up the challenge in the 1960's. He collected a large amount of information, only small parts of which have I ever gained access to during my own research. His source materials were apparently destroyed after his death. But his files of descendency charts still exist at the time of this writing, in the possession of his daughter, and may eventually find their way into the Mormon genealogical archives. There are many errors in his material (mostly inherited from the Valentine manuscript, which he obtained and edited) but what I have of his material has proven valuable for the clues and leads it has provided. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Garold Loop (deceased). He took up Loop research in his twilight years, producing by hand, notebooks of information on Loops everywhere. The information, though useful, was poorly organized and difficult to read, but he circulated his notebooks among interested parties all over the country, and thus created a network of people interested in Loop family research. It is this network that formed the initial circulation for the Loop Scoop. Other major contributors were Janet and Lloyd Loop who have done major amounts of excellent research which they have distributed in several books dealing with different branches of the family (Descendants of Richard Henry Loop, Descendants of Dr. David Loop, and Descendants of Captain Peter Loop). These books provide references and are indexed, and have proven to be invaluable to me in preparing several chapters of this book. Their books also carry forward female lines of descent, which I generally did not attempt in my research. Other researchers, past and present, have carried out extensive research, usually on their own branches of the family. A large amount of this material has found its way to me. These researchers include (in no particular order):

The line of Peter Loop, Jr.

Ross Roby w Mary Callison

The line of Anthony Lupp of Pennsylvania

Robert E. Lupp (the author of the excellently researched and written manuscript The Lupp Family, 1971)

The line of Peter Loop of North East, Pennsylvania

Debra Maier

The line of Martin Loop of Washington County, New York

Hazel Dinsdale w Virginia Bachofer

The line of Martin Loop, son of Capt. Peter

Jim Fry

The line of Murray Loop, son of Peter Loop, Jr.

Myrtle Fowler w May Albonico

The line of Ludwig Lupp

Roger Bartlett w William Howard Loop w Lois Loope Senick

Shelby McBee w Linda J. Loop w Joan Loop

The line of Christian Loop of Delaware County, Ohio

Rosalie Hamilton (deceased) w Robert and Joanna Ford

Marilyn and Larry Loop w Wardene Roush Weisser

Norman Monroe Loop w Lillian Hoover

The line of David Loop of St. Lawrence County, New York

Ted Loop (who shares his files of information on Loops everywhere)

Frances K. Childs w Barbara Ekleberry w Karen Ufford Campola

Lupps in Germany

Helmut Teibach (deceased) w Stefan Hoffman (who among other things gave me a car tour of Hesse-Nassau)

The line of Nathaniel Loop of Ontario

Elmer Loop w Mary Jo Kubie w Helene Andrews

The line of Christian Loop, son of Capt. Peter

Lora Carter w Nancy Molter

The line of "Vermont" Henry Loop

Flora Yaple w Vola Carter w Bess Olson w Eugene B. Loop

Mary Jeanine Harris w Fae and Alfred Stromquist

The line of Philyer Loop

Darby Livingston

The line of Peter H. Loop

Edwin Grossnickle (the author of Three Country Doctors, 1988, a fictionalized history of three Loop doctors)

Joanne Ellis (to whom I am indebted for her excellent research on this line)

Mary Callison w Thelma Loxton w Melba Wickes w Keith Henry Loop

The line of Martin Cooper and Elizabeth Loop

George Capes

The line of Benjamin Loop of Ontario

Rob Loop w Janice Moon Mullins w William Middough

And no doubt there are others to whom I apologize for forgetting that I should mention them. Indeed most subscribers to the Loop Scoop over the years have each contributed useful information, and I am grateful to them all. Roger Joslyn, a professional genealogist, has kindly shared much information with me. Allen L. Stratton (deceased), a local historian in northern Vermont, was very generous in sending me information on the Philyer Loop line. I am also very grateful to Hank Z. Jones, Jr., for all his friendly help and encouragement, and for his unprecedented contributions to the study of Palatine immigration through his books The Palatine Families of Ireland, The Palatine Families of New York - 1710, More Palatine Families, Even More Palatine Families, and Westerwald to America (with Annette Kunselman Burgert). And, of course, I am very grateful to my wife Nancy and my daughters Sarah and Emily, for so cheerfully putting up with me and my obsession.

It was the goal of my research for this book to trace every Loop family in the United States from their origins in Europe to at least 1850, the year when the availability of modern census records - listing complete households - makes it easier to trace one's Loop ancestors forward to oneself. Where information more recent than 1850 was available, I have included it. I did not make great efforts, however, to research lines any more recent then 1900. It was not a goal of this book to present female lines of descent, nor was much research effort put forward toward that end. This is because my intention is that this book should be helpful to people who already know they have Loop's in their family tree, but have not been able to trace them back very far. I also wanted to limit the scope of this book and of my research so as not to overtax my limited resources of time, money, and energy. Text Box:

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