The Lunger Family
of Pennsylvania
Jacob Lunger arrived in Philadelphia from Tirol, Austria in 1741 — a quarter century before the nation he would help build declared its independence. His descendants have been Americans ever since.
Four generations · Detroit, Michigan · January 1918 — Sybil Dean Woolley holding George Franklin Lunger (newborn) · Franklin Woolley Lunger (center) · Francis “Fannie” Wilson Woolley (right)
“This site is dedicated to preserving the history of the Lunger family — from the mountains of Tirol to the valleys of Pennsylvania and beyond — for all who carry the name and all who share its story.”
Jacob Lunger
Born ~1716, Tirol, Austria · Died before June 24, 1780, Sussex County, New Jersey
Jacob & Sarah Hodge Lunger
Photographed circa 1870s–80s
Jacob Lunger was born in Tirol, Austria — the German-speaking alpine region now divided between Austria and the northernmost province of Italy, known today as Südtirol. He was approximately 25 years old when he made the journey that would define his family’s history for the next three centuries.
On November 20, 1741, Jacob arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania aboard the ship Europa, sailing from Rotterdam. He was among a wave of German-speaking immigrants who sought new lives in the New World. Notably, an ancestor of General Dwight D. Eisenhower made the same crossing on the same ship.
Jacob made his way to Sussex County, New Jersey, where he established himself as a man of considerable means. By the time of his death, he owned a plantation in Mansfield Wood House Township — a testament to a life of hard work and ambition in the New World.
Jacob died on his plantation in Mansfield Wood House Township before June 24, 1780.
Legacy Family Tree records · Source: Of Kindred Germanic Origins, Jodie Scales, 2001
Jacob and his wife had many children. His son Jacob Jr. inherited the family’s New Jersey holdings. His other sons — including Ludwig — moved outward, beginning the family’s long march westward that would continue for generations.
Following the Frontier
From Tirol to the Atlantic seaboard — and westward across a growing nation
The Lunger family story is, in many ways, the story of American expansion. For nearly three centuries, a pattern repeated itself with each generation: the eldest son inherited and stayed; the rest moved west, following opportunity and the ever-receding frontier.
State
& beyond
Lungerville,
Pennsylvania
Jordan Township, Lycoming County · PA Route 239
Lungerville is an unincorporated community in Jordan Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, on PA Route 239 near the Sullivan County line. According to the 1883 History of Tioga County, the settlement was founded around 1847 by Silas Billings, who established a steam saw-mill on Cedar Run and sold timber to buyers in Williamsport. The lumbering establishment and the buildings surrounding it were named “Lungerville” — a name the community has carried ever since.
Today Lungerville is a very rural community — little remains of the original settlement. The Lungerville Christian Church and its cemetery on PA Route 239 are essentially what endures of the community. The oldest Lungers buried there were born in the years immediately following the town’s founding — Hervey S. Lunger (b. 1850), Margaret S. Lunger (b. 1854), Anna Louise Lunger (b. 1856), and Mark Sanford Lunger (b. 1857) — evidence that Lunger family members were living in this community from its earliest days. The family name has never left this valley. Loraine Mae Lunger and her son Franklin A. Lunger visited and were photographed beside the village sign, a quiet act of recognition: this place is ours.
Lunger,
Sweden
Near Örebro · Visited by the family
Research has uncovered a place called Lunger in Sweden, approximately 4 kilometers from Örebro. Family members have visited and photographed the village — a small community with a white church, red farmhouses, and rolling fields.
Whether this Swedish Lunger shares a common origin with the Tirolean Lunger family remains one of the great open questions of Lunger genealogy.
Faces & Places
Photographs from the family archive — spanning more than a century
