George Armstrong Custer - Family and Ancestry

Family and Ancestry

According to late 20th century research, Custer's ancestors, Paulus and Gertrude Küster, who followed the first thirteen immigrant German families from Krefeld and surroundings, had emigrated to North America around 1693 from the Rhineland in Germany, probably among thousands of Palatine refugees whose passage was arranged by the English government of Queen Anne to gain settlers. George Armstrong Custer was a 4xgreat-grandson of Paulus Küster from Kaldenkirchen, Duchy of Jülich (today North Rhine-Westphalia state), who settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

Custer's mother was Marie Ward, who – at the age of 16 – had married Israel Kirkpatrick. When he died in 1835, she married Emanuel Henry Custer in 1836. Marie's grandparents – George Ward (1724–1811) and Mary Ward (née Grier) (1733–1811) – were from County Durham, England. Their son James Grier Ward (1765–1824) was born in Dauphin, Pennsylvania, and married Catherine Rogers (1776–1829). Their daughter Marie Ward was Custer's mother. Catherine Rogers was a daughter of Thomas Rogers and Sarah Armstrong. According to family letters, Custer was named after George Armstrong, a minister, in his devout father's hope that his son might join the clergy.