Hi Christine, I don't have that much on the Homsher line. It seems that Anton's descendents changed the name to Homsher. His cousin, Adam, was my gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather, and it seems that most of Adam's descendents changed the name to Hamsher. I believe that when Anton and Adam came over it was originally spelled Hamscher. Not sure what the name on the birth certificate would be. Actually back in those days, its likely there was not a birth certificate, but there may well have been a baptismal certificate. I found a web site a few years ago about Pennsylvania Dutch naming patterns, and its real common that the children will have the same first name. I know my great great grandfather had children named John Valentine, John Adam, and John Peter. The first name John is a religious name, and it was understood that they would be known by the middle name. Technically they would have all been Johan which is like John, and its the religious name. Now confusing this, is if the first name is Johannes, then the name is really supposed to be John. Of 8 boys, three of them were Johan (John) and the youngest son was a Johannes (John), and only the youngest one actually went by John. There is something similar for the girls, as several in the same family might have the same religious first name, but they were known by the middle name. All of those variations of Mary like it could be one of those pattern names, especially if you find something on female siblings with the same name. I hope this helps, but it gets confusing. dh