Family trees can grow a lot of branches in 300 years.

Just ask the people attending the Herr Family Homecoming Saturday at the Hans Herr House in Willow Street.

They came from as far away as California, Florida and Michigan, and as close as Willow Street, Drumore Township and Landisville.

More than 500 people came to listen to stories about how their ancestors came to America and settled here. They used the genealogy resources on hand to fill in gaps in the branches of their family trees.

They played games, some ate a meal together, toured the 1719 Hans Herr House — the oldest building in the county — and even did a little square dancing in the evening.

Part of Lancaster Roots 300, a yearlong celebration of the anniversary of the first permanent European settlement here in 1710, the homecoming was a chance to celebrate the past and maybe discover a long lost relative or two.

"I think I'm related to everyone in Lancaster County," joked Joan Miley Stanford, who wore a T-shirt of her family tree, featuring the Mylins (some of whom changed their name to Miley) on the front and the Herrs — going all the way back to Hans — on the back.

"I'm here to find out more about the women, because we get left behind," she said, pointing to a few areas on the T-shirt that featured only first names.

"I can only go back to 1369," said a smiling Neil Bauman, who now lives in Stewartstown but grew up in Canada.

He had a blue binder filled with 22 generations of Baumans and was eager to share it with long lost distant cousins.

It was Wendel Bauman who arrived in the area in 1709, settling "two farms over from the Hans Herr House," he explained. "In about 1786, my Bauman ancestors moved to Canada."

The Baumans were one of the nine original families who came from the Palatinate section of southwest Germany, purchasing deeds for land from William Penn in the early 18th century.

Their homesteads spread from Strasburg to West Willow.

Those names — including Herr, Bauman, Mylin, Kendig, Miller and Funk still reverberate around the county today.

"People here are very aware of their connectiveness to each other," said Becky Gochnauer, the 1719 Herr House director. "They're aware of where they came from. That makes Lancaster County special."

Julie Sahm came from California hoping to fill in some blanks and meet distant relatives.

She can trace her father's family back to 1736 in this area, but her line of Sahms moved out West in 1916.

"I planned my trip east around this," she says. "And I brought my 80-year-old father with me."

Sandy Frey, of East Lampeter Township, came with a typed-up list her mother gave her 10 years ago going back to Hans Herr.

"I live around a lot of Herrs," she said. "I'm itching to find out more."

She was comparing notes with Julie Markley, of Drumore Township, who was there to find out about her husband's Kendig/Funk ancestors.

 "I discovered that my husband and I share common grandparents eight generations back," she said.

Frey and Markley compared notes on which Christian Herrs and which Anna Hostetters were in their family lines.

"It can get confusing when everyone has the same name," Frey said.

And those families spread out.

Louis Herr came to the homecoming from Peach Bottom.

"The Herrs [from my branch] settled there about 1860 or 1870," he said. "We wanted to have a family reunion anyway, so we thought we might as well have it here."

Visitors signed a quilt when they came in, and there were plans to take a photograph near the end of the day that would be similar to the one taken at the Herr family reunion held in 1920.

"We started planning this event two years ago," Gochnauer said. "We wanted to recreate an old-fashioned family reunion but still make it contemporary. We wanted everyone to be welcome."

Gochnauer points out that Lancaster County (which began as part of Chester County) had the most ethnically diverse population in all of Colonial America.

"People ask why should they care about something like this if they aren't related to the Herrs, and I tell them, it's part of Lancaster County's history."

jholahan@lnpnews.com