GERMANNA History Notes Page #096

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This is the NINETY-SIXTH page of John BLANKENBAKER's series of Short Notes on GERMANNA History, which were originally posted to the GERMANNA_COLONIES Discussion List.  Each page contains 25 Notes.

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This Page Contains Notes 2376 through 2400.

GERMANNA History Notes
Page 96

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Nr. 2376:

[Marilyn Hansen sent me a story, which though not directly related to the Germanna Colonies, does say something about life in Culpeper County at the time of the Revolution.  The author of the story is Robert Bailey.  I have edited the story to shorten it and to adhere more closely to modern conventions.]

"I was born on the 29th of April, in the year of our Lord 1773.  My parents were respectable and they resided in the county of Chester in the state of Pennsylvania.  My mother was a very wealthy Quakeress and my father was an Irishman.  [They lost the money which my mother had had.]  My mother, who was excessively fond of father, consented to all he had done without a murmur.  The depreciation of paper money enveloped the pittance remaining.  My father then obtained a commission in the army and left my mother with nine small children, myself the youngest but one.  His name [Major William Bailey] is enrolled in the annals of his country who fell in battle at the Cowpens.

"My poor mother, after experiencing a succession of disasters, bundled up her little all, which all was conveyed by being packed upon the back of a small horse, not worth twenty dollars, consisting of beds, bed clothes, and in addition to the burden, my youngest sister.  I well recollect my own outfit for traveling, [namely] I trudged along on foot, sometimes in the van, and sometimes in the rear, without any sort of covering except my shirt, and entirely unmindful of the miseries of my mother, brothers, sisters, or of myself.

"We all traveled on in the way before related with [my young sister] tied on the horse with some old bedding and clothing and one little Dog, Watch.  We came on to Culpeper County, in Virginia.  Upon our arrival in Culpeper, my mother fortunately became acquainted with a lady, a Mrs. Field, by whom she was taken in, and at whose house we all resided for some time; the hospitality with which we were treated was more like relations than strangers.  An elder sister, through Mrs. Field's influence, obtained a situation in the house of a relation of Mrs. Field, to spin and perform the duties of a dairymaid, etc.  Two brothers William and James were able to work in the neighborhood.  My mother being a well-educated woman obtained a school by which she raised a little money and with the little earnings of my brothers and we could buy a tolerable pony to replace our poor old horse who had died.  My mother rented a little place on the road between Culpeper-court-house and Jerimanner ford [Germanna Ford?], where she sold spirits, and upon which little place the boys worked establishing a place for the entertainment of travelers and others.

"My poor mother, aided as she was by my brothers and eldest sister, kept up an even and economical course of care and industry until her little funds were increased to a competency enabling us to remove to Jeramanner ford, which was a better stand for public business and a much better farm.  Thus situated my mother became able to support herself, my youngest sister and myself.  My mother then quit keeping a public house and devoted her entire attention to school keeping."
(26 Sep 06)



Nr. 2377:

[In continue with the story of Robert Bailey but I will use the third person and abbreviate his story sharply.]

Robert�s mother married, a second time, Benjamin Coopwood, a mason, and the marriage was not a success for either the mother or Robert.  Mr. Coopwood treated Robert poorly.  Coopwood kicked and cuffed and was generally violent toward Robert.  Robert, then nine years old, with a wool hat, pair of shoes, two shirts, and a pair of trousers, left home and found his way to Mr. Strode in the upper end of Culpeper which was then the original Culpeper County.  Robert found employment with Mr. Strode by stripping tanning bark at the pay of one shilling per day, a low wage.  With one month�s wage, he visited his mother and bought more clothes.  His next job was as a plow boy, again at one shilling per day.

His mother and stepfather were moving to Maryland and Robert was persuaded to go with them and learn the trade of a mason.  On the way, a horse strayed for which Robert was responsible.  This resulted in more lashing and beating.  Robert left the family, having no money and only the clothes he was wearing.  He was extremely concerned that he would be taken up as a runaway apprentice.  He found though he was treated with hospitality, better than at home.

Back in Culpeper County he found a home and work with William Walker who knew Robert�s brother, James.  Robert came to view William Walker and his wife as a father and mother.  He told Walker he could bark, cut wood, and plow.  He was taken on at 30 shillings a month but for the second month and thereafter he was paid one shilling and three pence per day.  Sundays and wet days were allowed for schooling.  Walker was later the clerk of Madison County, so probably Robert was then in what became Madison County.

Mr. Walker had a son John who became a good friend to Robert.  They worked and did other things together.  They obtained permission of Mr. Walker to go to a dancing school on Saturdays.  Here, it was brought home to Robert by a girl that he was a poor boy and a �nobody�.

Robert wanted to learn a trade and Mr. Walker found Robert Brooken, a carpenter, who wanted apprentices.  Finding someone who could sign the indenture papers was a problem.  The overseer of the poor could do it but Robert objected to the implied stigma.  Finally, an agreement was reached, informally, between Robert and Mr. Brooken, for Robert to serve �til he was 21 with one year allocated for schooling.  At this time Robert was 13 years old and he had been school in three or four months; however, he had been attempting to teach himself all of this time.
(27 Sep 06)



Nr. 2378:

[I continue with the story of Robert Bailey.]

Robert Bailey informally apprenticed himself to Mr. Brooken to learn the trade of carpentry.  He was to serve until he was 21 with a year of schooling.  The first assignment, with several other apprentices, was to build a barn on the Robinson River.  He used the crosscut saw extensively which he found to be much harder work than plowing.  Robert respected Mr. Brooken who treated his apprentices well.  The second job was at Orange Courthouse where a tavern was repaired and additions were made to a house.  Next, the work was for Mr. Alcock where Mr. Alcock complimented him upon the quality of a gate that Robert made.  Then they built a house for Benjamin Winslow.  Robert used the crosscut saw and whip saw, made shingles, laid floors.  He learned to make a window sash and a panel door.  He was generally happy and contented.

Robert was then left at Mrs. Blankenpicker's to go to school at Mr. Buchanan�s.  Mrs. Blankenpicker gave him a piece of ground upon which he cultivated tobacco.  School and this farming were his chief pleasures.  He remained four months and sold the tobacco for $15.  He was treated well by the family and every member was endeared to him.  They wanted him to go to church and lent him a horse for that purpose.  [Now you see why Marilyn Hansen brought the story of Robert Bailey to my attention.]

At the end of four months, Mr. Brooken called in all his apprentices to build himself a mill and a house.  There were seven apprentices.  Robert, as the youngest, had to cook for them besides working on the mill.  Eventually, he was replaced as cook and then worked full time at the mill using the crosscut saw, making shingles, and rolling stones for the mill dam.  When the mill and house were completed, Mr. Brooken married.  Mrs. Brooken and Robert got along fine and Robert was a favorite of hers.  The other apprentices did not like Mrs. Brooken and they left.  Mr. Brooken had Robert work in the mill then.  Robert had been with Mr. Brooken two years and six months.

The schedule was extremely hard.  Robert worked in the mill in the morning then went three miles to school.  When he returned in the evening, he had to grind whatever grain had come in during the day.  Robert did not like doing the mill work and felt that he was not being trained in carpentry as he was supposed to be.  On arising one morning, he packed his meager belongings and threw them out of the window.  He fed the hogs, did the mill work, ate breakfast, and quietly left the Brookens.  The day was the 15th of December in 1788.  He had two dollars in his pocket.
(28 Sep 06)



Nr. 2379:

When Robert Bailey left Mr. Brooken, he was fifteen years of age.  He was accompanied by a friend for the first day on horses.  But the next day the friend returned with the horses and Robert had then to walk.  His objective was to go to Maryland to see his mother.  As he walked, Robert was cautious for he was afraid that he might be taken up as a run away apprentice.  In Leesburg, he stayed with Rev. Littlejohn, a friend of his mother.

Robert crossed over to Montgomery Co., Maryland, by ferry and was reunited with his mother and sister (actually two sisters) after an absence of almost six years.  His mother wanted Robert to stay and help with crops.  Robert agreed to do so.  The labor was supplied by Cropwood, Robert, and his sister.  They raised tobacco, corn, and oats.  Whenever there was a break for wet weather or just resting the horses, Robert studied with help by his mother.  The crops did well and Robert sold his share for $400 with which he bought a horse, saddle, bridle, watch, and clothes.

There was a dancing school which held a dance.  Robert met a Miss Nancy Vears, the daughter of Col. Vears.  They visited at home, went to church, and continued to see each other.  At time they were sixteen and fourteen years of age.  They spoke of marriage and Robert raised the question with her father but was rebuffed completely, especially because of Robert�s poor economic status.  The �children,� to use her father�s phrase, discussed eloping but Robert saw he was in no position to undertake marriage.

Robert agreed to stay one more year with Cropwood.  There was a fine crop and Robert forgot about marriage.  One day his mother had a quilting party to which Cropwood objected violently.  He beat Robert�s mother which Robert saw and he fell upon Cropwood and drubbed him severely.  Cropwood left, taking the horses and selling his share of the crop but without paying the rent on the place.  The neighbors helped Robert get the crop in which was sold.  Robert bought a horse and pursued Cropwood.  He found him and Cropwood agreed to return Robert�s horse.  At home, everything had been attached to pay the rent.  They were left with two horses and their clothing.  Robert sold the better horse and packed what they had and left for Virginia to Frederick County.

There, they met a Mr. Cartmill who was a well-to-do elderly widower.  He married the elder sister of Robert and the mother and younger sister lived with the Cartmills.  Robert went to Rockbridge County where his two brothers lived and were doing well.  For one year, Robert was an overseer for Major John Hays but he considered this as too degrading.  He resolved then to go to Staunton where he hoped to enter into some business.
(29 Sep 06)



Nr. 2380:

In the Shenandoah Valley, Robert Bailey considered many occupations which he might pursue.  Trade came first, then medicine.  He secured the cooperation of a doctor to study medicine.

When Robert was about 19 years of age, he met a widow some nine years older than he was.  She had her first husband�s tavern building.  They married, ran the tavern, and had children.  Robert�s wife was a good business woman and the tavern thrived.

Robert branched out into other activities.  He bought horses and cattle and drove them to Philadelphia where he sold them.  He bought farms and was generally successful.

Things then began to fall apart.  Robert had a weakness for gambling but not the necessary skills nor the proper attitude toward gambling.  He lost heavily.  The rest of his life was a series of complications caused by his weakness and by lawsuits against him.  He wrote his life�s story to earn some money.  Reading this story is, on the whole, sad.  For one who had an ability to work with others and a willingness to work himself, to lose almost everything is disappointing.

One can read the entire book on line through the Library of Congress.  They have put a number of books on the web.  This particular book was brought to my attention by Marilyn Hansen.

The URL, when padded out in the standard way, is rs6.loc.gov/ammem/lhbcbbibquery.html. There are no guarantees that this will work.

A Google search on �narrative washington chesapeake bay� (without the quotes) turned up several items but do a full search on �Robert Bailey� and the book should turn up.

There seems to be a series of books that the Library has posted to illustrate life in an earlier time.

In the next Note, I expect to tell a story that I wish had never happened.  It is in a completely different field from the most recent one.  It was brought to my attention by a person who was a participant in the events.
(02 Oct 06)



Nr. 2381:

In the year 2000, Eleanor and I visited the German village of the Germanna immigrant Blankenbaker families, namely Neuenbuerg.  This is a very small village and we were puzzled by a few Jewish gravestones in the cemetery.  They generally carried a date of death in 1945 which is a usual year in a German cemetery.  In the year 2002, we visited again.  The only person that we found that we could �talk� to was a woman in the (Catholic) church who was arranging flowers.  Her English was nonexistent and our German is almost nonexistent but we generally gathered that during WWII, the village had housed Jewish and Christian people from outside the community.  I expressed our mystery along with a picture of a Jewish gravestone on the Germanna history web page that George Durman maintains.

Sometime later, a person wrote to me and said he could tell me more about the Jewish gravestones.  This person had been living in Neuenbuerg in April of 1945 when the Allied forces had occupied the village.  One afternoon, a convoy of trucks led by a French officer arrived, carrying many obviously sick people.  He told the residents that they had fifteen minutes to evacuate the village.  They could take with them any of their possessions that they wished but they could not return to the village for some time.  The person telling me the story said he walked with some relatives to Unteroewisheim a few miles away where they had some relatives.  Neuenbuerg had become a refugee camp for a number of very sick, Jewish and Christian, people.  So I understood better the Jewish gravestones in the cemetery but there were still mysteries.

A few days ago I heard from a man, one Peter Zuckerman, who said he was one of the people who had been brought in by the Allied forces and settled in the village.  His story is expressed on a web page that he maintains and so I do not hesitate to relate his story in some detail.

Both of the people I have mentioned now live outside Germany, the evicted person in Canada and the refugee in the United States.

Peter Zuckerman and I were born in the same year, 1929, which causes me reflect upon what I was doing in 1945 when Mr. Zuckerman was moved to Neuenbuerg.  I will give his story, as he himself tells it, in following notes.  By then he had many experiences that he would have preferred not to have had; however, he has let these experiences became a motivation for him to try to improve the world.  Certainly, there is a need in this area.
(03 Oct 06)



Nr. 2382:

Peter Avram Zuckerman, as he is now known, was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1929.  The family was poor but Peter received a good elementary school education.  His single-parent mother was terminally ill and died in 1941.  Peter was sent to the country to live with his aunts.  He became a printer�s apprentice where he was essentially an indentured servant for which he worked six days a week in return for board and room.  During this time, World War II raged in most of Europe but was little noted in the small village of Nyirbator where Peter was living.

This all changed in the spring of 1944 when Germany occupied Hungary and installed a fascist government.  In 1944, most of the Hungarian Jewish community were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Peter was one of these individuals and a summary of his experiences is:

May 6, 1944 to May 25:  Simapuszta Ghetto in Hungary.
May 30 to October 27:  Auschwitz as prisoner A-9867.
October 28 to November 17:  Stutthof.
November 19 to February 13, 1945:  Hailfingen as prisoner 41018.
February 14 to April 6:  Camp Wiesengrund.
April 7:  He was liberated by French Army.

Following the liberation, he was a ward in various displaced person camps, included the German village of Neuenbuerg.  As an orphan, he was given some choice in choosing a permanent home and he chose the United States.  On January 25, 1947, he sailed into New York past the Statue of Liberty which was a very emotional experience.  He was drafted into the US Army and served in occupied West Germany in the 2nd Armored Division.  After this he became a US citizen.

He obtained a Master�s degree at UCLA in management and accounting.  He was a CPA briefly but drifted more to data processing, computers, information technology, and publishing.  He worked in local government, the aerospace industry, and for nonprofit organizations.

He and his wife live in Maryland just outside Washington, D.C.  At 77 years, he is still working as a consultant, principally for educational conferences and in information technology.  He publishes in print and on the web.  In print, his self-published book, �Beyond the Holocaust: Survival or Extinction?�, has met with some success.  His hope is to improve the world where there is a need for bettering conditions even today.  Otherwise, there may be a return to the experiences of his youth.

I will return and fill in some of the details of this outline in following notes.



Nr. 2383:

Peter Zuckerman, from 1941 to 1944, lived in a small Hungarian town as a member of a Jewish community where he was indentured as a printer�s apprentice.  He was 12 to 15 years old.  There were rumors of persecutions and massacres by Nazi Germany, but they were generally ignored.  Of more concern, was the taunting of the Jews by the Christians in Hungary.  Suddenly in 1944, this all changed as Germany occupied Hungary.  Within days the entire Jewish community from Peter�s village was rounded up and temporarily housed in an empty warehouse.  But very soon they were placed in boxcars and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

One hundred people were placed in each box car.  Peter was separated from his two aunts and he became truly an orphan.  At Auschwitz, the people were taken from the train, ordered to leave their possessions behind, and were quickly inspected to separate them into groups.  First, any twins were taken for �human experiments�.  Then those judged, by a quick inspection, to be capable of work were taken for the labor camps.  Peter was judged to be able bodied (he was large for age) and became a slave laborer.  His left arm was tattooed with his number A-9867 and he was given a striped uniform.  They were taken to brick buildings where a sign over the door said Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes Free) and organized into labor groups.  Some went to armament factories; Peter was assigned to a group to cut grass for hay in the fields surrounding the camp.

As they worked, they wondered why the tall smokestacks were emitting smoke.  But one day, they came across piles of ashes where it was obvious that the ashes were the remains of humans.  At first, it was hard to believe but it became clear what happened to those who had not been selected for labor.  Peter observed that there were people from every nation in Europe among the laborers including Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and atheists.

Life in the labor camps was not easy as the food was scarce and the labor was hard.  The view of those in control was that life was expendable and a worker could be replaced by others.  Peter�s youth was an advantage.  Occasionally, the functionaries gave him some extra rations.

The news of the European invasion filtered into camp.  Allied bombers could be seen overhead.  For the first time, the guards showed fear in their faces.  As the Soviet army approached Auschwitz-Birkenau, the extermination camp was gradually evacuated.  Peter was sent to Stutthof, then near Danzig but now Gdansk in Poland.  He was one member of a group of 600 who were to be sent to Hailfingen in southern Germany just south of Stuttgart.  The first leg of the journey, from Stuttgart to Danzig, nearly killed Peter for they rode on open railcars in the freezing weather.  In Hailfingen they were to work on airfields and roads for new jet planes and ballistic missiles.
(05 Oct 06)



Nr. 2384:

Peter Zuckerman and about 600 other Jews from the Stutthof, Auschwitz, and Natzweiler concentration camps were transferred to Hailfingen camp, an auxiliary of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.  It had opened in September of 1944 and was last mentioned in the records in April of 1945.  Hailfinger was a labor camp where the prisoners were assigned to building a runway, a road, a railroad track, and barracks and a hall.  The camp had been an airfield and the prisoners were housed in a hanger without sanitary facilities or medical care.

Peter was assigned as one of four helpers in the kitchen where a French prisoner was in charge.  The only ingredients available for food were potatoes, cabbage, and some sugar beets.  Peter was lucky as he was able to obtain some extra food.  Even better perhaps, he was able to stay out of the cold winter weather.  The exposure, short rations, and lack of medical care resulted in the majority of the prisoners dying, probably 400 of the 600 that started in the camp.

Here it was possible to see that many of the Germans who oversaw the operation were very unhappy.  Many of them had served in the air force and this type of work did not appeal to them.  When about half of the prisoners had died, the kitchen help was cut back to two people and Peter was assigned to collect wood outside.  He saw little chance of surviving under these conditions so he decided to feign illness and he stayed in the infirmary, which was merely one end of the hanger, for several weeks.  The purpose of the infirmary was to provide a place for the prisoners to die.  The camp became infected with lice.  Malnutrition, typhus, pneumonia, and other infections took the heaviest toll.

Hailfinger was closed down and the remaining prisoners were transferred to Vaihingen, another labor camp.  At this time, Peter was given a whole loaf of bread which helped him to regain some of his strength.  The new camp was working to construct an underground factory to build jet fighters.

By luck, a German woman who had some political influence requisitioned prisoners to work on the family farm.  Peter was lucky to be assigned here, as the work was easier and there was extra food.  With some warmer weather, Peter regained strength.  At this time, he found that many Germans hated Hitler and that some of them could show kindness to Jews.

The war was obviously coming closer.  The artillery could be heard.  Peter, though, caught typhus and he wondered if he would live to see the end of the war.  This was a very low point for him.  One morning he woke up and he found that the Germans had disappeared in the night.  Now could he regain his health?
(06 Oct 06)



Nr. 2385:

Recapping briefly the experiences of Peter Zuckerman, he was in Camp Vaihingen (just south of Stuttgart) where the Germans were attempting to build an underground factory for building jet air planes.  Life in this labor camp generally resulted in death as perhaps 1600 prisoners died here.  Peter was helped by being assigned to work in the kitchen and on the farm of a German civilian, two situations that resulted in some extra food.  A typhus epidemic raged in the camp and Peter caught it.  The nearest thing to an infirmary was a set of beds at one end of the hangar which was their housing.  The typhus caused red spots over the body, fever, delirium, and lost of consciousness.  For several days he lay here in an unconscious state.  During this time the sound of distant explosions could be heard.

One morning Peter woke up with a clear head and the fever greatly reduced.  Not only was this a surprise to him, but during the night the Germans had left, leaving the sick prisoners behind.  Peter realized that he was alive and free!  This was April 7, 1945.  Peter dressed, ate some bread that he had been keeping, and walked through the open gates of the camp.  He wanted to walk to the nearby village and especially he wanted to thank the German lady whose efforts on his behalf had probably been his salvation.

Peter met Arab soldiers in the French army and an American officer who was on liaison duty with the French.  He spoke German and was a Jew from Texas.  Peter was very confused, how could there be a Jewish cowboy?  Establishing order was an effort, as many of the prisoners wanted to beat up the German civilians who had been their overseers.  The American put a stop to this, and said that the prisoners were not to sink to the level of the Nazi criminals.

To provide some care for the prisoners, many of whom were typhus victims, the French designated the village of Neuenbuerg as a sanitary site and evicted the residents.  Then the prisoners were moved in, April 11, and some care was provided for them.  Though Peter thought he was on the road to recovery, he too was included in this transfer.  But many of them died as they were past the point of recovery.  The dead were buried in the village cemetery used for the Catholic residents.

After this, Peter was moved from camp to camp, sometimes under the Americans and sometimes under the UNRRA.  There was no school for him because of his Hungarian background but he made an effort to learn German.  He met some friendly and civilized Germans in and around Heidelberg.  Finally, in January of 1947, almost two years after his liberation, he was given the chance of going to America which he welcomed.  (Here he went to high school in Philadelphia and was a member of their chess team which won the Pennsylvania championship.)

All of this history came to my attention because I was puzzled by the Jewish gravestones in Neuenbuerg, the village in Germany where the Blankenbuehlers lived in 1717.  Two people have helped me in understanding this mystery, one a resident who was evicted and one who was a refugee there for a few months.
(09 Oct 06)



Nr. 2386:

Toward the end of the Nineteenth Century (i.e., the 1800's), the Rev. Sanford H. Cobb became interested in the traces of German life to be found in New York.  Though he was not a professional researcher, he found a lot of information in English publications about the Germans.  He wrote the book, The Story of the Palatines, An Episode in Colonial History�.  Due to this work, he was asked to deliver a paper before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.  This was entitled �The Palatine or German Immigration to New York and Pennsylvania�.  This address was itself printed and a copy was made available to me by Jim Albin, one of the Directors of the new Germanna Association.  The comments to follow here are from Rev. Cobb.

"Most of the historians of our Colonial period do not mention the German immigration which was so important to life in the colonies and later the United States.  For example, Mrs. Lamb, in her history of the City of New York, devotes a short one-half of one page to the Germans and observes that the Germans bore the same relationship to the citizens of New York as the Chinese did to the citizens of the West Coast, i.e., they were a foreign culture that did not interact strongly with the dominant culture."

Cobb felt that most of the Germans came from the Palatinate, but he underestimated the contributions of the Germans from other parts of Germany.  He is correct that a major percentage did come from the Palatinate and that the English adopted the name Palatine for all the Germans.  Perhaps Cobb did err in ascribing idyllic characteristics to the land and the people of the Palatinate.  The Palatine was unfortunate in that it lay close to France and was the victim of adverse actions by the French against it.

In 1685, the Palatine Elector, Charles Louis, died without issue which ended the Zimmern line of the Electorate and the succession passed to Frederick of the house of Newburgh.  The king of France, Louis, thought he saw an opportunity to install his brother who had married the sister of Charles Louis.  The claim was opposed by Holland, Austria, Bavaria, Prussia, and many of the smaller German states.  Collectively they organized the Grand Alliance and prepared for war.  Louis moved quickly and sent an army of 30,000 men to the Palatinate.  The army commander was instructed to ravage the province with fire and sword and to make the land a desert.  The invasion took place in winter and the army fully carried out the wishes of Louis.  On one day, the Elector, standing on the walls of Manheim[sic], counted twenty-three villages in flames.

Some say that the French directed so much evil energy to the campaign because the Palatinate had given asylum to the Huguenots who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.  I am not certain that this is the case though it would appear that Louis harbored very strong negative feelings toward the Palatinate.  Perhaps he saw that he could not succeed in his original purpose and decided to vent his feelings as strongly as possible.
(10 Oct 06)



Nr. 2387:

In the last note, I used the word �Elector�. Six or seven heads of regions or kingdoms in the Holy Roman Empire were entitled to vote or elect an Emperor of the Empire.  The head of the Palatinate was such Elector.

After the French invasion of the Palatinate about 1685, the French withdrew and the citizens had a few years of peace.  Then in 1693, another invasion brought on a wave of widespread misery.  It was at this time that the castle at Heidelberg, which was the seat of the head of the Palatinate, was destroyed.  Some of this castle has been restored but much remains in ruins.  Incidentally, many of the extant church books date from this time.  Even in Gemmingen, outside the Palatinate, the church books start then.

Another war commenced in 1701 and it dragged on for thirteen years.  This war, started by Louis of France, was on the question of the Spanish succession.  Louis sought the crown of Spain for his grandson Philip.  He was opposed by the same Grand Alliance as before, to which England has been added.  Much of the fighting was done in Spain and Germany but the Palatinate was the pathway for the armies as they shifted position.  Generally the armies operated on the philosophy of living from the land.  In 1707, Louis launched a phase of war that repeated his actions of twenty years before.

So one the possible causes of emigration from the Palatinate may have been war.

The Palatinate was not without its own religious troubles.  Early in the Reformation, the Elector Palatine gave his support to the doctrine of Geneva, i.e., the Reformed religion.  During this period, the Reformed church adopted the famed Heidelberg Catechism.  Then for 130 years, no two successive Elector Palatines were of the same faith.  Lutheran and Reformed princes succeeded each other in regular alteration.  Generally each prince would try to have his faith adopted as the faith of the people.

Finally, at the time of the War of Spanish Succession, John William, of the house of Newburgh and the Elector, deserted both the Reformed and Lutheran faiths and adopted the ancient faith of the Church of Rome.  (Some time ago, in these notes, we talked about the troubles of Pastor Henkel who felt the pressure of the Elector Palatine.)  To the misfortunes of war, the miseries of religious tyrannies were added as a reason for emigration.

In 1708, the Board of Trade in London noted that a group of �distressed Palatines had been driven out of the Palatinate by the cruelty of the French� and they made application to the Board for transportation to America.
(11 Oct 06)



Nr. 2388:

To repeat, in 1708, just one year after a merciless campaign by the French in the Palatinate, the Board of Trade in London noted that a group of "distressed Palatines had been driven out of the Palatinate by the cruelty of the French� and they made application to the Board for transportation to America.  The Queen [Anne] and the Council were pleased to receive this petition graciously.  The order was given to relieve the necessities of the poor people and to send them to New York in the same ship with Lord Lovelace, who was assigned to the government of that province.  Arriving in the late summer of 1708, the Palatines were planted sixty miles up the Hudson River.  Today, the city of Newburgh is on the site.  (It is a fair presumption that the city took its name from the ruling house of the Palatinate.)  Here the Palatines were given 2000 acres of land.  By the end of thirty years, many had moved away, including to Pennsylvania.

The leader of this group was Rev. Joshua Kockerthal (Kocherthal) who, as soon as the group was settled on their lands, returned to Germany with the hope of organizing a much larger emigration of the people from along the Rhine.  [To what degree his actions were responsible is unknown], but in the following year, 1709, thousands of Germans descended on England in the hope that the English would provide them with transportation and homes in the New World.  This emigration began in the early spring of 1709 and five thousand had responded by the end of April.  By October the number had swollen to fifteen thousand.  They came from all the lands along the Rhine, not just from the Palatinate.

Housing and feeding this number of people was a problem.  Cobb gave the cost to the English at 135,000 pounds sterling, a munificent act of charity.  What to do with the people was a major question.  Probably one-third of the Germans found a variety of solutions themselves in the English army and in a general distribution over England.  Twenty-eight hundred of the Germans were transported to Ireland in August where they formed an enduring settlement marked by virtue, thrift, and prosperity.  In September, the Lords of Trade received a proposition from the Swiss adventurers, de Graffenried and Michel [with the concurrence of the North Carolina proprietors] to settle seven hundred of the Palatines in North Carolina.  For a variety of reasons, Graffenried as the leader in North Carolina went broke in this enterprise and returned to Switzerland.

Rev. Cobb errors seriously for he states that another detachment of the Palatines was sent to Virginia with Spotswood [1710].  He settled them on the upper reaches of the Rappahannock River giving the location the name of Germanna.  Cobb thought the Board of Trade had suggested to Spotswood that the Germans might be useful in the manufacture of wine.
(12 Oct 06)



Nr. 2389:

There still remained many Palatines in England waiting for some disposition.  Col. Robert Hunter, who became the governor of New York to replace Lovelace who had died, suggested that many of the Palatines could be usefully employed in New York in manufacturing naval stores including tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin.  England at this time was dependent on the forests of the Russia and Scandinavia for its naval stores since its own forests had been denuded.  Using the Palatines for this purpose seemed like a happy way to relieve England for the care of the Palatines, to supply England with naval stores, and to earn some money to repay the costs.  The Board of Trade heartily endorsed the idea.  In this scheme the contract was between the English government and the Palatines individually.

They were to be fed and clothed by the government and should labor in the stipulated work until they had repaid the expenses of transportation and maintenance.  Each man was to receive five pounds sterling and forty acres of land at the time of settlement and they were not to leave this land unless Gov. Hunter gave his consent.

About the first of January in 1710 (NS), the expedition left England.  With about three thousand Palatines it was the largest single emigration to this country in the Colonial period.  Ten ships were required, including two or three naval vessels.  The voyage was long and stormy and the ships were driven apart.  The first ship to arrive at New York did not do so until June.  It was a few weeks after this that the rest of the ships arrived.  The mortality rate was very high (one of six) and sickness among the survivors was high.  For a lengthy period, the survivors were housed on Governor�s Island (then called Nutten) to protect the citizens of New York from the sickness.

Hunter sent a commission to discover a proper place of settlement.  Another problem was that many children had been left as orphans due to the sickness.  Hunter decided the best way to deal with this was to apprentice the orphans.  One of these children was John Peter Zenger, who was apprenticed to William Bradford to learn the trade of printing.  Zenger succeeded in this business and became himself a printer of note and a leading light in the freedom of the press.

The commission to select a site felt that the ease of transportation along the Hudson River required that the Palatines be settled close to the river.  Robert Livingston who owned land along the river convinced Hunter that his land would be a good solution and he sold six thousand acres of land, about one hundred miles up the river, to the government.  The Earl of Clarendon, who had been governor of New York, said that Hunter �fell into very ill hands.�  The Earl was perhaps correct, for history records that Livingston was one of the ablest, shrewdest, most ambitious, covetous, and unscrupulous men in the Colony.  He rarely came out of a transaction with clean hands but he always brought them full.
(13 Oct 06)



Nr. 2390:

About twelve hundred of the Germans were settled on Livingston�s manor and most of the rest were settled on the opposite side of the Hudson River.  These two groups became known as the West Camp and the East Camp.  Two hundred had remained in New York.  The Palatines were barely settled along the Hudson when winter (1710-1711) fell.  Their woes began promptly as they were ill-housed and ill-clothed.  For the following two years the people suffered miserably and were in a perpetual state of revolt.  The only person who was gaining by this experience was Livingston.  Gov. Hunter pledged his own and his wife�s fortune toward the project.

The naval stores project came to naught, the principal reason being that the pine trees along the Hudson were not good producers.  Then back in England, a new political party came into power and the naval stores project was not viewed favorably.  In two years, there was a complete breakdown of the enterprise.  Gov. Hunter lost heavily as he was not reimbursed for the expenditures from his own pocket.  Some of the Germans stayed along the Hudson (and formed the nucleus of Germantown along the Hudson), some moved to Pennsylvania, and some moved to the Mohawk Valley.  Livingston refused to give the Palatines title to their lands in an attempt to keep them as tenants.  A large contingent moved northwest to the Schoharie Valley in New York, well within in the area inhabited by the Indians.  Some say the Palatines had become aware of the Schoharie Valley when they were in London, but that appears doubtful.  Life in all of these locations was hard.

The Palatines did send a delegation headed by John Conrad Weiser to Schoharie in the fall of 1712.  They reported the Indians had received them favorably and had given them a deed for the land.  The delegation also reported the Valley to be beautiful and fertile, not surpassed by any other region in New York.  (From a personal visit here, I would say they had a good basis for their belief.)  In the late winter and early spring of 1713, many of the Palatines moved the fifty miles or so to the northwest.  At the time they were without draft animals and had a minimum of everything else.  Being on land of their own had not ended their afflictions.

Gov. Hunter was very disappointed about the move as he had given the Palatines instructions to remain along the Hudson even though there were few opportunities for them there.  Hunter was personally in debt and he hoped by a resumption of the naval stores project to recover his money.  Also, the Palatines had negotiated directly with the Indians and bypassed the Colonial government.

(As a note on the difficult times in the early years, when the Palatines arrived at Schoharie, they had no draft animals.  To plow the land, they fashioned a plow from the intersection of a tree trunk and a limb.  To obtain the necessary force to pull the plow, they used vines as ropes and had the women pull the plow.)
(16 Oct 06)



Nr. 2391:

When the large contingent of Palatines moved to the Schoharie Valley, there were no white men living there, nor had any claim been made to the land by the Europeans.  The Palatines thought that they had purchased the land from the Indians.  Gov. Hunter was very put out that the Palatines had left the Hudson River where he was hoping that the naval stores project could be resumed and he could recover his own money that he had put into the project.  Perhaps as an inducement for the Palatines to move back, he encouraged other Europeans to claim the land in the Schoharie Valley which fell into the hands of a group of seven men.  Hunter, in his reports to London, said that the land had been granted to certain gentleman of Albany before the Palatines arrived there.

A struggle between the patentees and the Palatines followed with amusing and pathetic stories to enter the folklore of the region.  The struggle went on for ten years until a new governor, Burnet, arrived in 1720.  He set about to resolve the crisis.

During this ten years, another episode was unfolding which was to have far ranging future implications.  One of the leaders of the community of Palatines in the Schoharie Valley was Johann Conrad Weiser, who had a young son of the same name.  The younger Conrad lived for several years with the Indians.  In the process, he learned their language and gained their respect.  He looked upon the Indians as friends and treated them as such.  For decades after this time, he was considered by the Indians as their one true friend.  He acted as an interpreter at most of the Indian conferences in the middle Colonies.  (A daughter also became the wife of Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the Lutheran faith in America.)

Gov. Burnet had a difficult task to resolve the claims of the patentees and the sense of righteousness of the Palatines.  One part of the solution was to grant the Palatines a new patent in a different region which would be clearly theirs.  This was twenty miles along the Mohawk River.  At about this same time, there was a great conference between the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, [and Virginia with Gov. Spotswood].  Gov. Keith of Pennsylvania, learning of the difficulties of the Palatines, offered them land and security in Pennsylvania.  [Pennsylvania had by this time received many hundreds of Palatines, so Gov. Keith had some sense of the kind of citizens they would be.]

The Palatines in New York were of three or four minds.  Some made terms with the landowners along the Hudson, some made leases or purchases in the Schoharie Valley, some moved to the Mohawk Valley, and some moved to Pennsylvania to the Tulpehocken region.  During the Schoharie struggles Conrad Weiser, Sr., had gone to England to present the Palatine�s case to the Crown.  He remained five years and returned a broken man.  His son, Conrad, Jr., succeeded him as the leader in the Pennsylvania group.
(17 Oct 06)



Nr. 2392:

The story of the 1710 Palatine immigration to New York, or, in general, the 1709 emigration from Germany, is important to the study of German emigration in the Eighteenth Century.  It had an effect upon the 1713 emigration from the Nassau-Siegen region.  These first emigrants to Virginia made such a favorable impression on Lt. Gov. Spotswood of Virginia that he abetted a ship�s captain in bringing a shipload of Germans, which constituted the Second Colony in Virginia.  [On a personal level, the ships which arrived in New York in 1710 brought some of my wife�s ancestors.  She can say that her ancestors were here first.  Then we have to ask who met the boat.]

Did the 1709 emigration have an effect on the Nassau-Siegen emigration of 1713?  Hank Jones identified more than 200 people from the vicinity of Siegen who left in 1709 and I don�t believe he found nearly all of the people.  A few names from the sixth party which departed from Rotterdam in 1709 include (remember these names were written by the Dutch):

Johan Fredrik Heger, the son of Henry Hager of Virginia.  The son was ordained in London as an Anglican minister and charged with trying to convert the Palatines to the Anglican faith.  He worked hard along the Hudson and was ill supported from London.

Some other names include:

Henrig Hoffman, vr. (&) kinderen [Henrich Hoffman, wife, and children (2)],
Johan Bast [Sebastian] Fischbag [Fischbach],
Anonius Lueck,
Tieleman [Tillman] Schriber [Schreiber or Schneider],
Johan Henrig Stuel,
Johan Henrig Arendorff & vr & kind�,
Albert Becker & vr. (&) kinderen,
Peter Heydee & vr (&) kinder (1) [Heite or Heide],
Hans Henrig Becker,
Hans Willem Sneider & vr (&) kinderen (6),
Jacob Kolb & vr (&) kinderen (2),
Johan Jacob Schneider,
Diderig Fischbaeg,
Johan Diderig Schniter & vr (&) kinderen (6),
Johan Wilgellem Sneiter, Johan Becker & vr (&) kind (1),
Johannes Junge wed [widower] & kinder (5),
Joost Fischbag, Henrig Schneider (&) vr (&) kind,
Johan Nikel Jung & vr

For anyone who has read the history of Oberfischbach or of Trupbach, the above names sound like homecoming week.  Naturally, the departure of so many people from the area would set those who remained behind to thinking about the possibilities for themselves.  What the fate was of these people who are named above is uncertain except for Frederich Haeger, who did go to New York.  Hank Jones did identify about 200 people from the Siegen-Dillenburg area who made it to New York.

I started this miniseries because I wanted to bring to your attention the pioneering work of Rev. Sanford Cobb in recording early German immigration.  One sees his work in later works.  Here I did not use the book he wrote but used the speech he read before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society in 1897.  There were a few points where Cobb erred but he did help to give the Germans their just due in the history of the Colonies and America.  In this Note, I have added material not to be found in Cobb�s work to bring it closer to home.
(18 Oct 06)



Nr. 2393:

This Note starts a new topic.  There were rumors that a certain name would be found in the records for the Lutheran church in Unteroewisheim.  I ordered the film from the LDS and I have been searching some.  Unteroewisheim is a couple of miles from Oberoewisheim, which is less than a mile from Neuenbuerg where the Blankenbakers, Fleshmans, Scheibles, Thomases, and Schlucters lived.

The films for Unteroewisheim are good.  One of the delights in using the film is that large sections of it are indexed.  Different people have gone through the material and made an alphabetical index to the names.  The people who did this were better than average writers.  They followed the classical letter formations, though there was a tendency to use fanciful versions.  Being in alphabetical order (almost) it made the reading easier.  I thought I would provide a summary of the names that I read.  The first group is from the birth records from 1594 to 1630 (note this overlaps portions of the Thirty Years� War).  Here we go:

Adermann, Anshelen, Arzt, Bauber, BENDER, Benhart, Berghard, Bergmueller, Bertsch, Berz, Beutland, Bibel, Binder, BEKER, Bolz, Bosche, Brenker, Brigler, Brob, Brodbat, Brunthard, Brummer, ?, Bub, Burghard, Buhart, Buet, Butz, Carhard, Criel, Crilis, Conrad, Cutishauch, Cuerr, Cutzberger, Dat, Deuchler, Dochter (sometimes Tochter), Doll, Duemmler, Eberhard, Eberin, Eberling, Ebert, Edelmann, Ed, Endras.

Eich, Ebs, Engelfried, Entzberger, Erpf, Eschenbach, Estra, Faber, Feichtmann, Felter, Fimperis, Fimpel, FINK, Gall, Gandner, Gantz, Gebel, Gehrung (Goehrung), Gebfer, Gentnem, Genzner, GERHARD, Gertrud, Giebel, Glefer, Gold, Goll, Goepflerich, Goetz, Gorlinger, Gottfein, Grau, Groh, Grump, ?, Guentner, Hans, Hufel, Haubeereich, Haug, Heder, Hetzel, Hering, Hermann, Hermold, Hertzeg, Herbkeapp, Herthel, ?, Hettenstan, Hellften, Heltenstein, ?, Heutf, Hoffman, Holpf, Hormuth, Hurmstein, Huepberrger, Huether, Huttenlech.

Jeth, Jeflein, Joefel, Kandl, Karfmann, Keller, Kiebel, Kieffen, KLARER, KLEE, Klepfattel, Kletfort, Kueller, Kunner, Kueztlin, Knoller, Kimmel, Krug, Kuhn, Kueenlin (Kuehelin), Kahler, Kolb, Kurps, Kummling (Kemmling), Kut, LANG, ?, Laebreich, Laibford, Leibford, ?, Leuthier, ?, Lugner, Mayer, Mayeer, Merian, Meinner, Medderlin, Meida, Metzger, Meder, Mauber, Merging, Mueller, Nagel, Nauer, Nauffer, Oberlin, ?, Pabst, Pfagst, Pflueger, Rarba, Reinhard, Reuer, Riecher, Regensperg, Resch (Roesch), Rinbp (Rinb), Ringel, Rintho, Ridberg (Ripperger), Rinb, Rubgefat, Ruder, Ruff, Rugg, Sarten, Sauer, SAUTER, Supperlin, Sager.
(19 Oct 06)



Nr. 2394:

Continuing the births (technically baptisms) at Unteroewisheim in the period 1594 to 1630, we have:

Schappederg, Scheffer, Schenk, Schmidt, Schmidtbatz, Schmidtgotz, Schneder, Schneider, Schreiner, SCHOEN, Schneiter(?), Schraister, Schuder, Silber, Sitter, Sarg, Spengel, Spertz, Sannher(?), Spengler, Speunz, ?, ?, Spirtes, Stahl, Stark, Storer, Storpf, Stricher, Stanigel, Stroeling, Strodel, THOMA, Tochter (cf Dochter), Trieb, Unfried, Vaber, Vergford (cf Bergford), Vager, (Vogel, Vogner), Vanhart, Verkehr, Vegher, VOLK, Voden, Volzer, Volz, WAYMAN, Walther, WELPH (well, it rhymes with Delph), Weiss, Widmogin, Winterlaus, Winterhess, Wolbart, Wolff, ZIMMERMANN.

It seems that the composer of the directory did not always believe what he was reading.  He often makes an alternative suggestion such as Tochter and Dochter might be interchanged.  What follows next is the baptisms from 1630 to 1689.

Angel, Arnold, Afpekk, Aul, Azisberger, Balduf & Balluf, Banhart, Bandhel, Banman, Baumann, BEKER, BENDER, Bery, Bernhard, Betpf (& Batphi, Berthf), Buger, Blaekhner, ?, Bagin, Boehle, Bulsterlin and Pulsterlin, Bolz, Bok, Bernhausser, Brandenburg, Brecht, Brenker, Branner, Brunner, Bub, Buchmann, Burchuber, Burkhard, Buz, Cupeler(?), Clee (cf Klee), Crainer (cf Krenir), Cruperger, Cuedis, Cuerhard, Datt, Damp, DEBOLD, Drishler, Drez, Depfner (cf Tepfner), Dobel, Dochter (cf Tochter), DURMAN (I can�t be really positive about this name as it consists of lower case letters which all look much alike), Dressler, Eberhard, Eberlin, Edelmann, Ehm, Eglin, Ehrens, Eich, Eigen(-weiss or -mann), Efenwuest.

[Some names, especially those at the bottom of the pages, are hard to read.  When I insert a ? in the sequence, separated by commas, I don�t even attempt to give a transcription.]

Eitensagler, Elh, Engelfried, Engelhard, ?, Erm, Etten, Eubarth, Eyel, Fimpelin, FISHER, Franklin, Friedin, Fuss, Gaeblin, Gadderer, Ganthener, Gaus, GEBHART, Geissel, Gemmel, GERHARD, Genlach, Germann, Gernung, Ginbel, Glattaden, Glud, ?, Goepflerich, Grafp, Grau, Gremm, Grimming, Gruntner, Groh, Gromen, Gruber, Gubich, Guerdter, Guenster, ?, Gurt, Guemmel, Haas, ?, Hans, Hanfer, Haentlen, Handlin, Haubereich, Haufer, Heffler, ?, Held, Hermann, Hermald, ?, heut, Hiller, ?, ?, Hildenfuhl, Hoepfinger, Hormuth, Hurst, Huller, Hummel, Hutmacher, Huttinger, Joefel, ?, Kandel, Kaus, Kehnlin or Kuhelin, Keller, Kerner, Ketphner, KIEFER, ?, KLEE, Kicherer, Kneller, Kneuer, Knoehn, KOCH, Keaus or Kraus, Kramer, Kratz, Kromer (cf Gromer), Kuen or Kuehe or Kuehelin), Kudis, Kul, Kunz, Kuanz.
(20 Oct 06)



Nr. 2395:

Continuing the births (technically baptisms) at Unteroewisheim in the period 1630 to 1689, we have:

Laur, Lautermann Laye, Leissler or Leisner, Lemmius, Leauhart, Leuhelin, Leugner or Lugner, Lentz, Lindemann, Loeffler, Lareth, Lutz, Machel, Malensheimer, Marggraf, Mark or Marp, Martin, Matter, Mahen, Mark, Markel, Messlauen, Metzger or Metzeger or Mezler, MOTZ, Meyeer (that is, the y is umlauted, � - Me�eer), Meyerer, Meder, Mayeling, Machel or Magel, Mohr, ?, Mueller, Masculus, Nagel, Nauer, Nussert, Oberist, Eberlin cf Aberlin, Of, Offner, Oldenberg, ?, Pflaum, Ponsterlin or Pilsterlin, Raili, Raue, Ratzmann, Rehelein, Reinhard, Reiher, Reht, Rinde, Rinb or Rinp, Rikhart, Ridbeger or Rinpperger, Roch, Rothe, Rued.

Sachats, Sarter, Sauer, SAUTER, ?, Schaberg, Schaf, Schedel, Scheffer, Scheidler, Schenk, Schenkel, ?, SCHOEN, Schmidt, Schmidtberg, Schmidtbutz, Schmidtguetz, Schobert, Schneider, Schol, Schuetz, Schulthesis, Schulz, Scherarz, Schwarz, Schweiker, Schwichfer, Seuter, Seuffers, ?, Sorg, Sorn, Speidel, Speegel, or Spengeler or Speegler, Spiegel, Spihler, Stalker, Stengel, Stett, Stori or Storr, Stolzenberger, Stulmueller, Teschner, Theobald, ?, Tochter, Toenz, Tubach, ?, ?, Vanhart, Vesheimer, Vimpelin, Voger cf Boyer, Vogtlin, Vod, Wagner, Waldman, Wader, Wefinger, Welber, Weiss, Wefer or Wessner, Widmann, Winterfuss, ZIEGLER, Zeiler, Zeiter, Zipperlin, Zoller.

More births follow but no dates, only page numbers are given:

Ackermann, Ancheland, Anselm, Antocher, Appel, Appelhauser, Arnold, Arzt, Aspekk, Azisberger, Balduef, Banner or Banhart or Banhartz, Bartholomae, Batz, Batt cf Datt, Baumann, Baur, Bechtold, BEKER, BENDER, Benz, Berost, Bertlin, Bertph, Betzer, Betzler, Beutt, Beschenberg, Beriger or Beriniger, Bindrman, Birger, Boyer, Boehli or Behlin, Boelsterlin cf Poelsterlin, Bock, Bolz, Bodt, Bornhusser, Bopher, Botz, Borer, Brenken or Brinkher, Brinclin, Brar cf Grau, Bretzer or Bretzher, Brodbek, Brinderer, Branner, Bub, Bueger, Burgkhard, Buissmann, Buz, Carli, Candel, Cangelmann, Cellarious, CLEE, Conrad, Cloer, Dadt, Datt, Dhat, Damman, Daind, Danieth, Demger, Denzel, Denger, Deuchler, Dobel, Dochter, Dahtermann, Deschner, Doll or Doller, Domm, Dollberger, Dressler, Duell, Duerr, ?, Eberlin, Eberhard, Eckp, Edelmann, ELER, [Aylor?], Elmenbichich, Engelfried, Entzberger, Erbe, Erhard, Ernst, Erpft, Erwin, Esch, Faber, Felder, Feuchtner, Fider, Finss, Fimpelin, Finerstein, FISCHER cf Vischer, Fled, Fragstetter, Friedemich, Furder, Gadderer, Gallus or Galli or Gader or Gull, Gaus, Gaut cf Haut, Geiger, Gentner, GERHARD, Germann, Gerung, Gessner, Gimbel, Glattader, Glued, Goldschmidt, ?, Gopperich, Gord, Gotz, Gran or Gram, Grein, Graeter, Greinagel, Graitner or Greitner, Gro or Grohn, Gruben, Grummicher, Guenther, Gutter.
(23 Oct 06)



Nr. 2396:

Continuing the marriages (the last Note should have noted we were on marriages) at Unteroewisheim in the period 1630 to 1689, we have:

Hald, Hammer, Haeng, Hans, Haubenreich, Haueff, Haug, Haut, Hartlin, Hauefer, Heder, Hedler, Hermann, Heittelberger, Held or Hald, Hell, Hermesser, Herzog, Hetzel, Hiller, Hoffman, Hoefner, Hofminster, Hopf, Hopfinger, Hopfgaertner, Holdem, ?, Hormuth, Hoft, Huttmistein, Huber, Hurst, Hummel, Huetterlach, Joerg, Joefel, ?, Kad, Kandel, Kanzler, Kanselmann, Kagele, Keller, Kessborer, Kessler, Keuler, Kicherer, Kielmair, Keinler, Kinfer, Kindswogel, Kitzner, Klee, Klein, Kleiber, Klapfattel, Klinger, Knaus, Kneller, Knotz, Knoll, KOCH, Kold, Korn, Kopp, KOEFER, Kratz, Kramer, Kreb, Kuedis, Kuen or Kuens, Kuen, Kuehlin, Kuhlein, Kuengelmann, Lamp, Landsteul, LANG, Lar, Lenngkner or Luegner, Leitein, Leibhammer, Leicheimer, Leibfarb, Larnst, Loeschtrog, Luk, Luz, Luitz, Luipen.

Machtolf, Mantz, Martin, Maur, Mauerer, Meder, Mangelt, Mentzer, Merder, Merk, Mertpuryer (-ger?), Metzger, Metzler, Meyeer, Mierg, Mintzingen, Mochel, Mohr, Mueller, Mued, Nagel, Neuther, ?, Neuster, Neuthart, Nuesser, Oberst, Of, Ofner, Oeberlin, Pfenster, Pfisterer, Pflaum, Poehsterlin, Rupp, Rauschenbuhl, Redner, Reiher or Reuer, Reinhard, Renner, Reiz, Reupf, Reuter (cf Seuter), Reugtner, Rinde, Rieb, Ridberger or Ripperger, Riebperg, Riegter or Rieger, Rinsemann, Riphfetber, Riche, Roeikmann, Roesch, Robecher or Robecher, Rostetter, Rueblin, Ruedolf, Ruef, Rueg, Roth, Rummelin.

Salbe, ?, Saur, SAUTER, SCHAD, Schaf, Schallereiss, Schedel, Scheffer, Schenkel, SCHMIDT, Schmidtberg, Schmidtgoetz, ?, Schmid, Schneider, Scholl, Schoengeist, Schulz, Schue, ?, Schuler, Schrott, Schreiner, ?, ?, Schweiter, Schweisterz, Schictenreis, Schwat, Schuetz, Senger, Seipold, Seitt, Seiferlin, Sennfart, Seuter, Silber, Silberzehn, Simon, Sitzler, Sollenburg, Sorg, Sorn, Speidel, Spenhett, Spengel or Spengler, ?, Stahell, Stark, Stuff, Steiner, Stetter, Steurer, Stoll, Stolzenberger, Steubel, Storr, Stradel, Straheider, Stermbichel, Stuter, Susstrunk, Tauff, Tochter, Therger, THOMA, Tubach, Trutten, Uber, Uldner.

Vanhard (Bergherd?), Vezer (Bezer?), VISCHER cf Fischer, Vaegtlin, VOLK, Vomann or Volner, Vischheuber, Vierer, Vogel, Voger (Boger?), Wahl, Wachter, Waldmann, ?, Wader, Watz, Wagner, Weyer, Weller, Weigred, Weber, Weid, Weiss, Weissner, Welz, Werner, Winkelin, Winterfuss, Wikner, Wolberg, Wolf, Wunder, Wuelber, Wust, Zilch, Zimmermann, Zimmelsheuter, Zudwold, Zop, Zipperlin, Zoller.

In the next Note we will probably start with deaths in the period 1655 to 1677.
(23 Oct 06)



Nr. 2397:

Thanks to the work of Jean Strand back in 1989, I had been aware that there was at least one Blankenbaker who did not emigrate to America when the others did.  Information about him was to be found in the records of the Lutheran church in Unteroewisheim.  As I copied out the indexes, I came across two references which seem to indicate even more Blankenbakers.  Of course, you can imagine my excitement.  Unfortunately, the index had an error and the reference to a Blankenbaker in it was the one that I knew about.

To recap, there is a marriage record for Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler, journeyman weaver, who married Catharina Barbara Weyland, Jacob Schneider�s surviving widow.  The year was probably late 1738.  [Note the use of the maiden name in the record!]

In February 1740, at the baptism of Maria Susanna, the d/o Johann Peter Oberst and his wife Catharina Barbara, one of the sponsors was Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler.  The other sponsor was Maria Susanna, Jacob Herlaus' wife.

On 20 April 1740, Maria Catharina was born to Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler and his wife Catharina Barbara.  The sponsors were Jacob Koenig, weaver, and Anna Catharina [note a slight change in the name], Peter Oberst�s wife, and Anna Maria, Friederich Tuebach�s wife.

In 1741, at the baptism of Johann Peter, the s/o Johann Peter Oberst and his wife Catharina Barbara, one sponsor was Jacob Keerdlen (but note the sponsor in the baptism second above) and the other sponsor was Catharina Barbara the wife of Nicolai Blanckenbuehler.

On 2 September 1742, the death register carries the record that Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler, citizen and weaver, died in his 34th year.  [Therefore he was born ca 1708.]

In 1743, Johann Michael Huefnagel married Catharina Barbara Weiland, the surviving widow of Nicolai Blanckenbuehler.

It is extremely interesting that the maiden name of Nicolaus B�s wife was Weyland or Weiland.  In America, there was a fairly close relationship between the Blankenbakers and Waylands.  Though the Waylands are said by some to have come from a village an appreciable distance to the east, one wonders if there was a closer connection.

How does Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler fit the larger picture?  Apparently, the immigrants from Austria had at least one more son than the John Thomas who married Anna Barbara Schoen.  There is some reason to think he might even have had three sons.
(25 Oct 06)



Nr. 2398:

I am EMBARRASSED about the last note.  I took the �Weyland� which was usually spelled Weyeland or Weiland to be a maiden name.  It would be better to interpret this as �deceased�.

To recap, there is a marriage record for Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler, journeyman weaver, who married Catharina Barbara, the deceased Jacob Schneider�s surviving widow.  The year was probably late 1738.

In February 1740, at the baptism of Maria Susanna, the d/o Johann Peter Oberst and his wife Catharina Barbara, one of the sponsors was Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler.  The other sponsor was Maria Susanna, Jacob Herlaus wife.

On 20 April 1740, Maria Catharina was born to Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler and his wife Catharina Barbara.  The sponsors were Jacob Koenig, weaver, and Anna Catharina [note a slight change in the name], Peter Oberst�s wife, and Anna Maria, Friederich Tuebach�s wife.

In 1741, at the baptism of Johann Peter, the s/o Johann Peter Oberst and his wife Catharina Barbara, one sponsor was Jacob Keerdlen (but note the sponsor in the baptism second above) and the other sponsor was Catharina Barbara the wife of Nicolai Blanckenbuehler.

On 2 September 1742, the death register carries the record that Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler, citizen and weaver, died in his 34th year.  [Therefore he was born ca 1708.]

In 1743, Johann Michael Huefnagel married Catharina Barbara, the surviving widow of the deceased Nicolai Blanckenbuehler.

How does Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler fit the larger picture? So far the only evidence is that the Austrian emigrant, Matthias Blanckenbuehler, had one son Hans Thomas Blanckenbuehler who married Anna Barbara Schoene and they were the parents of three Blanckenbuehler men who came to Virginia.  For the Nicolaus Blanckenbuehler above to exist, it would probably be necessary that Matthias had another son besides Hans Thomas.
(25 Oct 06)



Nr. 2399:

I have been comparing the indexes in the Church Books to the actual data which was being indexed and I have come to the conclusion that the indexer did a lousy job.  Names are missing in the index and some names are in the index for a given page where they are not to be found.  Furthermore, he spelled many names incorrectly (as compared to the original record) though perhaps he was attempting to correct the original entry.  One must not rely too heavily on an index as a complete and accurate statement of what will be found.

It takes me a lot of time to read the records, especially when I am encountering a different man doing the writing who has his own ideas of what the letters should like.  Some of the writers abbreviate names.  For example, a name might end in the sequence of letters �-prgr.� One way that this sequence could make sense is to insert a couple of �e�s� making it -perger.  Some of the experts tell me that this is not unusual.  Such abbreviations are unique to each writer who has his own rules.  A worst problem is distinguishing the letters which do not have descenders or ascenders such as e n c m n a o u to give a few.  The letters with ascenders or descenders have their own problems.

One of the marriage index entries said there was a marriage between a Blanckenbuehler and a Schmidt.  This had me excited but when I found the record it was between a Blanckenbuehler and a Schneider as I gave in the last Note.

The Church Books confirm what our history books tell us.  Not too many Notes ago, I was recounting some of the significant wars and invasions of the late 1600's.  One can see this in the Church Books where there are gaps in the data.  At Unteroewisheim, I believe there is a gap from 1677 to 1694.  When the records of the marriages resume in 1694, there are 2 marriages for the year.  For 1695 there are 3, for 1696 there are 2, for 1697 there are 7, for 1698 there are 10, for 1699 there are 3, but the average creeps up to around 10.  A similar set of statistics holds for Gemmingen.

Still, the process is fun even if frustrating.  I just wish I could have the microfilm on a CD that I could bring home.  Even better would be an Ortssippenbuch where it is completely worked out.

There will be short break in these notes for a little vacation time.  A resumption is expected shortly after Election Day.
(25 Oct 06)



Nr. 2400:

On the last 21 of October, the Pennsylvania Chapter of Palatines to America held their fall conference with Larry O. Jensen as the speaker.  Never has any speaker given me such an inferiority complex.  The breadth and extent of his knowledge were overwhelming and showed me how little that I know.

Mr. Jensen is on the staff at the Family History Library of the LDS in Salt Lake City, though he does do some teaching outside the library.  If you ever have the chance to hear him, take advantage of the opportunity.  Most everything that he talked about had many elements that were new to me.

Consider German records and their sources.  One must understand that there are many different types of jurisdictions that created these records.  One classification was the nobility jurisdictions.  The nobility ruled lands acquired by inheritance, marriage, or military force.  The records that they created often pertained to these subjects for all of the people living in their jurisdictions.  These might be a duchy, kingdom, province, principality.  Baden for example was a duchy, while Wuerttemberg was a kingdom.  Other types of nobility jurisdictions were archduchy, county, grand principality, domain, and landgravate.  At the time of the unification of German, Prussia had many provinces such as Rheinland, Hessen-Nassau, Westfalen, and many more.

Separate from the nobility jurisdictions, even though they were often controlled by the nobility, were the government jurisdictions.  These maintained specific regional, county, and district types of records.  Not every government jurisdiction had the same divisions.  Baden had counties (Kreis) and districts; Bavaria had regions and counties, but not districts; Anhalt had counties, but no regions or districts.  The government jurisdictions usually had court records, military records, civil registry, and parish registers.

The Meyers Gazetteer recognizes the nobility divisions, the government divisions, the record types which are maintained.  For example, the entry for Bruesenhagen identifies it as a Dorf or village in the Kingdom of Prussia in the Brandenburg province.  The county records for Bruesenhagen are at Potsdam.  The Kreis or district records are at Ostprignitz, while the lower court records are at Kyritz.  The military records are at Pereleberg, and the civil registry is at Vehlow.  The local government office records are kept at Dannenwalde.  Most Americans ignore records other than the parish records.  In doing so they may be omitting records which would be helpful in tracing a family.

In addition to these official divisions, there are cultural divisions which are not well defined.  For example, the Kraichgau, which we discussed some Notes back, is a cultural area.  These cultural areas can be important since a person may identify himself with a cultural area.
(08 Nov 06)


(To see John & Eleanor Blankenbaker's May, 2000, and May, 2002, Germany and Austria photos, click here.)

(To see maps of villages in Germany and Austria from which our Germanna ancestors immigrated, click here.)


(This page contains the NINETY-SIXTH set of Notes, Nr. 2376 through Nr. 2400.)

John and George would like very much to hear from readers of these Germanna History pages.  We welcome your criticisms, compliments, corrections, or other comments.  When you click on "click here" below, both of us will receive your message.  We would like to hear what you have to say about the content of the Notes, and about spelling, punctuation, format, etc.  Just click here to send us your message.  Thank You!


There is a Mailing List (also known as a Discussion List or Discussion Group), called GERMANNA_COLONIES, at RootsWeb.  This List is open to all subscribers for the broadcast of their messages.  John urges more of you to make it a research tool for answering your questions, or for summarizing your findings, on any subject concerning the Germanna Colonies of Virginia.  On this List, you may make inquiries of specific Germanna SURNAMES.  At present, there are about 700 subscribers and there are bound to be users here who can help you.  If you are interested in subscribing to this List,

(GERMANNA History Notes, Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 John BLANKENBAKER.)
(GERMANNA History Web Pages, Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 George W. DURMAN.)
This material has been compiled and placed on this web site by George W. Durman, with the permission of John BLANKENBAKER.  It is intended for personal use by genealogists and researchers, and is not to be disseminated further.

Index Links to All Pages of John's GERMANNA NOTES and Genealogy Comments
INDEX Links to All Pages of John's GERMANNA NOTES
Pg.001-Notes 0001-0025
Pg.002-Notes 0026-0050
Pg.003-Notes 0051-0075
Pg.004-Notes 0076-0100
Pg.005-Notes 0101-0125
Pg.006-Notes 0126-0150
Pg.007-Notes 0151-0175
Pg.008-Notes 0176-0200
Pg.009-Notes 0201-0225
Pg.010-Notes 0226-0250
Pg.011-Notes 0251-0275
Pg.012-Notes 0276-0300
Pg.013-Notes 0301-0325
Pg.014-Notes 0326-0350
Pg.015-Notes 0351-0375
Pg.016-Notes 0376-0400
Pg.017-Notes 0401-0425
Pg.018-Notes 0426-0450
Pg.019-Notes 0451-0475
Pg.020-Notes 0476-0500
Pg.021-Notes 0501-0525
Pg.022-Notes 0526-0550
Pg.023-Notes 0551-0575
Pg.024-Notes 0575-0600
Pg.025-Notes 0601-0625
Pg.026-Notes 0626-0650
Pg.027-Notes 0651-0675
Pg.028-Notes 0676-0700
Pg.029-Notes 0701-0725
Pg.030-Notes 0726-0750
Pg.031-Notes 0751-0775
Pg.032-Notes 0776-0800
Pg.033-Notes 0801-0825
Pg.034-Notes 0826-0850
Pg.035-Notes 0851-0875
Pg.036-Notes 0876-0900
Pg.037-Notes 0901-0925
Pg.038-Notes 0926-0950
Pg.039-Notes 0951-0975
Pg.040-Notes 0976-1000
Pg.041-Notes 1001-1025
Pg.042-Notes 1026-1050
Pg.043-Notes 1051-1075
Pg.044-Notes 1076-1100
Pg.045-Notes 1101-1125
Pg.046-Notes 1126-1150
Pg.047-Notes 1151-1175
Pg.048-Notes 1176-1200
Pg.049-Notes 1201-1225
Pg.050-Notes 1226-1250
Pg.051-Notes 1251-1275
Pg.052-Notes 1276-1300
Pg.053-Notes 1301-1325
Pg.054-Notes 1326-1350
Pg.055-Notes 1351-1375
Pg.056-Notes 1376-1400
Pg.057-Notes 1401-1425
Pg.058-Notes 1426-1450
Pg.059-Notes 1451-1475
Pg.060-Notes 1476-1500
Pg.061-Notes 1501-1525
Pg.062-Notes 1526-1550
Pg.063-Notes 1551-1575
Pg.064-Notes 1576-1600
Pg.065-Notes 1601-1625
Pg.066-Notes 1626-1650
Pg.067-Notes 1651-1675
Pg.068-Notes 1676-1700
Pg.069-Notes 1701-1725
Pg.070-Notes 1726-1750
Pg.071-Notes 1751-1775
Pg.072-Notes 1776-1800
Pg.073-Notes 1801-1825
Pg.074-Notes 1826-1850
Pg.075-Notes 1851-1875
Pg.076-Notes 1876-1900
Pg.077-Notes 1901-1925
Pg.078-Notes 1926-1950
Pg.079-Notes 1951-1975
Pg.080-Notes 1976-2000
Pg.081-Notes 2001-2025
Pg.082-Notes 2026-2050
Pg.083-Notes 2051-2075
Pg.084-Notes 2076-2100
Pg.085-Notes 2101-2125
Pg.086-Notes 2126-2150
Pg.087-Notes 2150-2175
Pg.088-Notes 2176-2200
Pg.089-Notes 2201-2225
Pg.090-Notes 2226-2250
Pg.091-Notes 2251-2275
Pg.092-Notes 2276-2300
Pg.093-Notes 2301-2325
Pg.094-Notes 2326-2350
Pg.095-Notes 2351-2375
Pg.096-Notes 2376-2400
Pg.097-Notes 2401-2425
Pg.098-Notes 2426-2450
Pg.099-Notes 2451-2475
Pg.100-Notes 2476-2500
Pg.101-Comments 0001-0025


INDEX Links to All Pages of John's GENEALOGY COMMENTS

(As of 12 April 2007, John published the last of his "Germanna Notes"; however, he is going to periodically post to the GERMANNA_COLONIES Mailing List in the form of "Genealogy Comments" on various subjects, not necessarily dealing with Germanna.  I'm starting the numbering system anew, starting with Comment Nr. 0001.)

Pg.101-Comments 0001-0025