Dutchess County Palatine Research in Germany Henry Z. Jones Jr

_The Federal Census

3Ibid., 44. 4Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States taken in the Year 1790 (Baltimore: 1976), 6-7. 5Rossiter, op. cit., 44-45. 6George W. Roach, ''Coloriial Highways in the Upper Hudson Valley'', New York History, 1959, vol. 50, p. 98. 7William P. Mc Dermott, ed. Eighteenth Century Documents of the Nine Partners Patent, Dutchess County, New York (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: 1979), 247. 8 Journal of the New York Provincial Congress, I, 887-89. 9Laws of New York, 1799, LXII.

lOEdgar J. McManus, A History of Negro Slavery in New York (Syracuse: 1966), 150. 11Ibid., 150. 12Ibid., 168 (Poughkeepsie Journal, December 22, 1789). 139

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Map of Germany showing the area fro'm which many Palatines emigrated. Rhine River is on the right. Courtesy of the author.

DUTCHESS COUNTY PALATINE RESEARCH IN GERMANY

Henry Z. Jones Jr.

The circumstances which brought the Palatines to New York in 1?10 left their German origins in a shadow of darkness. Henry Jones has spent more than a decade successfully lifting that shadow.

For the past twelve years, the author has been gathering documented data here and abroad on the 800plus "Palatine" families from Germany who arrived in colonial New York in 1710. The goal of this project is the publication of a series of volumes on these emigrants which will chronicle their European backgrounds and activities in America to 1776.

American sources have been combed for material on the New York Palatines. All extant churchbooks covering the activities of these settlers in colonial New York 1710 through 1776 have been posted to the author's 17,000 documented family group sheets (each sheet representing an 18th century Palatine couple and their offspring); in this way, baptisms, marriages, burials, confirmations and communions of the "1709ers" and their descendants have been organized in an accessible manner, enabling the author to write his final volumes from the family group sheets themselves. In addition to American church records, all extant civil records on the Palatines have been posted to the sheets for the same time period; these include wills, tax rolls, deeds, naturalizations, and court records, to name a few. In this way, a concise genealogical biography of each Palatine couple emerges.

The. main thrust of the project, however, is in pinpointing and then fully tracing the German origins of the 800-plus families. The author employs a skilled German genealogist, Carla MittelstaedtKubaseck, on a full time basis to conduct his German research under his direction. Frau MittelstaedtKubaseck literally goes v~llage-to-village in Germany looking for the 800 families who came to America in 1710; to date, over 500 of the 800 have been fully traced, many into the 1500s. A few of the towns of origin were given in some of the older New York churchbooks, such as Pastor Kocherthal's West Camp 141

142 Henry Z. Jones Jr.

Lutheran Churchbook and the New York City Reformed Churchbook. But, by and large, in.most cases the family home in Europe has not survived in U.S. records~ The saving grace of the author's twelve year project is the fact that emigrants rarely left Germany alone; they usually migrated with friends, relatives, or neighbors from the ·same geographic region overseas, and then remained near these same old friends upon their arrival in America. When one 1709er is documented in his ancestral village churchbook in Germany, chances are several fellow-travelers will be found in the same old register overseas!

Many Dutchess County families were found overseas in this manner. As an example, let us take the Dutchess and Columbia County Hagedorn family: "Peter Hagedoren and vrouw, with 5 kindern" were enrolled inthe 4th party of Palatines in Holland in 1709;1 they were listed on the original, unalphabetised lists near fellow emigrants George Schleicher, Edmund Salbach, Ananias Diel, and Nicolaus Steiger. Peter Hagadorn aged 60 yrs., with his wife, sons aged 24, 22, and 15, daughters aged 17 and 11, was noted at London later that same year, again enrolled very near Schleicher, Salbach, Diel, and Steiger.2 This fascinating juxtaposition of names continued once they all arrived in colonial New York, as all are found near each other on the Hunter Subsistence Lists 171012.3 This association between the five.families continued in the years after their arrival. The • German origins of the Salbachs, Diels, Steigers and Hagedorns were not mentioned by Pastor Kocherthal or any other American source. However, it was noted that Kocherthal did record the marriage of Anna Catharina Schleicher, daughter of Johann Georg Schleicher of Erbenheim in the commune of Nassau, to Johann Henrich Schmid, carpenter of Nider-Walmenach on the Rhine, on 31 August 1710.4 As the Schleichers were so closely connected with the other four families in America, the author dispatched his researcher to Erbenheim near Wiesbaden to see if the ancient churchbooks might bring forth information on all five traveling companions. Proving once again that Palatines sailed with their neighbors, all five ·families were found at Erbenheim and at surrounding villages!

The material on the Dutchess-Columbia County Hagedorn family was especially choice. The Erbenheim Churchbooks revealed that Jacob Hagedorn, a wheelwright, and his wife Christina had a son Peter,

Dutchess County Palatine Research ~n Germany

baptised on "Uff Pfingsten" in 1648. Peter Hagedorn married Elisabetha Job, formerly a Catholic who was confirmed as an adult 22 November 1689. The children of Peter and Elisabetha Hagedorn baptised at Erbenheim were: Johann Peter, bpt. 4 Sept 1684 - sponsors Asmus

Merthen and Hans Peter Steiger. He had his own listing on the Hunter Lists beginning 4 Oct 1710 and appeared on tax rolls in the

Rhinebeck area 1728/29 through June of 1761.5 Johann Christopher, bpt. 6 Feb 1687 - sponsors

Johann Nicolaus Gottschalk, and Christoph Job from Eppstein - the grandfather of the child.

He was a Palatine Debtor in 1718, 1719, 1721, and 1726. 6 Christopher Hagedorn was active in Lutheran church matters and was a leader of the Palatines in the Camps along the

Hudson.7 Johann Mattheus, bpt~ 15 June 1689 - sponsor

Mattheus Birck. He was buried 16 Aug 1689. Anna Catharina, bpt. 29 Nov 1691 - sponsors Anna

Christina Lotzin from Dotzheim, and Catharina - wife of the miller from Sperschen (?). She was confirmed in 1705 at Erbenheim. A Son, buried 1 May 1692. Johann Wilhelm, bpt. 3 March 1695 - sponsor

Wilhelm Gromann. He was naturalized 14 Feb 1715/16.8 Maria Gertraut, bpt. 30 Nov 1697 - sponsors Maria

Agnes - wife of Joh. Nicol Merthens, and

Gertraut - daughter of the shepherd Henrich

Morbeck. She was confirmed by Kocherthal 23 March 1712.9 Much more genealogical and biographical material on the Hagedorns has been uncovered by the author than in the above family sketch.lo 143

·ENDNOTES

111The Rotterdam Sailing Lists of 1709": Tl/119: 6-10, 19-26, 58-65, 68-72, 79-82 at the Public Record Office, London.

144 Henry z. Jones Jr.

211The London 1709 'Census' of Palatines": C.O. 388/76: No. 56, 56i, 56ii, 64, 68-70 at the Public Record Office, London. 311The Hunter Subsistence Lists": C.O. 5/1230, 5/1231 at the Public Record Office, London. 4 . Records of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, West Camp, Ulster Co., N~w York, begun. by Pastor Joshua Kocherthal. 5 Dutchess County Tax Lists. 6Palatine Debt Lists in the Livingston Papers, Hyde Park, N.Y. 7Albany Protocol, by Wilhelm Christoph Berkenmeyer, edited by John P. Dern, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1971, pp. 41, 47, 75, 83 and 101. 8Albany Common Council Minutes. 9Records ~f St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ibid. 10 rn order to help defray the $90,000 expense of this research, the author is willing to share prepublication German and American data on the 800 Palatine families with interested descendants. For further details, please write:

Editor's note: Hank Jones P.O. Box 8341 Universal City, Ca. 91608

Below is a partial list of Palatines from the Simmendinger Register in New York about 1717 who have been traced to their ancestral German home villages. This list does not include a great many names of Palatines who settled elsewhere who have also been traced.