Do you descend from the original 1708 – 1710 Palatines?

 Beginning in 1708, a Lutheran minister, Joshua Kocherthal accompanied immigrants to this country from England to the Hudson Valley of New York.  The first group of about fifty four settlers arrived in New York with Kocherthal aboard the ship Globe, which also carried the new governor of New York, Francis Lovelace.  The ship docked in New York harbor on the Morning of 18 Dec 1708,  In the spring of 1709, the group of German Palatines were taken north on the Hudson and settled on land at Quaseck Kill, in Ulster County (now Newburgh in Orange County.)

Later that year, Kocherthal returned to England to seek support for the first group of Palatines.  He returned in 1710 with a second and larger group that were settled further north on the Hudson, near present-day Saugerties in West Camp, and across the Hudson River near Germantown, Columbia Co. in East Camp.

The group who was settled in Newburgh was given title in 1710 to 2000 or so acres along the Hudson River where they were initially settled.  Only some actually remained there.  Many had moved away by the time the land was granted to them.

The groups that were initially settled along the Hudson River in East and West Camps never did receive title to that land and later resettled further west, or in Pennsylvania.

Palatine to America has decided to establish a group called the “Kocherthal Circle” for those who can demonstrate that they were descended from those early Palatines.  On our website, you will find an application blank and instructions enabling you to apply for membership in this lineage group.  We encourage you to do so.  If you complete you application process in time, we would love to induct you into the Circle at our June 2013 National Conference in Albany, NY.

It is hoped that this is just the first of several lineage societies that will find a home in Palatines to America.  The ancestors of those early Germans who followed Francis Daniel Pastorius to settle in Germantown, PA in 1683 might well be our next Circle to be established.  Others may want to establish other circles. 

For information on how to apply for the Kocherthal Circle, go online to palam.org and look for the application form.