Ancestral Churches Project

Researching our ancestral families at some point will bring us back to a church that our ancestors called home for several generations.  In that church we find the records of baptisms, marriages and burials that enable us to link together the generations.  However the attachment to an ancestral church goes beyond the records that can be found in that church.  There is also a bond with church because it was the church of our ancestors.

The Palatines to America web-site, www.palam.org  began a project last fall that is meant to provide information on the churches our German ancestors attended, both those in Europe as well as those.  Information about several churches has already been posted on the web-site.  The information on the palam.org site has pictures and more extensive narrative, but here I can only give a listing and brief details.  The following churches are online.

New Hanover Lutheran Church (2941 Lutheran Rd, Gilbertsville, PA 19525):  The congregation was established around 1700 and is claimed to be the first German Lutheran Church in America.

St Paul’s Dutch Reformed Church is also known as the Mannheim Reformed Church or Snell’s Bush Church, Mannheim, New York.  The first church was built around the time of the American Revolution.

Fort Herkimer Church (German Flats, Herkimer County, New York):  The first church was built of logs in 1725 by the Palatines who lived in the area.  A more substantial structure was erected in the years from 1751 to 1753.

Stone Arabia Reformed Church, (near Nelliston, Montgomery County, New York):  The church was constructed sometime prior to 1743, since the first church book that is in existence was dated October 1742.

St. Servatius ev-lutheran Kirche, (Duderstadt, Eichfeld, Niedersachsen):  The oldest part of the current church is dated from around 1370, while the tower was constructed in the first half of the 16^th century. 

(The Field Chapel) Flurskapelle,  (Ulmet, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany):  The first church at the site was probably built in 1091.  It was destroyed during the 30 year war. The current church was rebuilt in 1737.

St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church, (323-327 Sixth St., New York):  The building was the home of a German speaking Lutheran community in what was at the time Manhattan’s Kleindeutschland (Little Germany).  The congregation was devastated in 1904 when the General Slocum sank in the East River with many of the congregation aboard for a church picnic on Long Island.  The building now houses a synagogue.

If you have an ancestral church and can provide a picture and some information about that church, you are invited to add your ancestral church to those already published.  Send your information to ckfsmail@gmail.com.

Germanna at NGS

When I looked through the program for the NGS conference in Richmond,  I noticed a talk entitled "300 Years in Virginia:The Germanna Colony and Their Legacy".  I put it on my schedule of sessions to attend.  In the meanwhile, I found that the Germanna Foundation had a table at the conference.  I spent some time talking to those manning the booth to learn more about Germanna. On Thursday, I attended an excellent talk by Katherine Lowe Brown about Germanna.

She related how Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Spotswood arranged to recruit men from the region of Siegen, Westphalia.  Spotswood was interested in mining for silver in Virginia and hoped to recruit miners from Siegen.  In 1714, a group of forty-two miners and their families arrived in Virginia.  The miners were put to work by Spotswood.  This first colony at Germanna were German Reformed and brought their own minister with them.  When Spotswood's mining venture failed, these families resettled on the Northern Neck, which was later to become Farquier County.

A second, larger group of settlers from Wuertemburg, were Lutherans. They formed a congregation while they awaited passage in London, and arrived in Germanna in 1717.  Most later migrated to Culpeper County.

However, that was not the end of my "Germanna experience".  While wandering the vendors' hall, I found that "German Life" was giving away copies of the June/July 2014 issue.  In there, I found an article, "Silver on the Rapidan?  Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Spotswoood and the Founding of Germanna, 1713-1718" by Robert A. Selig.  The article provided more of the backstory of Spotswood and the Germanna settlement, including some of his questionable land deals by which he obtained possession of the land for Germanna.

Even that wasn't the end of my exposure to things "Germanna".  A book caught my eye as I wandered through Mia's Books, one of the few book vendors.  The book was entitled "The Germans in Colonial Times", by Lucy Forney Bittinger.  It was copyrighted in 1901, and reprinted in 2007 by Heritage Books. The author attempted to provide the story of German settlement in the colonies from 1683 to 1783.  It will take a more thorough reading to see how accurate a story the author tells about those early German settlements in Virginia.  However, I consider it my good fortune to find and purchase the book.

Blogging from the NGS Conference in Richmond

While awaiting the opening of the National Genealogical Society’s conference in Richmond, VA, I have gone through the schedule to decide which of the many talks I will attend.  Each time slot offers nine or ten presentations.  Of course, since the conference is being held in Virginia, many deal with topics related to research in that state.

What I found interesting was the number of topics of interest to those researching German ancestors. Beginning on Thursday morning, the following talks on German topics will be offered.

“Searching for a Pennsylvania German Ancestor” - James M. Beidler

“300 Years in Virginia: The Germanna Colonies and Their Legacy” – Katherine Lowe Brown

“Researching a Hessian Soldier in the American Revolution” – Craig Roberts Scott

“How to Overcome Brick Wall Problems in Pennsylvania German Research” – Michael D. Lacopo

“Contrasting German Migrations: 18^th Century vs. 19^th Century Waves” – James M. Beidler

“How German History Makes a Difference in Your Family History Research” – F. Warren Bittner

“German Gazetteers and Levels of Jurisdiction” – F. Warren Bittner

“Using Historic German Newspapers Online” – Ernest Thode

“German Village Not Yet Found?” – Carolyn Louise Whitton

“German 301: Going Beyond German Church Records” – James Marion Baker

Of course, unless you are going to be at the conference, it will be impossible for you to actually attend these presentations.  However, all is not lost.  Each of these talks is being recorded by a company called JAMB.  After the conference is over, the sessions that have been recorded, including the ones listed above, will be offered on the website www.jamb-inc.com.  Each tape is currently $12.00.  Considering the cost of actually attending the conference, the price of a tape is cheap.

Rochester Churches Indexing Project

The Summer 2013 issue of The New York Researcher, the NYG&B quarterly newsmagazine, published an article about the Rochester Churches Indexing Project.  Since 2009, a group of volunteers has been indexing Rochester area church records of marriages and baptisms.  At the time the article was written, the marriages for thirty three churches, many, but not all of them Roman Catholic, had been indexed. There were 29,129 marriages in the index.  There was also 14,751 baptisms indexed from some of those churches.

Since the Rochester area has had a large German population, these records should be of interest to anyone researching oGerman ancestors who settled in, or moved through the Rochester area.  Several of the churches that have been indexed have records that began in the early to mid-thirties.   During that time period, the availability of land from the Holland Land Company and the opening of the Erie Canal drew many into the area.  Even if they did not remain in the western part of New York, they may have been there long enough for a marriage or baptism.

A check on the website of the project recently showed that the work has continued.  There are now 34 churches included in the project.  The number of indexed marriages has grown to 29,742.  The number of baptisms indexed has almost doubled to 28,794.

Many of the records have been indexed from Familysearch.org microfilms.  If a marriage or baptism is found that is of interest, the microfilm can be ordered from that source to look for further information.  However the information in the index itself contains more than just names and dates.  For marriages, besides the names of the bride and groom, the names of witnesses, sometimes parents and places of origin are given in the index.  The same is true for baptisms.

If you have ancestors who may have been in the Rochester area long enough to generate marriage or baptismal records, you may find just what you are looking for. They can be found online at www.rcip.info.  They can be reach by email at rochesterchurches@gmail.com.

 Keep in mind though that there may be errors in transcription, as in any secondary sources.  Check the original images on film if they exist, or write to the church where the record was generated to obtain a copy. 

Acceptable Alternatives for First Names

As I was reading my latest issue of American Ancestors (Fall 2013, vol. 14, no. 4), from the New England Historic Genealogical Society, I found an interesting article by Henry Hoff.  The article was entitled “Developing Acceptable Alternatives for First Names in Colonial New York”.  He provides information on names among the Dutch, English, French and German settlers in Colonial New York.

There are resources that can provide English equivalents for Dutch names.  Arthur Kelly’s book, Names, Names, & More Names, Locating your Dutch Ancestors in Colonial America, provides an extensive list on pages 161 to 216.  Since I am writing this on St. Nicholas’ feast day, I want to point out that the list includes thirty Dutch equivalents for the English name, Nicholas.  Some are easy to recognize as equivalents, such as “Klaas”, or “Niklas”.   But would you have recognized “Klobes” or “Klaywitz” as an equivalent?

For those researching their German ancestry, the notion of a “Rufname” should be familiar.  It is not uncommon for a German to have a first name (Vorname), and a Rufname.  Several children in the family may have the same Vorname, e.g. Johann.  However each would have a different second name (the Rufname).  For example two brothers might be named Johann Georg and Johann Karl.  The names that the two would be known as would be Georg and Karl.

The article by Hoff passes along information the author received in an email from Henry Z Jones.  There were apparently some German names that would be considered an appropriate equivalent even though we might not see the connection.  Jones indicated that a boy who was baptized as Theobald might be called David, but that a boy baptized as David, would not be called Theobald.  As another example, a boy baptized as Adolf might be called Adam, but not the other way around.

It might be difficult to find an individual baptized as Theobald if he later used David as his name on records.  Understanding the possible alternative could be important to your research.

A Library Big Enough for All My Books

I have read with interest Dick Eastman’s newsletters.  One of the issues that he has addressed several times is his attempts to convert his library from paper to digital.  With all the books we acquire for our personal research and interests, it is not difficult to imagine running out of bookshelf space and end up with piles of books on the floor surrounding the desk.  Dick had apparently reached that point when he began taking books apart so that he could more easily convert them to a digital format.

I face a similar problem.  Perhaps you do too.  Books are expensive and the paper versions require space if they are to be available when needed. While I was attending a Civil War symposium in Virginia last month, I learned that Kent State University had published a number of books on the participation of Germans in the American Civil War.  It was easy enough to go online and find three books that would be useful in one of my ongoing projects.  I bought them at a not so cheap price and then had to find space for them on my bookshelves when they arrived. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen by Joseph R. Reinhart, A German Hurrah!, also by Reinhart, and Long Road to Liberty, the Odyssey of a German Regiment in the Yankee Army, by Donald Allendorf, all sit on my shelves now, and I am happy to have them there.  However, I had to remove several books to find them space. 

What is the answer to the problem of homeless books?  There are several possible solutions.  First, there are many books available in digital format that can be read on your Kindle, Nook or other reader.  They usually cost about one half what a paper copy would cost.  Some, if they are older books might be available at no cost through Google Books (books.google.com). Rather than buy another book that required shelve space, I purchased my copy of William Burton’s Melting Pot Soldiers from Google Books for a saving in space and money. 

Of course there are companies that scan older books and make them available on CD or DVDs.  I recently purchased a DVD from www.adigitalhistory.com that contained 48 German history books, many dealing with Pennsylvania Germans.  The most recent had been published in 1917.  The first on the DVD was A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss… Immigrant to Pennsylvania.  All 48 books take up the space of a thin DVD, and cost me $8.99.

One final possibility might be considered.  Even though I cringe at the thought of cutting the spine off a book on my shelves in order to make a digital copy, there is a company that will do it for me.  Dick Eastman suggested this possibility.  The company, www.1dollarscan.com will make a high quality digital copy of a book you send them and provide you with the digital copy for your use.  The book you sent is then cut up and recycled.  You are left with space on your shelve.  They charge $1 per 100 pages.  I still am not entirely comfortable with cutting apart books, but I may soon reach that point.

Perhaps you haven’t run out of space on your bookshelves, but when the time comes, owning digital copies of books may appeal to you more.

New York Family History Conference

This weekend, I returned from Syracuse, New York, where I attended and spoke at the New York State Family History Conference.  It was co-sponsored by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and the Central New York Genealogical Society.  The conference organizers billed the conference as “The First”, because they intend this conference to become a regularly scheduled conference focused on those researching New York families. This first conference was well attended.  In fact it was sold out with about 400 attending.  Those who tried to register in the final weeks for events such as the bus tour or the luncheon on Friday at which Terry Koch-Bostic spoke about “Finding Spicy Stories of New York Ancestors in Newspapers Online”, were out of luck.

The conference offered two tracks of presentations, one on New York State, and the second entitled “Beyond the Basics”.   One of my two presentations was “German Heritage and History in New York State”.  The second of my talks was entitled“Were Your Ancestors Refugees from the 1848 German Revolution?”  I was pleased that the conference made the decision to include at least those two German themed presentations.  Based on feedback from those who attended my two talks, there were many who were seeking information to help them research their German ancestors.  I am sorry to say that there were no other presentations dealing with German research.

However, the lack of more German content does not mean that the conference didn’t have a lot to offer.  Paula Stuart-Warren gave several talks, including one on indexes and databases for American Indian research. Karen Mauer Green spoke of the Huguenots in New Amsterdam and New York.  There was an interesting presentation sponsored by the National DAR and given by Eric Grunset on New York in the Revolution.

Next time this conference is held, I hope they will find a larger venue to hold all the people who wanted to attend this one.