Some immigrants were not served well by the informal system of communication and finance that was helpful to many. One of these was Maria Barbara Kober who arrived in Philadelphia in 1738. In Schwaigern she had married, and the family had one young child when they decided to emigrate. Lacking the necessary funds, they were redemptioners and expected to pay for the ocean trip by serving a term of service in America. The first bad break was that their son died before their ship had reached Cowes, England. Then, there was a sixteen-week trip across the Atlantic before they arrived on October 30 in Philadelphia, which left many passengers weak and ill.
As redemptioners, they were given a period of time (on arrival) to see if they could find a friend who would lend or give them the passage money. For three weeks they lived on the ship and went about Philadelphia during the day seeing if they could find aid. They were unsuccessful and Maria Barbara's husband advised her to indenture herself for four years to an English couple who lived 26 miles from Philadelphia. Meanwhile, he was still tied to the ship. That was the last she saw of him, or heard of him. The Lohrmanns found that had he died, and wrote home to Schwaigern with this news, but they did not know what had happened to Maria Barbara.
Four years later Maria Barbara, having fulfilled her service, went to Philadelphia to try to find her husband. Without any news of him and no prospects for a job for herself, she returned to the family with whom she had been living. She lived with them for another twenty-three years and then she married Heinrich Probst. Five years later, they decided to move to Philadelphia to be near other Germans.
In Philadelphia, Maria Barbara reentered the network of Germans. There, she met two Germans from Schwaigern who were able to tell her news from home. She learned that her mother, father, brother, and sister had died, but two brothers and one sister were still living. She wrote home to inform them of her whereabouts, but the ship, carrying the message, was lost at sea. She wrote again (it was now 1767). Her motivations were mixed and she included a note saying that she expected her inheritance from the parent's estate. She stated that, in fact, she was sending her husband, with a power of attorney, to collect the inheritance. Maria Barbara was now using the power of the network to help herself.
Inheritances were a motivating factor for staying in touch with events in the home village. Much letter traffic, and even return visits, were connected with claiming inheritances. Forms were preprinted in German and one merely filled in the blanks. Maria Barbara used just such a power of attorney form. Very often, the claims were successful even if the original emigration had been illegal, i.e., without the approval of the authorities and the payment of the necessary taxes.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.