Johannes Wilhelm Hoffman, citizen of Eisern, which is a couple of miles south of the town of Siegen, made it clear that he believed an extra burden fell upon him because he was a member of the Reformed Church. There is no hint, though, that he ever waived in his faith in the church. His writings consist mostly of the burdens that were placed on him by the "overlords."
There are some more personal notes which are tantalizing to us. In the years 1739 and 1740, he mentions Pastor Heltsklaw from Wilmetogff. Surely this is a variant spelling of Holzklau, which became Holtzclaw in America. In 1738, he mentioned his brother-in-law, Heide, of Siegen. William's wife was Catharina Pithan and none of his sisters married a Heide according to B. C. Holtzclaw. He also refers to a brother-in-law, Henrich Schute, at Fücknhette (?), whose actual relationship is unexplained. Apparently, we do not understand all of the relationships that the term brother-in-law might encompass (or else our history is flawed).
William records that on 16 May 1741, he, Johannes Wilhelm Hoffman and his wife Anna Cadrina, with their sons Johannes and Johan Heinrich, left the village of Eysern, in the Catholic part of the principality of Nassau-Siegen, in his fatherland. He arrived in Philadelphia on 1 Oct 1741, and within the year had moved to York County, and across the "Sequahanna" to a place called Yorktown.
He left an incomplete statement, "After I left Europe and the servitude in Siegen, in the form of handwork and money, as the book shows again and again-." In another place, he gives as motivation for coming to America, "...the hope of being able to live without the burden of war."
In America, he continued to record some of the same kinds of observations that he had in Germany, namely, taxes, road maintenance, and war. The war to which he made reference was the French and Indian War, which was very hard on the inhabitants of the frontier counties. With his fatalistic spirit, he believed that God was punishing America by using the war as the means of punishment. He records the end of the war on a very happy note, with a wish for a peaceful life under our King George the Second of Great Britain.
There is no evidence that he ever saw his brothers, John and Henry, in Virginia. Of course, William was only one year old when his brother John left Eisern. However, he was only three years younger than Henry. (William left Eisern in 1741 and Henry left in 1743.)
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.