Some of the causes of emigration were short term and affected emigration in a particular year. Yet, sometimes the resulting emigration was so powerful that it had an effect for years to come. One such incident was the winter of 1708-1709.
The first decade of the seventeen hundreds has been described as a little ice age. For several years, temperatures ran below normal and culminated in an especially bad winter of 1708-1709. Even in the fall of 1708, temperatures were below the usual, but they set record lows in the month of January, which were not abated until spring came.
By November 1, it is said, the temperatures were so low that wood would not burn outdoors in the open. By January the wine and spirits were freezing into solid blocks of ice. Birds on the wing fell dead. Saliva from the mouth congealed before it hit the ground.
Most of Western Europe was affected. Along the Atlantic coast, sea ice formed to a depth that it would support carts. Most of the vineyards and orchards were killed. The fall planting did not survive. Many of the citizens could see nothing but disaster ahead. It was impossible to imagine any other condition that would be worse than remaining in place.
From 1682 to 1708, the number of emigrants could be counted in the hundreds. In 1709, thirteen thousand Germans, more or less, decided to emigrate. Certainly the weather contributed to this, but, as is usually the case, it was not the only factor. Whatever the causes were, these large numbers in this year contributed to future emigration.
The departure of the 1709'ers made it easier for people to leave in the future. There were a number of mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon, and we have discussed a few of them here. From the data in Hank Jones’ book The Palatine Families of New York 1710 , there was probably a higher density of departures from the Siegen area in 1709 than from the Palatinate. When Johann Justus Albrecht appeared in Siegen in 1710, the departure of many of the citizens from the area in the previous year was fresh in the residents' minds. The people to whom he talked were more prone to listen to him than they would have been a couple of years earlier.
There was a negative factor in the years immediately following 1709. The British had been burned by their efforts to aid the Germans, so emigration to British North America was discouraged. The next big wave was not until 1717.
How much bad news can one stand? Wars, religious arguments, and, then, a winter to end all winters could it get any worse?
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.