A few weeks ago, it was mentioned that Carol Ann Burdine, after publishing her findings on the Burdine family, had difficulties convincing some people of the validity of her research. I have encountered the same difficulty with Lewis Fisher (Ludwig Fischer) who some people claim was a baron, etc., etc. In this note, I thought I would start the history of another person, Johann Peter Gudelius, or Gutelius. Many of you from the Siegen area may, in fact, be related to this person. [Another member of the Gudelius family did leave the Nassau-Siegen area with the intention of joining the Germanna Colonists. He was unfortunate in his choice of a ship, the Oliver, which was lost off the coast of Virginia, almost in the harbor. He did not survive the trip.]
The Gudelius family originated with Wendel Gudel who enrolled at the University of Heidelberg on 19 Dec 1586. In doing so, he took the name Wendelinus Gudelius, a Latinized form which was popular with academics at that time. [The Crecelius family in the Germanna colonists did the same thing.] Wendel Gudelius became a chaplain at Herborn, about nine miles to the southeast of Siegen. His descendants lived in this general area. By 1700, there were six Gudelius families, as a search of the census and parish records show, and they can all be traced to the progenitor of the family.
The family of Johann Peter Gudelius lived at Niederholzklau (a few miles west of Siegen). They had no church in the village, but there was a church at Oberholzklau nearby. There are some gaps in the parish records, but the limits on the birth of Johann Peter are 1708 to 1711. His father was Christoph Gudelius, born at Dirlenbach about 1664, and his mother was Elisabeth Magdalene Baum, born at Eisern about 1674. The birth of Johann Peter is confirmed by census and sponsorship records in other parishes. He was old enough to be a sponsor of a child of Johann Wilhelm and Maria Wirths at Wuerdon on 30 Sep 1736 (in the parish records of Freusburg).
Johann Peter Gudelius was the father of an illegitimate son (Johann Henrich Gudelius), born at Wuerdon on 6 Sep 1743. Again, Johann Peter Gudelius was the father of a second illegitimate son (Johann), born at Meiswinkel on 5 May 1745, by another mother. Johann, the son, died two years later. This is the last record for Johann Peter Gudelius in the Nassau-Siegen region.
He, Johann Peter Gudelius, sailed from Rotterdam on the ship Nancy, and arrived at Philadelphia on 31 August 1750. Several other people on the ship can be identified as having a Nassau-Siegen origin, including Joh. Jacob Brumbach, Christian Giebeler, Johannes Jung, Tilman Creutz, and Dilmanus Weissgerber.
Next, I will look at some of the history of Johann Peter in America.
(08 Nov 02)
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.