John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1782

The emigrants from the Freudenberg Parish in the year 1738 were listed in the Burial Register of the Parish by the pastor. Otto Bäumer published the material in the periodical “ Heimatland: Beilage zur Siegener Zeitung ”, in 1927. Don Yoder translated the article and published it in “ Pennsylvania Folklife ”, Winter 1969-70, Vol. XIX, No.2, p.46. Another English report appears in B. C. Holtzclaw’s “ Ancestry and Descendants...... ”. I think I have published it before in one of the notes, and I published it in “ Beyond Germanna ”. As a heading to the list of the names, the pastor wrote:

“As information I wished to write down on these pages that today, the 13th of March, 1738, there left for Georgia, the new island under the protection of His Majesty the King of England, out of this land and parish, with the knowledge and consent of the authorities of this our land, the following named persons, some of them householders with wife and children, others single male persons, namely:

From Freudenberg -: Tillmanus Seelbach with his wife Anna Beata, also his son-in-law
and daughter;; Gerlach Waffenschmidt and his wife Anna Maria with four
children;; Henrich Ernstorf and his wife Anna Catharin with three children;; Hermann Bach and his wife Anna Margreth with one child;; Johann Fredrich Müller and his wife Anna Maria with one child;; Hymenäus Creutz and his wife Elisabeth;; Georg Weidman, single status, Heinrich Weidman’s orphaned
son;; Tillmanus Steinseiffer, Johann Henrich Steinseiffer’s orphaned
son;; Johannes Hoffman from Dirlenbach, Johannes Hoffman’s son;; Johann Henrich Schmidt, Christian Schmidt’s son;; Johann Klappert, son the former village mayor in the prince’s
government, Johannes Klappert;; Tillmany Gudelius, Christopher Gudelius’ son;; Hermanus Müller, son of the village justice, Hermanus Müller.
From Plittershagen -: Johannes Halm and his wife Anna Catharin with two children.
From Boeschen -: Johann Henrich Schneider and his wife Maria Catharin with
two children;; Johann Georg Hirnschal and his wife Anna Catharin with one
child whose [Georg’s] father, Tilmanus Hirnschal, had left for
America two years ago and just now returned and has gone
back along with the others.
From Anstoss -: Henrich Schneider and his wife Anna Margreth with two
children;; Hanna Schneider, Johannes Schneider’s widow, with her son
Johannes Schneider and his wife, born in the Hadamar
country, with four children.”

The pastor may have been confused about where they were going. At Rotterdam, they took a ship going to Virginia. The choice of the ship was most unfortunate. They would have done better had they followed the Captain. He had started the journey, but turned around and came back to Rotterdam and resigned his job. He said the ship was too heavily loaded to venture onto the ocean. The keel of the ship must have been dragging in the mud, for it took six months to almost get to Virginia. Actually, it never made it to Virginia, the intended destination.
(17 Oct 03)

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.