There never was an exact count of the number of people who left Germany for the New World in 1709. The best estimate is thirteen thousand, though some estimates are above this and some below. Only a fraction of them made it to the New World. The largest group, about three thousand, went to New York along the Hudson River to work on naval stores. The members of this group are well known as Hank Z. Jones has made one career of identifying and finding the German origins of these people. The second largest group for the New World was about six hundred, who went to North Carolina under the leadership of Christoph von Graffenried.
The largest identifiable group, perhaps four thousand, was sent to Ireland. Many of these stayed indefinitely there while some went back to England on their own and then on to the New World or back to Germany. Another group was distributed among the villages of England and these families were the least permanent in their distribution. Most found their way back to London and hence to other places. Queen Anne did not want Catholics in her plantations and a large number of these were sent back to Germany; however, many of these denied their Catholic origins and sneaked through.
Where did the 1709 emigrants come from? Let’s take a look at some of the names in the sixth party from Rotterdam to London (sailed 28 July 1709). These lists were made by the Dutch, and their spelling varies some from German or English. For example, we have Visher, Fischer, and Fisher in the three nationalities.
Some of the names in the sixth party were:
I copied names exactly, but changed the word “vrouw” to “wife”. I copied out these names because most of the surnames are known in Trupbach and in Oberfischbach.
(24 Jun 04)
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.