Klaus Wust made an extensive study of 1738 shipping as a part of his study of German emigration. There are two ships that are drawn to our attention, the Oliver and the Two Brothers . The former left from Rotterdam and stopped in Cowes (on the island off South Hampton). It sank within sight of the Virginia coast with a great loss of life after a voyage of more than six months. The ship Two Brothers left from London without any stop at additional ports in England and reached Savannah. The reason that these two ships merit our study is that some people believe the Freudenberg emigrants took the Two Brothers to Georgia. The individuals place their believe in the Two Brothers because of the Freudenberg pastor’s comment about Georgia. Those that believe the Oliver was the ship note it is more likely that the emigrants wanted to go to Virginia. Other evidence supports their view also.
B. C. Holtzclaw, in " Ancestry and Descendants ", quotes a Dr. Wilhelm Guethling who wrote a history of Freudenberg, that was published in 1956, as writing, "The travelers went down the Rhine to Rotterdam and on to England. On May 8 the emigrants put to sea from Southampton and after a voyage of 134 days reached Savannah in Georgia. When further news reaches us, because of the unhealthy climate they had later moved north, where they settled in the place Bethlehem (i.e., Bethehem, Pennsylvania)." Holtzclaw adds, "There may be some confusion in the above statement."
This description of the voyage does not fit the ship Two Brothers except in one regard, namely the destination. The T wo Brothers did not leave from Southampton, it left from London. In 1738, London was not a port that German emigrants used. They were picked up at Rotterdam (sometimes Amsterdam) and, with one stop in England at one of the southern port cities, went on to the destination. A departure from London does not even suggest that the ship Two Brothers carried Germans, certainly not a party of fifty odd. There is nothing in the Guethling statement that appears to be correct, except the trip down the Rhine to Rotterdam.
Another very telling fact is that no trace of the Freudenberg emigrants has ever been discovered in Georgia. Of course, some might have moved away but to expect all of them to move away would stretch the belief. Of the eighteen family or single individual units that left Freudenberg, only six have been found in America (B. C. Holtzclaw found five but he missed one). These six were all found in Virginia. What happened to the other twelve units? They do not show up in Georgia, in Virginia, or in Pennsylvania (or in the Carolinas or in Maryland).
There is a rational explanation for the missing twelve units and the discovery of the individuals in Virginia. It involves the ship
Oliver
.
(19 Jan 06)
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.