A recent query asked about the Crites family. It is a Germanna family which is strongly contending for a prize in the under-recognized Germanna families. It is a nip and tuck race, though, as there several families who are well qualified in this World Cup of Under-Recognized Germanna Families.
The Crites family originates in the group of Freudenberg emigrants who left there in 1738. The German names, as given by the pastor at Freudenberg, are Hymenaeus Creutz and his wife Elizabeth. The name became something more like Haman Critz or Crites in America. One thing that makes his identification in America very positive is his close association with John Frederick Miller, another Freudenberg emigrant, who name in Germany was Johann Friedrich Mueller. The latter man had married Anna Maria Arnd.
The first record in Virginia for Haman Crites was in the spring of 1748. (John) Frederick Miller entered for 400 acres on the North Fork of the Mayo River, in the present day Patrick-Henry County area (it was Lunenburg Co. then). The next entry in Record Book 1 for this same area is for Haman Crites.
On 18 September 1753, “John Frederick Miller and Haman Critz came into [the Halifax] Court and took the usual Oaths to His Majesty’s Person and Government and repeated and subscribed the test in order to ? their Naturalization.” Apparently, by doing so, the two men became the first two naturalized citizens of Halifax County.
A biographical sketch of the Critz family is given in the book, “ History of Patrick and Henry Counties ”, by Pedigo and Pedigo, 1938, where it is stated that Haman Critz settled on Spoon Creek in 1747.
Because Miller and Crites came on the ship Oliver, where the loss of life was about two of three persons, one must be careful in naming their wives. In America they may not have been the persons we know in Germany.
There is another reference in
Beyond Germanna
to a Crites. Mary Barbara Teter married the Rev. Jacob Henkel (both born in the early 1730's). Their children include Elizabeth Henkel, born 1759, who married Jacob Crites/Creutz in 1775. Since the first child of Harman Crites was born in 1738, this Jacob Crites might have been a younger son of Harman Crites (see
Beyond Germanna
, page 526).
(11 Jul 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.