DNA Connections
In July 2011, 25 DNA markers tested from a sample provided by Doug German were matched exactly to a similar sample provided by a John German of North Carolina. We have a common ancestor in an unbroken male line.
See http://german.jarman.net/results.htm for more information about DNA testing of men with the surname German or Jarman. I provided sample 204988 in this list, my match is sample 20686.
See http://german.jarman.net/results.htm for more information about DNA testing of men with the surname German or Jarman. I provided sample 204988 in this list, my match is sample 20686.
His family history traces back to a Charles German b. 1774 from Pennsylvania who moved to North Carolina. His family oral history is that Charles was descended from a Johann Germann, who immigrated to America from the Palatine region of what is now Germany in the early 1700’s*.
John's branch of the family fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, while ours, Abel and Samuel being from New York and Illinois, fought for the Union. One of these Germans, also named John, was moving west with his family when they were attacked and killed by Cheyenne Indians on September 11, 1874 in Logan County, Kansas. This became known as the German Family Massacre.
John's branch of the family fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, while ours, Abel and Samuel being from New York and Illinois, fought for the Union. One of these Germans, also named John, was moving west with his family when they were attacked and killed by Cheyenne Indians on September 11, 1874 in Logan County, Kansas. This became known as the German Family Massacre.
There’s no way to know from DNA alone whether our common ancestor is Johann, one of his direct male ancestors, or one of his direct male descendants, if indeed Johan is the modern-day John German’s ancestor. This Palatine Project page provides information about ongoing research into the Palatine immigration to New York.
Here is an extensive wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Palatines
Here is an extensive wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Palatines
*By the early 1700’s the British were alarmed by the large number of refugees from southwest Germany and northeast Switzerland who were fleeing to England to escape war, famine and religious persecution. From 1708-1710 the British transported about 3,000 to six settlements along the Hudson River valley in New York to manufacture rope and tar for the British Navy as indentured servants. They were released from servitude in September, 1712 after which many migrated to the western frontier in search of land. During the 1720's and 1730's some of these families moved on to Berks County, PA.
According to 19th century writers, some of the 1710 Palatine immigrants moved directly to the Prattsville, NY area (then called Schoharie Kill) when they were released from servitude in 1712, and lived there until the Revolutionary War, when British-allied Indian attacks forced them to withdraw to Dutchess County. These writers say they returned to Schoharie Kill after the war. See Prattsville Colonial History.
A Jacob German is recorded in the SIMMENDINGER REGISTER as being among these 1709 immigrants to Queensbury, New York, along with his wife Maria Catharine and one child, where he still lived in 1717. The book Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration, A British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores on page 285 lists a Jacob Germann as one of two adults, with a child under age 10, in both 1710 and 1712, as a "debtor to the British government for subsistence given...in the Hudson River settlements, from their landing in 1710 to September, 1712".
According to The Palatine Families of NewYork, A Study of the German Immigrants Who Arrived in Colonial New York in 1710 by Henry Z Jones, Jr., page 280: The home village of the German family was 7532 Niefern (8 km. n.e. of Pforzheim)**. Churchbooks begin in 1608. Jacob Germann, bricklayer and son of Georg Germann - inhabitant at Merishausen Schafferhauser Gebeith in the Schweiz, married Anna Catharina, daughter of the late Hams Eichinger - citizen at Entzberg, 4 Christmonat (4 December?): 1703. Jacob Germann made his first appearance on the Hunter Lists 4 July 1710 with 2 persons over 10 years of age and 1 person under 10 years in the household. Jacob German was naturalized 14 Feb. 1715/16 (Albany Nats.). Jacob German and Maria Catharina with 1 child were at Quunsberg ca. 1716/17 (Simmendinger Register). [The West Camp Lutheran Churchbooks*** show them sponsoring children named Contermann.] The family appears to leave the Hudson Valey by 1722. The children of Jacob Germann were Hans Jacob, b. 1706, d. 1709, and Hans Georg, baptised 5 Aug 1707. A Johan Jurgen German sponsored Peter Bernhardis Schmidt at Camp Queensberry in 1722 (N.Y.C. Lutheran Curchbook). Perhaps he was the George German whose will was proved in Pa. in 1796.
According to 19th century writers, some of the 1710 Palatine immigrants moved directly to the Prattsville, NY area (then called Schoharie Kill) when they were released from servitude in 1712, and lived there until the Revolutionary War, when British-allied Indian attacks forced them to withdraw to Dutchess County. These writers say they returned to Schoharie Kill after the war. See Prattsville Colonial History.
A Jacob German is recorded in the SIMMENDINGER REGISTER as being among these 1709 immigrants to Queensbury, New York, along with his wife Maria Catharine and one child, where he still lived in 1717. The book Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration, A British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores on page 285 lists a Jacob Germann as one of two adults, with a child under age 10, in both 1710 and 1712, as a "debtor to the British government for subsistence given...in the Hudson River settlements, from their landing in 1710 to September, 1712".
According to The Palatine Families of NewYork, A Study of the German Immigrants Who Arrived in Colonial New York in 1710 by Henry Z Jones, Jr., page 280: The home village of the German family was 7532 Niefern (8 km. n.e. of Pforzheim)**. Churchbooks begin in 1608. Jacob Germann, bricklayer and son of Georg Germann - inhabitant at Merishausen Schafferhauser Gebeith in the Schweiz, married Anna Catharina, daughter of the late Hams Eichinger - citizen at Entzberg, 4 Christmonat (4 December?): 1703. Jacob Germann made his first appearance on the Hunter Lists 4 July 1710 with 2 persons over 10 years of age and 1 person under 10 years in the household. Jacob German was naturalized 14 Feb. 1715/16 (Albany Nats.). Jacob German and Maria Catharina with 1 child were at Quunsberg ca. 1716/17 (Simmendinger Register). [The West Camp Lutheran Churchbooks*** show them sponsoring children named Contermann.] The family appears to leave the Hudson Valey by 1722. The children of Jacob Germann were Hans Jacob, b. 1706, d. 1709, and Hans Georg, baptised 5 Aug 1707. A Johan Jurgen German sponsored Peter Bernhardis Schmidt at Camp Queensberry in 1722 (N.Y.C. Lutheran Curchbook). Perhaps he was the George German whose will was proved in Pa. in 1796.
Henry Jones says that Jacob Germann was from Merishausen, Switzerland. See the page on Germann family surnames in Merishausen, Switzerland for a list of current residents named "Germann".
A possible but entirely speculative timeline is:
Jacob (Johan?) German, b.c.1680, Merishausen, Switzerland, married Maria Catharine (Anna Catharina?) 1703. Bricklayer and son of Georg Germann.
Hans Georg b.1707, probably also in Palatine, immigrated to London in 1709 then to New York in 1710 with Jacob and Maria.
Unknown son, b.c.1730? Possibly "Isaac", see page on Given Names, and page on 1700's New York German sightings.
Unknown son, b.c.1755? Possibly "Zachariah", or possibly begins with "F", see page on Given Names. Possibly Francis, see page on Potential Parents of Isaac F German.
Isaac F German, b.c.1780, Dutchess County, NY, married Rachel, died 1866, Prattsville, Greene County, NY. Married Rachel, b.1783, d.1832. Married Jane c.1834, d.c. 1873.
Zachariah German, b.c.1806, d.1880; Ezekiel, b.c.1810, d.c.1880, Abel b.1815 (died childless in 1844), Rachel German Soule, b.1818, d.1887 and Gitty German Lynch Walker, b.1823, d.1863.
I am descended from Zachariah through Abel, Chesman, Kenneth and Richard German.
*** Pastor Joshua Kocherthal in the records of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church at West Camp. New York. (West Camp is located south of Catskill, New York, in Ulster County.)
