Help requested from a newbie. My immigrant ancestor Adam Wacht b. 1723 in Aich, Germany appears in the Ancestry.com immigration records for July 1750. So does his brother John George for the same date. See below. But I read that the index covers 1808-1890. Yet my ancestor came to America ca 1750 (and does show up in Berks Co PA in the mid 1750s - tax records). So I am a bit suspicious of the listings below. Can you help me? Are they valid? Was Pomerania considered an independent country in 1750? Does it make sense that they would have come to Philadelphia in 1750 from Pomerania? Thanks much, Bert Please contact me by email at bkwaits@gmail.com Wuerttemberg, Germany Emigration Index about Adam Wacht District: Nuer. Name: Wacht, Adam Birth Place: Aich Application Date: Jul 1750 Destination: Pomerania Number: 550806 Wuerttemberg, Germany Emigration Index about Hans Jerg Wacht District: Nuer. Name: Wacht, Hans Jerg Birth Place: Aich Application Date: Jul 1750 Destination: Pomerania Number: 550806

Bert wrote: Was Pomerania considered an independent country in 1750? Me: Germany was formed in 1871 from a large number of entities (kingdoms, duchies, free cities, principalities etc.) that were formerly members of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (HQ in Vienna) which wasn't an empire, Roman, or holy as the truism goes. Western Pomerania (Vorpommern) was part of the Holy Roman Empire but under Swedish jurisdiction in 1750. So yes, it was a different country. It was on the Baltic and a jumping off point for the American Colonies. I think there is a fair chance your ancestor was recruited by traveling agents of a Dutch shipping company to go now and pay later for the passage with their indentured labor (usually around seven years). The agents had often previously made the trip (hence their nickname New Worlders or Neulaender in German) and had worked off their travel debt and then were recruited to return and sell the idea to others. The New Worlders got a commission for each passenger they delivered to the ship in Rotterdam and so had an incentive to embellish the facts about the program. For more information, see my article in Wikipedia entitled Redemptioner at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redemptioner There is a book out about two such travelers in 1772. Both left from Baltic ports, one of them Stralsund in Western Pomerania. See the book Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America by Susan E. Klepp, Farley Grubb, Anne Pfaelzer de Ortiz. (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-271-02881-5 It is likely that your ancestor thought he was heading to some other destination than America since the system was in place for other places and emigration at that time from the German states was more likely not to the British Colonies in North America. My wife's ancestor came as a redemptioner in the same ship with the two "souls" of the book mentioned above. The group was shepherded from Stralsund by a new worlder to Rotterdam with the idea of sending them to the Dutch East Indies. They arrived too late in the season for that destination so they waited around, virtually as prisoners in Rotterdam, until their recruiter could sell them to a ship for Philadelphia. The ship made its mandatory stop in Cowles (island port off the cost of England) to be processed by British immigration and then sailed on to Philadelphia. Colonists came on board the ship when it arrived in Philadelphia and bartered with the travelers on how long they would work under indentures if the colonists paid the ship's captain their fare. In essence, they were "redeemed" by their new master. My wife's ancestor agreed to 7.5 years. His indentures were recorded in town and he became a German-speaking clerk for a well-known harbor merchant in the city of brotherly love. Most ended up as farm laborers. A few of those indenture registrations survive, including those of my wife's ancestor's, Friedrich Markus MONTELIUS. Some guess that about half of the German immigrants in the 18th century arrived as redemptioners. You have a fair chance of finding their ship of arrival since males 16 years of age an older show up on the various lists of those giving the oaths they had to take to enter a British colony (loyalty to the king, swearing they didn't believe in the Roman Catholic doctrine of regicide of Protestant monarchs, and another I can't remember). Happy unearthing, Paul near Portland

Richard wrote: Did the 'redemptioners' scenario consist only or primarily of Germans/Prussians? Me: While the bulk of redemptioners were German-speaking, the program could in theory be extended anywhere on the continent where sovereigns allowed these Neulaender to wander about and recruit their citizens. I suspect that the Dutch tended to go to the Dutch East Indies. The French came to North America mainly as Huguenot refugees who had been living in other countries since the 1685 Revocation of the Treaty of Nantes. If a Huguenot had been living in England, s/he could come under a different system (see next paragraph). German-speaking Swiss also came but often after having spent time (or a generation or two) in Baden-Wuerttemberg or the Palatinate or somewhere else in "Germany" and thus were considered Palatines, not Swiss. Many British came as indentured servants but not under the redemptioner system. They worked out the terms of their indentures before leaving the British Isles. There was a fair amount of kidnappings and misrepresentation in the early arrivals (late 1600's) so that British law early changed to state that indentures of British citizens were not legally enforceable in the colonies unless they were endorsed by a magistrate in Britain. The idea was that a person would appear before a magistrate who would examine the person and his understanding of the indentures (contract) to verify s/he understood the terms and conditions and was signing his/her future labor away voluntarily. There apparently still was abuse when a magistrate could be bribed but it meant that most British indentured servants had negotiated their indentures before leaving the old country and therefore they had some protection and some bargaining power. Redemptioners, on the other hand, were at the mercy of the market after they had arrived and were desperate, hungry, sick, scared, and with no other alternative. If the ship had to depart before the human cargo had been "placed" then the remaining travelers were brought ashore and kept under house arrest by the shipping company's local agent until redeemed. If a passenger died after crossing the halfway point, his family was responsible for the deceased's fare and thus had to negotiate to trade their future labor for a much higher sum. It was not unusual for children to be split from parents and obligated to work substantial distances from other family members. Apparently, many started out the journey with what they were led to believe was ample funds to pay for the entire voyage but ended up going into debt during the voyage and having to also sell themselves. Gottlieb Mittleberger accompanied an organ from Germany to install it in a Lutheran chapel in the colonies. After returning to Germany, he wrote an account of the redemption system. The book has been in continuous print since then. It's pretty graphic (some scholars say sensationalist) about the abuses of the system. For a translation of substantial portions of Mittleberger's 1754 book, see http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/40-mit.html German immigrants later formed into societies to pressure the various colonial and later U.S. states and federal legislature to regulate the trade in their countrymen. Eventually, the regulation made the trade so humane that it became unprofitable for shipping companies because they couldn't pack them in like sardines and charge for everything biscuit they ate, riffle their baggage, charge for family members who didn't survive the voyage etc. The trade wained in the late 1700's and was all but killed by some new legislation in 1819. Regards, Paul in Oregon

Bert wrote: > Wuerttemberg, Germany Emigration Index about Adam Wacht > District: Nuer. > Name: Wacht, Adam > Birth Place: Aich > Application Date: Jul 1750 > Destination: Pomerania > Number: 550806 > > Wuerttemberg, Germany Emigration Index about Hans Jerg Wacht > District: Nuer. > Name: Wacht, Hans Jerg > Birth Place: Aich > Application Date: Jul 1750 > Destination: Pomerania > Number: 550806 Me: There are 10 places in Germany named Aich and at least one in Alsace (part of France but ethnically German). There is one near Nuernburg and another near Nuertigen, both starting with the same three (four with u umlaut converted to ue) letters. Still I'd say the following is your target parish record (as already noted by Fred Held). The microfilm information at the FHL indicates there is a Familienbuch, a secondary source but a bonus, nonetheless. Title Kirchenbuch, 1679-1966 Authors Evangelische Kirche Aich (OA. Nürtingen) (Main Author) Familienbuch -- Taufen 1679-1794 --FHL INTL Film 1056613 (If your ancestors were Roman Catholic, this is likely not the correct Aich.) There is a Family Book on the film above which can be a boon to those who do not speak German. Since the baptisms are on the same film, I would start with the Family Book then look up every reference in the actual parish record and scan the entry. Then ask for help reading the entries because you can learn a lot from the details in addition to date/place/event. You can often learn profession, citizenship status, social standing, mother's maiden name, origin of one of the parents if not from the parish, religion if not same as parish, etc. Remember that Adam may be your ancestor's second given name. That is, his birth entry may be something like Johann Adam Wächt. Whatever the first given name is, it will likely be the same as the first given name of the first named baptismal sponsor. The second given name is the name the child will be called by and will often use, even in official type situations as an adult. And yes, the first given name could be the same as the first given name of his brother since it's the second given name that distinguishes the two. This Aich was combined, along with the village of Neuenhaus into the town of Grötzingen in 1975 and the resulting municipality changed its name to Aichtal (Aich Valley) in 1978. For web page see www.aichtal.de Mapquest now (incorrectly) shows this Aich as Aichtal but it appears that the locals still call their village Aich and Aichtal is the municipality (combination of the three villages). Mapquest's index still has this place under Aich but the display shows Aichtal. From the photos on the web site, this is a truly beautiful spot on earth. Waecht would easily become Wecht because Wacht, after dropping the umlaut on the a doesn't sound or look like the German pronunciation which would have been something like Veckt. However, the ch was higher in the back of the mouth than English ck, more like the Scottish gh which may be why the name got the spelling of Weight. In my theory, the gh then became silent like English spelling suggests and then it's an easy transition to Wait/Waite. Waits is the plural which became the name. My surname is Rands and many then extrapolate that my name is Paul Rand so I'm guessing some think your name is Bert K. Wait. Good luck, Paul -------------------------------------------------- From: "Bert K. Waits" <waitsb@math.ohio-state.edu> Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 7:18 AM To: <BADEN-WURTTEMBERG@rootsweb.com> Cc: <waitsb@math.ohio-state.edu> Subject: [BW] Help requested from a newbie - immigration records > Help requested from a newbie. > My immigrant ancestor Adam Wacht b. 1723 in Aich, Germany appears in the > Ancestry.com immigration records for July 1750. So does his brother John > George for the same date. See below. > But I read that the index covers 1808-1890. Yet my ancestor came to > America ca 1750 (and does show up in Berks Co PA in the mid 1750s - tax > records). > So I am a bit suspicious of the listings below. Can you help me? Are they > valid? Was Pomerania considered an independent country in 1750? Does it > make sense that they would have come to Philadelphia in 1750 from > Pomerania? > > Thanks much, Bert Please contact me by email at bkwaits@gmail.com > > Wuerttemberg, Germany Emigration Index about Adam Wacht > District: Nuer. > Name: Wacht, Adam > Birth Place: Aich > Application Date: Jul 1750 > Destination: Pomerania > Number: 550806 > > Wuerttemberg, Germany Emigration Index about Hans Jerg Wacht > District: Nuer. > Name: Wacht, Hans Jerg > Birth Place: Aich > Application Date: Jul 1750 > Destination: Pomerania > Number: 550806 > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >