Susan, I'm not particularly familiar with this group. You might find some help from some of the links on the Wikipedia page for New Bern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bern,_North_Carolina). Lutheran archives covering the southeast are located at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, South Carolina (http://crumleyarchives.ltss.edu/). They may be able to direct you to other sources. Marvin Susan Clark wrote: > Marvin (and anyone else who can help me), > > You refer to "descendants of the large Lutheran population that came to > America in the colonial period and settled along the east coast, > especially heavily in the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Maryland ...." I am > interested in a group of Swiss and Palatinates who settled in New Bern, > North Carolina, in the early 1700s -- see > http://newbern.cpclib.org/research/settlers.htm. In 1740 this group > petitioned the colonial government to build a "church or chapel for the > use of the High Germans and the Church of England." (Though I can't > find the info right now, I believe this group of settlers may have > originally fled persecution and settled in England, and then been chosen > by the English authorities to establish a "Protestant" presence in the > colonies.) The church is today called the Chinquapin Chapel Christian > Church. I don't know if this is its original name. > > I have several questions -- are these Palatinates some of the Lutherans > you refer to? Would they have fled Germany and gone to England in the > late 1600s/early 1700s due to persecution? I think the church still > exists today, but I didn't receive a reply when I wrote for possible > records. Is there a Synod in that area that may have them? > > This is a general question to everyone: > Finally, the ancestor I'm trying to get information on is one who signed > the petition for the church -- Michael Pickel. Until I came across this > reference, I always had understood that the name Pickel/Pickels/Pickles > was of English origin. Is there a German name (one suggestion was > something like Peuchal) that could have been Anglisized (is that a > word?) to Pickel when this group settled in England? > > Thanks for any help! > > Susan > > > For all the latest News, please visit our Homepage: http://www.germanyroots.com > > Please visit and participate in our new forum > http://www.germanyroots.com/phpBB3/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >