Justin, The religious affiliation connection appears to remain of paramount concern today. Helmut HAURY, my 6th Gen' Mennonite cousin in Germany had great difficulty accepting the fact that my 5th Gen' father Frederick HAURY was a Lutheran. fredhaury@juno.com >>>>>>>>> On Fri, 2 Apr 1999 22:30:26 -0700 "Justin C.S. Howery" <jhowery@tde.com> writes: >I'm not going to get any homework done tonight, so I might as well >write the >third of the messages I've been thinking about for so long. > >Jacob Howry, the ancestor of the Virginia branch, is generally thought >to >have been a close relative of Hans and Ulrich. I wonder if that is >quite so >certain as we believe. > >As far as I know, the first record of Jacob (whichever of the many >generations of Jacobs he was) is the 1739 baptism of his daughter >Maria >Elisabetha in York Co, Pennsylvania *Lutheran* records. He lived at >Paradise >Township, founded principally by Lutheran and Calvinist families from >the >Palatinate. We can probably accept that he is the same Jacob Howry >who, with >his wife Ursula, were witnesses to a Lutheran baptism in the same >place in >1745. They were granted Letters of Administration for his father Jacob >in >1755. > >It's curious that neither Jacob appears until 1739, about a generation >after >Hans and Ulrich were granted land in 1717 and 1718. We know that Jacob >cannot have been Ulrich's son. Apparently, he also cannot have been >Hans' >son (because Hans had a son Jacob who is otherwise accounted for). The >elder >Jacob (who died before 1755) might have been a brother of Hans and >Ulrich, >which would explain why Ulrich's will implies that he had more than >one >brother. I'm still troubled by this solution, though. > >Hans and Ulrich were Mennonites. Jacob was a Lutheran. In the social >context >of the time, I think that this is very significant. One of the >noticeable >things about our immigrant ancestors is how tenacious they were of >their >religion and their ethnic group until several generations in America - >often >not intermarrying with other religious and ethnic groups until after >the >Revolution. To me, it just "feels wrong" that Jacob would have become >a >Lutheran if he really came from a Mennonite family. It also seems >unlikely >that he would have been a Lutheran if he came from Switzerland. > >As a social background to my concerns, after the Thirty Years War >(1640), >the people of Europe were required to conform to the religion of their >rulers, which was the established church in their area. They were not >allowed to dissent. This is old hat, but I'm not sure that its >connection to >the Howrys has been considered. In Switzerland, the Protestant Cantons >embraced Calvinism. Everyone living in those areas was required to be >a >Calvinist or be punished. Hans the Woolweaver was allowed to leave >Switzerland in 1711 because as a Mennonite he was a truly bad person >in the >eyes of the government and because the government finally just >couldn't cope >with the obstinacy of the Mennonites. Very few places in Europe would >accept >Mennonites, because they were neither Calvinist nor Lutheran (the only >legal >varieties of Protestant). I guess I have a hard time believing that >Jacob >Howry, a Lutheran, came from a Mennonite family and just shrugged off >his >religion just when he got to Pennsylvania and could be a Mennonite in >peace. > >Also, if Jacob came directly from Switzerland, he would have been a >Calvinist, not a Lutheran. The Calvinists who left Switzerland for a >generation or two in other parts of Germany frequently became >Lutherans (if >you're the kind of belong to the established church, there's not much >difference between being a Lutheran and being a Calvinist as long as >you're >still Protestant - not enough difference to fight about anyway). > >So, I suspect that Jacob was the conforming type (and probably his >immediate >ancestors were also conformists). At some undetermined date they left >Calvinist Switzerland, settled in a Lutheran area of Germany - perhaps >the >Palatinate - and then moved on to America as Lutherans . . . and >stayed >Lutherans for another 100 years. They were still Lutherans in Virginia >and >the early generations there married other German Lutherans (not >Mennonites). >They didn't stop being Lutherans until the whole area, irrespective of >ethnic background, abandoned their traditional faiths to become >Baptists. > >I wonder if the elder Jacob was the Jacob (or a descendant of the >Jacob) who >left Hirschthal (a village in Shoeftland parish) in 1696/7. Or perhaps >a >member of the family at Baden. Or perhaps a member of the family >Reinach >(near Schoeftland). Or perhaps . . . > >I'd love to hear contrary views. > > Justin C.S. Howery > Denver, Colorado > jhowery@tde.com > http://www.members.tde.com/jhowery > > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]