At 10:55 AM 1/4/05 -0800, you wrote: >I would be interested in learning about causes for any migrations from Alsace to The Palatinate in about 1670. > >Also, I would be interested in any information concerning changes of religion from Catholic to Protestant during such migrations. > >Thank you. > >Howard > > >==== IRL-PALATINE Mailing List ==== >List Administrator: >Susan Laursen Willig >IRL-PALATINE-admin@rootsweb.com Hi Howard This does not address your specific interest but may be of interest to some on the IP list. The material comes from what I put together about 5 years ago when I began collecting information for building my family story - it mainly focuses on the Rhine valley 1650-1709 which was the period when 2 generations of my ancestors resided there. I'm sure that there are many who have a better/more accurate understanding of the history of the region - so feel free to offer any suggestions that might improve on what I have written. I offer this info as it may stimulate some interesting comments. Thanks Denis Jones Mississauga Ontario PS Howard - I see that you are a Lawrence - I am also. Descendants of Hans Jacob(elder) Schweitzer Generation No. 1 1. HANS JACOB(ELDER)1 SCHWEITZER was born Abt. 1635, and died 1710 in Assenheim, Germany. He married (1) EVA RENNER 1650. She died 1657. He married (2) ELIZABETHA KESSELRING 1658 in Ellerstadt, Germany. She died 1686. Notes for HANS JACOB(ELDER) SCHWEITZER: RHINE VALLEY - Pre 1650 THIRTY YEARS WAR (1618-1648) pitted the Northern Protestant armies (Protestant princes from the German districts, Denmark, Sweden, England) against the Southern Catholic armies of the Holy Roman Empire (Austria, Bohemia, Spain, Italy, southern Netherlands) and was fought across Germany. At the conclusion in 1648 Germany's agriculture, commerce and industry was in ruins. Many of the armies had been made up of mercenaries who had not collected their pay, hence they plundered as they went leaving cities, towns, farms ravaged in their wake. The fields and farms of the Rhine Valley had been devastated. Historians have estimated that the population of Central Europe was reduced by about one third from about 21 million persons to about 15 million during the thirty years of this war; in war zones such as the Rhine Valley more than half the population vanished. The 'Peace of Westphalia' was drawn up at the War's end and re-established that each countries' religion would be that of the ruler! Kings/rulers/conquers would force their single chosen religion on the people. This set the stage for the remaining 60 year period that our direct ancestors would stay in the Rhine Valley. OUR EARLY ANCESTORS At the War's conclusion in 1648, g..grandfather Hans Jacob (the Elder) Schweitzer would have likely have been about 15 -20 years of age, and, living in the village of Assenheim in the Rhine Valley, would have experienced and seen the full brunt of the War's horrors first hand. Hans Jacob (the elder) married Eva Renner in 1650 - she was the daughter of Micheal Renner who had been the Mayor of the village Assenheim 1623-1630. Widowed, he later married Elizabetha Kesselring our g..grandmother), daughter of Micheal Kesselring who also had been a Mayor (of the village Ellerstadt) - both of these villages are about 6 miles west of the Rhine River opposite Mannheim. In 1668 Hans Jacob was elected to the village court and continue as a court person for life (information for this paragraph from the Wesley Switzer manuscript, dated 1979, located in Brantford Heritage Museum, Brantford, Ontario). The Schweitzer family name is thought to have originated in what is now Switzerland. Children of HANS SCHWEITZER and ELIZABETHA KESSELRING are: 2. i. JOHANN JACOB(YGER)2 SCHWEITZER, b. 1658, Assenheim, Germany; d. 1745, Courtmatrass, Ireland. ii. HANS DIETER SCHWEITZER. iii. HANS NICLAUS SCHWEITZER. iv. HANS GEORG SCHWEITZER. Generation No. 2 2. JOHANN JACOB(YGER)2 SCHWEITZER (HANS JACOB(ELDER)1) was born 1658 in Assenheim, Germany, and died 1745 in Courtmatrass, Ireland. He married ANNA MARIA ?. She was born Abt. 1658, and died 1746. Notes for JOHANN JACOB(YGER) SCHWEITZER: 1650 - 1715 LOUIS XIV Louis XIV of France now enters our ancestors' story, becoming a dominate force throughout the 1650-1715 period as he aimed to make France the mightiest state in Europe, and attempted to push the eastern boundary of France towards Germany (ie. to the Rhine and beyond). Louis XIV believed that the unity of the State could not be maintained if two or more churches were tolerated - throughout his reign all religions other than Catholic were suppressed. After the 'Peace of Westphalia' in 1648, France was granted the Alsace region and, by the 1670s, Catholics had made considerable gains throughout the Rhine region - by 1681 even the churches of Strasbourg (the heartland of the Protestant Reformation) had become Catholic. By 1678 Louis had intensified his persecution of Protestants - he burned churches, took Protestant children from their homes to be brought up Catholic, and the 'dragonnade' practice of billeting soldiers in Protestant homes (with permission to behave as brutally as they wished) was in effect. In 1685 Louis had revoked the 'Edict of Nantes' (which, when it was passed in 1598, had given substantial religious tolerance to the Protestant Huguenots of France) and expelled the Huguenots from France. Louis had identified French power with the universal acceptance of the Catholic faith. Children of JOHANN SCHWEITZER and ANNA ? are: i. MICHAEL3 SCHWEITZER, b. 1681, Assenheim, Ger; d. 1768, Courtmatrass, Ire; m. DOROTHEA ?. ii. JOHANN CHRISTOPHER SCHWEITZER, b. 1686, Assenheim, Germany; d. 1755, Courtmatrass, Ireland; m. CATHERINE ELIZABETH RUCKLE, 1720; b. 1690. Notes for JOHANN CHRISTOPHER SCHWEITZER: The LURE of the AMERICAS - the PENNSYLVANIA EXPERIMENT During the 1670s, Englishman William Penn, the son of an important British Admiral and a Quaker, became convinced that religious tolerance would not be achieved in England. Being friendly with King Charles II, he petitioned the King for a charter enabling him to establish a colony in the Americas - in 1682 he was granted Pennsylvania (named by the King in honor of William's father). William Penn would use Pennsylvania to develop and advance his vision of a society built on elected government, freedom of expression, trial by jury, unlimited free enterprise, and religious tolerance. This was to become the best hope for persecuted people of England, France and Germany, and by the late 1690s Pennsylvania's reputation was spreading and had started to attract war weary immigrants from Europe. RHINE VALLEY 1680-1709 CONTINUING WARS IN RHINE VALLEY: Louis XIV goes on the offensive. In 1687 the armies of France marched into the Palatinate and totally devastated the region. This offensive was met by an alliance of Sweden, Spain, England, the Protestant Electors of Bavaria, Saxony and the Palatinate. This war (War of the Grand Alliance) was waged over the next decade, and featured extended city sieges throughout the Netherlands. After a brief pause in 1697-1701, the warring continued - the War of Spanish Succession would last until 1713 and would be the final European war that our ancestors faced (but, as we will see, certainly not their last war). Again the Palatine became a battleground and a place of forage for opposing armies. Armies with over 100,000 soldiers each were on the move. Many cities of the Rhine valley within 10 miles of our ancestor's villages and farms were burned to the ground (Heidelberg, Mannheim, Worms, Speyer); many Protestants, driven by the continuing destruction and persecution, began fleeing. FLEEING THE RHINE VALLEY 1709 To the devastation of the wars was added the cruel winter of 1708/09. The intense cold began Christmas day. In January wine and spirits froze into solid blocks, birds on the wing fell dead. All rivers in western Europe were frozen over, even the sea froze. Fruit trees and vines were destroyed. Cattle, especially sheep, perished. Thousands of Germans had enough, by spring the sudden exodus of 1709 from the Rhine valley had begun. Of the many families that abandoned their farms and village homes that cold spring, each began their separate journeys floating on small boats down the river Rhine. Still in a war zone, these families would likely only have taken what they could carry. Many different families would come together over the next year, with some eventually becoming our direct ancestors (our g..grandparents). Families of our ancestors on the river in 1709 were: