David Blauch wrote: > > Regarding the Carolina settlements > > Why 18th century German immigrants chose to move to this area, I do not > know for sure. The reasons listed above are certainly very compelling, but > I have an additional idea to consider. Everyone is no doubt acquainted > with the infamous settlement in the Schoharie Valley of New York. That > settlement was part of a naval stores project run by the British > government, and that project had a sister settlement in the Carolinas. The > Carolina settlement of Palatines began about the same time as the New York > settlement, ca. 1710 (perhaps a bit earlier, my memory on the subject is > poor). I wonder if this naval stores project was one of the early > motivators. It may have "seeded" the German colonization of the area. > Future German immigrants may have felt more comfortable moving to an area > where there were already some German settlers. Perhaps someone has more > detailed info on this settlement. My recollection is that the Carolinas > settlement met with better success than the New York effort (it could > hardly have been less successful!). Dave - well, I believe I did mention the climate :>) Seriously, yours are interesting points and I agree with them at least in part. I was under the impression that the first Germans in North Carolina were the Moravians starting ca 1750 but I am willing to be corrected. Jan