Hi ... Here is an informal set of notes about the Tulpehocken community that was shared with me, and I pass along for others. Read down to find surnames. Dick - - - - - - - - A history of the Tulpehocken Settlement (Germans from New York area) including three long lists of surnames in the text below. The Swatara, a tributary of the Susquehanna, led to the Tulpehocken Creek, which "fed" into Lancaster Co. Now, a distinct area of research within Berks and Lancaster and the larger area. When the Palatinites in NY ( ltr PG - PA Germans) got fed up w/the British attitudes toward them, Weiser and others began to look for other/better places to settle. Apparently, Wm. Penn's folks had contacted them, offering land in the western part of PA. Seemingly, the ulterior motive for the Penns was to provide themselves (in eastern PA) a westerly buffer betw/against the Indians. But the PA authorities didn't throw down so many roadblocks against German settlement, as did the Brits (who'd allowed only 10 acres per; not sufficient for subsistence farming.) The story of the Palatinites' migration is mythical! (You might like to order Earl W. Ibach's "map" I mentioned in my other msg.) Last summer, Jerry (my hus) and I drove the trace of that migration fr Schoharie in just a few hours. To think how those folks went across land and by water, and the second group drove their livestock across country, defies imagination. At any rate, Conrad Weiser (father and son) knew about the Tulpehocken area of Berks Co. thru numerous contacts with the Indian people of that area, and trips made to the region. I don't know how long the negotiations w/the Pennsylvanians took, but the decision was finally made to make the move to the Tulpehocken. A petition exists which names those original migrants. (At this point, Art, I'll copy in some research that a cousin of mine did. It will make the msg quite lengthy, but until I know if you can receive "files," this will have to do.) I just returned from the Berks County Historical Society where I copied down some information regarding the emigration of New York Palatines to Pennsylvania in 1723 The Palatines who settled in New York found the living conditions to be poor. In 1723, 33 families left New York and, upon the invitation of Governor William Keith of Pennsylvania, settled in the Tulpehocken area. The following is a petition to Governor Keith from these Palatinates who would eventually settle along the Tulpehocken creek. "To his excellency, William Keith, Baronet, Governor of Pennsylvania, &c, &c, the Honourable Council The petition to us, the subscribers, being thirty-three families in number, at present inhabiting Tulpehocken creek Humbly Sheweth, That your petitioners being natives of Germany, about 15 years ago, were by the great goodness and royal bounty of her late majesty, Queen Anne, relieved from the hardships which they then suffered in Europe, and were transported into the colony of New York, where they settled. But the families increasing, being in that Government confined to the scanty allowance of ten acres of land to each family, whereon they could not well subsist. Your petitioners being informed of the kind reception which their countrymen usually meet with in the Province of Pennsylvania, and hoping they might, with what substance they had, acquire larger settlements in that Province, did last year (in the spring of 1723), leave their settlements in New York Government, and come with their families into this Province, where, upon their arrival, they applied themselves to his excellency, the Governor, who, of his great goodness, permitted them to inhabit upon Tulpahaca Creek, on condition that they should make full satisfaction to the proprietor or his agents, for such lands as should be alloted to them, when they were ready to recieve the same. And now, your petitioners, understanding that some gentlemen, agents of the proprietor, have ample power to dispose of lands in this province. And we, your petitioners, being willing and ready to purchase, do humbly beseech your Excellency and council to recommend us to the favorable usage of the proprietors agents, that upon paying the usual prices for lands at such distance from Philadelphia, we may have sufficient rights and titles made to us for such lands as we shall have occasion to buy, that our children may have some settlement to depend on hereafter, and that by your authority we may be freed from the demands of the Indians of that part of the country, who pretend a right thereto. And we humbly beg leave to inform your Excellency and council, that there are fifty families more who, if they may be admitted upon the same conditions, are desirous to come and settle with us. We hope for your favorable answer to this our humble request, and as in duty bound shall ever pray, &c." JOHANNES YANS JOHANNES CLAES SHAVER PETER RITT JO. HAMELAR RITT CONRAD SCHITZ ANTONIS SHARB PALTUS UNSF JOHAN PETER PACHT TORITINE SERBO JOCHAM MICHAEL CRICHT JOSAP SAB SEBASTIAN PISAS JORGE RITT ANDREW FALBORN GODFREYT FILLER The above, as well as the portion to follow, is taken from "The German Emigration from New York Province into Pennsylvania: Part V of a narrative prepared at the request of the Pensylvania German Society" by Rev. Matthias Henry Richards, D.D. and presented in 1899. This next section deals with the long journey from New York to Pennsylvania which these original settlers made: "Guided by the indians, and not under the leadership of either the elder Weiser, or his gifted son, as some suppose, both of whom came later, the pioneers of 1723, with much toil and labor, cut their way through the forest, after which, with their wives, little ones and animals, they followed, by day, the scanty track they had made in the woods and slept at the foot of it's trees, wooed to slumber by its ceaseless noises, during the night, until the forty or fifty miles, which seperated them from the (Susquehanna) river, had been traversed. Then came the building and launching of the heavy rafts, to contain their domestic utensils, and of the light and speedy canoes for themselves, on which they were to continue their long journey to the haven of rest, accompanied slowly by their cattle driven along the river's banks. As forest and open space, trees, rocks, and sandy beach, succeeded each other with tiresome monotony, and as camp-fire followed camp-fire at the close of the day, they little reckoned that they had swept by the spots where the flourishing towns of Binghamton and Oswega were, later, to stand. As they rounded the curve where the Lackawanna joins the Susquehanna at Pittston, who was the wizard of their number whose divining rod would point to the priceless diamonds beneath them and tell them that their dumb animals were treading underfoot riches of far greater value to mankind than all the pearls and rubies for which the world was striving? Whose fancy amongst them all could have pictured or imagined the beautiful city of Wilkes-Barre, and the coal breakers everywhere rearing their heads into the air as though they were indeed giants issuing from their long slumber in the bowels of the earth? As they exchanged greetings with the Indians in their village of Shamokin can it be that there rose up before any one of them a picture of the hideous scenes of their near future, or any foresight of their murdered sons and daughters and the blackened ruins of the homes towards which they were hastening, or did the troubled dreams of any other reveal to him the fort at Sunbury, no longer Shamokin, filled with its soldiers, and sound into his astonished ears the booming of it's guns? Down the Grand stream, which was bearing them, they slowly floated until their watchful eyes caught sight of a long log cabin on its shores, where now stands the capitol city of Pennsylvania, and, as they looked upon the home of John Harris, it is altogether probable they saw, for the first time in all their journey, the dwelling of a white man. Cheered by the sight on they went, until they came to where the Swatara Creek joined it's waters with those of its mighty brother, and at the spot where Middletown now stands, our wanderers at last changed course and entered the stream which told them they were drawing near the goal towards which they had been hastening for so many weary days. To reach this goal was to endure a few more hardships and trials, and when, in the lovely Tulpehocken (which means "land where the turtle sang and wooed") region, nestling at the foot of the Blue Mountains and wavered by its numerous streams, they pitched their camp for the last time, it was HOME. Outside of the surrounding Indian villages, we have no record of previous settlements, so that, in very truth, they had taken up "vacant lands"." Thus is the connection of the Tulpehocken Settlement with the region of Schoharie, New York. Later, in the same paper, Rev. Richards writes: "There were constant accensions to the number of the first feeble band. In 1728 other families left Schoharie and settled (in Tulpehocken), amongst whom were: LEONARD ANSPACH, CASPAR HOHN, GEORGE SCHMIDT, GEORGE ZEH, JOHANNES NOECKER, JOHANN JACOB HOLSTEINER, MICHAEL LAUER, ANDREAS KAPP, JACOB WERNER, JOHANN PHILIP SCHNEIDER, JACOB KATTERMAN, JACOB LOWENGUT, HEINRICH SIX, PHILIP THEIS, CONRAD SCHARF At a later point in he work, Rev Richards writes: "Before the erection of Berks County, in 1752, the township of Tulpehocken was a recognized division, being a part of Lancaster County in 1729. Because of its great size, in 1734, another township was laid off from it and erected, called "Heidelberg" to commemorate that part of the fatherland from whence many of the settlers came. The early inhabitants, therefore, of the old townships of Heidelburg and Tulpehocken, were composed, mainly (though not entirely) of the immigrants from New York Province. Rupp names the following as amongst the first settlers: JOHN ADAM DIFFEBACH, PETER LEBO, CHRISTIAN LOWER, CHRISTOPHER WEISER, JOHN SPYCKER, GEORGE BEISTEIN, JACOB LEDERMAN, JACOB KETTERMAN, JACOB FISHER, PETER ANSBACH, JOHN SOLLER, MICHAEL REID, JACOB SORBERT, HERMAN WALBORN, FRANCIS WENRICH, FREDERICK REED, ULRICH SCHWARTZ, GEORGE LANDAUER, STEPHEN CONRAD, HENRY BOYER, CONRAD SHERF, MARTIN STIP, JOHN LIVERGOOD, ABRAHAM LAUCH, PETER SANNS, PETER SERBY, ADAM STEIN CASPAR RITT, JOHN EDWARDS, PETER REED, GEORGE NULL, LENARD REES, JACOB LIVERGOOD, ADAM LESH, FRANCIS PARVIN, PHILIP BROWN, HENRY SELLER, PETER SHEVER, LUDOWICK ANSBACH,FELTY UNRUTH, GEORGE KING, JACOB MILLER, JOHN FOHRER, JACOB HUBELOR, CHRISTOPHER KEISER, JACOB WILHELM, JOHN TRAUTMAN, JACOB BARTNER, MICHAEL DETWEILER, NICHOLAS OLLY, NICHOLAS KINSER, JOHN HOVERSHEN, JOHN MOIR, SIMON SCHERMAN, HENRY STEIN, JOHN RIEGEL, CHRISTIAN MOIR, JACOB SCHWANER, GEORGE SHERMAN, HENRY MILLBERGER, PETER KEEPHART, WOLF MILLER, WILLIAM KEYSER, GEORGE PAFFINBERGER, GEORGE JACOB SHERMAN, GEORGE KANTRICO, GOTTFRIED ROHRER, DANIEL MOIR, JACOB HOFFMAN, MARTIN SCHELL, MATTHIAS DOEBLER, ADAM JORDAN, GEORGE WOLF, JACOB TANTOR, BARTEL DISSINGER, JACOB FULLMAN, GEORGE TALLINGER, MATTHIAS NOFFZIGER, JACOB REED, JOHN GEO. MEIRSLEM, FREDERICK KAUFMAN, JACOB MILLER, CHRISTIAN FRANK, SIMON BOGENREIF, RUDOLPH MOIR, ANDREW WOLLINBECK, MICHAEL KOFNER, GEORGE GOTYMAN, GEORGE BROSIUS, HENRY REIDENBACH, JACOB BORTNER, JOHN BALSAR SHEVER, JACOB CASERT, VALENTINE BRINDSEIL, CASPER REED, MARTIN WARNER, CHRISTOPHER ULRICH, WILIAM BRATH, JOHANN JACOB SNELBY, GOTTFRIED FITLER, MATHIAS BRICKER, PETER MINK, JOHN PONTIUS, CASPER STUMP, PETER CRISER, MATHIAS WAGNER, DANIEL LUCAS, NICHOLAS HAMBER, WILLIAM KEYSER, NICHOLAS MILLER, PHILIP GEBHART, GEORGE WEAVER, GEORGE ULRICH FISHER, PHILIP MEADE, WILLIAM DIELER, JOHN PHILIP BUNGER, CONRAD REBER, GEORGE CHRIST, VALENTINE BUNGARDNER, CONRAD WIRTH, NICHOLAS LANG, THOMAS KERN, FREDERICK STAP, MATHIAS SHEFER, VALENTINE NEU, JOHN RIDNORE, CHRISTIAN KURTZ, JACOB STOUGH, JOHN EBBERTS, JOHN GEORGE MATS, MICHAEL ALBERTS, WILLIAM SASSAMAN, PETER LAUX, ADAM REHM, PETER KRIEGER, JOHN ADAM WEAVER, JOHN WEISER, JACOB HOUKSVERT