----- Original Message ----- Subject: Re: Fw: [PFALZ] Why Ohio > Why Ohio? Don't know except for my Weyersheim ancestors. Great Great > Grandmother Catherine Matter Gremminger. He brother came over first and > settled in Carroll Co., Ohio. When my family came over in 1843, they > went directly there, and immediately brought land from the brother. > > Several more from Weyersheim came too and setted there. Why? Because > it was close to New York? It was just west of the Ohio River across > from PA. > > I would like to add my 10 cents to the debate on Immigration from the > Pfalz. > Both sides could be correct. This is the story about Konigsbach. In > the 1800s the parishes started Family Registers. > Konigsbachs was outstanding--the best one I have found. No other town > comes close. I photocopied the whole thing, and it was a big help. > Each family was listed by name. Father, Mother, 2nd or 3rd wife if > necessary, then children. The next columns were birth date, year of > First Communuion, Year of Confirmation,then marriage and death years, > and every blank was filled in. The last column was Comments. The usual > stuff--prostitiute, died in name of town, had an illegitimate son in > name of town and date. But I also found--left for America on Dec 1849, > left for America on Feb 1852, left for America onMarch 1854. If a whole > family left the name had slashes on it. > > I ended up making lists on each date. The actual date was given, but I > don't remember all three. Most of the people like most of the town were > related to the ancestors in some way. The people were entire families > often with a widowed parent along, young men single, and young women > single. That was true of each ship. Then under the name of a man named > Sauer was a big note. He was appointed to e head of the group whose > main purpose was to find the place in America most suitable for the > immigrants who would come later to settle. The Sauer name was not there > when the records started in 1650. That came later and was never an > ancestral name, but became a collateral name often enough. > > I also found a letter from the French somebody giving the Konigsbac > immigrants permission to cross the border into France on their way to La > Harve without having to go thru the hassle at the border--get French > passports and travel papers etc. > > Yes, they were encouraged to leave because the town was overcrowded. > The town is in the Weinstrasse. The only industry was growing grapes. > The most important people were the landowners. The next in mportance > were the barrelmakers. They were so important that most sons only > married daughters of other barrelmakers. But they also were accepted by > the landowners and many married the landowners' children. > Not so the poor shoemaker. I found baptismal records earlier that only > said--baptized the daughter of the shoemaker--no names. > > So for some years the town of 2 to 3 hundred souls with 10 to15 > marriages a year and 30 births, to suddenly have 30 marriages and over > 100 births a year, and people were living until 50, 60, 70, 80 years. > Even 90. Something had to happen. The people were shipped to America, > but could they all afford passage. Or did the town subsidize them. > Someone was appointed to lead them--the town arranged to make their > passage into France easy. As I said earlier, there could be some truth > on both sides of the issue, but I don't know the answer. > > Interested in what happened to them? > The first ship landed at New Orleans on Jan.30, 1950. I didn't try to > trace them because there were no close relative on that ship. I figured > sometime I will go thru the 1850 Census Index for all the states up the > Mississippi--both sides. Maybe some stopped along the way. I do know > that there is a Sauer farm in Paoli, Dane Co., WI which is about 15 > miles from Madison. I haen't checked the land records in Madison to see > when that farm was purchased. > > I don't know when or where the second ship landed, but most of those > people ended up in Paoli. There were some close cousins, and I have met > some of their decendents who still live in Paoli. > > The third ship, the important one, landed in New York. Gene's great > grandparents were on that ship plus Grpa John's brother Bernard and his > family, and their sister and her family. Lots more cousins too. How > they got to WI I don't know. By water to Milwaukee then overland. The > railroad from Milwaukee to Madison was completed until 1855 a year > later. Did they come by railroad to Chicago/ All I know is they came > fast. Within a week of landing in New York they were in the Madison > courthouse making their Declaration of intent to become citizens and > buying land on which they built lovely big houses. Their family were > the landowners in Konigsbach. But these were smart people. They picked > beautiful > Wisconsin to live in and raise their families. > >