There are many of us that have Palatine ancestors that came to America.  The word Palatine is a Roman name, a title given to a ruling family of an area that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. There has been much written about the Rhineland-Palatinate (Rhineland-Pfalz) region. Since the Thirty Years War of 1618, there would be almost 100 years of sporadic wars and fighting that left the Palatinate in utter ruins.  These ongoing events would lead to the exodus of thousands of our Germanic ancestors, escalating to 1000 refugees a week by 1709. 

When Queen Anne of England was petitioned by the Palatine families for refuge in England, she ordered the Palatines be made “members of the kingdom”.  Since they were viewed as possibly being useful in settling the new frontiers and colonies in New York, this not only led to the beginning migration of Palatine families to America but bolstered the English and Irish Anti-Catholic feelings that were growing at that time.  As the first Palatines began a new life in New York in America, by mid-summer of 1709 over 13,000 Palatines had moved to England.  Crammed into tents, barns and warehouses around London, the London Board of Trade were trying to deal with the problem.  It was decided to relocate many of the refugees to the colony in New York. 

In 1710, 3,000 Palatines were shipped off to New York.  During the trip, 400 of the Palatines died and 200 more died shortly after reaching New York.  That same year of 1710, as the story is told, a gift of land was made to Queen Anne for some lands along the Scholar River in New York by a six-nations chief. The lands originally purchased for the Palatines were from Robert Livingston’s Manor in the lower Hudson Valley.  The Palatines were not treated well by Livingston and the British authorities, and by 1712 the entire venture failed and the Palatines were left without the basic needs for living.

In 1712, 50 Palatine families moved from the Livingston Manor to the Schoharie Valley.  By 1723, some Palatine families had made their way to the Mohawk Valley since a new Royal Govenor allowed several families to purchase land from the Mohawk Indians. Other Palatine families left the Schoharie Valley for the Tulpehocken area of Berks County, Pennsylvania. Those that left for the Tulpehocken area include my ancestors the Brossmans, Boyers and Zerbes. My wife’s Palatine ancestors, the Batdorf and Walborn descendants eventually made their way to Virginia (what is now West Virginia).   My 6^th cousin, James Beidler’s Palatine ancestor surnames related to my wife and I are Brossman, Batdorf and Walborn.

Palatine Migration from New York to Pennsylvania

Courtesy of Berks History Center

One of the leading researchers of this Palatine subject is Hank Z. Jones, Jr.  Mr. Jones has had such an interesting life and career. He has been an actor, singer and musician, genealogist and author.  Hank Jones has dedicated most of his life to genealogy and has written exclusively on the subject and study of the Palatine ancestors and their migration and settlement in New York and Pennsylvania.  I have corresponded with Mr. Jones and he was very accepting of my correspondence.

One of the most important things that Hank Jones shared with me is the recent Ancestry link to the special section on their worldwide site to his collection of 5,995 pages of his books on the Palatines.  

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62327/

The following list shows the heads of families that left the Schoharie Valley and settled in Pennsylvania by 1730. 

Conrad Weiser, listed above, is one of the more well-known subjects in this migration. You can read more here.  

A note here regarding the above list…there are some family heads listed above that came later than 1730, as well as a significant amount of others listed that did not come to Tulpehocken from Schoharie. As suggested by Hank Jones and also Jim Beidler, be wary and careful about old published sources. Jim also recommends reading Otterness’s “Becoming German”.

From the “Palatines of New York State” by The Palatine Society of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of New York and New England, Inc. – Copyright 1953 by The Palatine Society, Inc.  

One important note I discovered written by Hank Jones is that caution should be used for sourcing some of the Zerbe children listed in a book called “Blue Book of Schuylkill County” by Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliot – 1916  

See this link for Hank Jones’s notes regarding the Zerbe family. 

With the new source of information from Hank Jone’s collection, you can now go and investigate more about your Palatine ancestors. Good hunting!! 

One more interesting tidbit I’d like to share is besides George Adam Zerbe (1753-1828) and his wife, Elizabeth Catharine Boyer (1758-1842) being my first connection to the Zerbe and Boyer Palatine families, while I was tracing my Boyer lineage back, I discovered that the wife of Johann Heinrich (Henry) Boyer (1708-1757), was Maria Elisabeth Zerbe (1712-1749), daughter of Johann Martin Zerbe and Anna Elizabetha Jungel. 

This post is dedicated to the memory of Roland Paul, former director of the Institute for Palatinate History, and the Palatinate Library in Kaiserslautern. He was of great assistance to countless genealogists, Jewish and non-Jewish, for over 50 years. Roland was a friend of James Beidler. Roland Paul passed away this past June. (See Jim Beidler’s Roots & Branches article here regarding Roland Paul). 

Sources:  

Berks History Center  

Berger Girls 

The National Park Service  

Library of Congress

Hank Jones  

James Beidler  

“Palatines of New York State” by The Palatine Society of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of New York and New England, Inc. – Copyright 1953 by The Palatine Society, Inc.  

“Blue Book of Schuylkill County” by Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliot – 1916  

Featured Image: 

“New York, the Entrance of the North and East Rivers” 1777 by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres (1721-1824), cartographer and engraver 

Courtesy of the Library of Congress 

 Acknowledgements:

Hank Jones…thank you Hank for your time and your dedication to this subject. 

James Beidler…just wanted to thank you cousin for all your assistance in the past. 

My wife, Cheryl…your love and support is all I’ll ever need! 

Brian