I examined records from Lancaster County for Hans Georg and Anna Maria and  records in Blankenloch for Georg and his three marriages. Yet, I don’t have proof regarding the identity of the immigrant. Was he the father or the son?

Internet data shows it as the father—the man who married Anna Maria Hooß. The Blankenloch ortssippenbuch states it was the son, but has no birth, marriage or death information for the father’s family after 1736.

Can the immigrant’s associations with others from Baden-Durlach tell us anything?

Hans Adam Ulrich

Hans Adam Ulrich was born in Büchig 22 February 1717, son of Hans Georg Ulrich and Anna Catharina Nagel.¹ He married Juliana Seeger, daughter of Martin Seeger and Maria Barbara (___), on 7 September 1734.² They emigrated from Büchig, arriving in Philadelphia on 12 October 1738 aboard the snow Fox.³ In Pennsylvania they were sponsors for Georg and Anna Maria Huber and the Hubers sponsored a number of their children, as well.

Adam Ulrich’s mother was a Nagel, just like Georg Sr.’s first wife, Anna Barbara. Anna Barbara (Nagel) Huber’s mother was an Ulrich. You’d think there would be a connection between families. With the available information, however, I was not able to find one.

However, Juliana (Seeger) Ulrich’s sister, Maria Barbara, married Anna Barbara (Nagel) Huber’s brother Hans Noa Nagel in 1722. So, there was a connection there. Adam Ulrich’s brother-in-law was also Hans Georg Huber Sr.’s brother-in-law for a time. Anna Barbara (Nagel) Huber died in December 1722, twelve years before Adam married Juliana, but Juliana likely knew her sister’s in-laws, especially Georg Jr. who was only eight years her junior.

Sebastian Näss

Sebastian Näss (or Neeß) was a shoemaker from Rußheim, Baden-Durlach. He was born about 1683 and first married sometime before 1706 as his first child Johann Michael was born on 15 March 1706.⁴ He had seven children with his first wife before her death in 1726. He married Catharina Barbara Brecht on 29 October 1726 and had two more children.⁵ She died 5 February 1730. I found no connections between Sebastian and Georg based on the available records in the ortissippenbuchs from Rußheim and Blankenloch.

Sebastian’s eldest son Michael emigrated in 1737⁶ and Sebastian, aged 55, followed the next year on the Friendship.⁷ Sebastian served as a sponsor for two of Georg’s children and Georg sponsored Sebastian’s youngest son, Sebastian, in 1745.

Philipp Jacob Hooß

Anna Maria Hooß’s brother, Philipp, also emigrated in 1738, arriving with Hans Adam Ulrich on the snow Fox on 12 October.⁸ Philipp’s signature appears next to Adam’s on both lists B and C.

All three men—Georg Huber, Adam Ulrich and Philipp Hooß—had children baptized at Muddy Creek and the Warwick congregation. And yet, Philipp did not sponsor any of Georg and Anna Maria’s children, not even Georg’s first child born in Pennsylvania, Johann Philipp. While it’s hardly proof of anything, I do find it hard to believe that Philipp wouldn’t sponsor any of his sister’s children.

On the other hand, there is a record for “George Hover” from an Orphan’s Court on 7 March 1748/9 which states:⁹

“JACOB HOVER an Orphan child of George Hover, chooses Philip Hofe his Guardian and he is appointed accordingly and also Guardian over all the younger children of the said George.”

The microfilm copy was a typed, “exact copy of the original” that was created in 1932, likely because the original was damaged. In old script “ss” was often written as “fs.” The typist may not have known that and interpreted as best they could. The name “Philip Hofe” may have actually been “Philip Hoss” or “Philip Hoß.”¹⁰

The person appointed as guardian was most often a relative. If Philip was actually Philip Hooß, then this would indicate to me that the estate pertains to Georg Huber, the husband of Anna Maria Hooß. Jacob would have been the couple’s eldest son Johan Jacob Huber, born 4 March 1734 in Blankenloch. At 15 years of age, he would have been old enough to choose his own guardian.

The index to Lancaster County wills indicates that Georg Huber left a last will & testament. However, it was not recorded because it was written in German. Nor does the original still exist. This unfortunate circumstance complicates research into this family.

Conclusions

In the end I didn’t find any clues regarding my ancestor Michael Huber. But since it was a long-shot, I’m not terribly surprised. It ended up being an interesting exercise anyway. I started out thinking I knew who I was researching. I found new and conflicting information that made me question that certainty. And ended up not far from where I began.

Here’s what I think.

The 1737 manumission for Hans Georg Huber, schuster, belongs to the son. I think that most likely the family emigrated in the spring of 1738. They likely travelled with Adam Ulrich’s family and Anna Maria’s brother Philipp and his wife Eva—as well as others who were leaving the Baden-Durlach area for Pennsylvania.

Georg Sr. either became friendly with Sebastian Näss on board ship—assuming they travelled on the same ship—or after arrival in Pennsylvania. They arrived about the same time, were of the same age, from the same area of Germany, had each been married several times,¹¹ and were members of the same congregations.

The family settled in Lancaster County—most likely in Cocalico Township—and Georg died there in early 1749. Anna Maria’s brother served as guardian for her minor children. Any of Georg’s children from his first marriage who travelled with them were of legal age by that time, possibly with families of their own.

That’s my working hypothesis anyway. It’s too bad there are no tax records for the period between his arrival and Georg’s death, nor any land records I could locate, and no will. Those could have been illuminating.

It would be interesting to look at the church records to see who the witnesses were at the children’s baptisms in Blankenloch. I wish that information had been included in the ortssippenbuchs.

Yesterday I shared what I’ve learned about Hans Georg and Anna Maria (Hooß) Huber in baptismal records in Lancaster County and emigration records. Today I’ll cover what I learned about the pair from German records.

In Blankenloch

According to the Ortssippenbuch Blankenloch-Büchig und dem Studtensee, Georg Huber was a “fränkischer Artillerieschmied.”¹ He  was the son of Thomas Huber of Balgheim and first married Anna Barbara Nagel, daughter of Georg Nagel and Anna Margaretha Ulrich, on 26 May 1711 in Blankenloch.² Barbara was born 28 December 1684 in Blankenloch. They had children:

1. Anna Margaretha (22 Nov 1711—26 Nov 1711)
2. Hans Georg (8 Mar 1713—1 Feb 1714)
3. Hans Adam (20 Aug 1715—)
4. Georg Friedrich (4 Feb 1717—29 Dec 1773)
5. Hans Georg (29 Dec 1718—)
6. Catharina Barbara (25 Nov 1720—)
7. Thomas (23 Dec 1722—17 Jul 1723)

According to the book, Hans Georg Huber, son of Hans Georg and Anna Barbara (Nagel) Huber, was the man who emigrated to America in 1738—Werner’s emigrant #4357.

Barbara died 20 December 1722 in Blankenloch and Georg married again on 28 June 1723 to Anna Barbara Boch, daughter of Antonius Boch.³ She was born in August 1676 in Blankenloch. She had been married previously to Isaac Heyl of Hagsfeld and had, it appears, one surviving child, Hans Wendel Heyl, born 8 March 1714.⁴ She died 10 January 1733 in Blankenloch.⁵

After Barbara’s death, Georg apparently married yet again, this time on 11 August 1733 to Anna Maria Hooß, daughter of Hans Jacob Hooß and Anna Maria Reinau.⁶ She was born 9 September 1710 in Blankenloch and she, too, had been married previously. She had been married to Hans Michael Hermann—a Soldat, “ein marggräflicher Musquetier.⁷ They had a son Hans Michel born 12 August 1731 and died 26 October 1731 in Blankenloch. Georg and Anna Maria apparently had two children in Blankenloch:

1. Hans Jacob (4 Mar 1734—)
2. Johann Friedrich (26 Jun 1736—)

Father or Son?

So, who was the Georg Huber who arrived in Pennsylvania by 1739? Was it the father born in Balgheim? Or the son born in Blankenloch? Which one married Anna Maria Hooß?

Werner’s entry for Hans Georg Huber provides little information. No age, no indication of whether or not he was traveling with a spouse or children, no occupation.⁸ The entry in the ortssippenbuch for Hans Georg Huber Jr. states “Bemerkung: Schuster, 1738 nach Amerika auswandert, Regesten Nr. 4357.”⁹ The son, it appears, was a shoemaker.

Although no birth date is provided for Hans Georg Huber Sr., his first wife was born in 1684 and his second in 1676. I think it’s highly likely that he was in the same age group, possibly born in the mid-1670s to early 1680s. This means he was significantly older than his third wife Anna Maria who was born in 1710.

So, can we tell if he was the man who married Anna Maria? Could it have been the son?

The records in the ortssippenbuch for Georg and his three wives list his occupation. In the first he was a schmied or Artillerieschmied—a blacksmith, one with knowledge of artillery. In the second he’s listed as a hufschmied or farrier. I would presume there’s more need for a farrier than an artillery smith in village life and the skillset is applicable.

The third record which includes Anna Maria also lists his occupation as hufschmied. This would seem to indicate that it was George Sr. who married Anna Maria, not George Jr. Given the practice of apprenticeship in Germany, switching occupations was not easily done, especially in just four years.

Furthermore, George was also a full citizen of Blankenloch at the time of this marriage. There are at least two ways I know to become a bürger. One was to be the child of a bürger and born in the village, the second was to purchase the status.¹⁰ The purchase price could be steep and it did not transfer from village to village.

So, for George, who was not born in Blankenloch, to be a bürger in 1733 speaks to both an acceptance by other Blankenloch residents and a certain level of financial success between 1723 and 1733. Would he have given that up in 1737 when, presumably he was in his mid-to-late 50s or early 60s? It’s not unheard of. My ancestor Christoph Hacker and his wife emigrated when they were in their 50s.

There are no death dates provided for George Sr., Anna Maria, and a number of his/their children in the Blankenloch ortssippenbuch. This would mean that there were no death records found for any of these family members in the town church books. In fact, the ortssippenbuch shows no records for this family group after 1736. Why not? If they didn’t leave for America in 1738, where did they go?

The only family member with further information was Georg Friedrich. He married 5 January 1753 and died 29 December 1773 in Gräben where he was a farmhand. Even he did not remain in Blankenloch. Furthermore, there is a note that he applied to emigrate to Denmark with his wife and five children in 1761, though he did not leave.¹¹ None of the Huber families listed in Blankenloch in the early 1700s apparently stayed.

Based on this information, I believe Hans Georg Huber Sr. married Anna Maria Hooß. However, I still can’t tell who was the emigrant—father or son or both.

Check back tomorrow for more analysis. Maybe their ties to and relationships with others will help paint a clearer picture.

Recently, I’ve been looking into Hans George Huber and his wife Anna Maria Hooß. For no other reason than that he’s a Huber and his children share some of the same given names as my ancestor Michael Huber’s children. It’s a long shot, but I figured it was worth a little research. I like research.

Most of what I have is information I’ve pulled from around the internet. Since quite a bit of it is not sourced, I’ve been verifying information where possible. This couple was Lutheran and had a number of children baptized at Muddy Creek and Warwick in the 1740s:¹

1. Johann Philipp Huber was born 28 Dec 1740 and baptized 26 January 1741 at Muddy Creek. His sponsors were Adam Ulrich and his wife Julianna.
2. Julianna Huber was born 8 May 1743 and baptized at Warwick on 14 May 1743. She was also sponsored Adam Ulrich and wife.
3. Anna Maria Huber was born 3 October 1744 and baptized at Warwick on 4 November 1744, sponsored by Adam Ulrich and wife.
4. Anna Margaretha Huber was born 20 March 1746 and baptized at Warwick on 23 March 1746. She was sponsored by Sebastian Näss and his wife.
5. Johann Friederich Huber was born 9 January 1748 and baptized 17 January 1748 at Warwick, sponsored also by Sebastian Näss and his wife.

George and Anna Maria also sponsored children of Adam Ulrich and Sebastian Näss, as follows:²

1. Johan Georg Ulrich, son of Adam and Julianna, was born 6 November 1739 and baptized 16 December 1739 at Muddy Creek.
2. Anna Maria Ulrich, daughter of Adam and Julianna, was born 10 February 1742 and baptized 28 March 1742 at Muddy Creek.
3. Julianna Ulrich, daughter of Adam and Julianna, was born 2 April 1744 and baptized 8 April 1744 at Warwick.
4. Sebastian Näss, son of Sebastian, was born 31 May 1745 and baptized 30 June 1745 at Warwick.

Usually when you see baptismal patterns like this, it suggests a familial relationship between the parents. At a minimum, given the years involved, it suggests that they may have been from the same area in Germany.

Emigration from Germany

I know from my Hacker family research that Sebastian emigrated in 1738³ and was from Rußheim, a village in Baden-Durlach.⁴ He arrived on the Friendship on 20 September 1738. A little research into George and Adam shows that they were from Blankenloch and Büchig, two other villages in Baden-Durlach, just north of Karlsruhe.⁵

Both George and Adam received permission to leave Germany in October 1737. Adam can be found on the ship’s list for the snow Fox which arrived in Philadelphia on 12 October 1738.⁶ Werner indicates that, like Sebastian, George arrived on the Friendship. However, the ship’s list contains only “Jacob Hoover” and “Michael Hooverich” as possible matches for George and both men’s age is shown as 25.⁷

I’m a little perplexed on how to rationalize “George” as “Jacob.”  Take a look at the signature from the ship’s list.

On both list B and C, Hans Jacob signed with his mark (H).⁸ List A is not included for this ship in Volume II of Pennsylvania German Pioneers, but his name is given as “Jacob Hoover” on the captain’s list as well, according to the list in Volume I. Since he didn’t actually sign his own name, I suppose it’s possible that the clerk got it wrong, but you would think the captain would have had the correct name for his passenger. Right?

Suffice it to say, that I don’t know for sure exactly when George arrived. It’s extremely likely that he arrived in the fall of 1738 with a number of other emigrants from Baden-Durlach, especially given his later connections to Adam and Sebastian. However, the ships’ lists do not provide evidence of his arrival. He was absolutely here by 9 November 1739 when he and his wife sponsored Adam’s son Georg, but beyond that is not yet determined.

In Blankenloch

Since Adam and George were from Büchig and Blankenloch, I consulted the ortssippenbuch for information on their families.⁹ While it provided valuable information, I can’t say it cleared much up for me.

Check back tomorrow for the continuation.

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Update (10/4)

I remembered I had the signatures of the original members of the Warwick congregation in 1743. Hans Georg Huber signed as a member and representative of his family. This makes it even more unlikely, in my opinion, that he was the “Hans Jacob Hoover” on the Friendship’s passenger lists.