We believe that Joseph had eight children and two wives. His first four children were born in two year intervals starting around 1712 and would have been born by his first wife. The two youngest children were born in 1733 and 1735 and Anna Maria Bugh would have been their mother. For the two remaining children, we are uncertain of when they were born because our estimate of their birth year is based on when they were baptized. Since they were baptized as young adults, we can only make an approximate estimate of their year of birth.

1. MARIA:
   The only information we have about Maria is from the passenger list of the HOPE, which listed her as being 21 year old in 1733. This would place her birth around 1712. We don't know if she died shortly after arriving or if she married and took her husband's surname.


2. JOSEPH:
   Joseph was 19 at the time of the voyage, which places his birth around 1714. He was baptized into the Brethren church in either 1741 or 1747 (There are two lists of baptisms for the early Conestoga Brethren and the two lists differ with respect to the date of Joseph's baptism). He married Catherine Zollinger around 1741. In 1759, he migrated to Paxtang Township, Lancaster County, which later became part of the new Dauphin County. He apparently lived the remainder of his live in Paxtang, dying there in 1785. By all accounts, he was a successful farmer and businessman, as he was the tax collector for a while in Rapho Township, and then was involved in numerous land and business transactions while living in Paxtang Township. He spent his final years with his daughter Katherine and her husband, John Bomberger, in what appears to have been a rather contentious relationship.


3. HANLIEY:
   Her name was probably either Hanneli or Anneli (little Hanna or little Anna). She was 17 at the time of the voyage, which places her birth around 1716. Like her sister Maria, we have no further information about her.


4. JOHN:
   John was born around 1718 and was 15 at the time of the voyage to America. He married Anna Marie Dankers, probably around 1740. He and Anna were baptized into the Conestoga Congregation in 1747. Walter Bunderman was able to examine their family bible and record the names and birth dates of their children. They had 20 children, 14 daughters and 6 sons over a 30 year period (1741 - 1771). In his will, written in 1780, he mentions nine daughters and two sons, thus we assume that 11 of the 20 children were living in 1780. He appears to have lived all of his adult life in Rapho Township and died in 1781 at the age of 63.

The above four children were listed on the passenger list of the ship the HOPE, but the next four children were not listed. Based on what information we have about them, at least one (and probably two) of them appear to have been born prior to 1733, and should have been included in the passenger list. These two are Jacob and Barbara, and their birth dates have been estimated from the year they were baptized into the Conestoga Brethren.

In this time period, people usually were in their mid to late 20s when they were baptized. Jacob Flory was baptized on May 1, 1748 and Barbara Flory was baptized in either 1754 or 1755.

If Jacob and Barbara had been as young as 20 at the time of their baptism, then Jacob would have been born around 1728 and Barbara would have been born around 1734. For comparison, Joseph, their older brother, was baptized either at the age of 29 or 33, and his brother John at the age of 33. There is, however, at least one case of a teenager being baptized, that of Christian Stouder jr., who was also a passenger on the HOPE. In 1733, Christian was 9 years old and was baptized 1741, when he was 17.

If Jacob and Barbara were born prior to 1733, then why are they not included in the children's passenger list? Is it possible that Jacob and Barbara might have been a niece and nephew, or perhaps adopted children? In that case, they still might be included on the passenger list, but with a different last name. However, a careful examination of the list of children's names reveal no siblings named Jacob and Barbara. Another possibility is that Joseph initially left his younger children behind and sent for them later, once he had established himself in America. They do not appear as passengers on any other ship, but since most passenger lists do not identify children, this is not surprising. Finally, it is possible that their names were simply left off the passenger list.

In an attempt to answer this latter question, I placed a request on various newsgroups asking people with ancestors on the HOPE to contact me. I heard from descendants of ten of the passengers. In four of the ten families, there were young children probably born prior to 1733 who were not included on the passenger list. Adding the Flory children to this list gives us five families with unlisted children out of a sample of eleven families.

Finally, in looking over the HOPE passenger list as I was preparing this, I noticed that the youngest child listed was 3 1/2 years old. When I checked the listings for other ships that arrived in Philadelphia in 1733, four listed children and their ages, and all of the lists included children under the age of three. In fact, about 16 % of the listed children were less than three years in age. Thus, the question is raised as to why there were no children under the age of three on the HOPE list? One obvious answer is that simply by chance, none of the children were younger than three. Alternatively, for some reason, the Captain of the HOPE may have excluded very young children from the passenger list.

Since Joseph's family is the only known Flory family in the Conestoga congregation at this time, the most reasonable conclusion is that both Jacob and Barbara are Joseph's children.

5. JACOB:
   Jacob was baptized into the Conestoga congregation on the first of May, 1748. His baptism was recorded in both Conestoga baptism lists. The only other person baptized on that date was Maria Conrad. One of the traditions at this time was for engaged couples to be baptized together, and since Jacob and Maria were the only two baptized on this date, we can assume that they were married shortly thereafter.

6. BARBARA:
   Barbara was baptized into the Conestoga congregation in either 1754 or 1755. Other than this, we have have no further information about her within the Flory family. However, two marriage records from this time period have been found that might involve her. Both marriages were within the Lutheran Church.

* - although the online publications of John Casper Stoever report her name as Flohr, an examination of the the original document (LDS film #20436) clears shows her name written as "Florin".

7. KATHERINE:
   Katherine married Jacob Naff, although the only reference to her in the Naff genealogy refer to her by the name "Eva". Isaac Naff, in his unpublished 1895 autobiography, states that his grandfather married "Miss Eva Flora or Florh, whose parents also emigrated from Germany, but she herself was born on their passage across the Atlantic."

In Walter Bunderman's book, there is a photocopy of a document (in German) announcing either the birth or baptism of either Katherine or Kathleen Florin, on September 8, 1733. The quality of the photocopy makes it difficult to translate. The location of the original document is unknown. It was last known (around 1945) to be in the possession of one Mr. J. A. Naff, a 2ggrandson of Jacob and Katherine/Eva Naff.

Jacob and Katherine Eva were married in Lancaster County around 1755. By 1782, they settled in Franklin County, Virginia, at about the same time as her brother, Jacob.

8. ABRAHAM:
   Abraham is the only son of Joseph that we know was born in America. He was born about 1735. He appears to have been part of the Brethren migration (around 1759) first to Washington Township, Cumberland County (which became part of Franklin County in 1784), and then on to Bedford County, Pennsylvania around 1796. Sometime between 1805 and 1809, Abraham, along with three of his sons and at least one daughter, migrated to Montgomery County, Ohio. He died in 1827 at the age of 92.