George was born in Anhausen Germany which is in the Lower Palatine region in about 1656. There was much discontent among the Germans in the Palatine domain during the one of the most severe winters in Germany in the winter of 1708/1709. The people in the area had been hearing of other countrymen going to other places in the new world, and what's more their passage was being paid by the English monarchy.
Life in this part of the world was very difficult because of the devastation of the many wars that had been waged in the territory. Taxes were exceptionally high, in order to pay
for this devastation. There were many religious quarrels among among the various relegious groups, and the non-availability of a place to form a new church group to solve a quarrelsome situation also led to these troubled
Germans to thinking that perhaps they should seek residence somewhere outside of Germany, perhaps in the New World. Moving to a new unsettled area, such as Pennslyvania or New York would satisy the hunger for new land by the older folks and at the same time provide a fantastic adventure for
the younger set.
Most folks in the Palatine area, because of advertising, had heard of the Rev. Joshua
Kocherthal leading a party of 41 Palatines down the Rhine to Holland and thence to England. He then picked up an additional 14 new adventurers for a total of 55. Upon hearing this news, many of the Palatine population, whose quality of life had been decreasing on a day to day basis, decided
that perhaps they should avail themselves of the advertised English offer of payment of passage to
the New World similar to what Kocherthal did. (Kocherthal wrote a small book describing
the exploits of this group along with their names)
The Palatines in the lower Rhine valley began preparations for the great Emigration in the Spring of 1709 and soon thereafter a great migration, about 6000 people took part in pulling up stakes at their old residence, taking what they could along with them began travelling down the Rhine river, on barges I suspect, to Rotterdam, Holland,and then with the help of the British Navy, getting to England, where, It was hoped that the English would supply transport to the Colonies as they had advertised.
References:
Palatine Emigration to New York 1708-1710
Early 18th Century Palatine Emigration by Walter Allen Knittle Phd pub 1937
GeorgJahn FRITZ married Reiesmund probably abt 1686.
George, Reiesmund and the children joined the migration to Holland. Close scrutiny of the map of the Anhausen district of Germany , indicates that George probably took his family to Nuewied, a larger town on the Rhine river about 10Km from Anhausen and there boarded a barge and thus joined the migration to Holland by 6000 plus German Palatines, unsatisfied with their life in Germany. The Palatines were very poor, and did not, have money for passage, and since the promised payments to be made by the English gov't was not forthcoming, these poor adventurers had no choice but board the 10 ships in London Harbor, provided by the English Monarchy in early January, 1709 and stay with the ships until such time as money could be raised to pay the Captains of the various ships for their passage and only then could they set sail to the new world (New York in this case). Since these ships were ;cluttering up ports with no profit for the port GeorgeTown operators", they were not allowed to stay in port very long before being forced to move on. These 10 ships, loaded with Palatines, moved from port to port around the English coast until the promised money to sail to the New World..(New York) was made available.
In the meantime, living conditions on these ships was horrendous and during the period before the first ship sailed, there were more than 470 people dead and many more too sick to embark. One of the 10 ships first allotted was removed from the group because it was no longer needed.
The first ship named LYON sailed from England on 3 May, 1709 and arrived at NUTTIN island (now GOVERNORS island) a few weeks later. It was decided, upon the arrival of this first ship that all of the remaining Palatine emigrees should first land at NUTTIN before travelling on upstate to their assigned towns. (Taken from a letter from the New York Governer to the English Authorities in 1709.)
GeorgJahn sailed to New York State from England on 28 July, 1709. According to the list of passengers provided by the Dutch shipping authorities, Georg boarded the ship with his wife and 3 children, Johann, age 20, Maria Elisabetha, age 22 and a second daughter, Mariana, about 19 years old.
He is also listed on the Semmendingen Registor as having settled in a town called Hunderston, N.Y. His name also appears on the New York Subsistance list covering two time periods, 1710 and 1712. In both cases his family is listed as having 3 people over the age of ten which leads me to believe that only his son Johann was with them at this time, and since he was about 20 years old, he would have been listed as a family member over 10 years old. I haven't figured out where his two sisters fit in though. It could have happened that, since the two young women were of marriagable age, that could have accounted for one or both women not remaining on the ship in London. Or perhaps they both came to New York with the family, got married and left the family house before the New York Subsistance list was compiled in 1910. A more grim thought is that since over 450 people died who were members of the expedition, that could also account for the loss of a person(s) in a family group. The information above is taken from a book which includes a very good history of the Palatine Emmigration to New York in the early 18th Cent. The end of the book includes many appendices listing thousands of names of the emmigrees, and the dates of their embarkation from England.
Georjahn and his family was directed to a small community on the Hudson called Hunterstown, see the map for details. He was slated to live there with 104 other Palatine families while he fulfilled his obligation to the English Gov't by working to provide Naval Stores (Pine Tar and Pitch) for use by the British Navy. This endeavor turned out to be a disaster as the amount of Naval Stores produced was no where near the amount expected by the Royal Navy. Between 1713 and 1718 Hunterstown and other towns specified by the New York Authorities disbanded and the occupants moved to other places, some to New Jersey, Pennslyvania and also to a parcel of land south of Hunterstown, owned by a man named Beckman. As near as I can tell, our Georjahn, was among those Germans who moved to Beckman's land and subsequently a Town called Rhinebeck was formed. The name, obviously, was a joining of the landowner's name and the Rhine river region in Germany, from which the Palatines came.
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Hiram married Sarah ROGERS, who was born 05 Jul 1819 and died 28 Jun 1861. She was buried at Copake NY.
Edward married Alice H. DAVIS, daughter of Robert DAVIS, 26 Oct 1870 at Ancram NY.
Please note that the preceeding information about Edward FRITZ and his family was taken for the most part from THE FAMILY OF HIRAM FRITZ 1814 by Gordon A. Alexander 1993 (a GGGrandson)
Edward W. FRITZ, son of Hiram and Sarah (Rogers) FRITZ was probably born in Dutchess County in the State of New York. Edward probably was born in NY Dutchess county also, but exactly where is not known. Edwards first wife Alice H. DAVIS had a son Robert, in 1872. Robert attended the Spencer's Corners Schoolhouse which probably indicates that his father, Edward had a farm somewhere in the area around Spencer's Corners.
Edward took a second wife, Armella P. DAVIS in 1877 after Alices' untimely death
either during of just after Roberts birth in 1872. It is a reasonable assumption, here, that Ed and his family moved to a new farm in Millerton, NY. It is also very probable that his farm produced milk that was shipped to NYC by rail. G.A.Alexander has a letter written by Edward to back up this probability.
The family moved to North Colebrook CT. in 1894 and there the last child was born in 1896. It can justly be assumed that the 188 acre farm in Colebrook produced milk as a cash crop. The family lived and worked on the farm until 21 May, 1900, when Ed sold the farm and moved to Winsted. A sad end to this union took place at Barreuther's Cafe in Winsted, CT in August of 1900. Ed and his wife Armella were having lunch when suddenly Armella was stricken with a Stroke and died within an hour.
The mystery still Prevails.... were the two DAVISES, Alice and Armella related to each other? To date I have not been able to find any information about either one of them.
[8]Robert Howard FRITZ
Robert married Lena Sage MILLS (the daughter of George Hart MILLS). and Henrietta O SAGE) born 16 Dec 1879 at Colebrook CT died 07 Jan 1971 at Winsted CT (Hospital), She was buried at Winsted CT Forest View cem.