Lady Clothilde Zeller - Controversy: Is Clothilde de Valois Really the Wife of Jacques Zeller?

Started by Private User on Friday, June 21, 2019
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I received the following message from Jackie Smith that I wanted to share and hopefully gain additional opinions on: "Milton Rubincam, President of the American Society of Genealogists and Former Editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, was asked by the author of the source below, to check the proofs and eliminate any errors in his book.

Mr. Rubincam says this, about what is written on page 134 of the book, "The claim that the Zeller family was founded by Clothilde de Valois Zeller, of Huguenot origin, is a pleasant dream. There is an implication in "The Compendium of American Genealogy, vol. III, 1928, p.641, that "Lady Clothilde de Valois" belonged to the former French royal house of Valois. This is nonsense; in spite of this statement and that in John A Zeller's "A Brief History of the Zeller Family" (1945), p. 13, CLOTHILDE DE VALOIS ZELLER NEVER EXISTED. My friend, Dr. Albert H. Gerberich, the leading authority on Pennsylvania German genealogy, informs me that "Clothilde de Valois'" real name was Anna Catharina, and her maiden name is unknown. She died at Tulpehocken, in Berks county, near the Lebanon County (Pennsylvania) line, in 1749."

[source: "The Trail of the Huguenots," by G. Elmore Reaman, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1983, p.301.]"

I was just using an article from Milton Rubincam, President of the American Society of Genealogists and Former Editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, in my own tree. He’s top notch.

I don’t think the House of Valois had any Huguenots, much less ones they sent to America.

There was a fad (a couple of times) for tricked up French Ancestry, even a president of the Huguenot Society fell for one scam.

There's an article available for free at the following address that looks into the origins of the Lady Clothilde Zeller legend in the 19th century: https://www.academia.edu/31496013/Clothilde_de_Valois_Zeller_Myth_a...

Swiss Jacques Zeller and Lady Clothilda de Va Lois was not a myth; it was a lie made to connect to someone important. My line is full of such nonsense. I am Jim Baucom and my wife is Betty Jo Zellers, a descendant of immigrant Johannes Zeller, the brother of immigrant Johann Henrich Zeller. Her brother's Y DNA is a match to Ryan Zeller, a descendant of Henrich. The Zeller immigrants were poor indentured Palatine men who left what is now Germany, for London in1709 and in 1710 were sent to New York by Queen Ann of England to harvest tree sap, used to build ships. These penniless immigrants are among the best documented people to arrive in early America because the head of each family received subsistence money four times a year, from JUN 1710-JUN 1712 from New York Gov Hunter, It was recorded as the name of head of family and members age 10 and up and children under age 10. John Doe (3,2). The 3 could be a couple + 1 child 10+ and 2 children are under 10. or other combinations. In 1938 the LDS Church started microfilming all kinds of records in the US, which included the original Gov Hunter's subsistence list.

Professional Genealogist John Valentine of Utah viewed that microfilm, and in his book, published 2012, The Tulpehocken Zellers and Their Descendants reported that there were four Zeller immigrants from Germany; Johann George Zeller, sons Johannes (Never recorded as Johannes George and Johann Henrich Zeller with his daughter Anna Maria who married Johannes Schaeffer in NY.

Thank you, James E. Baucom Jr. and also for that bit of history of the Palatine immigrants.

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