Start My Family Tree Welcome to Geni, home of the world's largest family tree.
Join Geni to explore your genealogy and family history in the World's Largest Family Tree.

The Palatine Families Project

view all

Profiles

THE PALATINES

Prior to 1871, what is now Germany consisted of a number of separate states such as Wurttemberg, Prussia, Bavaria, etc., whose boundaries changed frequently as a result of war and other causes. The Palatinate (German: Pfalz) was one of these states, and was located along the Rhine, roughly corresponding to the modern German state of Rhineland-Pfalz.

Please add your Palatine ancestors to this project

//media.geni.com/p13/68/a5/0f/12/5344483e8edc541e/155px-deutschland_lage_von_rheinland-pfalz_original.jpg?hash=8f9aea5f56e6c5e392cecc1d3f1d34bd7f8e886a5238d926cf20631626be88fc.1728457199

About this project

The Palatinate families project is an opportunity to record all the families that were persecuted and driven from Germany in 1708/9 and were refugees in England, Ireland and the Americas and settled in those countries or used them as stepping stones to their final destinations and to discover how they were all interconnected.

If you think your ancestor was a Palatinate Refugee or family member then please add them or make contact.

Palatines in Ireland

In 1709 several hundred Palatine families settled in Ireland. A combination of economic hardship causd by war and a severe winter led to the exodus. Queen Anne received them in England and sent some to Ireland to the estates of sympathetic Protestant landlords. They established roots, mainly in the Rathkeale area of County Limerick, Ireland, where about 1,200 of them settled on the estate of Thomas Southwell.
Other colonies were set up in Old Ross and Gorey, County Wexford and in Counties Cork and Dublin. Thought the Limerick Palatines spread out to other areas, particularly north Kerry and Tipperary, Rathkeale remained an important focal point.

At Killaheen===

The site of the old Wesleyan Chapel where the Palatines worshipped may be seen today, also some of the old Palatine houses. A most interesting item is an old Palatine well. It consists of a trench cut into the ground deeper than the water table. The sides and the top are lined with stone and 18 stone steps lead down the clear cold water. Several such wells are to be found in the locality but some have been partly filled in for safety purposes.

At Courtmatrix===

The earliest of the original colonies, the present occupiers of a house built in the Palatine style - long and low - which once longed to the Teskey family can be found with the interior which has been kept as close to its original condition as a modern lifestyle will permit. Behind the old Teskey home a carved stone cider press is still in position under an old tree, an interesting validation of the fact that the Palatines brought stone-cutting and winemaking skills with them from Germany.

Ballingrane===

The third of the parent colonies, ,is the place where the most famous Irish Palatines lived. Barbara Heck and Philip Embury were the founders of Methodism in the USA, a denomination which now has a following of several million. Barbara Heck's old home is (1996) occupied by the family of Walter Ruttle, a Palatine descendant and a member of the Irish Palatine Association. Nearby can be found a pear tree under which John Wesley used to preach and a plaque marking the site of Philip Embury's home, long since demolished. A visit to Embury and Heck memorial church contains a horn blown by the burgermeister or Palatine leader to summon general meetings in the early days of the colony.

Castle Matrix is the home of Thomas Southwell, the landlord who brought the Palatines to Limerick. This ancient Fitzgerald castle has been completely restored and is occupied by the O'Driscoll family.

Some of the German-speaking people that came to North America did not come directly. Some Palatines spent time (from a few months to a few generations) in other countries, including Ireland.

There is an Irish Palatine Heritage Centre in Rathkeale, (near Limerick and Adare),Co. Limerick, with extensive displays of artifacts, photographs, etc. associated with the Palatine families Irish Palatine Museum and Heritage Centre

Palatines in North America

In 1710, three large groups of Palatines sailed from London. The first went to Ireland, the second to Carolina and the third to New York with the new Governor, Robert Hunter. There were 3 000 Palatines on 10 ships that sailed for NY and approximately 470 died on the voyage or shortly after their arrival.

In NY, the Palatines were expected to work for the British authorities, producing naval stores [tar and pitch] for the navy in return for their passage to NY. They were also expected to act as a buffer between the French and Natives on the northern frontier and the English colonies to the south and east.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~celia/price/saili...

According to a lecture by Dr. George Schweitzer, a highly regarded genealogical researcher, ship owners were very actively recruiting German settlers to the colonies at this time. England was bringing large quantities of cargo back from the colonies and to make the process more profitable they needed cargo for the western-bound journey also. They weren't as concerned about bringing in money from this human cargo as they were about the weight and ballast they could provide to "speed up" the sailings. The faster they could make the return voyage, the more profits they could realize. The port of Philadelphia showed the impact of the German recruitment. In 1735 there were 268 German immigrants who arrived in the port. In 1736 it was 736, and it rose to 1528 in 1737. Expectations were for 1738 to see even larger numbers of emigrants. But even those high expectations were shattered by the huge numbers who arrived, beginning earlier in the season than usual. To meet the high demand shipping firms contracted for extra ships. The firm Hope provided eight ships of which the Winter Galley was one.

Palatines in Canada

In the 1830s, 185 families left Ireland and settled in Canada - mainly Ontario.

Over the years, their friends and family in Ireland started to follow them to Canada, and soon you had settlements in Ontario full of Irish Palatine names such as Barkman, Dolmage, Embury, Fizzell, Heck, Lawrence, Ruttle, Switzer, Sparling, and Teskey - to name a few.

Palatines in other countries

Palatine family names


  • Altimes/Alton
  • Armentrout/Armantrout/Ermentraudt,
  • Baker,
  • Barkman/Bartman,
  • Barraban, Benner,
  • Bickerin,
  • Bonus,
  • Bovenizer,
  • Bowen,
  • Bower,
  • Bredhour,
  • Brough,
  • Cave,
  • Cole,
  • Cooke,
  • Corneille,
  • Cripps,
  • Cronsberry,
  • Delmege,
  • Doupe,
  • Drollinger/Trollinger/Trolinger/Trulinger/Drullinger,
  • Embury,
  • Everett,
  • Filme,
  • Fitzelle,
  • Folker,
  • Grouse,
  • Guier,
  • Hartwick,
  • Heavenor,
  • Heck,
  • Haury,
  • Hibler,
  • Hifle,
  • Hoffman,
  • Hoopf,
  • Hoost,
  • Laurence,
  • Legear,
  • Lodwick/Ludwig,
  • Lowe, Lower, Lowes,
  • Mick,
  • Miller,
  • Modler,
  • Neazor,
  • Piper,
  • Poff,
  • Richardt,
  • Rodenbecker,
  • Ruttle/Rucke,
  • Rynard,
  • Ryner,
  • Schmidt/Smyth,
  • Shallas, Sheafer,
  • Shearman,
  • Shimmel,
  • Shire/Shier,
  • Shoemaker,
  • Shoneweiss,
  • Shouldice,
  • Siebert,
  • Singer,
  • Six/ Sick/ Zeecht/ Syck
  • Smeltzer,
  • Sparlng/Sparling,
  • Spingler,
  • St. John,
  • Steevell,
  • Steepe,
  • Stork/Stark,
  • Stroud,
  • Switzer,
  • Teskey,
  • Tettler/Detlor,
  • Ushelbaugh,
  • Young
  • Zigler.

External sources

this project is in HistoryLink 

//media.geni.com/p13/43/69/79/0c/5344483e65ec5d9e/historylink_logo_really_small_t.jpg?hash=a0a6a0ba2deafc425b6bb539d317b6c2f3fc94198304139e0135d543aaa2baf0.1728457199 _______________

Article on Palatine ancestors free on Jstor

Some Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogies
By Frank L. Crone, San Francisco

The families from which the writer is descended have no

particular claim to distinction and their histories are recorded
simply because they present certain points of general histori
cal interest. With one single exception all the American an
cestors of the writer are of Pennsylvania-German or Penn
sylvania-Dutch origin. Both of the terms just employed are
more or less inaccurate and under the circumstances we may
be pardoned for using the more inaccurate but less odious
term. By the Pennsylvania-Dutch we mean those families
who came to this country between 1683 and the outbreak of
the Revolution from the Palatinate and other states of South
Germany and from Switzerland, together with a very small
number from sections now included in France and who settled
in Pennsylvania. Leaving thir old homes in Germany, Switz
erland and France they came down the Rhine through Holland
and touched in England on their way to Pennsylvania.
Many of the early settlers in northern and central Indiana
were of this stock and their descendants are now numbered
by thousands, many of whom are entirely ignorant of their
true origin. In the families herein recorded there is only one
record in the direct line of a marriage outside this racial
strain. In the collateral lines it may be said that such mar
riages are more frequent but there has been a strong tendency
to keep the strain pure.
The Crone, Switzer, Weaver, Stuckey, Stout and Steel fam
ilies came from the counties of Berks, Lancaster and York in
Pennsylvania. The Crones, Stouts and Steels came to Pitts
burgh and then northwest to the vicinity of Mansfield, Rich
land county, Ohio. The Stuckeys and Switzers came straight
west from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Lancaster, Ohio, while
the Weavers first went into the Shenandoah Valley and then
northwest to the vicinity of Lancaster, Ohio, and later to
Richland county, Ohio. The next removal was to Noble This content downloaded from 24.185.156.205 on Sun, 26 Feb 2017 02:19:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Crone: Some Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogies 49
county, Indiana, where the writer's parents were married and
he was born.
To describe these migrations in another way it may be
said that certain families followed the trail along which the
Pennsylvania railroad was afterwards laid thers went
directly west to Lancaster, Ohio, while others came up from
Virginia and followed the line of the Baltimore and Ohio to
Lancaster, Ohio, and later to the vicinity of Mansfield. Not
only these families but hundreds of others followed these
routes of travel. They came in covered wagons bearing with
them not only necessary tools and utensils but in many cases
some prized article of furniture or table wear.
The Crone Family
The first American ancestor of this family was Johannes
Cron who came from the Palatinate and landed in Philadelphia
September 19, 1738. He settled in York county where he died
in 1769, leaving two sons, Simon and John. Simon apparently
died without heirs but John of the second generation died in
1785, leaving twelve children, Jacob, John, Lawrence, Chris
tina, Conrad, Michael, Henry, Anna, Mary, Catherine, Bar
bara and Elizabeth. The five last mentioned were minors.
John Crone of the second generation and his sons Jacob, John
and Lawrence were soldiers of the Revolution.
Jacob Crone of the third generation was born about 1756
or 1757. He served in the Sixth Pennsylvania regiment from
1777 to 1781. He was evidently a man of some independence
of character for he declined to receive his pay in the depre
ciated currency offered him. After his father's death he must
have suffered some financial reverse which compelled him to
dispose of the double share in his father's estate to which he
was entitled by reason of being the eldest son. Later he sold
his personal property and went to Hagerstown, Maryland. In
the meantime he had married Margaret Dritt, daughter of
Peter Dritt (Tritt) and a sister of Jacob Dritt, a captain in
the Revolution and later brigadier-general of State militia,
and of Peter Dritt, also a Revolutionary soldier. They were
married January 3, 1786 and had two sons, Jacob and John,
When these two sons were very young the family removed
to Hagerstown and later returned to York county. None of This content downloaded from 24.185.156.205 on Sun, 26 Feb 2017 02:19:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
50 Indiana Magazine of History
the sons of Jacob Crone or Krone left any issue, but  daughter's descendants live in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Jacob Crone was a soldier of the War of 1812.
John Crone of the fourth generation married Elizabeth
Pence (Bentz or Pentz) November 4, 1813. Elizabeth Pence
was the daughter of Bernhard and grand-daughter of George
Pence (probably the soldier of the Revolution) and doubtless
the great-granddaughter of John Bentz who settled in York
count^in 1732. The fall of 1814 John Crone joined one of the
companies which went to the relief of Baltimore but which
arrived too late to take any active part in the hostilities. Later
he removed with his family to Baltimore, thence to Hagers
town and later to Greencastle and Chambersburg, Pennsyl
vania. He was a blacksmith and these frequent changes of
residence were doubtless due to his search for employment.
The Crone family returned to York some time previous to
their departure for Ohio in 1832. They settled in the vicinity
of Lucas, Richland county, Ohio.
John and Elizabeth Pence Crone were blessed with seven
children who reached maturity, John, Jacob, Elizabeth,
Joseph, George, Emily and Catherine. John moved to Indi
ana, Jacob to Missouri and Joseph and George to Iowa while
the families of the daughters remained in Ohio.
John Crone of the fifth generation, grandfather of the
writer, came west to Fort Wayne, part of the way on the
Wabash and Erie canal, in 1849, with his own and the families
of John Weaver and Michael King. From Fort Wayne he
went to a site near the city of Kendallville where he lived
until his death in 1898 at the age of eighty. In Ohio he had
married Catherine Switzer whose family will be noted later.
They had eight children who reached maturity, all of whom
remained in Indiana with one exception, Elizabeth Crone
Jones of Garrett, Barbara Crone Rawson of Sunfield, Michi
gan, Mary Jane Crone Teal of Kendallville, John S. Crone of
Kendallville, William H. Crone of Wolcottville, Sarah Ann
Crone Blackman of Kendallville, Amy R. Crone Stultz of Elk
hart and Laura Irene Crone Tyler of Kendallville.
John S. Crone, father of the writer married Ella Weaver
whom he met while she was a teacher of Noble county enjoy
ing a salary of some eleven dollars a month with the privilege
of boarding 'round. This content downloaded from 24.185.156.205 on Sun, 26 Feb 2017 02:19:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Crone: Some Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogies 51
The Switzer Family
Mention has been made of the marriage of John Crone of
the fifth generation and Catherine Switzer.
Peter Switzer was one of four brothers who came to Lan
caster county about 1740. He married Elizabeth Heffelfinger
who came over on the same ship. Among other children they
had a son Frederick who married Barbara Burkhart, daughter,
of Andreas Burkhart of Brecknock township, Lancaster (now
Berks) county.
Frederick Switzer of the second generation had two sons
who came west, Frederick and Jacob. Many of the descend
ants of both are found in western Ohio and eastern Indiana.
Frederick Switzer of the third generation married Barbara
Stuckey (Stukey or Stuke) whose father John Stuckey was
born in Switzerland in 1742, came to North Carolina in 1760,
later removed to Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and in 1792
came to Fairfield county, Ohio. This Stuckey family is now
found through Ohio and Indiana and States farther west.
Catherine Switzer, daughter of Frederick and Barbara
Switzer, married John Crone in 1839.
The Weaver Family.
The mother of the writer is descended from one of four
Weavers, probably George, who settled in Lancaster county,
Pennsylvania, about 1709. The first accurate record we have
is of her great-grandfather, John Weaver, born in 1762. This
John Weaver married Susannah Sirk (Shirk), daughter of
Matthias Sirk who was a son of David Sirk, the immigrant
who came to Pennsylvania in 1747 and settled near New Hol
land. Matthias Sirk accompanied the family to Virginia and
later to Ohio and died in 1833 at the age of one hundred seven
years and five months, unless the author of the inscription on
the gravestone were guilty of romancing. The family of John
Weaver went to the Shenandoah Valley sometime after 1790
and came to Fairfield county, Ohio, in 1813. Later they set
tled in the vicinity of Bellville, Richland county. Here William
Weaver, son of John Weaver, married Catherine Stout, daugh
ter of John Stout, who was probably a son of Christian Stout
and grandson of Peter Stout (Stoudt) who died in Berks
county in 1795. Their eldest son was John Weaver. This content downloaded from 24.185.156.205 on Sun, 26 Feb 2017 02:19:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
52 Indiana Magazine of History
The eldest son of William and Catherine Stout Weaver was
John Weaver, grandfather of the writer, who married Mary
Steel. The name Weaver is lost in this family for lack of male
issue.
The Weaver family is a large one and is found in Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois but no further details can be given in this
paper.
The Steel Family
John Weaver, grandfather of the writer, married Mary
Steel. She was a daughter of James Steel and Elizabeth
Fissel Steel. James Steel was born in Ireland in 1789 and
came to this country when a mere lad. He was brought up by,
and later married into a Pennsylvania-Dutch family. Eliza
beth Fissel Steel was a daughter of Adam Fissel (Fishel or
Fischell) who was doubtless the Adam Fissel who was a sol
dier of the Revolution. The Steels came to Richland county,
Ohio, in 1819. ^
With the exception of an occasional member of the family
who followed blacksmithing along with farming or kept an inn
for a time every one in the direct line of all these families was
a farmer. Most of them came from the Palatinate where their
ancestors may have followed the same honorable occupation
thirty or forty generations or more.
With no recorded exception all the families described here
were loyal to the patriot cause during the Revolution and
furnished their quotas in succeeding wars. Three descendants
from the original Johannes Crone have won mention in
Who's Who, Dr. William 0. Krohn of Chicago, Mr. R. B.
Cronej president of Hastings College, Nebraska and the
writer. Among the best farmers of the west and middle west
will be found many of the descendants of all the families
herein described. For the most part they have been pioneers
for four or five out of the seven generations they have been
in this country. Pennsylvania-Dutch has been the native
language up to the last two or three generations.