0. Introduction
2. The first
Guelcher family
of the Essweiler valley
3. Why João
Gilcher was a French
citizen
4. Why
Joao Gilcher thought of emigration
5.
Why
Brazil
6. The legal way to emigration
7. The “illegal” way of emigration
8. A
shipload
full of Palatines
9.
How the Palatines had come to
10.
11.Settlement
in Santo Amaro
12.Palatine
“rebels” in
13.
14.A short view at
the development of
the German colony of Santo
Amaro
15.The German immigrants who arrived on
ship "Alexander"
16.The Kusel emigrants on the
shipwrecked “Helena
Maria”
17.Deaths
during emigration
18.
Recent discoveries of places of origin of early Sao
Paulo immigrants
0. Introduction
In a recent study about German immigration into São Paulo,Lambert Siriani states: "Uma das grandes dificuldades para o pesquisador da imigração alemã em São Paulo talvez seja a de
determinar as regiões de origem desses imigrantes." She regrets that in early lists and documents only very generalized
statements, like "natural da Alemanha" or "alemão" are made as to the immigrants' origins. My recent research in archives of
Southwest Germany yielded the exact places of origin for a larger group of São Paulo immigrants, a coherent group of
immigrants from the "Bavarian Palatinate" (today Rheinland-Pfalz), a group which constitutes about one fifth of the total
amount of arrivals between 1827 and 1829. The following text concentrates on the Gilcher (Guilger) family first and lists
all the emigrants who came to Brazil with them in 1828 (lists in chapter 15, 16, 17) .
1. Where the Gilchers come from: The Palatinate
In the Western
Palatinate, the land of soft grassy hills, forests and idyllic valleys,
about
50 miles west of the Rhine River, the village of Essweiler
is situated exactly where the Jettenbach
creek from
the South and the Breitenbach creek from
the
South-East join to form the Talbach
(“Valley creek”),
which continues North, passing Oberweiler,
Hinzweiler, Nerzweiler
and Hundheim and flows into the Glan
River at Offenbach. Essweiler is the home
of an
important branch of the Gilcher family,
who have
dwelled there for centuries, since Sebastian Guelcher,
a shoemaker’s son who was born in Nerzweiler
and had
married in Hundheim, had moved there in
1709. Some of
his descendants still live in Essweiler
today, others
have travelled in the whole world and live in the
The triangle formed by the cities of
Such had been the
course of life for centuries in the Essweiler
valley.
2.
The first Guelcher
family of the Essweiler
valley
The Guelchers, whose name derives from the town of Juelich (or Guelich),
had come
into the region of the Essweiler valley
during the 30
years’ war in 1644, when the young,
21-year-old farmer’s boy Nickel Guelcher
from Wahnwegen married Eva, a farmer’s
widow of Horschbach, who was his senior by
ten years and had lost
her husband during this war, in which Protestant kings and dukes sent
their
armies against Catholic emperors and their allies. Most villages were
plundered
several times, the people left to die without food or cattle, houses burnt down, whole village populations,
men, women, children murdered, and
epidemics like the black death did the rest. Only fractions of the
original
Palatine population survived. The people of Horschbach
had to flee and leave their village for a long time and sought
protection
within the high city walls of Wolfstein
and Lauterecken. This is why Nickel Guelcher
and Anna Eva, the widow, didn’t marry in their home in the Essweiler
valley, but in the
Text
in the Hinzweiler church
registers concerning Nickel Guelcher’s marriage
“On the same day,
the 13th of November anno domini 1644 , Hans Nickel,
legitimate son left behind by the late Nickel Guelcher,
citizen of Wanwegen, and then Eva,
the
widow left behind by Jacob Odend
of Horspach, have gone to church at Medart
because of the great danger of war, and have been blessed there by me Samuel Gravius,
at this time the official servant of the church in the valley of Essweiller, and have been confirmed in their
Christian act.
May God bless them, as he blessed his dear and faithful servants,
Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob." (Page 209 in the
church
registers of Hinzweiler ,book I)
This marriage
didn’t take place at the usual church at Hinzweiler
(distance: 2 miles from Horschbach), but at Medard on
the Glan, which is situated at a distance
of 14
miles, because of the imminent dangers of the war which had already
been raging
for 26 years in this region and which time and again forced the village
people
to seek shelter within the town walls of
Wolfstein with its castle or other
places that
were still safe. A marriage had to be held in the nearest safe reformed
church,
and that was Medard at the time. Samuel Gravius was the minister of the Hinzweiler
church, to which all the villages of the Essweiler
valley belonged, but he couldn’t use his own church, because it was not
safe
and the farmers had left their houses and had come to live in Wolfstein for two or three years.
This widow was older than Nickel;
presumably she was his senior by 8 to 10 years. With this marriage, he
took
over the farm (or what the war had left over of it) of Anna Eva’s first
husband
and founded the Guelcher-line of Horschbach.
Today the Gilchers have still their farm
and
distillery at the same spot in the centre of Horschbach.
The family name of
Nickel Guelcher’s wife
is unknown. She was only entered in the registers
as a widow by the name of her late first
husband. It is extremely difficult to decipher
the first husband’s name exactly. At first sight it reads “Odend”. The syntax of this sentence implies that
it must be
the genitive form, so it may be the old genitive form of the surname “Ott”, if you interpret the last sign as an “s” (“Ottens”); d and t were used synonymously in a
position
between two vowels (compare the name Vadel/Vatel
in Hinzweiler). But it may also be an
abbreviation of a longer
name, if you interpret the last sign as a colon, e.g. “Odend:(al)” (or Odenthal, or
Odendorf, or Odenbach).
Of all these possibilities the most frequent in the larger
region
is the surname Ott.
Nickel Guelcher lived during hard times in a
destroyed and depopulated land. Survival was not easy and it was diffuclt to nourrish
oneself and
a family. So Nickel Guelcher died at the
relatively
young age of only 41 years, when his oldest son was just 18 and his
youngest
nine years old. His widow died two years later, in 1666 (cause: too
much water
in the body, perhaps a heart disease). But the age given in the church
register
(62) is definitely wrong, because that would mean a birth year of
1603/04. But
her last child was born in 1655. At the age of 51 a woman at that time
couldn’t
bear any children any longer; usually only up to the age of 42. It is a
well-known fact that ministers often
entered wrongly estimated ages of
deceased persons, when they had no registers to look up the birth or
had
forgotten to ask the family or when the exact age was unknown. That was
a point
of minor concern to ministers. With Nickel Guelcher’s
own burial the same minister had entered an estimated death age that
was wrong
by five years. It is very likely that
this Eva was born around the year 1613 - had her last child in 1655 at
the age
of 42 - and thus
was approximately 10 years older than
her young husband who nevertheless died
two years earlier. After her death, the 20-year-old Peter Guelcher
was in charge of the farm and his siblings (ages 17, 14, 10 years) and
married
a year later. One of these siblings, the 17-year-old, was Michael Guelcher, forefather of the Essweiler
Gilchers, who learned the trade of a
shoemaker and
later, in 1671, when he was 22 years old, - like his father before him
-
married a widow, Anna Elisabetha Kleemann,
who was his senior by 6 years, in neighbouring Nerzweiler
and moved there in order to do the farming and earn a little extra
money by
making and repairing shoes. The couple
had seven children. Today there are still Gilchers
living in the
3. Why João Gilcher was a French citizen
Versus the end of
the 18th century, another war rolled over
the
After Napoleon’s
fall, the
Johannes Gilcher’s father, Johann Heinrich Gilcher was the great-grandson of Sebastian Guelcher who had founded the Essweiler
branch, Heinrich was the second of eight children. He married Margaretha Armbruster,
a teacher’s
daughter, who was his senior by five years, and lived with her and his
family in house number 10 at Essweiler. Between 1795 and 1805 they had five
children.
Father Heinrich Gilcher died relatively
early at age
43, when his youngest son Johannes was only eight years old. His eldest
brother
Adam continued his father’s job as a farmer, whereas for the two
youngest sons
there was not enough land to make a living of. So Jakob,
the second youngest became a day-labourer and Johannes, the youngest
was sent to
a shoemaker to learn this trade. Maybe he was sent to Adam Gilcher
(1777-1830), a third cousin who worked as a shoemaker in Essweiler.
4. Why
Joao Gilcher thought of emigration
When Johannes Gilcher had reached the age in
which young men had to do their military service in
When his mother
died in the spring of 1827, Johannes lost
the person who was the
closest to him. He was single, poor, had
no farm land and no reason to continue living in the household of his
elder
brother. So he thought of emigration, as so many others in his
surroundings.
Emigration to
5.
Why Brazil
was attractive in the 1820ies
After
Such an offer of
settlement has been filed by the authorities as a piece
of evidence in the Kusel district
archives, nicely
written, well printed with the coat of arms of the consulate of the
Empire of
Brazil in Bremen dated from January 19, 1828, made out for Adam Gilcher of Essweiler,
Johannes Gilcher’s eldest brother. This
offer was regarded as a kind
of contract, the basis on which emigrants were lured away from their
home
country. It offered the following excellent conditions:
1.
300-500 acres (400 braças) of land,
partly meadows, farming land or forest as
a free property.
2.
Animals: horses, cows, oxen,
sheep, pigs, hens according to the size of the family.
3.
subsidies: 1 franc (160 reis) per
head in the 1st year, half of it in
the 2nd .
4.
Ten taxfree
years, thereafter 10% of the income as taxes.
These conditions
were so alluring that many Palatine families, farmers and craftsmen,
but also
unmarried people considered this enterprise as an excellent possibility
of
improving their situation. In 1823/24 some people began planning
emigration
and in 1826/27 greater numbers officially
applied at the mayor’s office of their villages for the consent of the
Bavarian
government to let them go to
Of course the
Palatines had also heard of successful emigrations, which had been made
since
1824 especially by people from the “Hunsrück”,
the
region just north of the Palatinate, who had all gone to the South of
Brazil
(Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul).
From a popular song of this time, played by travelling musicians on the
portable orgue, they heard that in
6. The legal way to emigration
The
The village mayors
had to report to the district administration (Landkommissariat)
about the morals, behaviour and debts of
the candidates for emigration. The royal tax collector had to confirm
that
taxes and other general contributions had been duly paid. The district
administration inquired with the peace judge at Wolfstein,
"if the petitioners were not charged with
the custody over some other person or any other financial
obligations". The value of their belongings and real estate had to be
estimated with the help of "truthful men of the same village" who had
the duty to tax the real estate value and had to confirm it by their
"personal signature". Of course, all the signatures had officially to
be acknowledged by the mayor's stamp and signature, which cost more
money. The
Bavarian government did not want its subjects to emigrate, and thus
with all
these bureaucratic obstacles, only few
people wanting to emigrate had got an official permit to do so.
But the
ships for
7. The “illegal” way of emigration
In the Palatinate,
a farm is not kept at the same size for generations by passing it on
undivided to the eldest son after the
farmer's death, but by law, each child gets a more or less equal part of the estate (the principle of
"real estate division"), if there is no last will deciding
differently. Thus formerly large possessions melt down to small or even tiny units which do not suffice to nourish a
family. As families at the beginning of the 19th century
usually had
many children and less children than before died young, more and more
young men
had no perspectives as farmers, but had to do paid daily work for
others, had
to look for jobs outside their communities. The first larger
manufacturers,
precursors of the "industrial revolution" of the 19th
century, came up in cities; mills, sawmills, mines and the production
of iron
ware offered a few jobs away from home. Some Palatines of this time
detected
music as a way of earning money and travelled through all European
countries
playing brass music with their "bands" in the streets or in hotels,
or in circuses: the first travelling musicians, of who
Michael Gilcher,
born at Essweiler in 1822, was an
outstanding
bandleader later. Others thought of emigration. In the 1820ies,
A whole lot of
families of the Kusel district decided to
leave the
country at all costs, and even without a governmental permission. They
sold
their complete mobile possessions, their
arable land and meadows, their
house if they had one, privately or by public sales through the notary
of Wolfstein. They needed this money for
the expensive travel
and the new start.
The families
emigrating from the Kusel region in 1827
must have
met before and planned their travel together . As we know from the
reports of
different mayors, families and groups of
related families left their different villages exactly
a t t
h e s a m e
t i m e :
"in the night from the 6th
to
Already on the 8th
of November, some eager mayors sent
their "obedient message"to the "highly respectable royal
district government"that "during the past night the following
families presumably emigrated clandestinely and with the intent to go
to
8. A Shipload full of Palatines - A Brick Wall - and how it was overcome -
But where had the Kusel emigrants, who supposedly wanted to settle
in
With research
during the past few years. they could not be found in
In the old country
around Kusel, soon nobody knew any longer,
where
exactly they had gone.
Sometimes, there is
a hint or two in notary acts, heritage divisions, that a descendant
emigrated
“to Brazil” – without any further specification, e.g
with the Rathsweiler GILCHER family, whose
daughter Philippinaa, married to Peter
HAESEL of Ulmet,
belonged to the group of November 7. But nobody in the family knew a
province
or a town in
This brick wall was
overcome by internet. In 2004. Roberto GUILGER of
In the office of
the cemetery Colonia in
9. How the Kusel Palatines
had come to Sao
Paulo
As the year 1827
drew to an end, the clandestine deserters were together on their way to
Ships with
German emigrants for
The main group of
the Palatines arrived in
10. Separation of families
and a catastrophe
31 family members
of the Kusel group could not travel on the
vessel
“Alexander” , but took the Dutch fregat “Helena Maria” under the command of
Captain B. Carstens. With them were about
270 other German emigrants.
The “Helena Maria” left the
A week later, on
The German
emigrants had lost all their belongings
in the storm and instead of being in
The sailing ship
Helena Maria was repaired, as the London Times reports in an article of Oct.23, 1828, but nonetheless it was declared
unseaworthy by the Lord High Admiral. This
meant that
the expensive fare that the emigrants had prepaid, was lost. Only at
the end of
October did the British government decide to care for the transport of
the stranded Germans to
In the first days
of December 1828, “a very nice ship” from
After having been
stranded in
11. Settlement
in Santo Amaro
When the
passengers of the unlucky ship Helena Maria finally arrived in
The
Palatines among the German immigrants in the State of
São Paulo applied
almost all for the German colony that
was planned 4 miles south of the viallage
of Santo Amaro in a
wilderness. For a long time they had been lodged provisionally
in
Later
they were lodged on a provisional basis again in the Indian
12. A
Palatine “rebellion” in Brazil
The
German emigrants were confronted with many
difficulties in their new country. Contrary to the ideas of the
Brazilian
emperor, the
Theofílo
SCHMIDT, who had measured out the territory,[18] Frederico
LANG,
Philippe ANTONI, Jacobo KUNTZ, Pedro
SCHUMACHER, João STOFFEL; Pedro BAUER, Henrique
GILGER, Pedro HÄSSEL, Nickel MILER, Adão
WEINBERGER
(error, = RHEINBERGER!), Philippe SCHIOFER (error, = SCHAEFER!), Jacobo WALDER, Theobaldo
ULRICH, Frederico HASSE
(=
HAESEL), Elizabetha WALTER (Widow of Max WALTER), Diderico
GERES (= GEERS), Pedro SCHUCK, Luiz GADNER
( = Ludwig
KETTLER!), Jacobo MATER (= MADER), João PFEIFER, Frederico
FRANCK,
Daniel SANSEL (= SAMSEL!), Philippe WEINREICH, Frederico
THEOBALD und Jacobo REY, almost all of
them Palatines from the Kusel region who
had the
courage to protest and who traded in enormous difficulties for
themselves by doing so.[19]
For a punishment they were excluded from
the
colony. After repentful pleas, some of
them were accepted
again as colonists three weeks later: Theobald
ULRICH, Heinrich GILCHER,
Johannes STOFFEL and Peter BAUER. But roughly half of those who signed
the letter
of protest had to leave and are not to be found in the first list of
inhabitants of Santo Amaro of 1830. Theophil SCHMIDT,
who
considered the jungle soil as too poor for agricultural purposes and
had a
quarrel about this matter with the colony’s director, and who spoke
both
languages, offered to go to the emperor in
13. A
new religion and a new language
Most of
the German settlers of the Kusel group
were
Protestants. As they were illegal emigrants they had not brought a
parson or
minister with them. That’s why they couldn’t have church services in
their own
language and religion and no schooling for their children. In the
beginning
there had even been hostile confrontations between the settlers and the
Brazilian inhabitants, because the
Brazilian Catholics did not permit to
bury a deceased Protestant on their cemetery. Because of the lack of a
Protestant church, German marriages were concluded by the Peace Judge
in the
beginning, but very soon the German Protestants went to the Catholic
church for
service, and as soon as April 1829 baptisations
of
German Protestants are to be found in the church register of Santo Amaro (Matriz).
Communication
must have been a big problem, for the Catholic priest wrote the German
names as
he heard them and as they were completely strange to him, he changed
and
misspelled them so badly that they are hardly recognizable. For the
family of Johannes GILCHER e.g. the
following spelling variants
are to be found there: Gil, Guilhe, Guilher,
Gillgir, Gilger,
Gulcher, Kincher,
Kincha, Kuinquer,
Guilger , of which the last
mentioned finally stayed
for good. Other examples of changed family names: RHEINBERGER
became Reimberger, Reimper,
Remper, Rempar,
and Reimberg. HELFENSTEIN was
written as Helfsten, Helfstem,
Elfestem, Olfingstén,
Helfstein; HAESEL
as
Hesse, Esse, Eser, Essel, Hessel
and ROCKENBACH
as Rocumbac, Rocumback,
Rocumbá, even Hocumba.
HEIN
became Hên, Hem, KLEIN: Clên, Cleim, Clêm,
GOTTFRIED: Gutfrid, Godfrit, Godfrits, Gotsfrits, WEINMANN became Weihman, Vaiman, Vaimar, BACKES became
Packs, BAUERMANN Paulman
and Palman, etc.
As the
church register of Santo Amaro shows, the
Palatines
or the Germans there in general stayed for themselves, in the
generation of the
immigrants, their children and grandchildren they married almost
exclusively
among the German-speaking population, partly also within the same
family.
Marriages among cousins were not unusual, so that the Catholic priest
had to
ask dispensation from the diocese.
When in
1871 the new German empire was founded, many emigrated Germans
remembered their
German nationality and went to the German general consulate in
Only the
generation of grandchildren and great-grandchildren had assimilated the
Brazilian language and culture so much that more German-Brazilian
families were
founded. When the second generation, or the third at the latest, had
died, the
use of the German language had gone and Portuguese became the everyday
language
of the descendants.
14. A short view at the development of
the German colony of Santo Amaro
The
colony of Santo Amaro didn’t prosper for
very long.
In 1837 Santo Amaro was the only place in
the
province, where potatoes were produced and it was regarded as the
“pantry, the
storeroom of the captital”.[22]
But as early as 1847, the
province government gets the information that not more than 9 families
live in
this colony. In 1850 the existing colonies in the State of Sao Paulo
are
officially counted and described. For Santo Amaro,
the report says that there is a German colony, “about 4 miles from the
village,
as good as given up”, only 4 or 5 families living there. Perhaps it was
a bit
too far off from the village, the Germans too much among themselves,
isolated,
without any church or school, the quality of the soil was perhaps not
as good
as expected, or as bad as the Palatine “rebels” had claimed. Anyhow,
many
families moved away to other “ranchos” or farms or moved from the
far-off
colony into the village centre of Santo Amaro
(1839:
5400 inhabitants! 1822: 760 families) or
into the expanding city of
In 1950 Edmundo Zenha
writes somewhat pessimistically
that the German culture has not left any trace at all.[23]
But when looking for traces of German
immigrants there, they can still be found: in the Institute Martius
Staden, which focuses on German-Brazilian
history and
culture; in families of German descent, many a German document has been
saved
from the time of immigration, even from before! The old cemetery of the
colony
with the big iron gravemarkers still
exists and in
the region of Santo Amaro you encounter
German family
names here and there, even if they deviate more or less from their
original
form, which have been brought there between 1827 and 1829 by German
immigrants,
among which there were many Palatines, especially from the Kusel
region.
Annex: Lists of emigrants
15. The German emigrants who arrived on the Dutch ship "Alexander"
Excerpt from the
„list of those 174 German colonists
who continued their journey an
Only the names of
the heads of families and their
wives are mentioned in the following excerpt. The places of origin were
added (“D” in Zenha’s
book“), as far as I could find them in archives or other sources, as
well as
the number of children and a calculated year of birth or a birth date
if this
was available. The original list
contains names and ages of children, which have been omitted here for
reasons
of space. On
NAME |
First name |
Age in 1828 |
Religion
if Catholic, trade, children,
etc. |
Village
of origin (researched in 2005) |
calculated
year of birth or exact date |
ANTHONI |
Philipp |
52 |
Catholic, farmer |
Bosenbach |
1776 |
ANTHONI |
Maria |
52 |
Protestant, 8 children |
Bosenbach |
1776 |
BACKES |
Nicolaus
|
35 |
farmer |
Hueffler |
1793 |
BACKES
|
Catharina |
36 |
6 children |
Hueffler |
1792 |
BAUER |
Margarethe |
44 |
4 children |
Bedesbach |
1784 |
(BAUER |
Peter) |
-
on Hel. Maria - arrived later |
See below |
||
BRAUNING |
Carolina |
20 |
Weinreich’s niece |
Friedelhausen |
1801 |
FISCHER |
Heinrich |
23 |
Haesel’s brother-in-law |
Frohnbach ? |
1805 |
FRANK |
Friedrich |
43 |
farmer |
Friedelhausen |
1785 |
FRANK
nee DICK |
Catharina |
37 |
5 children |
Friedelhausen |
1791 |
GILCHER |
Heinrich |
52 |
3 children,
farmer |
Bosenbach |
29.3.1775 |
GILCHER
nee KILIAN |
Margaretha |
54 |
daughter - on Helena M. |
Bosenbach |
1774 |
GILCHER |
Johannes |
23 |
Shoemaker, farmhand
of the Walter family |
Essweiler |
28.6.1805 |
GLASER |
Juliana |
45 |
5 children |
Ulmet |
1783 |
GLASER |
Nicolaus |
41 |
farmer |
Ulmet |
1787 |
GOTTFRIED nee RUEBEL |
Catharina |
32 |
4 children |
Rammelsbach |
1796 |
GOTTFRIED |
Christian |
32 |
farmer |
Rammelsbach |
1796 |
GROSKLOS |
Jacob |
24 |
Cath., carpenter,single |
Kusel |
1804 |
HAESEL |
Peter |
13 |
parents (Peter Haesel sr.) & 2 children
on Hel. M. |
Ulmet |
1815 |
HAESEL |
Catharina |
19 |
Peter Haesel’s
sister |
Ulmet |
1809 |
HAESEL |
Friedrich |
54 |
Widower, farmer, 5
persons on Hel.M. |
Frohnbach |
1774 |
HAESEL |
Friedrich |
23 |
Son, married |
Frohnbach |
25.11.1805 |
HAESEL |
Jacob |
18 |
Son, unmarried |
Frohnbach |
1810 |
HANNICKEL |
Wilhelm |
41 |
Catholic, farmer |
Neunkirchen |
1787 |
HANNICKEL nee ANTONI |
Margarethe |
41 |
5 children |
Neunkirchen |
1787 |
KAPPEL |
Adam |
25 |
Carpenter, single |
Kusel |
29.2.1803 |
KLEIN
|
Adam |
45 |
farmer , tailor |
Altenglan |
1783 |
KLEIN |
Elisabeth |
37 |
4 children |
Altenglan |
1791 |
KLEIN
|
Nicolaus |
48 |
carpenter |
Neunkirchen |
1780 |
KLEIN |
Catharina |
45 |
6 children |
Neunkirchen |
1783 |
KUNTZ |
Elisabeth |
33 |
3 children |
Essweiler |
1795 |
KUNTZ |
Georg |
37 |
catholic, farmer |
Essweiler |
1791 |
LANGE
|
Friedrich |
33 |
tailor |
? |
1795 |
LANGE
|
Margaretha |
26 |
1 daughter |
? |
1802 |
MADER |
Jacob |
33 |
shoemaker |
Friedelhausen |
1795 |
MADER
nee SIMON |
Catharina |
35 |
3 children |
Friedelhausen |
1793 |
MUELLER
|
Maria |
39 |
4 children |
? |
1789 |
MUELLER
|
Nicolaus |
51 |
Cathol., cartwright |
? |
1777 |
PAPST |
Adam |
26 |
farmer |
Ulmet |
1802 |
PAPST nee SCHUNCK |
Elisabeth |
25 |
Daughter of H.Schunck |
Ulmet |
1803 |
SAMSEL |
Daniel |
46 |
farmer, |
Essweiler |
1782 |
(SAMSEL, widow BEBER |
Philippine) |
39 |
- on Helena M. - |
See below |
1789 |
SCHAEFER |
Philipp |
54 |
farmer |
Erdesbach |
1774 |
SCHAEFER
nee DRUMM , widow RHEINBERGER |
M.Elisab. |
38 |
3 sons of 1st
marriage RHEINBERGER |
Erdesbach |
1789 |
SCHRECK |
Philippina |
25 |
Cathol., unmarried |
Essweiler |
1803 |
SCHUCK |
Peter |
27 |
Cathol., carpenter |
Offenbach Gl |
31.1.1799 |
SCHUCK
nee SCHWARZ |
Catharina |
25 |
3 children
(1 newborn) |
Offenbach Gl |
1803 |
SCHUMACHER |
Friederike |
38 |
4 children |
Neunkirchen |
1790 |
SCHUMACHER |
Peter |
36 |
tailor |
Neunkirchen |
1792 |
(SCHUNCK |
Catharina) |
49 |
- on Helena M. |
See below |
|
SCHUNCK |
Heinrich |
52 |
Catholic, farmer |
Ulmet |
1776 |
SCHUNCK |
Heinrich |
18 |
son |
Ulmet |
1810 |
SCHWENCK |
Johannes |
42 |
farmer |
Elbach/Rhein |
1786 |
SCHWENCK |
Maria |
40 |
4 children |
Elbach/Rhein |
1786 |
STOFFEL |
Christina |
25 |
3 children |
? |
1803 |
STOFFEL |
Johannes |
36 |
catholic, farmer |
? |
1792 |
THEISSEN |
Juliana |
46 |
Widow |
? |
1782 |
THEOBALD |
Catharina |
36 |
and 4 persons
|
Ulmet |
1792 |
THEOBALD |
Friedrich |
37 |
farmer |
Ulmet |
1790 |
ULRICH
|
Elisabeth |
37 |
4 sons |
Ulmet |
1791 |
ULRICH |
Theobald |
37 |
farmer, potter |
Ulmet |
1791 |
WALTER |
Jacob |
46 |
Smith, farmer |
Essweiler |
1782 |
WALTER
nee SCHUCK |
A. Maria |
44 |
6 children |
Essweiler |
1784 |
(WALTER,
or WOLTER) |
(Max) |
(51) |
(died
in 1828 ) |
(Bosenbach) |
1777 |
WALTER
(also WOLTER) |
Elisabeth |
47 |
Widow of Max
Walter, 6 children |
Bosenbach |
1781 |
WEINMANN
|
Jakob |
53 |
farmer |
Elzweiler |
25.6.1775 |
WEINMANN
nee BAUM |
Eva Elisab. |
43 |
5 ch
(1 newborn) |
Elzweiler |
1785 |
WEINREICH |
Philipp |
36 |
Catholic, farmer |
Friedelhausen |
1792 |
WEINREICH
nee HANNICKEL |
Magdalena |
36 |
5 children |
Friedelhausen |
1792 |
Single
immigrants of this group who did not come from the |
|||||
GEERS
|
H.Dietrich |
29 |
Smith, unmarried |
Gross-Sottrum |
1799 |
MAINHOLZ |
Johannes |
43 |
Sailor, widower |
? |
1785 |
ANDRESSEN |
Sebastian |
32 |
Sailor, widower |
? |
1796 |
KETTLER |
Ludwig |
35 |
Sailor, widower |
? |
1793 |
FLUER
|
Johannes |
34 |
Doctor, unmarried |
? |
1794 |
16. The Kusel Palatines who had been on the shipwrecked “Helena
Maria”
The
following 31 members of family were on the
Helena Maria, and had not arrived yet in |
|||||
PFEIFFER
|
Johannes |
38 |
Linnenweaver |
Bosenbach |
1790 |
PFEIFFER
nee GILCHER Heinrich’s daughter |
Charlotte |
30 |
plus 3 children |
Bosenbach |
1.3.1798 |
HAESEL
|
Peter |
47 |
farmer |
Ulmet |
1781 |
HAESEL
nee GILCHER |
Philippina |
42 |
plus 2 children |
Rathsweiler |
1786 |
THEOBALD
(Family) |
4 persons altogether on Helena Maria |
Ulmet |
|||
BAUER
|
Peter |
44 ? |
Bedesbach |
1784 ? |
|
SAMSEL,
nee BEBER |
Philippine |
39 |
and 6 persons
|
Elzweiler |
1789 |
SCHUNCK |
Catharina |
49 |
and 4 children |
Ulmet |
1779 |
HAESEL/FISCHER |
5
persons altogether on Helena
Maria |
Frohnbach |
17. People who died during the emigration journey :
1. Max WALTER (also spelled WOLTER)
of Bosenbach, 51 years old,
on ship Alexander. He left Bosenbach
with his
wife and 6 children, but she arrived without him, a widow with 6
children.
2. Charlotte SAMSEL nee
KILIAN from Essweiler, 50 years old.
She left Essweiler with her husband Daniel
SAMSEL on Nov.7, 1827,
embarked on the Helen and Maria with her
sister, Philippina Kilian,
Peter BOEBER’s widow and the 5 children of
the
latter. Daniel Samsel took the ship
Alexander. He
arrived alone in
3. Friedrich HAESEL’s
wife of Frohnbach. He left Frohnbach with his wife in 1827, but was
registered as a
widower when he arrived in 1828.
4. The two youngest
children of Georg
Jacob KUNTZ
of Essweiler, Catharina,
3 years
old and Elisabeth, 1 year old. They left
Essweiler with their parents, but did not
arrive in
18. Recent discoveries of places of origin of early Sao Paulo immigrants
More places of origin of early Southwest German immigrants to Sao Paulo have been detected by further research andthrough contacts with other researchers, especially Mrs. Doris Wesner, who researches emigration from the Hunsruck,
the region immediately north of the Palatinate stretching up north to the River Rhine and northwest to the River Mosel,
a region which belonged to Prussia since 1815, whereas the Palatinate belonged to Bavaria. Language, dialect, culture,
kitchen, agriculture and rural way of life were very similar to those of the Palatinate, especially the Kusel region which
is only at a few kilometers' distance from the Hunsruck.
Sources of the following data:
Gossler Arnold, Aufbruch in fremde Länder. Auswanderungsgeschichte des ehem. Amtes Senheim Altkreis Zell/Mosel im 19. Jahrhundert, Liesenich, 2003.
Hans-Peter Bungert, Familienbuch Schweich/Mosel, Grossrosseln. Edmundo Zenha, A Colonia Alemâ de Santo Amaro, Sao Paulo 1950.
Helmut Adams, Reidenhausen. Werner Rockenbach, Simmern, Doris Wesner, Simmern, Eloy Camara Ventura, Sao Paulo.
Arrival on Dutch vessel "Maria" 30.11.1817 (departure presumably from Amsterdam, NOT from Bremen!)
BARTEN Johann Peter, *18.08.1781, catholic, Haserich, carpenter and farmer, son of BARTEN Augustin/HECKER Margaretha
BARTEN, née MASMAN Margaretha, * 06.01.1780, catholic, Mittelstrimmig, daughter of MASMAN Peter/ BARTEN Anna
marriage 11.01.1802 Kastellaun
BARTEN Maria Catharina, * 17.03.1806, Mittelstrimmig,
BARTEN Johann Peter, * 22.12.1808, Mittelstrimmig,
BARTEN Peter Joseph, * 11.08.1812, Mittelstrimmig,
BARTEN Andreas, * 27.05.1816, Mittelstrimmig,
BARTEN Margaretha, * 20.05.1821, Mittelstrimmig, (Hunsrück)
CASPERS Andreas, * 9.8.1793 catholic, Altstrimmig, farmer,linnenweaver, son of CASPERS Joh./SCHUNCK Apollonia
CASPERS, née THOMES (also THOMAS/DOMMES) Susanna, wife, * 9.12.1793 Altstrimmig
marriage: 19.01.1820 Senheim
CASPERS Anna Maria, * 25.11.1822 Altstrimmig
CASPERS Johann Peter, * 03.11.1824 Altstrimmig
CASPERS Johann Josef, * 27.01.1827 Altstrimmig (Hunsrück)
DONSBACH Johannes, *18.09.1764, catholic, carpenter and farmer from the village of Reich, (Hunsrück)
son of DONSBACH Johann Matthias/HETZERT Catharina
marriage 04.02.1788:
DONSBACH née PHILIPPI, Eva Elisabeth, *09.06.1767, Kuelz, daughter of PH. Michael/SCHNEIDER Eva Elisabeth
DONSBACH Michael, *22.11.1795, catholic, Reich, Hunsruck
marriage 13.04.1825 Simmern:
DONSBACH née MARTIN, Anna Christina, *11.10.1805, Heinzenbach, d.of MARTIN Adam/CARL Catharina
ZERFAS née DONSBACH, Catharina, *06.12.1793 Reich, daughter of Johannes DONSBACH
widow of ZERFAS Joh. Nicolaus (*21.08.1784 Hennweiler, +04.07.1826 Hennweiler, oo 03.10.1824 Hennweiler)
ZERFAS Catharina, * 02.04.1826 Hennweiler (oo 09.08.1842 Santo Amaro: HANNIKEL Pedro,*07.03.1821)
JACOBI Johann Peter sr,* 17.3.1782 protestant Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, + before June 1828
JACOBI née Ochs Maria Margaretha, wife, *ca.1794, 2.oo 6.11.1828 Itapecerica: ZILLIG Jacob
JACOBI Anna Catharina, *1815 Ober-Kostenz, oo ca. 1837 GRIMM Jacob *1817 Baumholder
JACOBI Johann Peter, *23.11.1817 Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, oo GRIMM Carolina *1820 Baumholder,
+22.3.1889 Itapecerica
JACOBI Johann Jacob, * Ober-Kostenz near Simmern
JACOBI Maria Elisabeth, * Ober-Kostenz near Simmern
NN. née JACOBI Maria Margaretha, * 13.09.1795 Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, sister
N.N. Maria Margaretha, from Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, sister's daughter (Hunsrück)
KLEIN Simon, *26.05,1784, catholic, Buch, district of Simmern, son of KLEIN Peter/HASDENPLUG Anna Maria
KLEIN née LIMBACH, Margarethe, * abt. 1795, his 2nd wife, marriage 15.7.1823, Buch;
(1st marriage 22.1.1811, Buch : RUWER Anna Maria)
KLEIN Peter Josef, *01.01.1812, Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
KLEIN Catharina, * abt. 1815, Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
KLEIN PETER, * 13.10.1817, Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
KLEIN Elisabeth, * abt. 1825, Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
KLEIN Ignaz ?(Aniza?), * abt. 1824, Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
KLEIN José (*abt. 1829 Santo Amaro)
MEINERTS Johann, * 26.09.1788, catholic, Haserich, nail smith and day labourer,
MEINERTS née HOFF Margaretha * 06.11.1779 catholci, Blankenrath
marriage 02.01.1811 Kastellaun
MEINERTS Elisabetha, * 18.12.1811, Haserich
MEINERTS Margaretha, * 04.04.1813, Haserich
MEINERTS Maria Margaretha, * 27.04.1816, Haserich
MEINERTS Jacob, * 27.07.1819, Haserich (Hunsrück)
ROCKENBACH Michael, * 10.02.1789, catholic, Biebern near Simmern
ROCKENBACH née WILBERT Catharina, wife, * 26.05.1787,
marriage 27.01.1807
ROCKENBACH Michael, * 28.01.1808 Biebern near Simmern
ROCKENBACH Anna Catharina, * 13.08.1809 Biebern near Simmern
ROCKENBACH Peter, * 21.01.1814 Biebern near Simmern
ROCKENBACH Anna Regina, * 06.08.1821 Biebern near Simmern
ROCKENBACH Anna Catharina, * 04.03.1824 Biebern near Simmern
ROCKENBACH Josef, * 06.07.1826 Biebern near Simmern (Hunsrück)
SCHOLL, Johann, * abt. 1795, catholic, Beulich, day labourer, farmhand, son of SCHOLL Anton/KREMER Anna
SCHOLL née MASMAN, Lucia, catholic, Mittelstrimmig, daughter of MASMAN Joh.Adam/HILLEN Anna
marriage: 27.10.1823 Senheim
SCHOLL Johann Peter, *28.02.1824, Mittelstrimmig
SCHOLL Margaretha, *18.02.1826, Mittelstrimmig (Hunsrück)
STEFFENS Johannes, * 18.02.1795 catholic, Schauren, farmer, lived also at Mittelstrimmig, later Liesenich
STEFFENS née THEISEN Susanna, * 28.04.1792, Mittelstrimmig, daughter of THEISEN Johann/WILHELMS Maria Christina
marriage 25.01.1816 Beilstein
STEFFENS Johann Peter, * 15.11.1821 catholic, Mittelstrimmig
STEFFENS Franz, * 10.08.1826 catholic, Liesenich (Hunsrück)
(STEFFENS Maria, * 1827 Santos)
THEISSEN Johannes, * 14.07.1781 catholic, Mittelstrimmig, son of THEISEN Joh./WILHELMS Maria Catharin THEISSEN, née WILHELMS Susanna, * 22.01.1782 Altstrimmig, daughter of WILHELMS Peter/PREIB Susanna
marriage: 10.02.1808 Beilstein
THEISSEN Johann Peter, * 23.11.1809 Altstrimmig
THEISSEN Maria Anna, * 26.12.1813 Altstrimmig
THEISSEN Maria Catharina, * 12.12.1816 Altstrimmig
THEISSEN Maria Clara, * 04.06.1820 Altstrimmig
THEISSEN Johann Josef, * 02.06.1823 Altstrimmig (Hunsrück)
(THEISSEN Maria, * 16.12.1827 Santos, 2 weeks after arrival)
WEISSHAUPT Sebastian, * abt. 1781, protestant, Spesenroth near Kastellaun, district of Koblenz
WEISSHAUPT Maria Margaretha, Spesenroth, + 16.11.1827 em Armação
WEISSHAUPT Maria Catharina, (* abt. 1812 ?), Spesenroth
WEISSHAUPT Johann Adam, * abt 1814, Spesenroth
WEISSHAUPT Johann Michael, * 01.10.1824, protestant, Spesenroth (Hunsrück)
ZILLIG Jacob, *abt. 1797, widower from Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, (Hunsrück)
ZILLIG Johann Nikolaus, son, *31.7.1821 Ob.Kostenz
ZILLIG Johann Peter, son, * 27.11.1823 Ober-Kostenz, lived in Itapecerica in 1875
ZILLIG Johann Peter, Jacob's brother, * 27.04.1808 Nieder Kostenz oo 1828 WEINMANN Cath. *1811
ZILLIG Maria Elisabeth, Jacob's sister, * ca. 1803
ZILLIG, Maria Catharina, Jacob's sister, * 21.5.1813 Nieder Kostenz oo 1832 REIMBERG Peter
ZILLIG Jacob, *abt. 1791, labourer, (1830 in Itapecerica, 39 years old, not mentioned in the ship's list)
ZILLIG Maria, wife (36 years old in 1830)
ZILLIG Maria, daughter (6 years old in 1830)
[1] Cp. the
book by Werle-Fauser, Hildegard: „Grumbiern
wie ein Kopp
so groß“ , - the German immigration into
the state of
[2] This list was taken from
Zenha, Edmundo:
A Colônia Alemã
de Santo Amaro,
[3] Friedrich RHEINBERGER had come with his
mother Maria
Elisabeth DRUMM (born abt.1789) and her second husband Philipp
SCHAEFER (born abt. 1774). His father was
Adam
RHEINBERGER (married M.Elisab. DRUMM
19.1.1809). With
them came sons Adam, born
23.4.1809 and Peter Rheinberger,
born 31.3.1811.
[4] A first transport
had gone from
[5] Departure noted under January,6 in the
Dutch newspaper
“Amsterdamsche Courant” Nr.7 /1828.
[6] A special report about the hurricane,
which began on a
Sunday between 12 and
[7] A report on this event was published in the Cornish paper „West Briton“ on January 18, and February 1, 1828, two very interesting letters of both captains involved on February 8 (thanks fort he rescue action and a noble decline of the offer to pay fort he rescue). This report mentions 300 German emigrants.
[8]
Cp.
Werle-Fauser, loc.cit. p.31, who quotes Dr. Carlos Hunsche. Cp also
Wettmann,
Hartmut „Gefährliche Überfahrt“(dangerous journey) in Heimatkalender 1980 Landkreis
Birkenfeld,
p.194. Spindler was illiterate, he dictated the
letter to his Protestant parson..
[9] This fact is being stressed by the „West Briton“of 1.2.1828 as well as by the
„Royal Cornwall Gazette“ of 2.2.1828.
[10] According to a report of the
[11] It must have been the vessel „James Laing“ under Captain Sughure,
whose arrival from
[12] Reported by the Royal
[13] Zenha, Edmundo, A Colônia Alemã de
Santo Amaro, São Paulo
1950, p.36.
[14] Church registers of the Catholic church:
Curia de
Santo Amaro batismos 1829.
[15]
see Hunsche,
Carlos: Die
deutschen Einwanderer nach Südbrasilien (German immigrants
into South Brazil)
1824-1830 in: Genealogisches Jahrbuch, vol. 19, part
2, Neustadt/Aisch 1979, p. 665-684. The following clandestine Palatine emigrants
are registered there as having arrived in the South of Brazil on May
14,
1829.
GALLAS,
Kilian of Essweiler (6 persons),
JUNG Karl of Foeckelberg (1p.)
ROBINSON Georg of Ulmet
(5 persons),
SANDER Adam of Konken (6p.), SANDER Jakob of Foeckelberg
(4 persons).
More
names and dates of German immigrants to
[16] Cp.Werle-Fauser loc.cit. p.43 and „Liste
I“ of Zenha, loc.cit.
p.139. The following early German
families are quoted by the magistrate of Itapecerica,
but without any hint at their origin: Simon KLEIN, Pedro THEISEN,
Miguel
BAUERMANN, José ENGEL (Ingle/Hengles in
Brazilian
spelling
[17] List of 28.11.1828,
„Liste F“ of Zenha,
a.a.O. S.85.
[18] Theophil SCHMIDT was fluent in the
Portuguese language and wrote in a fine handwriting, so Zenha
concludes from these facts that he may have served a few years in the
strangers’ legion in
[19] Cp. Zenha, A Colônia , S.36
[20] Cp. Zenha, A Colônia
, S.43.
[21] The lists were made separately for Santo
Amaro and Itapecerica
by the
peace Joaquim Manoel
de Moraes and
Fernando
Antonio de Moraes;
printed in Zenha, A Colônia,
p.134ff. In this process from writing down the strange German family
names
until printing, many errors of hearing, writing or reading have
occurred.
[22] Cp. Zenha Edmundo,
A Vila de Santo Amaro, São
Paulo
1977, p.113
[23] Cp. Zenha, A Colônia,
p. 59.