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In 1712, a group of German miners and smelters from the Siegerland set out with their families to help sett ing up iron ore processing in North America. A total of 42 people, 21 of them from Trupbach, reached the then English province of Virginia in April 1714 and founded the Germanna colony.These Siegerland experts in iron production had decided to emigrate because the living conditions in the Siegerland were at a historical low point and the barren soil of the Siegerland could hardly feed the growing population ...This book describes the early emigrants' origins, since they formed the largest contingent of the emi grants. Accompanied by lots of pictures from now and then, it is intended to give the descendants of these emigrants, who are now living in the USA, an over view on how people lived in the Siegerland in the past and what made them decide to leave everything be hind.
List of contents
Preface by Horst Schmidt-Bocking 7 Preface by Joachim Frank 13 Introduction 17 The lay of the Siegerland: Siegen and Trupbach 19 Trupbach-a short historical review 27 History of iron mining in the Siegerland and Trupbach 33 Charcoal production and the 'Haubergswirtschaft' 45 The importance of farming 53 An 'Amicable Donation'-Historical background of the 1714 emigration 63 Emigration in 1712 and final settlement in 1714 71 The Trupbach emigrants-family trees 75 The Trupbach emigrants-birth houses 79 The New Contact between Germanna and the Siegerland 95 Famous descendents of the Siegerland/Trupbach emigrants 97 Acknowledgments 107References and Remarks 108 Appendix I:The 1989 Siegener Zeitung article 112 Appendix II:Encounter in an airplane 117Appendix III:Ancestry research on the American side by Benjamin Clark Holtzclaw, Jr. 123Appendix IV:Ancestry research on the American side by William Irvin Utterback 127Appendix V:On the origin of the Otterbach family 133Appendix VI:Family trees of the emigrant relatives in the Siegerland 136Johannes Otterbach 136 Hans Holtzklau 149 Johann Kemper 166 Johannes Fischbach 182 Christoffel Richter 200 Henrich Spielmann 214 Johannes Brombach 230 Hans Merten 244The Authors 244
