ROOTS IN WÜRTTEMBERG
Introduction My fifth great-grandparents Johann Michael and Anna Margaretha Gräter Lieb represent the earliest documented ancestors of my great-grandmother, Catherine Ellen Lieb McWilliams. The Liebs emigrated from present-day Germany to America. Written records of the Gräter family and Anna Margaretha's second husband, Johann Mathias Staudt's family, date back into the 1600s in church books in the Sulzdorf, Württemberg and Wolfersweiler, Saarland states in the Holy Roman Empire. The Lieb's arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday, August 11, 1750. The rest is history!
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Google Map Marking the Approximate Location
of Sulzdorf in Germany Today |
Johann Michael Lieb and his wife, Anna Margaretha Gräter, were among nearly 65,000 Germans who immigrated to colonial America before the Revolutionary War.[i] They probably were not among those who sought religious freedom in the colonies but were more likely seeking land ownership and relief from high taxes in their native land. In fact, emigrants often had to petition for permission to leave their homeland and were required to pay a tax equal to ten per cent of the value of all their property before a passport would be issued to them.
The Lieb and Gräter family homes were within the present-day
German state of Baden-Württemberg, which was then the Duchy (area ruled by a
duke) of Württemberg in the Holy Roman Empire. They probably rented their
dwelling from a wealthy landowner near the village of Sulzdorf, located about
40 miles northeast of the capital of Stuttgart. The duke in control of the
region lived an extravagant lifestyle in a luxurious palace supported by heavy
taxation on his subjects. Church records documenting the families indicated
they were Protestants, the official religion of the dutchy after the
Reformation, even though it was part of a Roman Catholic empire.
Michael, who worked as a miller, was married twice before
coming to America. His first wife’s surname was not determined but her given
name was Eva Catharina. They were probably married around 1739 and had two
children together.
Their daughter, Anna Catharina Lieb, was baptized on 15 July 1740 in the Protestant Church in Sulzdorf. Two years later the Lieb’s welcomed Johann Simon Lieb, who was baptized in the same church on 24 December 1742
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15 July 1740 Baptism Record of Anna Catharina Lieb[ii] |
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24 December 1742 Baptism Record of Johann Simon Lieb[iii] |
Translation: Johann Simon Lieb, baptized 24 December [1742]
Parents Johann Michael Lieb, miller in Sulzdorf, and Evä Cathrinä.
Godparents Simon Bauer and Johann Michael Rau, both Halle subjects from
Sulzdorf.
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7 November 1747 Eva Catharina Lieb Burial Record[iv] |
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20 February 1748 Marriage Record for Johann Michael Lieb and Anna Margaretha Gräter[v] |
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| 15 November 1728 Baptism Record for Anna Margaretha Gräter[vi] |
Translation: Anna Margaretha legitimate daughter of Hanß Caspar Gräter at Veinau and Maria Margaretha his wife was born on the 15th of November [1728] Monday night at 9 o’clock, on the following day baptized, and then [or there?] was promised by Anna Margaretha, wife [ink spot] Rochendörfer at Veinau, and Maria Eva, Johann Georg Gräter’s legitimate wife at Veinau and Anna Catharina, Caspar Schreyer’s legitimate wife. [Tüngental Church book 2]
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13 November 1725 Marriage Record for Hanss Caspar Gräter and Maria Margaretha Bonhen[vii] |
Translation: Hanß Caspar Gräter; legitimate son of Hanß Gräter, Hall inhabitant and captain at Wolpersdorf, and Maria Margaretha, surviving widow of the late Hanß Bohnen, former Hall subject at Veinau were married in the local church [Tüngental] on Tuesday 13 November [1725].
Anna Catharina and Michael had a son, Johann Jacob Lieb, who was baptized on 22 November 1748. No further mention of Jacob was found. He may have perished before their emigration or during the perilous journey to America.
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22 November 1748 Baptism Record of Johann Jacob Lieb[viii]
Translation: Johann Jacob, born in Sulzdorf, 22 November
[1748], baptized in Anhausen. Parents Johann Michael Lieb, miller in
Sulzdorf and Anna Margaretha Godparents; Johann Michael Rau and Simon Sauer,
both Halle subjects from Sulzdorf, and Jacob Bohn, Halle subject from Veinau.
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| Map of Villages Mentioned in Lieb and Gräter Church Records |
ODESSEY TO AMERICA
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| River Routes to Rotterdam |
Two years after their marriage, the Liebs began their journey to the New World with Anna Margaretha’s father, Hanss Caspar Gräter. Other unnamed family members probably traveled with them, but only the adult men aged sixteen and above were identified on the ship’s passenger list. They might have traveled overland to Stuttgart where they could float down the Necker River, and from there, down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, Netherlands, before boarding the sailing ship, Patience. Their vessel traversed the English Channel and began its Atlantic crossing from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England.
The Leib and Gräter families may have known they were embarking on a hazardous journey, or they may have been unaware of the enormous risks they faced as passengers in a tiny wooden ship on the storm-tossed north Atlantic. Every journey was unique, but their trip was may have been somewhat like the one described by Gottlieb Mittelberger, who followed the same path only two months later than Michael and Anna Margaretha. He arrived in Philadelphia on 10 October, after the Lieb’s arrival on 11 August. His diary, written in 1756, later translated from German and published in 1898, survives as a first-hand account of his journey.
Mittelberger’s somber words detail some of the perils the Liebs may have experienced on their journey to America. His narrative should be read with some warnings, however. He was paid by German nobility to write this account of his transatlantic crossing. They wanted to discourage their populations from emigrating to America so they could retain taxpayer support of their extravagant lifestyles. However, there is likely a grain of truth in Mittelberger’s words and few primary sources exist to confirm or refute his experiences. In addition, the comfort of an emigrant’s voyage was dependent upon the preparation and scruples of their ship’s captain. The amount and quality of the food and beverages onboard ship had a huge impact on the comfort and survival of the passengers.
… I hope, therefore, that my beloved countrymen and all
Germany will care no less to obtain accurate information as to how far it is to
Pennsylvania, how long it takes to get there; what the journey costs, and
besides, what hardships and dangers one has to pass through… I relate both what
is good and what is evil, and I hope, therefore, to be considered impartial and
truthful by an honor loving world…
…A person over 10 years pays for the passage from Rotterdam
to Philadelphia 10 pounds, or 60 florins. Children from 5 to 10 years pay half
price, 5 pounds or 30 florins. All children under 5 years are free. For these
prices the passengers are conveyed to Philadelphia, and, as long as they are at
sea, provided with food, though with very poor, as has been shown above.
But this is only the sea-passage; the other costs on land,
from home to Rotterdam, including the passage on the Rhine, are at least 40
florins, no matter how economically one may live. No account is here taken of
extraordinary contingencies. I may safely assert that, with the greatest
economy, many passengers have spent 200 florins from home to Philadelphia…
…This journey lasts from the beginning of May to the end of
October, fully half a year, amid such hardships as no one is able to describe
adequately with their misery.
The cause is because the Rhine-boats from Heilbronn [a town about thirty miles from
Stuttgart] to Holland have to pass by 36 custom-houses, at all of which the
ships are examined, which is done when it suits the convenience of the
custom-house officials. In the meantime the ships with the people are detained
long, so that the passengers have to spend much money. The trip down the Rhine
alone lasts therefore 4, 5 and even 6 weeks.
…Both in Rotterdam and in Amsterdam the people are packed
densely, like herrings so to say, in the large sea-vessels. One person receives
a place of scarcely 2 feet width and 6 feet length in the bedstead, while many
a ship carries four to six hundred souls; not to mention the innumerable
implements, tools, provisions, water barrels and other things which likewise
occupy much space.
On account of contrary winds it takes the ships sometimes 2,
3 and 4 weeks to make the trip from Holland to Kaupp [Cowes] in England. But
when the wind is good, they get there in 8 days or even sooner. Everything is
examined there and the custom-duties paid, whence it comes that the ships ride
there 8, 10 to 14 days and even longer at anchor, till they have taken in their
full cargoes…
When the ships have for the last time weighed their anchors
near the city of Kaupp [Cowes] in Old England, the real misery begins with the
long voyage. For from there the ships, unless they have good wind, must often
sail 8, 9, 10 to 12 weeks before they reach Philadelphia. But even with the
best wind the voyage lasts 7 weeks.
But during the voyage there is on board these ships terrible
misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever,
dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and
the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, also
from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably.
Add to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat,
dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other
trouble, as c. v. the lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people,
that they can be scraped off the body. The misery reaches the climax when a
gale rages for 2 or 3 nights and days, so that every one believes that the ship
will go to the bottom with all human beings on board. In such a visitation the
people cry and pray most piteously.
When in such a gale the sea rages and surges, so that the
waves rise often like high mountains one above the other, and often tumble over
the ship, so that one fears to go down with the ship; when the ship is
constantly tossed from side to side by the storm and waves, so that no one can
either walk, or sit, or lie, and the closely packed people in the berths are
thereby tumbled over each other, both the sick the well—it will be readily
understood that many of these people, none of whom had been prepared for
hardships, suffer so terribly from them that they do not survive it.
I myself had to pass through a severe illness at sea, and I
best know how I felt at the time. These poor people often long for consolation,
and I often entertained and comforted them with singing, praying and exhorting;
and whenever it was possible and the winds and waves permitted it, I kept daily
prayer-meetings with them on deck. Besides, I baptized five children in
distress, because we had no ordained minister on board. I also held divine
service every Sunday by reading sermons to the people; and when the dead were
sunk in the water, I commended them and our souls to the mercy of God.
…At length, when, after a long and tedious voyage, the ships
come in sight of land, so that the promontories can be seen, which the people
were so eager and anxious to see, all creep from below on deck to see the land
from afar, and they weep for joy, and pray and sing, thanking and praising God.
The sight of the land makes the people on board the ship, especially the sick
and the half dead, alive again, so that their hearts leap within them; they
shout and rejoice, and are content to bear their misery in patience, in the
hope that they may soon reach the land in safety. But alas!
When the ships have landed at Philadelphia after their long
voyage, no one is permitted to leave them except those who pay for their
passage or can give good security; the others, who cannot pay, must remain on
board the ships till they are purchased, and are released from the ships by
their purchasers…
…As soon as the ships that bring passengers from Europe have
cast their anchors in the port of Philadelphia, all male persons of 15 years
and upward are placed on the following morning into a boat and led two by two
to the court-house or town-hall of the city. There they must take the oath of
allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain. This being done, they are taken in
the same manner back to the ships.[ix]
PATIENCE
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Advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette for Freight or Passage from Philadelphia to Charleston, South Carolina, on the Patience[x] |
Before the Revolutionary War, only British sailing vessels
were allowed to legally land at American ports. Michael, Anna Margaretha and
her father crossed the Atlantic on an English ship named Patience. The
vessel had a fitting moniker, as the voyage lasted anywhere from eight to
twelve weeks. Lists of arrivals of foreign immigrants to Philadelphia, customs
documents and Ben Franklin’s newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette,
provided fascinating details about the Patience.
“The Patience was consistently called a ‘ship’ in the
customs records, a term that referred to a specific type of rig in the 18th
century – originally a three-master with a course [square sail], a topsail and
topgallant sail on the fore [front of the ship], and mainmasts [mast at the
middle of the ship] and a lateen [triangular] sail and square topsail on the
mizzenmast [mast at the back of the ship]. The Patience was a relatively
small ship of 200 tons…but with a capacity of 260 to 270 passengers with a crew
of 15 or 16 in what must have been severely cramped quarters. One source says
it also sported eight guns.”[xi]
The Patience, captained by either Hugh Steel or John
Brown, made annual voyages from Rotterdam to Philadelphia between 1748
and 1753. It typically made a brief stop at Cowes in southern England on the
Isle of Wight to take on provisions before beginning an Atlantic crossing.
Depending on the weather, the ocean voyage lasted between eight and twelve
weeks. After delivering his cargo to Philadelphia, the captain booked
passengers and cargo bound for Charleston, South Carolina, where he loaded rice
and other products to sell upon his return trip to London.
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1750 Philadelphia Custom House Ship
Lists Mentioning the Lieb’s Vessel, Patience[xii] |
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| 1750 Philadelphia Custom House Ship Lists Mentioning the Lieb’s Vessel, Patience |
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| The Pennsylvania Gazette published by Benjamin Franklin |
Benjamin Franklin published Custom House lists of incoming, outgoing, and cleared sea vessels in his Philadelphia newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Patience was among the ships listed in the August 16th “Entered Inwards” list and in the October 11th “Cleared” list.
NEXT - LAND HO!
SOURCES
[i] Grubb, Farley, “German Immigration to Pennsylvania, 1709 to 1820,” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 20, No. 3, Winter, 1990, p. 420, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990; accessed www.jstor.org
[ii] Evangelische Kirche, Sulzdorf, OA. Hall, Württemberg, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, v. 2, p. 59, Baptism, Anna Catharina Lieb, 1740; accessed www.ancestry.com, Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985, Sulzdorf, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, image 500 (www.familysearch.org filmstrip 1343808)
iii] Evangelische Kirche, Sulzdorf, OA. Hall, Württemberg, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, v. 2, p. 69, Baptism, Johann Simon Lieb, 1742; accessed www.ancestry.com, Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985, Sulzdorf, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, image 509 (www.familysearch.org filmstrip 1343808)
[iv] Evangelische Kirche, Sulzdorf, OA. Hall, Württemberg, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, v. 2, p. 22, Burials, Eva Catharina Lieb, 1747; accessed www.ancestry.com, Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985, Sulzdorf, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, image 598 (www.familysearch.org filmstrip 1343808)
[v] Evangelische Kirche, Sulzdorf, OA. Hall, Württemberg, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, v. 2, p. 14, Marriages, Johann Michael Lieb and Anna Margaretha Gräter, 1748; accessed www.ancestry.com, Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985, Sulzdorf, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, image 670 (www.familysearch.org filmstrip 1343808)
[vi] Evangelische Kirche, Tüngental, Württemberg, v. 2, p. 177, Baptisms, Anna Margaretha Gräter, 1728; accessed www.ancestry.com, Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985, Hessental u Sulzdorf, Familienbücher, Taufen, Tote u Heiraten 1559-1808, image 845 (www.familysearch.org filmstrip 1343811)
[vii] Evangelische Kirche, Tüngental, Württemberg, v. 2, p. 171, Marriages, Hanss Caspar Gräter and Maria Margaretha Bonhen, 1725; accessed www.ancestry.com, Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985, Hessental u Sulzdorf, Familienbücher, Taufen, Tote u Heiraten 1559-1808, image 839 (www.familysearch.org filmstrip 1343811)
[viii] Evangelische Kirche, Sulzdorf, OA. Hall, Württemberg, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, v. 2, p. 104, Baptism, Johann Jacob Lieb, 1748; accessed www.ancestry.com, Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985, Sulzdorf, Taufen, Tote, Heiraten u Konfirmationen 1612-1817, image 547 (www.familysearch.org filmstrip 1343808)
[ix] Mittelberger, Gottlieb, Eben, Carl Theo., translator, Gottlieb Mittelberger's Journey to Pennsylvania the Year 1750 and Return to Germany in the Year 1754…, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, J.J. McVey, 1898, pp. 17-26, 44-45; accessed https://archive.org, (in the public domain)
[x] The Pennsylvania Gazette, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Benjamin
Franklin, Sunday, August 16, 1750, p. 2 and Sunday, October 11, 1750, pp. 2
& 4
[xi] Baird, Robert W., History of the Ship Patience, Bob’s Genealogy Filing Cabinet, article written in 2010 or later, quoting Darrel, Paul A., “Immigrant Ships,” The Palatine Immigrant, Volume VII No. 1 (Summer 1981), pp 31-32; accessed https://genfiles.com
[xii] The
Pennsylvania Gazette, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin,
Sunday, August 16, 1750, p. 2
