Thursday, September 21, 2023

JOHANN MICHAEL AND ANNA MARGARETHA GRÄTER LIEB - Chapter One


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! 

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



15 July 1740 Baptism Record of Anna Catharina Lieb[ii]


Translation: Anna Catharina legitimate daughter of Johann Michael Lieb müller in Sulzdorf and wife Evä was baptized on the 15th of July in Sulzdorf in which the baptismal sponsors were; Anna Catharina, Simon Bauer’s [wife] and Anna Maria, Peter Rau[en]’s wife of Sulzdorf. 



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. 



Michael’s first marriage ended when Eva Catharina died in 1747. Church records indicated she was buried on November 7. No other details of Michael and Eva Catharina’s life together were found, except that Michael’s occupation was listed as “Mahlmüller” or flour miller. This information aligns with other documents stating Michael’s occupation and his future purchase of a gristmill in Bern Township in Berks County, Pennsylvania.



7 November 1747 Eva Catharina Lieb Burial Record[iv]


Translation: Wife, the married wife of Johann Michael Lieb, Mahl müller in Sulzdorf was buried on November 7th in Sulzdorf.                    Sulzdorf, the 7th of November [1747]




Michael and his second wife, Anna Margaretha Gräter, were married in the Evangelical Church in Sulzdorf, Hall, Württemberg, on 20 February 1748. Anna Margaretha was nineteen years old, and Michael was probably in his late twenties, but his exact year of birth was not discovered.



20 February 1748 Marriage Record for Johann Michael Lieb and Anna Margaretha Gräter[v] 


Translation: 1748. 8 Sulzdorf on 20th Feb.  Johann Michael Lieb, miller in Sulzdorf, widower, was married with Anna Margaretha, legitimate unmarried daughter of Caspar Bräter [Gräter], … in Veinau on 20 February 


Anna Margaretha was the daughter of Hanss Caspar Gräter and Maria Margaretha Bonhen. Hanss was from the town of Häll and captain of Wolpertsdorf. Maria Margaretha [maiden name unknown] was the widow of Hanss Bonhen from the village of Veinau. The paternal grandfather was Hanss Gräter, according to Hanss Caspar and Maria Margaretha’s 1725 marriage record. 


 

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]




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.

 

 

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. 


 


Map of Villages Mentioned in Lieb and Gräter Church Records

 

 ODESSEY TO AMERICA

 

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

 

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.


1750 Philadelphia Custom House Ship Lists Mentioning the Lieb’s Vessel, Patience[xii]



1750 Philadelphia Custom House Ship Lists Mentioning the Lieb’s Vessel, Patience

 

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




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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JOHANN MICHAEL AND ANNA MARGARETHA GRÄTER LIEB - Chapter Six

  Introduction  M y fifth great-grandparents Johann Michael and Anna Margaretha Gräter Lieb represent the earliest documented ancestors of m...