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According to the 1990 census, there are more Americans of German descent than any other nationality: 23% (followed by Irish with 16%) |
See the following web sites for a good background of the Palatines, their background, and the setting in Europe that caused them to migrate, and the early years of their settlement here in America. (Our Palatine ancestor, Jacob Vatter/Feather, came in 1775, about 70 years after the Palatine migration started, and settled in Pennsylvania, where many of the original Palatines settled.) Read all three of these histories! Even though some of the material is duplicative, these three histories complement each other.
See an excellent set
of links for Palatine genealogy.
See a page which is the home page for the Palatine genealogical society: Palatines to America. This page includes a register of Palatine immigrants with EMail references to the submitter. If you are a descendant of a Palatine immigrant, register your ancestor here.
And here is a part of the German Genealogy Page dealing with Rheinland-Pfalz / Rhineland-Palatinate, the area from which Palatines came from.
This page was designated the top WWW Genealogy Site for 1996: Kraig Ruckel's Palatine & Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy Page in one poll.
Many Palatine German immigrants migrated to Pennsylvania, and also to other states, like Maryland and the Carolinas. The Palatines who migrated to Pennsylvania joined immigrants from other parts of Germany to form that generic class called "Pennsylvania Dutch". This page explains why Pennsylvania Dutch means German, not Dutch.
There were Palatine refugees to other parts of the globe, some of which then left that destination to come to America. So, you may find "cousins" from the Palatinate area in other spots on the globe than America and Germany. One such destination was the Black Sea area of Russia. See The American Society of Germans from Russia.
Our ancestor, Jacob Vatter/Feather, was from Frankenthal, Germany, a small town approximately 15 miles northwest of Heidelberg. Visit City.Net for Heidelberg.Top of PageFrankenthal is also about 50 miles south of Frankfurt Am Main. Go to City.Net.Frankfurt for some neat links to Frankfurt, as well as the current temperature. Also, check out the history of Frankfurt.
Resources for German Genealogy on the InternetThe Hesse / Hessen Page is a Gateway to many German / Palatine links for history and genealogy.
The German American Cultural Heritage Page has a good many links to interesting web sites on your Palatine heritage.
This page, from the October 1996 issue of OnLine Genealogy, explains in a nutshell German history from the Celts in about 1000 BC to about 160 A.D. to about 1800, with outstanding links at the end.
Gabrielle's Home Page - This is great page for German Genealogy and History. It has a Surname data base of folks looking for surnames and their E-Mails or Home Pages. And, it has a bunch of history on parts of Germany. Very interesting page.
Another Genealogy Page with some good German information is the Broyles/Briles Home Page, including an on-line listing of attendees at early German churches.
Here is the all-English German Genealogy Page, filled with all kinds of goodies for the German genealogist.Top of PageIf you are interested in pursuing German genealogy, you should be familiar with the way in which families traditionally named their children at the site for German Naming Customs
Visit Cindy's list of German Links for a rather complete list of anything German having to do with genealogy.
The German Migration Resource Page.
Check out The German American Corner Home Page
Check out this Newsgroup: soc.genealogy.german
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Copyright, Norris Taylor 2000