_Thomas GROVER ______
_Andrew GROVER _|
| |_Elizabeth CHADWICK _
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|--Mehitable GROVER
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| _James FREETHY ______
|_Mary FREETHY __|
|_Mary MILBURY _______
_John PALMER _
_John PALMER _|
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|--John PALMER
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_Lawrence Luther WELCH _|
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|--Barbara Susanne WELCH
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| _Eddie Lawrence CRUM _
|_Opal Mary CRUM ________|
|_Emma LAYER __________
Family 1:"The German origin of the Zeller family was the village of Etsbach in the Hachenburg district, about half way between Cologne and Marburg. No parentage has been found for Johann Heinrich Zeller, but he is on the Lutheran church books at Hamm, near Etsbach, from 1694-1701 when he had four children baptized. His wife was not named.
Johann Heinrich and a Johann Zeller were among the 13,000 Palatines who fled religious persecution and economic hardship in Germany in 1709. Some fled down the Rhine in boats to Rotterdam, other made their way overland. Queen Anne of England sympathized with these refugees, who were mostly Protestant, and gave permission for the transports and packet-boats that were at that time carrying troops to the Continent to be used to bring some of these refugees to England. About 500 families were settled on large estates in Ireland, but by far the majority were transported to the American colonies, a Six-month sea voyage with over-crowded and unsanitary conditions. Many died on the voyage, particularly women and children.
On the receiving list of coopers and brewers of St Catherine's Parish in London, 2 june 1709, were two Zellers listed next to each other. The first was Henry Sehler, aged 30, single ot the Reformed faith. The second was John Zeller, 23, single and Lutheran. Either the statement that Henry was single is incorrect, or his wife had died (it is incorrect for John whose marriage is given in German records, and his wife appears on American records also). Some researchers think these men were brothers, but they came from separate, although nearby villages. Probably they were related.
Governor George Hunter of New York promised 40 acres of land to those immigrants who would produce tar and turpentine for the British Navy. When a group of Palatines arrived in 1710, they were settled in camps in Livingston Manor NY, but the land was not forthcoming and the trees did not produce tar and turpentine in any quantity. The Governor had to provide rations to carry these immigrants through several winters.
Johann Heinrich Zeller appeared first on the Hunter Subsistence Lists in July 1710, with 2 persons over 10 in his household. Subsequent lists are not consistent, but by October 1710, he had four persons in his household. According to family tradition, Heinrich's wife was named Anna Maria Briegal. Although there is no proof of this , there was a George Briegal among the 1709/10 immigrants.
In 1711, Johann Heinrich and Johann Zeller, both from Annsberg, one of the Palatine villages, were among the Volunteers to go to a border skirmish against Canada. That same year Heinrich's son, Hartman, was born; probably named for Hartman Windecker, one of the Palatine leaders. In 1713, both the Zeller families were among those who moved to Schoharie, NY under the leadership of Conrad Weiser. There these families lived in seven "dorfs" or villages, and in a few years became self-supporting.
Johann Heinrich first purchased in 1738, 130 acres of land for £52 located at what is now Winterville, near Mt. Aena, in Tulpehocken twp, Berks Co. The following year he got a warrant for 115 acres of land adjacent to his other property. He had it surveyed, but did not obtain a patent until 1750. On this land Heinrich Zeller built for his family a substantial 2 story half-timber log house, a type common in the Palatinate. This house was bequeathed to his son, George, who in turn left it to his son Andrew. Andrew sold it in 1806 to the Winter family, and the old house was lived in until it was destroyed by fire on Thanksgiving 1964.
In Tulpehocken, as in other pioneer settlements, people built log houses or cabins, cleared and tilled the soil, bargained with the Indians, and eked out a precarious existence. They had come to this country partly to escape religious persecution and were eager to begin worship services although usually without the benefit of clergy. They met in homes, barns or outdoors for Bible reading, hymns and prayer and sometimes a sermon by a missionary, a minister or a devout layman, would be sent or come of his own accord to minister to these people on the frontier.
John Philip Boehm, son of a Reformed minister of Hochstadt, Germany, came to America in 1720 and settled in the Philadelphia area. He became a lay minister and had established three congregations in the area by 1725--the beginning of the Reformed Church in America. Boehm was asked to come to the Tulpehocken area where he held the first communion in 1727, believed to have been at Reed's near Stouchsburg. Rev. Boehm was ordained ca 1728.
Reformed groups were meeting in different places in the Tulpehocken area, and by 1738 Rev Boehm was giving communion in two places. One of these is believed to have been near Trinity Tulpehocken Church and in 1738 is the accepted date for the beginning of this church. It is not known when the first building, probably of logs, was built to house the congregation, but when in 1748 a formal congregation was formed, three Zellers were among the first members--H. Zoeller, and his sons, Hardman Zoeller and Joh Zoeller. Some of Heinrich's descendants stayed in the Tulpehocken area and 1977 ten known descendants were among the members of Trinity Church. Many of the family are buried in the ancient graveyard.
In 1754 Johann Heinrich made his will which was probated 20 jan 1756. The estate was not settled until 1772 when the children released their rights to the estate to their brother, John George. From his will and these quitclaims the family of Johann Heinrich can be established. Anna Maria died ca 1765. Early researchers badly mixed up the families of Johann Heinrich and Johann Zeller. In recent years John. F. Vallentine and G Thomas Zeller, Historian of the Zeller Family Association, have researched these men from the primary records. Unless otherwise noted, the material on these families has been taken from the above references and the primary sources have not been checked.
In the 1920's Frank Zeller, a Philadelphia lumberman and consulting engineer, with the aid of Bailey, Banks and Biddle Co., "Purveyors of Crests," published a genealogy of the Zellers going back to ca 1450, in which he gives the parents of Johan Heinrich as Jacques Zeller and Lady Clotilde de Valois, of the French nobility. No documentation has been found for this family tradition, but it has been picked up and published in various forms several times, as Frank Zeller furnished an entry for Virkus' Compendium of American Genealogy. It would be nice to believe that we are descended from French nobility, but recent Zeller researchers as well as several eminent genealogists , including Dr. Milton Rubincam, believe that Lady Clothilde is totally fictitious."Mary E. Ambrose
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|--Johann Heinrich ZELLER
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