2024 Prompt- Immigration - Johann Georg Odewalt

 Johann Georg Odewalt 1724-1792

*Nancy Simmons

 **Paul Simmons - father

***June Putman - grandmother

****Ernest Putman - great grandfather

*****Mary Putman - 2nd great-grandmother

******Elizabeth Slusher - 3rd great-grandmother

*******Mary Odewalt - 4th great-grandmother

********George Odewalt - 5th great-grandfather

*********Johann Georg Odewalt - 6th great-grandfather

18th Century Immigration

You would think after years and years of researching my family I would have found many immigration records. My mother's family is a combination of 19th century Irish immigrants and deeply rooted New Englanders and I have not found any immigration records for them. Now, my father's family is deeply rooted in 18th century German immigrants, and I have been able to find a few Oath of Allegiance records that are used as immigration records.

Johann Georg Odenwald - 1724  Baptismal record
Note : various spelling of the surname - Odenwald, Odewalt, Otewalt 

 

Through my paternal grandmother, June Putman, I have ancestor Hans Georg Odewalt born October 22, 1724, in Neckargemund, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the ship the Janet and signed an Oath of Allegiance on Monday October 7, 1751, at the Courthouse at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

In the 18th century when many Germans were fleeing from Germany they would travel down the Rhine to Rotterdam, take a ship to England and then leave from a British port for the British colonies.

Germans would travel down the Rhine to Rotterdam,
take a ship to Great Britain, and then sail for the British Colonies

In 1727, Pennsylvania Governor Patrick Gordon warned the legislature that the "large numbers of Strangers" entering "daily" could endanger Pennsylvania's "peace and security." The Governor and the council then required all foreign males age sixteen and over to take an oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain. Thus, when Hans Georg Odewalt arrived in October 1751 he signed an Oath of Allegiance. He must have traveled alone or with friends because he is the only Odewalt male over 16 that signed the oath.

Hans George Odewalt
1751 Oath of Allegiance to King George II
Immigrated from Great Britain to Philadelphia on the ship Janet

 

By 1756 Hans Georg Odewalt had settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and married Elizabeth Magdalena Deyl on August 10, 1756, at Trinity Lutheran Church. Baptismal records show that he and Elizabeth had eight children from 1758 - 1773. My 5th great-grandfather Johann George Odewalt was their fifth child and was born December 7, 1765, and baptized December 25, 1765 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster..

 

The last records I found of Hans Georg Odewalt are his will and a cemetery record. The will was written and signed Hans Georg Otewalt on February 5, 1792, and probated April 10, 1792. The will names his wife Elizabeth, sons; Christian, George, and John and daughters; Dorothe, Catherine, Christina, and Maria. The cemetery record states that Georg Odewalt died in the month of February 1792 and was buried February 13, 1792, in the Trinity Lutheran Church Cemetery in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

1792 Will of George Odewalt, signed February 5, 1792
Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County Will Book F, pages 344-345

 

Hans Georg Odewalt was born in 1724 in Neckargemund, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, part of the Holy Roman Empire. He immigrated to the British colony of Pennsylvania in 1751 and made Oath of Allegiance to King George II of Great Britain. Hans Georg died in 1792 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as the newly formed country of the United States elected George Washington for a second term.

Trinity Lutheran Church Cemetery
1751 Original Cemetery
Dedicated to unmarked stones