Here's an unusual source for GERMAN ROOTS--of interest to you?

Question

I have discovered the following source listed by a man born in TX who has, as I do, Burnett AND German Roots projects. This should be of particular interest to all those with interests in German Roots because it suggests niche sources of all kinds. His source was ancestry.com.

Annotation	German immigrants in Texas in 1844. From lists prepared by D.H. Klaener, agent in Texas in 1844 for the German Society of Nobility (Deutsche Adelsvereinigung). Names persons who arrived on the first four ships organized by that society for settlement of i
Source Bibliography	SCHWEDLER, FERDINAND A. VON. "Deutsche Einwanderer in Texas (USA) 1844." In Genealogie, vol. 9:5 (May 1968), pp. 154-158.

Comments

Hello Roberta,

My Great, Great Grandmother was an Owens.  They were from about a 50 mile radius of Dillon, SC.   They were in North and South Carolina, near an area that was settled and known as Welsh Neck.  They came, mostly, through North Carolina's coast.  They were Welsh and Scots.  There were many family members that worked their way west, state by state and 'leap-frogging' states.  I have found many in Marion & Marlboro Co, SC or Georgetown & Kershaw District, SC and Edgecombe & Craven Co, NC; those were the names of where they were back in the 1700.-1800's.  Some members of the family wound up having their names spelled Owings, because of either not being able to understand each others speech or not being able to read or write, or both.

Maybe these resources can help you also:

http://www.genealogytoday.com/articles/reader.mv?ID=681

http://sciway3.net/proctor/marion/history/settlers/Settler_Owens.html

http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Settlement/british_isles_settlers.html

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I love your last sentences! I think my Burnetts and Owens were both "just trying to make it any way they could" or were "running away from the edicts of the New America, the United States (which they didn't want anyway). The Burnett line traces way back to Scotland and these Owen families were much more genteel,I suspect, than the Burnetts. I did get a DNA match from a very attractive couple (brother and sister) on ancestry.com who were and still are Owen by name, both from Texas, but not as far out west as my families in SW Texas. One of my distant Owen relatives was Elve ap Catesby. Is that a name familiar to you? Because of these searches, I'm getting interested in "ordinary" Southern folk in my family lines as Settlers. And I know some were from the Carolinas. We may be cousins, Ken. Thanks for your list above!!!

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Well DANG!  Howdy Cousin!  LOL  I have no doubt, if your family lines lead back to the Carolinas, we are related.  I have found so many people that I am related to, NOTHING surprises me any more.  How about, my mother's family are German from PA.  My father's family, who passed away in 2007 and I never knew are from SC/NC, I am actually going to meet several of them this weekend. They are the Welsh/Scots/English/Nordic/French.  I have found in the last few months that, several of the families moved North or South, to exactly the same places that the other was already living!  Several of them mixed over the centuries...and then my mother (living in PA) meets my father (living in NC) ...and here I am!  LOL  Now... in the last year, I have not only found out that I am related by blood, relatively closely, to Warren Buffet and President Obama, and through marriage and blood to the Queen of England...oh, and surprise, my mother's great grandfather was Jewish!- all on my mother's side...  On my father's side get THIS.  I am related to almost every royal family in Europe from about 1500 back AND  I am Native American several times from several tribes (most likely related to Pocahontas)... AND one of my lines leads back to a Henry Chavous who came to Jamestowne Settlement in 1628...wait for it...from Angola!  ...West Africa!  My whole life, I thought that I was German-German, maybe English.  Nope!  Surprise!  LOL  So..anyhow...anything that I can do to help...just let me know.

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Ken, I haven't done this before, but I think on ancestry.com (most of my tree is there, in a couple of parts) or FTM for Mac, I can find my NC/SC distant relatives. May we correspond about that through private emails? that is, are you willing?

That said, you are much more a genetic (and perhaps genealogical) universalist than I. I'll detail it if we correspond elsewhere.

I love your excitement, conveyed above!!

Answer 1

There is quite a bit of literature to this topic, here are some webpages with good bibliographies in German and/or English:

• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainzer_Adelsverein (in German, bibliography mostly in German)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelsverein (in English, bibliography mostly in English)
• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ufa01 (in English, bibliography in English)
• https://medium.com/save-texas-history/genealogy-spotlight-german-immigration-contracts-at-the-glo-7b8f2b44052#.hrlgs7rw4 (contains link to the online land grant database of the General Land Office)

Comments

Helmut, Thank you. I greatly respect your advice.

I'm also interested in some "just plain TX" sources (my mother and her mother were born there), so I'll look at these to see what they might unearth in that regard too. Burnetts and Owens: they traveled much from Scotland and Wales through the centuries to lodge themselves in SW Texas, and then my GM Edna (an Owen who married a Burnett) launched herself and two daughters into California (a blessing for me, my mom, and ultimately my sons). A large number of both families (and my did they have families) are lodged there still today.

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Hello Roberta,

My Great, Great Grandmother was an Owens.  They were from about a 50 mile radius of Dillon, SC.   They were in North and South Carolina, near an area that was settled and known as Welsh Neck.  They came, mostly, through North Carolina's coast.  They were Welsh and Scots.  There were many family members that worked their way west, state by state and 'leap-frogging' states.  I have found many in Marion & Marlboro Co, SC or Georgetown & Kershaw District, SC and Edgecombe & Craven Co, NC; those were the names of where they were back in the 1700.-1800's.  Some members of the family wound up having their names spelled Owings, because of either not being able to understand each others speech or not being able to read or write, or both.

Maybe these resources can help you also:

http://www.genealogytoday.com/articles/reader.mv?ID=681

http://sciway3.net/proctor/marion/history/settlers/Settler_Owens.html

http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Settlement/british_isles_settlers.html