Tag: immigration

#52Ancestors: John Philip Harless, 1738 German Palatine Immigrant to America

My 26th entry in Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” family history blogging challenge.

The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor.

 

Headstone erected posthumously for John Philip Harless and wife Margaret Price.

My 26th ancestor is my husband’s 7th great grandfather John Philip Harless (1716-1772). John Philip is our first Harless ancestor to immigrate to America, specifically, to the American colonies. John Philip Harless is of course the American spelling and pronunciation of his name. Some documents spell his first name “Johan” and his last name “Harlas”, “Harlash”, “Harlos”, “Harlosh”, “Horlas”, and “Horlash”. Sometimes he is referred to as “Philip”, instead of John Philip or Johan Philip.

Harless is the husband of Anna Margaretha “Margaret” PREISS [Price], the grandfather of Ferdinand HARLESS (1755-1853), the 2nd great grandfather of Miles (Myles) Washington HARLESS (1826-1891), the 3rd great grandfather of Leonard Jackson HARLESS (1858-1946), and the 5th great grandfather of Jean Alice HARLESS (1912-2011).

John Philip was born in 1716 in Germersheim, a town in the present day southern German state of Rhindeland-Palatinate. He married Anna Margaretha “Margaret” Preiss (1718-1784) — whom I profiled earlier in my first #52Ancestors post — on 17 February 1738 in Offenbach, Germany. 

The new couple celebrated their honeymoon on board the ship the Winter Galley, in the last wave of the Palatine migration. It appears that they boarded the Winter Galley in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with a stop in Deal, England, which is near Dover.
View John Philip Harless : Old World in a larger map


Harless, his wife, and a handful of other family members (no children yet), arrived at the Port of Philadelphia on 5 September 1738, and Harless took the required oath of allegiance (to the British king!) that same day.

Ralph Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke compiled, transcribed, and published (in 1934) the available Palatine immigration ships’ lists for Philadelphia arrivals from 1727-1808. Our John Philip Harless is included, in three different types of lists produced from the Winter Galley. Volume 1 of the Strassburger and Hinke publication includes type transcribed lists. But Volume 2 includes copies of the actual signatures!

Transcribed list in the Strassburger and Beaver publication, V 1, page 199.
“[List 52 A] A List of all the mens names and ages from sixteen years and upwards Passengers on b y Winter Gally, Edward Paynter, Commander. [Qualified September 5, 1738.]”
252 passengers total. 139 Palatines who took the oath. 113 women and children.
(Misspellings and punctuations copied from text.)
Transcribed list in the Strassburger and Beaver publication, V 1, page 201.
“[List 52 B] Palatines imported in the Ship the Winter Galley, Edward Paynter, Com, from Rotterdam, but last from Deal. Qualified 5th Sept, 1738.”
(Misspellings and punctuations copied from text.)
Transcribed list in the Strassburger and Beaver publication, V 1, page 203.
“[List 52 C] At the Court House of Philadelphia, September 5th, 1738.
Present
Anthony Palmer, Clement Plumsted, Ralph Asheton, Wiliam Allen, Esq.
The Palatinates whose Names are underwritten, imported in the Ship the Winter Galley, Edward Paynter, M, a Rotterdam, did this day take and subscribe the Oaths to the Government.”
(Misspellings and punctuations copied from text.)
On the photocopied signatures included in the Strassburger and Beaver publications, I had a very difficult time trying to identify the signature of Johan “John” Philip Harless. I knew it had to be included, because I find a ton of family historians claiming this publication displays the Harless signature (of course, they could all be wrong!). It doesn’t help that so many of these Palatine immigrants have names starting with “Johann”. It’s like looking for a Jose on my side of the family! So, after an hour of my vision going cross-eyed from staring at these signatures, I enlisted the help of an <ahem> expert — my husband Jeff, who studied German way back in high school.
 
Jeff felt confident in identifying his ancestor’s signature pretty quickly. That last name didn’t look anything like Harless to me. But as Jeff pointed out, the first letter of the surname looks just like the “h” that appears in Johan and Philip. He also explained to me how the German double S consonant is written and pronounced, like a capital B (note the end of the surname, which would jive with Harless). The middle name, to me, looks like it ends with a “b” instead of a “p”, making it more like Philib instead of Philip. But as the Palatine Project points out, “Fileb” was a common old world German spelling for the name Philip. So, are we 100% positive we have identified the correct signature for Jeff’s ancestor John Philip Harless? No. But, it is a confident guess. Hopefully I will be able to verify it against other documents he signed while living in the Colonies. If some other Harless historian can verify or refute this signature, please contact me.
Signature fascimile list in the Strassburger and Beaver publication, V 2, page 207.
[List 52 B] Palatines imported in the Ship the Winter Galley, Edward Paynter, Com, from Rotterdam, but last from Deal. Qualified 5th Sept, 1738.
(Misspellings and punctuations copied from text.)

I will blog more about the family and their descendants. But, if you are impatient, the U.S. era of their family history has been extensively covered in the Pritchard publication noted below, which is available to read for free on HathiTrust. 

Sources Used

Pritchard, J. L. R. (1962). Harless genealogy, John Philip and Anna Margaretha (Preiss) Harless;pioneers in western Virginia and some of their descendents, ([2d ed.].). Cupertino? Calif.]. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066181694

Strassburger, R. B., & Hinke, W. J. (1934). Pennsylvania German pioneers;a publication of the original lists of arrivals in the port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808, (Vols. 1-3, Vol. 1). Norristown,. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.49015000086612

Strassburger, R. B., & Hinke, W. J. (1934). Pennsylvania German pioneers;a publication of the original lists of arrivals in the port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808, (Vols. 1-3, Vol. 2). Norristown,. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.49015002215748

Maria (Nieto) Robledo And The US-Mexico Laredo Foot Bridge

On October 27, 1915 — one day shy of her 23rd birthday — my great-grandmother, Maria (Nieto) Robledo (1887-1974), immigrated to the United States from Mexico via the foot bridge connecting Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Despite being married and having two children, Maria only crossed into the U.S. with one child — her infant son Refugio Robledo.

I discovered this fact sometime between 2003 and 2005, during one of many in-person research trip to the Pacific Region of the National Archives, when I found Maria’s naturalization certificate (I got to hold the actual original signed certificate in my white-gloved hands!). My family knew that she had immigrated from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, but we didn’t know her point of entry.

I still have not uncovered when Maria’s husband (my great-grandfather Jose “Joe” Robledo), or their oldest daughter Guadalupe (“Lupe”, my godmother) crossed into the U.S. I also don’t know why the family did not cross together.

Laredo Foot Bridge
This photo is undated, but looks like it could have been the bridge that stood between 1905 and 1932. [International Foot Bridge, Laredo, Texas], Postcard, n.d.; digital images, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth13260/ : accessed June 20, 2012), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Laredo Public Library, Laredo, Texas.
According to Wikipedia, the foot bridge (now called the Gateways to the Americas International Bridge) was first constructed in the 1880s, was destroyed by a flood in 1905, then repaired, and was rebuilt in 1932, continuing this cycle through present day.

Since finding her original naturalization certificate, I have been able to obtain the actual border crossing record on Ancestry. According to that record, Maria Nieto (I don’t know why she isn’t recorded under her married name of Robledo) entered into the U.S. on October 27, 1915 at the Laredo bridge, accompanied by her baby Refugio Robledo (no one else). She was 23 years old, married, Mexican, from San Luis Potosi, and had no occupation. Maria was able to read and write. She claimed never to have been in the U.S. before. I think the entry record states that she was visiting the U.S. for “shopping”, and she had $5.05 in her possession (I assume that’s U.S. dollars rather than Mexican pesos).

Maria Nieto Border Crossing 1915
Border crossing record, courtesy of Ancestry.com. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C.; Nonstatistical Manifests and Statistical Index Cards of Aliens Arriving at Laredo, Texas, May 1903 – November 1929; Record Group: 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Microfilm Serial: A3379; Microfilm Roll: 70.

I hope to one day visit the Laredo foot bridge. Although it’s not the same bridge (except in name) that carried my ancestors to their new life, I’d still like to walk across it and try to imagine what they felt. Were they scared? Were they worried? Were they relieved? Were they hopeful?


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