Step three: Houses and Buildings Owned by the family
The next step was to see if there were property titles (houses or buildings) in the current county with some historical information of ownership. There is a current database that went back a ways and there were some properties under that surname but it appeared as if the descendants of the immigrants took a couple generations to own property. These people were once again known individuals and not the original immigrants.
However this, along with no building or land ownership in the family provided an important clue as to when they may have come to America.
Step four : Historical Research into the County
Because the immigrant family did not appear to own any land in Colonial Pennsylvania and did not seem to own any houses or other buildings until a couple generations after that 1870 census where the immigrant group appeared, it suggested that they were not of the earlier immigration of Germans that came to Pennsylvania and settled in the same County who could purchase land - the farmers. Local history posted on the Internet by the Historical Society showed that the city they lived in was known for its bakeries. This wave of German immigrants tended to be crafts persons bringing the skills they had in German that those farmers and the burgeoning population needed.
Looking at a web site for the city, I noted that there were some statues honoring the bakers.
Step five : Looking for family members who might have been in the Pennsylvania Militia or who served in the Revolutionary War, and/or who might be listed as members of the honorary societies such as the Sons of the American Revolution or the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The family was on the 1860 census but not the 1850 or the 1840 even though it is possible that some or all of them were in America to be counted. At the time sail ships were coming into Philadelphia and New York though they could have come in through another harbor or off-shore landing spot. But there is always the possibility that some relatives of theirs came earlier, providing them refuge or a start in America. The surname was NOT in the Pennsylvania Militia, the Revolutionary War, or in the Sons of the American Revolution or the Daughters of the American Revolution. So this thoroughness further confirmed they were of a later wave of German Immigrants.
This wave is called The Second Wave.
Why would they NOT be on the earlier census? Well, census' have never been 100% inclusive. (I myself was not counted on two census in modern times. At the time it didn't bother me in the least. I suspect the census taker could not get through our security.) These people were Germans adjusting to a new country. There might have also been some fear of being counted.
Posts in this series will be brought up using the label PA-GERM research path
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