Origin stories, part 2

For members of the Chapman, Longenecker, Mitchell, and Thompson families

This is the companion post to the one that was published yesterday; ancestors from the Chapman, Longenecker, Mitchell, and Thompson families can be found below.

The individuals and families listed in this post came from England, France, Germany, and Spain.

And here’s a reminder of what this is all about:

One of the more common “goals” of genealogists — at least in the U.S. — is tracing a family line back to the original immigrants from the Old World. So, I thought y’all might be interested in some answers to the question: Where did our ancestors come from in the first place, anyway???

What follows is a little list of the ancestors that I know of (so far) who came “across the pond” and established families here on our current continent.

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Thekla Nübling, 4th great-grandmother

(Mitchell Family)

I have already written a bit about Thekla Nübling’s immigration story.

Thekla Nübling > Thekla Patten Dobbs > Irene Norris > Irene Smith > Richard Mitchell, grandfather

John Christian David Smith, 4th great-grandfather

(Chapman Family)

John was born in October of 1775 in what was then the Duchy of Württemberg in the Holy Roman Empire, part of what is now the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. The events of John’s early life and his immigration story are still something of a mystery. What we do know is that he was in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana by July 19, 1825, when he married a local girl named Marie Louise Lejeune; she was sixteen years old, and he was forty-nine.

As a German-speaking immigrant, his name would probably originally have been Johann Christoph David Schmidt; the adopted French version of his name was Jean Cristoval David Smith. Various records include combinations of the German, French, and English versions of this mouthful of a name, as was fairly common among immigrants in multicultural Louisiana.

Jean Cristoval David Smith > John David Smith > Sophie Smith > Artelon Chapman > Elroy Chapman, grandfather

Joachim de Ortega y Prieto, 6th great-grandfather

(Chapman Family)

Joachim — a.k.a. Joaquín — was born August 2, 1755 in the city of Tordesillas in the province of Valladolid in Castilla-Leon, Spain. He probably arrived in the New World sometime in the 1770’s or early 1780’s; by January of 1782 he was stationed at Opelousas Post in Louisiana in what was then New Spain and he’d married a local girl, Marie Josephe Damascene de Soto (the daughter of Manuel Antonio de Soto, below).

Not long after that, Joachim accepted a position as Artillery Commissary at the Presidio San Miguel de Panzacola in Florida, the Spanish fort around which the city now known as Pensacola was developed. After several years in Florida, Joachim was briefly stationed in Texas before he and his family returned to Louisiana in the mid-to-late 1790’s.

Joachim de Ortega y Prieto > Joseph Grégoire Ortego > Joseph Marie Ortego > Valmont Joseph Ortego > Narcisse Ortego > Armelian Ortego > Murdis Ortego > Elroy Chapman, grandfather

Manuel Antonio de Soto, 7th great-grandfather

(Chapman Family)

Manuel was born January 11, 1720 in the province of Pontevedra in Galicia, Spain. He probably traveled to Texas in New Spain sometime in the 1740’s, where he served as a secretary to the colonial governor. Manuel lived at the Mission San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas until July of 1751, when he had to flee to French Louisiana after being accused of subversive activities against his boss, the governor. This is where he got married and started a family.

The Spanish requested the return of the deserter Don de Soto at least twice in the 1750’s, but his new French friends ignored them. After France ceded the colony to Spain at the end of the French and Indian War, Manuel applied for and received a pardon… but in 1769 he was arrested on new charges having to do with inciting violence among some local Native Americans toward Spanish officials. Manuel was sent to a prison for political offenders in Mexico. He was held there for nearly 10 years before he was reunited with his family in Louisiana.

Manuel de Soto y Bermudez > Marie de Soto > Joseph Grégoire Ortego > Joseph Marie Ortego > Valmont Joseph Ortego > Narcisse Ortego > Armelian Ortego > Murdis Ortego > Elroy Chapman, grandfather

Mary Merritt, 8th great-grandmother

(Mitchell Family)

Interestingly, this is one of the few instances where we know a little more about an ancestral mother than about her male partner. Mary Merritt was born in June of 1632 in England — specifically where in England has been lost to time — but by the late 1660’s she was married and living on Barren Island in English colonial New York, which up until a few years prior had been Dutch colonial New Netherlands.

Mary’s husband, brother, and brother-in-law were all mariners, as would be her own sons and grandsons. Her husband and brother-in-law were both lost at sea sometime in the mid-to-late 1680’s, leaving Mary and her sister Sarah to raise all of their children together there on Barren Island. Their brother, William, quit life on the sea and went on to serve as mayor of New York City for several years. Mary herself lived to the impressive age of 104.

Mary Merritt > William Dobbs > William Henry Dobbs > Henry Munro Dobbs, Sr. > Henry Munro Dobbs, Jr. > Thekla Patten Dobbs > Irene Norris > Irene Smith > Richard Mitchell, grandfather

Hans Jacob Richter and Elizabeth Fischbach, 9th great-grandparents

(Thompson Family)

Hans and Elizabeth were both born in the late 17th century in Trupbach, a community that is now part of the city of Siegen in what is currently the Westphalian region of Germany, but was at that time part of the Nassau-Siegen state of the Holy Roman Empire. This was also where they were married in January of 1711, and where they had their first child together.

In 1713-1714, Hans and Elizabeth were part of an iron-mining and steelsmithing community that was specifically recruited by Virginia’s colonial government due to the recent discovery of iron ore there. They, along with about a dozen other families from the same region, traveled first to England before finally ending up in a little village they called Germantown in what is now Fauquier County, Virginia. Though these families tried to hang on to some of their distinct Germanness, they and their children did end up speaking English like most of the other colonists in the area; they eventually changed the spelling of their surnames to “Rector” and “Fishback” as well.

Hans Jacob Rector + Elizabeth Fishback > Jacob Rector > Ben Rector > Patience Rector > William Bryant > Sarah Bryant > Robert Bryant Thompson > Emmett Hayes Thompson > Lloyd Thompson > LaVera Thompson, grandmother

Thomas Trammell, 10th great-grandfather

(Longenecker Family)

Thomas was born sometime between the mid-1640’s to mid-1650’s in England. His exact origin is unknown, but some researchers speculate that his family was from the county of Devon in the southwestern part of the island of Great Britain.

Sometime between March and June of 1670, Thomas sailed to colonial Virginia as an indentured servant. Indentured servitude was a common way for poor immigrants to get to the New World; the cost of their travel was covered by a wealthier colonist in exchange for unpaid labor for a set amount of time. He served a tobacco planter for several years before obtaining his own little farm and family there in Virginia.

Thomas Trammell > John Trammell, Sr. > John Trammell, Jr. > Elizabeth Trammell > Joshua Hickman > Sarah Hickman > Joshua Hickman Ice > Trammell Hickman Ice > Rebecca May Ice > Belva May Hall > Belva Louise Longenecker, grandmother

Jean Juchereau de Maur and Marie Langlois, 11th great-grandparents

(Chapman Family)

Jean was born in a town called Tourouvre in the historical province of Perche in France; he was probably born sometime between late 1591 to March of 1592. Marie was born circa 1600 in the nearby city of Alençon in Normandy. The majority of colonists in France’s American territories came from this region of the country.

The couple were married and had their children there in France, but in 1634 Jean and Marie and their children traveled together with a group of their extended family and other settlers to New France in modern-day Canada. They ended up holding quite a lot of land and Jean was eventually named Seigneur of Maur, a community that is now part of Quebec City.

Jean Juchereau de Maur + Marie Langlois > Nicolas Juchereau de St. Denis > Louis Juchereau de St. Denis > Marie des Neiges Juchereau de St. Denis > Marie de Soto > Joseph Grégoire Ortego > Joseph Marie Ortego > Valmont Joseph Ortego > Narcisse Ortego > Armelian Ortego > Murdis Ortego > Elroy Chapman, grandfather