German Emigration to England

St. Paul's Cathedral, London

I thought I'd share a little bit of my German Emigration research project with you fine people.  (remember to click on the pictures for larger view)

While in London, I was taken to the St. Paul's Cathedral.  In front of the Cathedral is a statue of Queen Anne.  After leaving England, I dove into my German Emigration of 17th and 18th Century research and came across Queen Anne a lot.  Reading up on her, she brought me back to my memories of that Cathedral.    Turns out that she is buried there... and the interesting part of her story for me is her involvement in the emigration of 1708-1709 by Germans (Palatines) [Rhineland].  As thousands of Germans of that area fled to the Netherlands [Rotterdam] on their way to London, which the Government of Rotterdam didn't want to allow after a while as those Germans were quite poor and didn't contribute to the economy, Queen Anne, a Protestant, helped the Germans, who were mostly Protestants with means of transportation, money and a roof over their heads.  She tried to find places for them in the West Indies and Ireland until eventually the opportunity came for some to go to the New World (although Germans went to the Swedish Colony in Delaware in the Year of 1638 already).   

"She was a sincere friend of the Palatines, doing everything in her power to improve their condition while in England, and to settle them comfortably elsewhere." (The German Exodus to England in 1709 by Frank Ried Diffenderffer, (Lancaster, PA)(1897), Footnote p.281)

Queen Anne

So Queen Anne has been an important figure in a way for a great number of Germans (Palatines) who wanted to leave a poor life behind them and live in England.    (Until Mr. Penn started his PULL-campaign)


I thought it might be nice for some of my readers to read this perhaps as a little "fun-fact"  ;-)   



Until my next post (in regards to my England/Wales research)... may you all have a most wonderful day :-)

Edmund Lewis of Massachussetts ?

Due to the copy rights I have to be a little innovative in regards to sharing my findings.  For now, I will have to create a new post for individual documents.  However, I will only be able to share snippets of the images and thus, I will only cut out information from an entire book page or document that directly mentions the surname Lewis (or Lewes)  (that's of main interest anyway).  I will treat this in a way as an educational sharing (somewhat like google books where the authors only allow a certain percentage to be available).     I figure this is better than nothing.     So the following segment is especially for Michael Lewis who is patiently waiting for this.  I hope it provides some help to you, Michael, and, of course, to all others researching the Edmund/Edmond Lewis/Lewes lineage.   As always, if you copy any information from my site, please cite my page  as your source and please do not post my shared images on any other  public nor private website, i.e. ancestry.com, find a grave.com, family tree.com etc. 

*Acts of the Privy Council:July 1619 to June 1621; (London: Published by Majesty's Stationary Office 1930)(Cals Refers to PC2), Pp 212,213;  held by the National Archives, Richmond, London




For those who are interested in my John Lewis (of Westerly, R.I)... I am in the process of working with the Archive in Wales.  As soon as I know something worth sharing, I will do so ;-)  Until then, I will continue publishing what I found in England thus far in the way I described above.  


I hope this little piece of information shown will help someone in some ways.  If so, let me know how helpful it was ;-)  I love to hear from you all.      


Have a fantastic day... until tomorrow or so with the next post !!!!

16 and 17 May 2012

'ello to you fine people...

Yesterday didn't quite work out all to well in regards to the National Archive.  Went to the Archive and I forgot my card with the note of which archive file I have to look at, great.. where is my brain?   Had to go through that training, where they show you how to use the archive, how to behave in the archive and, of course, how to treat the documents.  After that, you had to take a test... yes, a multiple choice test to make sure that you deserve a look at their "stuff".  I deserve to do so as I was rewarded with the Reader's card, which is your ID to get into the archives.  Since I didn't have my card with the said archive number with me, I was done for the day. 

Today, I went once more to finally have a look at  "stuff".  I had my consultation and was advised to first read some of the published material of the time and then go on with the actual ship manifests.  "Great, let's do it!!!"   I sat and read through several books.  Neat thing is, one is allowed to take pictures of the books and documents.  I was told to look through the "Acts of the Privy Council" which I did.  I found a few entries in regards to the Lewis' , but I am not sure that I found my John Lewis just yet, however, for those who look at material for Edmund Lewis, I may have found something interesting.  Copy right is a bit funny about sharing things openly via any online media;  but not to worry.. if you are interested in the images of the entries of the Lewis' , just email me at LianeLew@gmail.com ,  type "Lewis info" in the subject, and I will share what i have with you quite quickly as it is all uploaded to my PC already.   

After that, I had another trip to the tourist attractions, and saw quite a lot.   Weather is cold, windy, but NOT rainy.  It was nice to walk around without having to fight an umbrella.  London Bridge was quite neat and after that, it was off to the "Eye" for a 30 minute ride in a glass capsule, seeing London at night. (pictures above... remember, you can click on the pictures for larger view)

First picture above: i don't recall... Picture 2 and 3: Saint Paul's Cathedral, Pictures 4 and 5: Tower Bridge

I will see you all tomorrow after another day at the archives, hopefully with lots of success and then, I don't know.. more touristy stuff.. mingling with the folks and such ;-)       come back tomorrow and walk with me ;-) 

London 15 May

                                                                                                 The view from my room this morning ;-)





My dear fine people...

   I have actually made it to London, England; arriving here last night at around 11 p.m.  How was the flight, you ask?  Well, I was placed in the middle of two  guys... older guys, i assume.  The gentleman to the left had his left arm injured and thus, he was operating only with one arm, his right arm... the side I was sitting on.  The Gentleman to my right was a rather heavy set man who was working on three different gadgets, his huge laptop, his Ipad, and his Iphone typing away on all three of those devices, composing a huge e-mail... guess who was the recipient...  yup, you guessed it... the guy to my left...  Anyway... they didn't want to sit next to each other and I was trying to sleep most of the flight anyway.   Overall, the flight wasn't too bad and it was quite easy to get out of the airport ;-) 

Today, I went to City of London... the weather was... well, not my best friend... it is sooooooooooo cold over here... raining, windy... oh so windy and we even had some hail.  But, we still wandered about and B.Y.I. (because you asked) I am going to share my first few pictures here...   (click the pictures for larger images ;-)  )

This was just the neatest thing.  Me and this statue of... well, i don't really know ... actually, it wasn't a statue at all.  This is a person but everything looked so real, and parton me for this expression, but "stiff"... just like a statue...   I put some money into his "tin" and he started to move into a bow in gratitude.    How neat, yes?

Covent Garden....  very neat... lots of stores and restaurants... had lunch at a restaurant called Restaurant Blanc... lucky us, it was its first day in operation.. in service?   

                                                                                 Still Covent Garden... Paella in England??? Come on now.....

 I don't think i have to say anything here.... yeah, size does matter...  ;-)










Tomorrow, first day at the National Archives...  i get to use my soft led pencil and my white cotton gloves, yipeeee.  I will be looking through Ship-manifests  and looking at names who left England in the years 1620 through 1650.   I hope I will find the last name "Lewis" and then follow those I find.  Wish me luck?

    Oh, did i mention that it is sooooooooo cold over here, bit exhausting to fight through that weather and a word to you English people...  it wouldn't hurt to put on a smile ... life can't  be that bad...  Smile!!!

 I shall retire to bed now and I will see you all tomorrow on my trip out there... maybe the sun will shine ;-)