compiled by Carl W. Nichols † and Hannelore Enderle      

INTRODUCTION

  This collection of German emigrants (auswanderer) represents an attempt to bring together information on the origins of the first inhabitants of the Carolina Dutch Fork. The great majority of the original settlers of the Dutch Fork were German Protestants. According to E. B. Hallman’s list of Dutch Fork settlers there were 483 families who obtained land grants before 1760. These families represented about 1400 people. Some of these people moved away, some families died out, and some original family names were lost when their daughters married sons of other settlers.

The Adolf Gerber list of Württemberg emigrants, originally published in Germany during the 1920s, has been found to contain only eight German immigrant families who either settled in the Dutch Fork or their children resided there. In recent years several publications have greatly expanding our knowledge of the origins of the first families of the Carolina Dutch Fork.

Many of the German immigrant settlers in the Dutch Fork came in 1752 on one of several ships. Several earlier immigrant families had arrived in 1749 on the Griffin, coincident with the time that some German families moved into the Dutch Fork, having lived before in Pennsylvania and Maryland. As the list of emigrants has grown it has become increasingly clear that the first ships in 1752 (the Upton and Cunliffe) contained mostly emigrants from Baden and, to a lesser extent, from the Palatinate. The Caledonia and Elizabeth which arrived at Charleston shortly thereafter have so far been found to contain only settlers from Württemberg. The passengers of the Rowand also appear to have been made up mostly of people from Württemberg. Württembergers also arrived in 1754 on the Priscilla, some of whom settled in the Dutch Fork. These insights may be of help when considering likely places to search German Church records.