Friedrich Huettenberger

How the Guilgers came to Brazil - An emigration in 1827

- the rediscovery of a forgotten Palatine emigration -

Contents  (in the list below, you can click on the chapter you want to read)

0. Introduction
1. Where the Gilchers come from: The Palatine
2. The first Guelcher family of the Essweiler valley

3. Why João Gilcher  was 
a French  citizen
4. Why Joao Gilcher thought of emigration 
5. Why Brazil was attractive in the 1820ies 
6.
The legal way to emigration 
7.
The “illegal” way of emigration 
8.
A shipload full of Palatines   
9.
How the Palatines had come to Sao Paulo    
10.
Separation of families and a catastrophe  
11.
Settlement in Santo Amaro 
12.
Palatine “rebels” in Brazil 
13.
A new religion and a new  language  
14.
A short view at the development of the German colony of Santo Amaro 
15.
The German immigrants who arrived on ship "Alexander"
16.
The Kusel emigrants on the shipwrecked “Helena Maria”
17.
Deaths during emigration
18. Recent discoveries of places of origin of early Sao Paulo immigrants

0. Introduction

       In a recent study about German immigration into São Paulo, ( "Uma São Paulo alemã", São Paulo 2003),  Silvia Cristina
      Lambert Siriani states: "Uma das grandes dificuldades  para o pesquisador da imigra
ção alemã em São Paulo talvez seja a de
      determinar as regi
ões de origem desses imigrantes."  She regrets that in early lists and documents only very generalized
      statements, like "natural da Alemanha" or "
alemão" are made as to the immigrants' origins.  My recent research in archives of
      Southwest Germany yielded the exact places of origin
for a larger group of São Paulo immigrants, a coherent group of
      immigrants from the "Bavarian Palatinate" (today Rheinland-Pfalz), a group which constitutes about one fifth of the total
      amount of arrivals between 1827 and 1829.  The following text concentrates on the Gilcher (Guilger) family first and lists
      all the  emigrants who came to Brazil with them in 1828 (lists in chapter 15, 16, 17) .


1. Where the Gilchers come from: The Palatinate

In the Western Palatinate, the land of soft grassy hills, forests and idyllic valleys, about 50 miles west of the Rhine River, the village of Essweiler is situated exactly where the Jettenbach creek from the South and the Breitenbach creek from the South-East join to form the Talbach (“Valley creek”), which continues North, passing Oberweiler, Hinzweiler, Nerzweiler and Hundheim and flows into the Glan River at Offenbach. Essweiler is the home of an important branch of the Gilcher family, who have dwelled there for centuries, since Sebastian Guelcher, a shoemaker’s son who was born in Nerzweiler and had married in Hundheim, had moved there in 1709. Some of his descendants still live in Essweiler today, others have travelled in the whole world and live in the USA, in Australia and in South America.

The triangle  formed by the cities of Kaiserslautern, Kusel and Lauterecken, bordered by the Glan River in the West and North, by the Lauter in the East and by the Morbach creek in the South is known by the name of “Westrich” , which means the land in the West and is the larger home of  the many West-Palatine Gilcher families. The inhabitants of the Westrich used to live and work in small villages, which were a few kilometers apart from each other, and earned their living mostly by agricultural work, keeping cattle or sheep and growing rye, weat, barley, corn, roots, potatoes etc. Others worked in small local trades like tailors, shoemakers, potters, carpenters, joiners, cartwrights, horse smiths, millers etc. and did only as much farming as they needed to produce the food for their own families’ needs.  Most people of the Essweiler valley were protestants of the reformed belief and on Sundays, they went to the church of Hinzweiler for religious services and later to the neighbouring village of Bosenbach. The few catholics had to go to the church of Reichenbach. It took half a day to get to one of the little cities like Kaiserslautern or Kusel, so  this way was only rarely done and most people only knew their own and a few neighouring villages, which kept their language different from the dialects of other Palatine regions. There was not too much change in the daily routines of the farmers. Their life was determined by the needs of  their animals and their fields and plants and by the changing demands of the seasons. An important and highly welcome interruption was the festivity of the “Kerb”, which was prepared during weeks, consisted of  a public opening speech, music and dancing, invitations and good eating and drinking, carrousels and sweets for the children and special rites and traditions.  It was held at different weekends in different villages during summer and autumn and had its roots in the inauguration of the church, an important event in the middle ages and later, which was accompanied by a big public festivity.

Such had been the course of life for centuries in the Essweiler valley.

2. The first Guelcher family of the Essweiler valley

The Guelchers, whose name derives from the town of Juelich (or Guelich), had come into the region of the Essweiler valley during the 30 years’ war  in 1644, when the young, 21-year-old farmer’s boy Nickel Guelcher from Wahnwegen married Eva, a farmer’s widow of Horschbach, who was his senior by ten years and had lost her husband during this war, in which Protestant kings and dukes sent their armies against Catholic emperors and their allies. Most villages were plundered several times, the people left to die without food or cattle,  houses burnt down, whole village populations, men, women, children  murdered, and epidemics like the black death did the rest. Only fractions of the original Palatine population survived. The people of Horschbach had to flee and leave their village for a long time and sought protection within the high city walls of Wolfstein and Lauterecken. This is why Nickel Guelcher and Anna Eva, the widow, didn’t marry in their home in the Essweiler valley, but in the church of Medard, a village on the Glan,  close to and east of Lauterecken.

Text in the Hinzweiler church registers  concerning Nickel Guelcher’s marriage

“On the same day, the 13th of November anno domini 1644 , Hans Nickel, legitimate son left behind by the late Nickel Guelcher, citizen of Wanwegen, and then Eva, the widow left behind by Jacob Odend of Horspach, have gone to church at Medart because of the great danger of war, and have been blessed there  by me Samuel Gravius, at this time the official servant of the church in the valley of Essweiller, and have been confirmed in their Christian act. May God bless them, as he blessed his dear and faithful servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." (Page 209 in the church registers of Hinzweiler ,book I)

This marriage didn’t take place at the usual church at Hinzweiler (distance: 2 miles from Horschbach),  but at Medard on the Glan, which is situated at a distance of 14 miles, because of the imminent dangers of the war which had already been raging for 26 years in this region and which time and again forced the village people to seek shelter within the town walls of  Wolfstein with its castle or other places that were still safe. A marriage had to be held in the nearest safe reformed church, and that was Medard at the time. Samuel Gravius was the minister of the Hinzweiler church, to which all the villages of the Essweiler valley belonged, but he couldn’t use his own church, because it was not safe and the farmers had left their houses and had come to live in Wolfstein for two or three years.

This widow  was older than Nickel; presumably she was his senior by 8 to 10 years. With this marriage, he took over the farm (or what the war had left over of it) of Anna Eva’s first husband and founded the Guelcher-line of Horschbach. Today the Gilchers have still their farm and distillery at the same spot in the centre of Horschbach.

The family name of Nickel Guelcher’s wife  is unknown. She was only entered in the registers as a widow  by the name of her late first husband. It is extremely difficult to decipher  the first husband’s name exactly. At first sight it reads “Odend”. The syntax of this sentence implies that it must be the genitive form, so it may be the old genitive form of the surname “Ott”, if you interpret the last sign as an “s” (“Ottens”); d and t were used synonymously in a position between two vowels (compare the name Vadel/Vatel in Hinzweiler). But it may also be an abbreviation of a longer name, if you interpret the last sign as a colon, e.g. “Odend:(al)” (or Odenthal, or Odendorf, or Odenbach). Of all these possibilities the most frequent in the larger  region  is the surname Ott.

Nickel Guelcher lived during hard times in a destroyed and depopulated land. Survival was not easy and it was diffuclt to nourrish oneself and a family. So Nickel Guelcher died at the relatively young age of only 41 years, when his oldest son was just 18 and his youngest nine years old. His widow died two years later, in 1666 (cause: too much water in the body, perhaps a heart disease). But the age given in the church register (62) is definitely wrong, because that would mean a birth year of 1603/04. But her last child was born in 1655. At the age of 51 a woman at that time couldn’t bear any children any longer; usually only up to the age of 42. It is a well-known fact that  ministers often entered  wrongly estimated ages of deceased persons, when they had no registers to look up the birth or had forgotten to ask the family or when the exact age was unknown. That was a point of minor concern to ministers. With Nickel Guelcher’s own burial the same minister had entered an estimated death age that was wrong by five years.  It is very likely that this Eva was born around the year 1613 - had her last child in 1655 at the age of 42 -  and  thus was approximately 10 years older than her  young husband who nevertheless died two years earlier. After her death, the 20-year-old Peter Guelcher was in charge of the farm and his siblings (ages 17, 14, 10 years) and married a year later. One of these siblings, the 17-year-old, was Michael Guelcher, forefather of the Essweiler Gilchers, who learned the trade of a shoemaker and later, in 1671, when he was 22 years old, - like his father before him - married a widow, Anna Elisabetha Kleemann, who was his senior by 6 years, in neighbouring Nerzweiler and moved there in order to do the farming and earn a little extra money by making and repairing shoes.  The couple had seven children. Today there are still Gilchers living in the village of Nerzweiler.

3.  Why João Gilcher was a French citizen

Versus the end of the 18th century, another war rolled over the Palatinate: in 1793 the French Revolutionary army invaded the territories left of the Rhine after the Great Revolution, which France wanted to export by military force. At this time, Napoleon conquered the whole region left of the Rhine and the Palatinate was indeed legal French territory from 1798 until 1814, aclledDépartement Mont Tonnerre”  with a French administration and all documents made out in French language. Palatines born in these years were officially “French” citizens, although they were of German descent, also Johannes Gilcher, ancestor of the Brazil Guilgers, who was born in 1805.

After Napoleon’s fall, the Palatinate was taken away from France at the “Vienna Congress” in 1815, and added to the Kingdom of Bavaria. From then onwards, Palatines were “Rhine-Bavarians” until the German Empire was founded at the end of another war against the “arch-enemy” in 1870/71.

Johannes Gilcher’s father, Johann Heinrich Gilcher was the great-grandson of Sebastian Guelcher who had founded the Essweiler branch, Heinrich was the second of eight children. He married Margaretha Armbruster, a teacher’s daughter, who was his senior by five years, and lived with her and his family  in house number 10 at Essweiler. Between 1795 and 1805 they had five children. Father Heinrich Gilcher died relatively early at age 43, when his youngest son Johannes was only eight years old. His eldest brother Adam continued his father’s job as a farmer, whereas for the two youngest sons there was not enough land to make a living of. So Jakob, the second youngest became a day-labourer and Johannes, the youngest was sent to a shoemaker to learn this trade. Maybe he was sent to Adam Gilcher (1777-1830), a third cousin who worked as a shoemaker in Essweiler.

4. Why Joao Gilcher thought of emigration

When Johannes Gilcher had reached the age in which young men had to do their military service in Bavaria, he was drawn as a soldier to the 12th Bavarian regiment of infantery. But King Louis I. of Bavaria had introduced measures to save expenses. Therefore one third of the recruited young soldiers was not kept, clad and nourished, but sent into “steady leave” immediately. They could go home again, and had to keep ready as reserve forces in case of  a war. Thus Johannes Gilcher was a regularly drawn soldier, but one who never wore a uniform and never fought in a war. Instead he had to see how he could earn some money as a poor shoemaker and farmers’ helper in his home village of Essweiler, where he lived together with his widowed mother, his married eldest brother Adam, his unmarried sister Margareth and his unmarried  brother Jakob.

When his mother died in the spring of 1827,  Johannes lost the person who was the closest  to him. He was single, poor, had no farm land and no reason to continue living in the household of his elder brother. So he thought of emigration, as so many others in his surroundings. Emigration to Brazil was especially popular in the mid-1820ies. Also his eldest brother Adam applied for emigration to Brazil in January 1828, just a few weeks after Johannes had left.  Later, North-America was more popular among Palatines.  Johannes’ elder brother Jacob, who married in 1829, asked for permission to emigrate in 1833. But both elder brothers did not emigrate, although Jacob had received his permission to leave, and finally stayed in Essweiler and died there. Both of them had no descendants, Jacob’s first child died very young, he and his three female children all died in the year 1837, perhaps of a contagious disease. Many poor people died of tuberculosis at that time. He was only 35 years old and lived in his own little house when he died. So Johannes Gilcher's descendants in Brazil are the only existing  descendants of  this Essweiler Gilcher branch.

5. Why Brazil was attractive in the 1820ies

After Brazil had reached independence, the young emperor Don Pedro I needed settlers for the huge country, craftsmen  for the development and soldiers for the defence and security of the country. Therefore he advised his embassies and consulates in Europe to offer good conditions to all those willing to settle in Brazil. A German Major von Schaeffer who had been in Brazilian services was sent to his home country to organise this task of finding and transporting new settlers to Brazil.

Such an offer of settlement has been filed by the authorities as a piece of evidence in the Kusel district archives, nicely written, well printed with the coat of arms of the consulate of the Empire of Brazil in Bremen dated from January 19, 1828, made out for Adam Gilcher of Essweiler, Johannes Gilcher’s eldest brother. This offer was regarded as a kind of contract, the basis on which emigrants were lured away from their home country. It offered the following excellent conditions:

1.  300-500 acres (400 braças) of land, partly meadows, farming land or forest as a free property.

2.  Animals: horses, cows, oxen, sheep, pigs, hens according to the size of the family.

3.  subsidies: 1 franc (160 reis) per head in the 1st year, half of it in the 2nd .

4.  Ten taxfree years, thereafter 10% of the income as taxes.

These conditions were so alluring that many Palatine families, farmers and craftsmen, but also unmarried people considered this enterprise as an excellent possibility of improving their situation. In 1823/24 some people began planning emigration and  in 1826/27 greater numbers officially applied at the mayor’s office of their villages for the consent of the Bavarian government to let them go to Brazil.

Of course the Palatines had also heard of successful emigrations, which had been made since 1824 especially by people from the “Hunsrück”, the region just north of the Palatinate, who had all gone to the South of Brazil (Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul). From a popular song of this time, played by travelling musicians on the portable orgue, they heard that in Brazil the “potatoes grew as big as a child’s head” [1].

6. The legal way to emigration

The Palatinate had just become Bavarian a decade earlier. Bavaria was in rivalry with Prussia for dominance and power in Germany. Both German kingdoms had long military and bureaucratic traditions. The new Sovereign of this land on the left bank of the River Rhine didn't want to lose too many of the new farmers, taxpayers and soldiers. Therefore it was a long and expensive bureaucratic way to apply for and get a permission for emigration.

The village mayors had to report to the district administration (Landkommissariat) about the morals, behaviour  and debts of the candidates for emigration. The royal tax collector had to confirm that taxes and other general contributions had been duly paid. The district administration inquired with the peace judge at Wolfstein, "if the petitioners were not charged with  the custody over some other person or any other financial obligations". The value of their belongings and real estate had to be estimated with the help of "truthful men of the same village" who had the duty to tax the real estate value and had to confirm it by their "personal signature". Of course, all the signatures had officially to be acknowledged by the mayor's stamp and signature, which cost more money. The Bavarian government did not want its subjects to emigrate, and thus with all these bureaucratic obstacles, only few  people wanting to emigrate had got an official permit to do so. But the ships for Brazil didn't wait and those who wanted to get there had to travel to Bremen, Hamburg or to Amsterdam, from where the sailing ships left. This again was a matter of several weeks. At the beginning of November of 1827, the prospective emigrants of the Kusel district didn't want to wait any longer for governmental permissions, even though most of them had already been enrolled in an official government list of  "applications for emigration to Brazil".

7. The “illegal” way of emigration

In the Palatinate, a farm is not kept at the same size for generations by passing it on undivided  to the eldest son after the farmer's death, but by law, each child gets a more or less equal  part of the estate (the principle of "real estate division"), if there is no last will deciding differently. Thus formerly large possessions melt down to small or even  tiny units which do not suffice to nourish a family. As families at the beginning of the 19th century usually had many children and less children than before died young, more and more young men had no perspectives as farmers, but had to do paid daily work for others, had to look for jobs outside their communities. The first larger manufacturers, precursors of the "industrial revolution" of the 19th century, came up in cities; mills, sawmills, mines and the production of iron ware offered a few jobs away from home. Some Palatines of this time detected music as a way of earning money and travelled through all European countries playing brass music with their "bands" in the streets or in hotels, or in circuses: the first travelling musicians, of who  Michael Gilcher, born at Essweiler in 1822, was an outstanding bandleader later. Others thought of emigration. In the 1820ies,  Brazil seemed to be  the door to a better future for many people.

A whole lot of families of the Kusel district decided to leave the country at all costs, and even without a governmental permission. They sold their complete mobile possessions, their  arable land and  meadows, their house if they had one, privately or by public sales through the notary of Wolfstein. They needed this money for the expensive travel and the new start.

The families emigrating from the Kusel region in 1827 must have met before and planned their travel together . As we know from the reports of different mayors, families and  groups of related families left their different villages exactly   a t   t h e   s a m e   t i m e  : "in the night from the 6th to the 7th of  November 1827", and  "clandestinely", i.e. without the necessary official permission. A big wagon train of about 200 persons must have gathered that night on the Glan valley roads to begin their journey to Brazil.

Already on the 8th of November,  some eager mayors sent their "obedient message"to the "highly respectable royal district government"that "during the past night the following families presumably emigrated clandestinely and with the intent to go to Brazil".The royal authorities didn't want to lose any subjects, taxpayers and future soldiers. So the mayors had to make up lists of the clandestine emigrants, had to report how many people they were in their families and what the value of  their possessions had been. The royal district government collected the reports and made the sum. They stated 196 persons who had disappeared from the villages of Quirnbach, Ulmet, Horschbach, Altenglan, Essweiler, Bosenbach and Neunkirchen.

8. A Shipload full of Palatines - A Brick Wall - and how it was overcome -

But where had the Kusel emigrants, who supposedly wanted to settle in  Brazil, finally gone?

With research during the past few years. they could not be found in Rio Grande do Sul , where still today there are German-speaking descendants of Palatines and Hunsrueck farmers, where from the beginning, a protestant minister had accompanied the emigrants and church registers had been kept from 1824 onwards.

In the old country around Kusel, soon nobody knew any longer, where exactly they had gone.

Sometimes, there is a hint or two in notary acts, heritage divisions, that a descendant emigrated “to Brazil” – without any further specification, e.g with the Rathsweiler GILCHER family, whose daughter Philippinaa, married to Peter HAESEL of Ulmet, belonged to the group of November 7. But nobody in the family knew a province or a town in Brazil, where she had gone to. In fact, there was no more connection, the bridges had been cut and after some decades it had even been forgotten that someone of the family had emigrated.

This brick wall was overcome by internet. In 2004. Roberto GUILGER of Sao Paulo was interested in his roots and found the older spelling of GILGER and GILCHER at the occasion of a visit to the old cemetery of the former “colony” of Santo Amaro. With these spelling variants his son searched the internet and found the page of the author of these lines. Thus two loose ends  had finally met  for a connection searched on both sides.

In the office of the cemetery Colonia in Sao Paulo, there was a printed list with the names of 30 settler families who had arrived in Santos  on June 28, 1828, 174 persons  altogether.[2] What a surprise, when the list was faxed to Germany: most families mentioned in this list are exactly those Palatines who had been reported as “clandestinely emigrated” by the district government of Kusel and whose whereabouts had been unknown for such a long time. There they were:  a shipload full of Palatines from the Kusel surroundings.

9. How the Kusel Palatines had come to Sao Paulo

As the year 1827 drew to an end, the clandestine deserters were together on their way to Bremen, in order to get an official stamp from the Brazilian consulate general on their offers of settlement for the considerable price of two gulden as “certification fee”. After having got this stamp, the paper  had to be authenticated by the government-office of the free city of Bremen. This was an important step, because only stamped and authenticated settlement offers were later accepted  as such in Brazil and the emigrated Palatines  regarded this paper as the basis on which they had come and later insisted on their rights emanating from these “contracts”, rights that the Brazilian authorities could not fully grant, as it should turn out later.

Ships with German  emigrants for Brazil usually sailed from Hamburg and Bremen  in the beginning (1824), later also from Amsterdam. The Palatine group of  November 7, 1827 went to Amsterdam to sail from there at the end of the year 1827 or the beginning of the year 1828. It is thinkable that they all went to Bremen first to get the necessary papers and from there to Amsterdam or also that the bulk of them went to Amsterdam directly and only some family fathers went to Bremen in order to get the necessary stamps and joined their waiting families and friends in Amsterdam before sailing off. They were a large group of over 200 persons already, and more emigrants from the Hunsrueck, from the Rhinelands and from other parts of Germany had gathered there in Amsterdam and stood in line for a place on a ship. Our Palatines could not all find places on one ship. They had to separate, partly even parents were separated from their minor children and undertook the voyage on two different ships, surely hoping to arrive at about the same time in South America.

The main group of the Palatines arrived in Rio de Janeiro in June 1828 – on the Dutch vessel “Alexander” . The name of this ship and more exact immigration data are to be found in a “Titulo de Residencia” of Friedrich REIMBERGER (he was born on June 23, 1814 at Erdesbach near Kusel as Friedrich RHEINBERGER). He had given exact data regarding his origin and arrival to the police of Santo Amaro in 1852 in order to get a permanent title of residence there.[3] This main group of the Palatines was transported from Rio  to Santos on June 20, 1828 on the ship “Rocha” and then to Sao Paulo, where before them already 358 other Germans had arrived.[4]

10. Separation of families and a catastrophe

31 family members of the Kusel group could not travel on the vessel “Alexander” , but  took the Dutch fregat “Helena Maria” under the command of Captain B. Carstens. With them were about 270 other German emigrants. The “Helena Maria” left the Amsterdam harbour Texel on January 6, 1828.[5]   The poor emigrants didn’t know that a catastrophe was to await them.

A week later, on January 12, 1828, a Sunday night,  the Helena Maria was about to leave the Channel for the open Atlantic, when the bad weather turned into a hurricane like it had not been seen for many years.[6]  The fregat with more than 300 persons aboard was tossed about by the waves and got into distress. All three masts broken n the storm,  leaking and unable to be steered, the ship had become a wreck and was floating at the Lizard Point, about 20 miles off the coast of Cornwall. The emigrants would all have drowned, if it hadn’t been detected in this distress by the British packet “Plover” under the command of Captain Edward Jennings. He towed the wreck into Falmouth harbour.[7]  The Hunsrueck emigrant Johannes SPINDLER from Niederhosenbach, who was on the Helena Maria, wrote an impressive  report of this terrible event in a later letter to his relatives.[8]

The German emigrants had lost  all their belongings in the storm and instead of being in South America, the aim of their dreams, they found themselves now  completely bare of everything in wintry England.  It is astonishing, how the town of Falmouth and the Society for the Relief of Foreigners in Distress managed to house, nourish and care for so many strangers for a whole year. The Vice President of this Society, Lord de DUNSTANVILLE, had a great share in this relief action.[9]

The sailing ship Helena Maria was repaired, as the London Times reports in an article of  Oct.23, 1828, but nonetheless it was declared unseaworthy by the Lord High Admiral. This meant that the expensive fare that the emigrants had prepaid, was lost. Only at the end of October did the British government decide to care for the transport of the stranded  Germans to Brazil.[10]   The Times article appeals to Germans living in Britain to help their countrymen by contributions and in Cornwall the communities in the  Falmouth region were asked to collect and donate warm clothes for the winter and food for the emigrants so that they might be transported to their destination.

In the first days of December 1828, “a very nice ship” from London arrived in Falmouth for this purpose.[11]    By mid-December the emigrants went aboard the “James Laing”. But, as the Royal Cornwall Gazette reports, it was not until January 2nd, 1829  that the winds were finally favourable enough to set sails for Brazil.[12]

After having been stranded in England for almost a whole year without any means at all, after families and children had been separated from their parents, these emigrants finally arrived at the aim of their wishes, Rio de Janeiro, in the early spring of 1829. Already on March 17, 1829, we find the signatures of Peter BAUER and Johannes PFEIFFER, who had both been in Falmouth, in a Brazilian document[13] and  Charlotte GILCHER and Johannes PFEIFFER from Bosenbach were the first Protestants who had their child born in Brazil baptized in the Catholic church of Santo Amaro on April 12, 1829.[14] Charlotte’s father, Heinrich GILCHER from Bosenbach had already arrived  in June 1828.

11. Settlement in Santo Amaro

When the passengers of the unlucky ship Helena Maria finally arrived in Brazil a year late, everything had been prepared and arranged for the planned German colony in the state of Sao Paulo. The land that had finally been chosen after much ado close to the village of 700 souls, Santo Amaro, had already been distributed. Only those who were present in November 1828, in order to apply for a piece of land could get one. In Sao Paulo the provincial government was happy to have found  a stretch of  land  at least for this project of a colony ordered by the emperor, even if it had caused a lot of difficulties. Before the arrival of the Germans the provincial government had not  prepared anything at all, and it was impossible for them to settle more people there. In 1829, only those emigrants were allowed to travel on to Sao Paulo whose family members had arrived in June and had announced their belated arrival. The other Palatines of the Kusel group who had left together with the others, but had no family members on the first ship (Alexander), were not allowed to go to São Paulo  to their countrymen, but were transported from Rio to Porto Alegre, to the South of Brazil,  where Germans had settled since 1824. They can partly be found among the almost 3000 German immigrants that the later director of  a colony Hillebrand listed for the South of Brazil.[15]

The Palatines among the German immigrants in the State of  São Paulo applied almost all for the German colony  that was planned 4 miles south of the viallage of Santo Amaro in a  wilderness. For a long time they had been lodged provisionally in São Paulo, in the military hospital whose German speaking doctor, Mello Franco, was appointed director of the colony.

Later they were lodged on a provisional basis again in the Indian village of Itapecerica, which belonged to the community of Santo Amaro. Eight Germans bought land there from their own money, because they didn’t want to wait any longer for land that was not cleared yet and that they didn’t deem good. They began to work and live there as farmers. Ten more families had enough of waiting and bought or rented arable land in the surroundings. In Itapecerica, the following families belonged to the first Germans who settled there: Wilhelm HANNICKEL from Neunkirchen, Heinrich FISCHER, brother-in-law of Friederich HAESEL from Frohnbach, Jacob GRIMM (written CREM in Brazil) from Baumholder, Friedrich HELFENSTEIN. Other early German families there were from the Hunsrueck: Christoph and Hermann  MOHR, Jacob ZILLIG and his sons Peter and Jacob from Ober-Kostenz, Sebastian WEISHAUPT from Spesenroth.[16]

12. A Palatine “rebellion” in Brazil

The  German emigrants were confronted with many difficulties in their new country. Contrary to the ideas of the Brazilian emperor, the province of  São Paulo generally showed a negative, if not hostile position towards the strangers, who were transported in numbers  of several hundreds into the little town of  São Paulo (then about 25.000 inhabitants). As nothing whatsoever had been prepared before their arrival, the responsible persons in São Paulo looked for a suitable place for a colony in a haste and chose a far-away wilderness in the region of “Quilombo”. It was not before the Germans had built a road into this region that they stated that the territory was not suitable for a colonization. After further negative trials, a wilderness near Santo Amaro was considered and shown to the prospective colonists. 129 families accepted this territory and signed an application for land there in November 1828.[17] For lack of money, this plan was put aside again by the province authorities at the beginning of 1829 and it was decided to settle the Germans on the borders of Rio Bonito. This plan was denied by the Germans and especially the Palatines protested against it and insisted on their contract, which promised them arable land and meadows, not swampy jungle in a region of regular inundations. A letter of protest of March 17, 1829 was sent to the Vice President of the province and signed by 26 persons:

Theofílo SCHMIDT, who had measured out the territory,[18]   Frederico LANG, Philippe ANTONI, Jacobo KUNTZ, Pedro SCHUMACHER, João STOFFEL; Pedro BAUER, Henrique GILGER, Pedro HÄSSEL, Nickel MILER, Adão WEINBERGER (error, = RHEINBERGER!), Philippe SCHIOFER (error, = SCHAEFER!), Jacobo WALDER, Theobaldo ULRICH, Frederico HASSE  (= HAESEL), Elizabetha WALTER (Widow of  Max WALTER), Diderico GERES (= GEERS), Pedro SCHUCK, Luiz GADNER ( = Ludwig KETTLER!), Jacobo MATER (= MADER), João PFEIFER, Frederico FRANCK, Daniel SANSEL (= SAMSEL!), Philippe WEINREICH, Frederico THEOBALD und Jacobo REY, almost all of them Palatines from the Kusel region who had the courage to protest and who traded in enormous difficulties for themselves  by doing so.[19]  For a punishment they were excluded from the colony. After repentful pleas, some of them were accepted again as colonists three weeks later: Theobald ULRICH, Heinrich GILCHER, Johannes STOFFEL and Peter BAUER. But roughly half of those who signed the letter of protest had to leave and are not to be found in the first list of inhabitants of Santo Amaro of 1830. Theophil SCHMIDT, who considered the jungle soil as too poor for agricultural purposes and had a quarrel about this matter with the colony’s director, and who spoke both languages, offered to go to the emperor in Rio with a delegation in order to ask for their rights emanating from the contracts. He did this together with Nicolaus BACKES (from Hueffler) and Johannes PFEIFER (from Bosenbach), but without any measurable success. The colony director considered these protests and the march of a German delegation to his house as a “revolt” and with the help of soldiers, he cared for  “order”. The Germans were definitely told that no other land was available for them and that the financial support would end at the end of the current year. Some of the “rebellious and disobedient” colonists were punished by withdrawal of the financial support: Friedrich FRANCK and Philipp WEINREICH (both from  Friedelhausen),  Heinrich GILCHER from Bosenbach, Philipp SCHAEFER from Erdesbach, Theobald ULRICH from Ulmet, Jacob REY from Essweiler, Johannes STOFFEL, Nickel MUELLER, Nickel KLEIN from Neunkirchen and  Jakob KUNTZ from Essweiler.[20] These Palatine “rebels” who insisted on the rights stated in their contracts disappeared very  soon from Santo Amaro. Some of them, like Johannes PFEIFFER, looked for work in the young iron industry of Ipanema, where the German engineer VARNHAGEN had built up  important iron  works. Others moved to Minais Gerais, Santa Catarina, Curitiba. For the less rebellious colonists finally  arable land near Santo Amaro was acquired from the Peace Judge Joaquim Manoel de Moraes and beginning in July 1829, German families began building and settling there. The promised cattle was not available in the necessary quantities. Therefore the settlers received monetary compensation. In February 1830 the Peace Judge  made a list of  the German colony of Santo Amaro and counted 62 families with 229 persons. In Itapecerica there were 30 German families consisting of 163 persons.[21]

13. A new religion and a new language

Most of the German settlers of the Kusel group were Protestants. As they were illegal emigrants they had not brought a parson or minister with them. That’s why they couldn’t have church services in their own language and religion and no schooling for their children. In the beginning there had even been hostile confrontations between the settlers and the Brazilian  inhabitants, because the Brazilian Catholics did not permit  to bury a deceased Protestant on their cemetery. Because of the lack of a Protestant church, German marriages were concluded by the Peace Judge in the beginning, but very soon the German Protestants went to the Catholic church for service, and as soon as April 1829 baptisations of German Protestants are to be found in the church register of Santo Amaro (Matriz). Communication must have been a big problem, for the Catholic priest wrote the German names as he heard them and as they were completely strange to him, he changed and misspelled them so badly that they are hardly recognizable. For the family of Johannes GILCHER e.g. the following spelling variants are to be found there:  Gil, Guilhe, Guilher, Gillgir, Gilger, Gulcher, Kincher, Kincha, Kuinquer, Guilger , of which the last mentioned finally stayed for good. Other examples of changed family names: RHEINBERGER became Reimberger, Reimper, Remper, Rempar, and Reimberg. HELFENSTEIN was written as Helfsten, Helfstem, Elfestem, Olfingstén, Helfstein;  HAESEL as Hesse, Esse, Eser, Essel, Hessel and ROCKENBACH as Rocumbac, Rocumback, Rocumbá, even Hocumba. HEIN became Hên, Hem, KLEINClên, Cleim, Clêm, GOTTFRIED:   Gutfrid, Godfrit, Godfrits,  Gotsfrits, WEINMANN became Weihman, Vaiman, Vaimar, BACKES became Packs, BAUERMANN  Paulman and Palman, etc.

As the church register of Santo Amaro shows, the Palatines or the Germans there in general stayed for themselves, in the generation of the immigrants, their children and grandchildren they married almost exclusively among the German-speaking population, partly also within the same family. Marriages among cousins were not unusual, so that the Catholic priest had to ask dispensation from the diocese.

When in 1871 the new German empire was founded, many emigrated Germans remembered their German nationality and went to the German general consulate in Sao Paulo in order to enter their children in the consulate’s matricula as Germans.

Only the generation of grandchildren and great-grandchildren had assimilated the Brazilian language and culture so much that more German-Brazilian families were founded. When the second generation, or the third at the latest, had died, the use of the German language had gone and Portuguese became the everyday language of the descendants.

14. A short view at the development of the German colony of Santo Amaro

The colony of Santo Amaro didn’t prosper for very long. In 1837 Santo Amaro was the only place in the province, where potatoes were produced and it was regarded as the “pantry, the storeroom of the captital”.[22] But as early as 1847, the province government gets the information that not more than 9 families live in this colony. In 1850 the existing colonies in the State of Sao Paulo are officially counted and described. For Santo Amaro, the report says that there is a German colony, “about 4 miles from the village, as good as given up”, only 4 or 5 families living there. Perhaps it was a bit too far off from the village, the Germans too much among themselves, isolated, without any church or school, the quality of the soil was perhaps not as good as expected, or as bad as the Palatine “rebels” had claimed. Anyhow, many families moved away to other “ranchos” or farms or moved from the far-off colony into the village centre of Santo Amaro (1839: 5400 inhabitants!  1822: 760 families) or into the expanding city of  Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo had only about 25.000 inhabitants , when the German immigrants came, but is a megalopolis today and has devoured the village of Santo Amaro,  which had a descendant of the Palatine Gilchers , José GUILGER SOBRINHO, as its mayor before it became part of the big city.

In 1950 Edmundo Zenha writes somewhat pessimistically that the German culture has not left any trace at all.[23]   But when looking for traces of German immigrants there, they can still be found: in the Institute Martius Staden, which focuses on German-Brazilian history and culture; in families of German descent, many a German document has been saved from the time of immigration, even from before! The old cemetery of the colony with the big iron gravemarkers still exists and in the region of Santo Amaro you encounter German family names here and there, even if they deviate more or less from their original form, which have been brought there between 1827 and 1829 by German immigrants, among which there were many Palatines, especially from the Kusel region.

                                                        Annex: Lists of emigrants

15. The German emigrants who arrived on the Dutch ship "Alexander"

Excerpt from the „list of those 174 German colonists who continued their journey an June 20, 1828 in Rio de Janeiro  and embarked on the ship ‚Rocha’ to be taken to Santos.  Made on the orders of the „Inspector for the colonization of strangers” by Johann Heinrich KAGEL, interpreter.“

Only the names of the heads of families and their wives are mentioned in the following excerpt. The places of origin were added  (“D” in Zenha’s book“), as far as I could find them in archives or other sources, as well as the number of children and a calculated year of birth or a birth date if this was available.  The original list contains names and ages of children, which have been omitted here for reasons of space. On June 20, 1828, 31 family members were still in Falmouth/England after the shipwreck of the Helena Maria. They arrived belated in 1829. In the original 1828 list, they are quoted as having been on the “Maria Helena”.

NAME

First name

Age in

1828

Religion if Catholic, trade,  children,  etc.

Village of origin (researched in 2005)

calculated year of birth or exact date

ANTHONI

Philipp

52

Catholic, farmer

Bosenbach

1776

ANTHONI

Maria

52

Protestant,

8 children

Bosenbach

1776

BACKES

 Nicolaus

35

farmer

Hueffler

1793

BACKES

Catharina

36

6 children

Hueffler

1792

BAUER

Margarethe

44

4 children

Bedesbach

1784

(BAUER

Peter)

- on Hel. Maria - arrived later

See below

BRAUNING

Carolina

20

Weinreich’s niece

Friedelhausen

1801

FISCHER

Heinrich

23

Haesel’s brother-in-law

Frohnbach ?

1805

FRANK

Friedrich

43

farmer

Friedelhausen

1785

FRANK nee DICK

Catharina

37

5 children

Friedelhausen

1791

GILCHER

Heinrich

52

3 children, farmer

Bosenbach

29.3.1775

GILCHER nee KILIAN

Margaretha

54

daughter - on  Helena M.

Bosenbach

1774

GILCHER

Johannes

23

Shoemaker, farmhand of the  Walter family

Essweiler

28.6.1805

GLASER

Juliana

45

5 children

Ulmet

1783

GLASER

Nicolaus

41

farmer

Ulmet

1787

GOTTFRIED nee RUEBEL

Catharina

32

4 children

Rammelsbach

1796

GOTTFRIED

Christian

32

farmer

Rammelsbach

1796

GROSKLOS

Jacob

24

Cath., carpenter,single

Kusel

1804

HAESEL

Peter

13

parents (Peter Haesel sr.) & 2 children on Hel. M.

Ulmet

1815

HAESEL

Catharina

19

Peter Haesel’s sister

Ulmet

1809

HAESEL

Friedrich

54

Widower, farmer,

5 persons  on  Hel.M.

Frohnbach

1774

HAESEL

Friedrich

23

Son, married

Frohnbach

25.11.1805

HAESEL

Jacob

18

Son, unmarried

Frohnbach

1810

HANNICKEL

Wilhelm

41

Catholic, farmer

Neunkirchen

1787

HANNICKEL nee ANTONI

Margarethe

41

5 children

Neunkirchen

1787

KAPPEL

Adam

25

Carpenter, single

Kusel

29.2.1803

KLEIN

Adam

45

farmer , tailor

Altenglan

1783

KLEIN

Elisabeth

37

4 children

Altenglan

1791

KLEIN

Nicolaus

48

carpenter

Neunkirchen

1780

KLEIN

Catharina

45

6 children

Neunkirchen

1783

KUNTZ

Elisabeth

33

3 children

Essweiler

1795

KUNTZ

Georg

37

catholic, farmer

Essweiler

1791

LANGE

Friedrich

33

tailor

?

1795

LANGE

Margaretha

26

1 daughter

?

1802

MADER

Jacob

33

shoemaker

Friedelhausen

1795

MADER nee  SIMON

Catharina

35

3 children

Friedelhausen

1793

MUELLER

Maria

39

4 children

?

1789

MUELLER

Nicolaus

51

Cathol., cartwright

?

1777

PAPST

Adam

26

farmer

Ulmet

1802

PAPST nee  SCHUNCK

Elisabeth

25

Daughter of  H.Schunck

Ulmet

1803

SAMSEL

Daniel

46

farmer,

Essweiler

1782

(SAMSEL,  widow BEBER

Philippine)

39

- on Helena M. -

See below

1789

SCHAEFER

Philipp

54

farmer

Erdesbach

1774

SCHAEFER nee DRUMM , widow   RHEINBERGER

M.Elisab.

38

3 sons of 1st marriage  RHEINBERGER

Erdesbach

1789

SCHRECK

Philippina

25

Cathol., unmarried

Essweiler

1803

SCHUCK

Peter

27

Cathol., carpenter

Offenbach Gl

31.1.1799

SCHUCK nee SCHWARZ

Catharina

25

3 children (1 newborn)

Offenbach Gl

1803

SCHUMACHER

Friederike

38

4 children

Neunkirchen

1790

SCHUMACHER

Peter

36

tailor

Neunkirchen

1792

(SCHUNCK

Catharina)

49

- on Helena M.

See below

SCHUNCK

Heinrich

52

Catholic, farmer

Ulmet

1776

SCHUNCK

Heinrich

18

son

Ulmet

1810

SCHWENCK

Johannes

42

farmer

Elbach/Rhein

1786

SCHWENCK

Maria

40

4 children

Elbach/Rhein

1786

STOFFEL

Christina

25

3 children

?

1803

STOFFEL

Johannes

36

catholic, farmer

?

1792

THEISSEN

Juliana

46

Widow

?

1782

THEOBALD

Catharina

36

and 4 persons

Ulmet

1792

THEOBALD

Friedrich

37

farmer

Ulmet

1790

ULRICH

Elisabeth

37

4 sons

Ulmet

1791

ULRICH

Theobald

37

farmer, potter

Ulmet

1791

WALTER

Jacob

46

Smith, farmer

Essweiler

1782

WALTER nee SCHUCK

A. Maria

44

6 children

Essweiler

1784

(WALTER, or WOLTER)

(Max)

(51)

(died in 1828 )

(Bosenbach)

1777

WALTER (also WOLTER)

Elisabeth

47

Widow of Max Walter, 6 children

Bosenbach

1781

WEINMANN

Jakob

53

farmer

Elzweiler

25.6.1775

WEINMANN nee BAUM

Eva Elisab.

43

5 ch (1 newborn)

Elzweiler

1785

WEINREICH

Philipp

36

Catholic, farmer

Friedelhausen

1792

WEINREICH nee HANNICKEL

Magdalena

36

5 children

Friedelhausen

1792

Single immigrants of this group who did not come from the Palatinate:

GEERS

H.Dietrich

29

Smith, unmarried

Gross-Sottrum

1799

MAINHOLZ

Johannes

43

Sailor, widower

?

1785

ANDRESSEN

Sebastian

32

Sailor, widower

?

1796

KETTLER

Ludwig

35

Sailor, widower

?

1793

FLUER

Johannes

34

Doctor, unmarried

?

1794

16. The Kusel Palatines who had been on the shipwrecked “Helena Maria”

The following 31 members of family  were on the Helena Maria, and had not arrived yet in Rio de Janeiro  until June 20, 1828

PFEIFFER

Johannes

38

Linnenweaver

Bosenbach

1790

PFEIFFER nee GILCHER

Heinrich’s daughter

Charlotte

30

plus 3 children

Bosenbach

1.3.1798

HAESEL

Peter

47

farmer

Ulmet

1781

HAESEL nee GILCHER

Philippina

42

plus 2 children

Rathsweiler

1786

THEOBALD (Family)

  4 persons altogether  on  Helena Maria

Ulmet

BAUER

Peter

44 ?

Bedesbach

1784 ?

SAMSEL, nee BEBER

Philippine

39

and 6 persons

Elzweiler

1789

SCHUNCK

Catharina

49

and 4 children

Ulmet

1779

HAESEL/FISCHER

5  persons altogether on  Helena Maria

Frohnbach

17. People who died during the emigration journey :

1. Max WALTER (also spelled WOLTER) of Bosenbach, 51 years old,  on ship Alexander. He left Bosenbach with his wife and 6 children, but she arrived without him, a widow with 6 children.

2. Charlotte SAMSEL nee KILIAN from Essweiler, 50 years old. She left Essweiler with her husband Daniel SAMSEL on Nov.7, 1827, embarked on the Helen and  Maria with her sister, Philippina Kilian, Peter BOEBER’s widow and the 5 children of the latter. Daniel Samsel took the ship Alexander. He arrived alone in Rio and didn’t know of his wife’s death when he arrived. When his sister-in-law arrived a year later, he lived together with her and her 5 children.

3. Friedrich HAESEL’s wife of Frohnbach. He left Frohnbach with his wife in 1827, but was registered as a widower when he arrived in 1828.

4. The two youngest children of Georg Jacob KUNTZ of Essweiler, Catharina, 3 years old  and Elisabeth, 1 year old. They left Essweiler with their parents, but did not arrive in Brazil, so they must have died during the voyage.

18. Recent discoveries of places of origin of early Sao Paulo immigrants

      More places of origin of early Southwest German immigrants to Sao Paulo have been detected by further research and
      through contacts with other  researchers, especially Mrs. Doris Wesner, who researches emigration from the Hunsruck,
      the region immediately north of the Palatinate stretching up north to the River Rhine and northwest to the River Mosel,
      a region which belonged to Prussia since 1815, whereas the Palatinate belonged to Bavaria. Language, dialect, culture,
      kitchen, agriculture and rural way of life were very similar to those of the Palatinate, especially the Kusel region which
      is only at a few kilometers' distance from the Hunsruck.

        Sources of the following data:
        Gossler Arnold, Aufbruch in fremde Länder. Auswanderungsgeschichte des ehem. Amtes Senheim Altkreis Zell/Mosel im 19. Jahrhundert, Liesenich, 2003.
        Hans-Peter Bungert, Familienbuch Schweich/Mosel, Grossrosseln.  Edmundo Zenha, A Colonia Alemâ de Santo Amaro, Sao Paulo 1950.
        Helmut Adams, Reidenhausen.  Werner Rockenbach, Simmern,  Doris Wesner, Simmern,  Eloy Camara Ventura, Sao Paulo.

      Arrival on Dutch vessel "Maria" 30.11.1817
(departure presumably from Amsterdam, NOT from Bremen!)
       
        BARTEN Johann Peter, *18.08.1781, catholic, Haserich, carpenter and farmer, son of BARTEN Augustin/HECKER Margaretha
      BARTEN, née MASMAN Margaretha, * 06.01.1780, catholic, Mittelstrimmig, daughter of MASMAN Peter/ BARTEN Anna
                                     marriage 11.01.1802 Kastellaun
     
BARTEN Maria Catharina, * 17.03.1806, Mittelstrimmig,
        BARTEN Johann Peter, * 22.12.1808, Mittelstrimmig,
     
BARTEN Peter Joseph, * 11.08.1812, Mittelstrimmig,
      BARTEN Andreas, * 27.05.1816, Mittelstrimmig,
      BARTEN Margaretha, * 20.05.1821, Mittelstrimmig,  (Hunsrück)
     

       CASPERS  Andreas, * 9.8.1793 catholic, Altstrimmig, farmer,linnenweaver,  son of CASPERS Joh./SCHUNCK Apollonia           
      CASPERS, née THOMES (also THOMAS/DOMMES)  Susanna, wife, * 9.12.1793 Altstrimmig
                                     
marriage:  19.01.1820 Senheim
      CASPERS  Anna Maria,    * 25.11.1822 Altstrimmig
      CASPERS  Johann Peter,  * 03.11.1824 Altstrimmig

      CASPERS  Johann Josef, * 27.01.1827 Altstrimmig   (Hunsrück)

       DONSBACH Johannes, *18.09.1764, catholic, carpenter and farmer from the village of Reich, (Hunsrück)
                                son of DONSBACH Johann Matthias/HETZERT Catharina
                marriage 04.02.1788:
      
DONSBACH née PHILIPPI, Eva Elisabeth, *09.06.1767, Kuelz, daughter of PH. Michael/SCHNEIDER Eva Elisabeth
      
DONSBACH Michael, *22.11.1795, catholic, Reich, Hunsruck
                marriage 13.04.1825 Simmern:
      
DONSBACH née MARTIN, Anna Christina, *11.10.1805,  Heinzenbach, d.of MARTIN Adam/CARL Catharina
       ZERFAS née DONSBACH, Catharina, *06.12.1793 Reich, daughter of Johannes DONSBACH
                    widow of ZERFAS Joh. Nicolaus (*21.08.1784 Hennweiler, +04.07.1826 Hennweiler, oo 03.10.1824 Hennweiler)
       ZERFAS Catharina, * 02.04.1826 Hennweiler (oo 09.08.1842 Santo Amaro: HANNIKEL Pedro,*07.03.1821)
    
      JACOBI Johann Peter sr,* 17.3.1782 protestant Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, + before June 1828
     
JACOBI née Ochs Maria Margaretha, wife, *ca.1794, 2.oo 6.11.1828 Itapecerica: ZILLIG Jacob
     
JACOBI Anna Catharina, *1815 Ober-Kostenz, oo ca. 1837 GRIMM Jacob *1817 Baumholder
      JACOBI Johann Peter, *23.11.1817  Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, oo GRIMM Carolina *1820 Baumholder,
                    +22.3.1889 Itapecerica

      JACOBI Johann Jacob,    * Ober-Kostenz near Simmern
     
JACOBI Maria Elisabeth, * Ober-Kostenz near Simmern
     
NN.  née JACOBI Maria Margaretha, * 13.09.1795 Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, sister
     
N.N. Maria Margaretha,  from Ober-Kostenz near Simmern, sister's daughter      (Hunsrück)

       KLEIN Simon,  *26.05,1784, catholic, Buch, district of Simmern, son of KLEIN Peter/HASDENPLUG Anna Maria
       KLEIN née LIMBACH,  Margarethe,
* abt. 1795,  his 2nd wife, marriage 15.7.1823, Buch;
                (1st marriage 22.1.1811, Buch : RUWER Anna Maria)
       KLEIN Peter Josef, *01.01.1812, 
Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
       KLEIN Catharina, * abt. 1815,  Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
       KLEIN PETER, * 13.10.1817, Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
       KLEIN Elisabeth,
* abt. 1825,  Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
       KLEIN  Ignaz ?
(Aniza?), * abt. 1824,  Buch, district of Simmern, Hunsruck
       KLEIN José (*abt. 1829 Santo Amaro)

      MEINERTS Johann, * 26.09.1788, catholic, Haserich,  nail smith and day labourer,  
      MEINERTS née HOFF Margaretha * 06.11.1779 catholci, Blankenrath  
                                    
marriage 02.01.1811 Kastellaun
     
MEINERTS Elisabetha, * 18.12.1811, Haserich
     
MEINERTS Margaretha, * 04.04.1813, Haserich
     
MEINERTS Maria Margaretha, * 27.04.1816, Haserich
     
MEINERTS Jacob, * 27.07.1819, Haserich                  (Hunsrück)

       ROCKENBACH Michael, * 10.02.1789, catholic, Biebern near Simmern
      
ROCKENBACH née WILBERT Catharina, wife, * 26.05.1787,
                                        marriage 27.01.1807

         ROCKENBACH Michael, * 28.01.1808 Biebern near Simmern
      
ROCKENBACH Anna Catharina, * 13.08.1809 Biebern near Simmern
       ROCKENBACH Peter, * 21.01.1814 Biebern near Simmern
         ROCKENBACH Anna Regina, * 06.08.1821 Biebern near Simmern
         ROCKENBACH Anna Catharina, * 04.03.1824 Biebern near Simmern
 
        ROCKENBACH Josef, * 06.07.1826 Biebern near Simmern       (Hunsrück)

       SCHOLL, Johann, * abt. 1795, catholic, Beulich, day labourer, farmhand, son of SCHOLL Anton/KREMER Anna
       SCHOLL née MASMAN, Lucia, catholic, Mittelstrimmig, daughter of MASMAN Joh.Adam/HILLEN Anna
                               marriage: 27.10.1823 Senheim
       SCHOLL Johann Peter, *28.02.1824, Mittelstrimmig
      
SCHOLL  Margaretha,  *18.02.1826, Mittelstrimmig        (Hunsrück)
      

       STEFFENS  Johannes, * 18.02.1795 catholic, Schauren, farmer, lived also at Mittelstrimmig, later Liesenich
      
STEFFENS née THEISEN  Susanna, * 28.04.1792, Mittelstrimmig, daughter of THEISEN Johann/WILHELMS Maria Christina
                                        marriage 25.01.1816 Beilstein
       STEFFENS Johann Peter, * 15.11.1821  catholic, Mittelstrimmig
      
STEFFENS Franz, * 10.08.1826  catholic, Liesenich                      (Hunsrück)
      
(STEFFENS Maria, * 1827  Santos)

       THEISSEN  Johannes, * 14.07.1781 catholic, Mittelstrimmig,  son of THEISEN Joh./WILHELMS Maria Catharin                               THEISSEN, née WILHELMS Susanna, * 22.01.1782 Altstrimmig, daughter of WILHELMS Peter/PREIB Susanna
                                        marriage: 10.02.1808 Beilstein
         THEISSEN Johann Peter, * 23.11.1809 Altstrimmig
         THEISSEN Maria Anna, * 26.12.1813 Altstrimmig
         THEISSEN Maria Catharina, * 12.12.1816 Altstrimmig
         THEISSEN Maria Clara, * 04.06.1820 Altstrimmig
         THEISSEN Johann Josef, * 02.06.1823 Altstrimmig                           (Hunsrück)
      
(THEISSEN Maria, * 16.12.1827 Santos, 2 weeks after arrival)
      
          WEISSHAUPT  Sebastian, * abt. 1781, protestant, Spesenroth near Kastellaun, district of Koblenz
       
WEISSHAUPT  Maria Margaretha,  Spesenroth,  + 16.11.1827 em Armação
       
WEISSHAUPT  Maria Catharina, (* abt. 1812 ?), Spesenroth
       
WEISSHAUPT  Johann Adam, * abt 1814, Spesenroth
        WEISSHAUPT  Johann Michael, * 01.10.1824, protestant, Spesenroth     (Hunsrück)
       
      

        ZILLIG Jacob,  *abt. 1797, widower from Ober-Kostenz near Simmern,   (Hunsrück)
        ZILLIG Johann Nikolaus,  son, *31.7.1821 Ob.Kostenz
        ZILLIG Johann Peter, son,  * 27.11.1823 Ober-Kostenz, lived in Itapecerica in 1875
          ZILLIG Johann Peter, Jacob's brother, * 27.04.1808 Nieder Kostenz oo 1828 WEINMANN Cath. *1811
        ZILLIG Maria Elisabeth, Jacob's sister, * ca. 1803
        ZILLIG, Maria Catharina, Jacob's sister, * 21.5.1813 Nieder Kostenz oo 1832 REIMBERG Peter

        ZILLIG Jacob,  *abt. 1791,  labourer,  (1830 in Itapecerica, 39 years old, not mentioned in the ship's list)
       
ZILLIG Maria, wife (36 years old in 1830)
      
  ZILLIG Maria, daughter (6 years old in 1830)

[1]  Cp. the book by Werle-Fauser, Hildegard: „Grumbiern wie ein Kopp so groß“ , - the German immigration into the state of São Paulo, São Paulo 1999.

[2] This list was taken from  Zenha, Edmundo: A Colônia Alemã de Santo Amaro, São Paulo 1950.

[3] Friedrich RHEINBERGER had come with his mother Maria Elisabeth DRUMM (born abt.1789) and her second husband Philipp SCHAEFER (born abt. 1774). His father was Adam RHEINBERGER (married M.Elisab. DRUMM 19.1.1809). With them came  sons Adam, born  23.4.1809 and Peter Rheinberger, born  31.3.1811.

[4] A first transport  had gone from Rio to Santos on Nov.30,1827; among them also Palatines and Hunsrueck people : Jacob GRIMM of Baumholder,  Sebastian WEISHAUPT of Spesenroth, Jacob ZILLIG and Peter JACOBI of Oberkostenz,  Simon KLEIN of Buch near Simmern  and others. The places of origin were noted in the registers of the German Consulate , which are deposited in the archives of the Foreign Office in Berlin today. They are an excellent source for research.

[5] Departure noted under January,6 in the Dutch newspaper “Amsterdamsche Courant” Nr.7 /1828.

[6] A special report about the hurricane, which began on a Sunday between 12 and 1 o’clock and destroyed many ships and buildings along the coast from Plymouth to Cornwall, was printed in Dutch paper  Amsterdamsche Courant of January 24,1828

[7] A report on this event was published in the Cornish paper „West Briton“ on January 18, and February 1, 1828, two very interesting letters of both captains involved on February 8 (thanks fort he rescue action and a noble decline of the offer to pay fort he rescue). This report  mentions 300 German emigrants.

[8] Cp. Werle-Fauser,  loc.cit.  p.31,  who quotes  Dr. Carlos Hunsche. Cp also Wettmann, Hartmut „Gefährliche Überfahrt“(dangerous journey) in Heimatkalender 1980 Landkreis Birkenfeld, p.194. Spindler was illiterate, he dictated the letter to his Protestant parson..

[9] This fact is being stressed by the  „West Briton“of  1.2.1828 as well as by the  „Royal Cornwall Gazette“ of 2.2.1828.

[10] According to a report of the LONDON TIMES of October 23, 1828.

[11] It must have been the vessel „James Laing“ under Captain Sughure, whose arrival from London and destination to Rio was reported on Dec.6,1828 in the Royal Cornwall Gazette. In the same edition the following is further explained: “A very fine ship arrived at Falmouth on Wednesday last, for the purpose of taking out the German emigrants to the Brazils, who have been so long residing at that place”.

[12] Reported by the Royal Cornwall Gazette of  Jan.3,1829.  The paper West Briton of Jan.9, 1829 reports under the date of Jan.2, the departure of three sailing ships to Brazil on this weekend: the “James Laing”, the “Oscar” under Captain Hinderwell and the “Fifeshire” under Captain Wilson.

[13] Zenha, Edmundo, A Colônia Alemã de Santo Amaro, São Paulo 1950,  p.36.

[14] Church registers of the Catholic church: Curia de Santo Amaro  batismos 1829.

[15] see Hunsche, Carlos: Die deutschen Einwanderer nach Südbrasilien (German immigrants into South Brazil) 1824-1830 in: Genealogisches Jahrbuch, vol. 19, part 2, Neustadt/Aisch 1979, p. 665-684. The following clandestine Palatine emigrants are registered there as having arrived in the South of Brazil on May 14, 1829. 

GALLAS, Kilian  of Essweiler (6 persons),  JUNG Karl of Foeckelberg (1p.) ROBINSON Georg of Ulmet (5 persons), SANDER Adam of Konken (6p.), SANDER Jakob of Foeckelberg (4 persons).

More names and dates of German immigrants to South Brazil have been published on internet by the  Instituto Genealógico do Rio Grande do Sul“ in  Porto Alegre  under  the following address :  ingers@terra.com.br

[16] Cp.Werle-Fauser loc.cit. p.43 and „Liste I“ of Zenha, loc.cit. p.139. The following early German  families are quoted by the magistrate of Itapecerica, but without any hint at their origin: Simon KLEIN, Pedro THEISEN, Miguel BAUERMANN, José ENGEL (Ingle/Hengles in Brazilian spelling

[17] List of 28.11.1828,  Liste F“ of Zenha, a.a.O. S.85.

[18] Theophil SCHMIDT  was fluent in the Portuguese language and wrote in a fine handwriting, so Zenha concludes from these facts that he may have served a few years in the strangers’ legion in Rio before he became geometer for  the German colony. He is not mentioned in the ship lists of  1827/28.

[19] Cp. Zenha, A Colônia , S.36

[20] Cp. Zenha, A Colônia , S.43.

[21] The lists were made separately for Santo Amaro and Itapecerica by the peace Joaquim Manoel de Moraes  and Fernando Antonio de Moraes;  printed in Zenha, A Colônia, p.134ff. In this process from writing down the strange German family names until printing, many errors of hearing, writing or reading have occurred.

[22] Cp. Zenha Edmundo, A Vila de Santo Amaro, São Paulo 1977, p.113

[23] Cp. Zenha, A Colônia, p. 59.