The Seven Families

            Who Sailed On The Princes Augusta In 1736

All of the Seven Families, except for the Noël's,  have been located as from the Principality of Salm which extends from present day Badonviller in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France to la Bruche, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France. The Noël's are expected to be found in this same area.
 

           The best bet for for Joseph Noël, and this is only a guess, is being the son of Jean Noël and
           Catherine Blosse of St. Stail, born on February 3, 1679.  The sponsors were Nicholas Didion
           and Catherine Covette the daughter of Denis Covette of Cahtas.  Peter Noel would then have
           been the grandson of Catherine Blosse and was old enough to remember her and her family.
           Peter named a son Blosse which is recorded as the Latin Blasius and was referred to as Bloss.
           Also there is a Joseph Noël who was married in Ville in 1718 who was born about 1680.
 

Research Underway         &          People Located        
The Flags of Salm                             A Trip to Saulxures          
Recent Developments    The History of Salm     In Search of Nicolas Ory
The Princes Augusta Voyage June to September 1736 by Durs Thommen

Map Of Europe In 1740 - Size 391K

The Noel Tree by Charles Noel - This book is out of print and the last copies have been sold.
If you need a look up contact contact me.  D E Noel

The Strausbaugh Book by Don Osborn  (361K)  which covers the early catholic families

of York and Adams Counties is now available and is a wealth of information. As a tribute

 to Don Osborn the following excerpt was taken from a draft of the above proposed book

on the Strasbaugh and Barger families.

EARLY SETTLERS AT PIGEON HILLS WHO CAME ON THE SHIP PRINCESS AUGUSTA

........ Written by Don Osborn, Muscatine, IA.                                                See this image and others of Alsace

The following genealogical report discusses the origin and settlement in America of a group of families who came to America from Rotterdam, Holland, on the ship Princess Augusta, arriving at Philadelphia on September 16, 1736, and who made their first settlement of any permanence along the branches of Beaver Creek, north of the Pigeon Hills, in Lancaster County, now York and Adams Counties) Pennsylvania. These were the Strasbach, Noel, Delon, Christian, and Ory families. They were Catholics, were German speaking, with some branches using German in the homes for several generations, and have been said to have come from France. They were probably the first settlers of what some early writers called the "French Colony" at Pigeon Hills. Some historians have questioned whether such a colony really existed. The following study indicates that such a colony did exist, the first Catholic settlers of the colony were probably the above families, but "French" was probably a misnomer as these families were more likely Alsatians.

The Princess Augusta Families arrived in Philadelphia from Rotterdam, Holland, suggesting they came from one of the lands along the Rhine River, or one of its tributaries. They spoke German as their common language, and at least those who were literate could also speak French and signed their names with French spellings on the passenger lists at Philadelphia. In those times, this particular bilingual language characteristic existed along the Rhine River only in Alsace, and that portion of the Duchy of Lorraine now located within the French Department of Mosel and stretching along the border of German Saarland. From southern Mosei on south through Lorraine the language was a local dialect of French.

Historically, the people of Alsace, the Alsatian speaking people of the Mosel region of Lorraine, the German Swiss, and the people of Baden across the Rhine River from Alsace, were of the same origins. These peoples were descendants of the Alamanni, a Germanic tribe who conquered the lands of the upper Rhine Valley in the 5th Century, and drove out the earlier Celtic tribes and Roman settlers. Their language is the Alemannic dialect of High German, and in France is commonly called Alsatian, whether spoken in Alsace or Lorraine.

The lands on the west side of the Rhine came under the control of France in the mid 17th Century and French became the language of government, and thus became a second spoken language, although Alsatian German continued as the most common spoken language of Alsace and Northeastern Mosel even into the 20th Century. In the early 1700s, use of French as a second language by the Alsatian speaking people of Alsace and parts of Lorraine, linguistically separated these peoples from those of Baden and the German Swiss.

The people who emigrated from Rotterdam can be divided linguistically as follows. The Dutch and Germans of the lower Rhine spoke Low German. The people east of the upper Rhine and the German Swiss spoke High German. On the West Side of the upper Rhine above Koblenz the people spoke High German except many Alsatians spoke French as a second language. Of the people coming down the Mosel tributary to Koblenz, those coming from what are now Luxembourg and German Rheinland-Pfalz and Saar spoke High German. Those from the Northeastern Mosel region of the Duchy of Lorraine spoke Alsatian and French. Those of the remainder of the Duchy of Lorraine spoke French.

Other emigrants who came down the Rhine who spoke French were most usually French Huguenots. These were French Protestants who had fled overland to the Rhine Valley to escape persecution in Catholic France. Some had lived among the Germans long enough to speak German as a second language.

In summary, almost all bilingual German-French speaking people who came down the Rhine were either the Alsatian speaking people of Alsace and the Mosel region of Lorraine, or French Huguenots, some of whom could speak German. Both Catholic and Protestants emigrants came from the Alsatian-speaking group.

The Princess Augusta families who came to the Pigeon Hills area were Catholic and were evidently bilingual and thus most likely either came down the Rhine River from Alsace, or down the Mosel and Rhine Rivers from the Alsatian speaking part of northern Lorraine.

On the Princess Augusta, the ship's Captain Marchant, a name of French origin, in his ships records, singled out seven families and treated these differently than the rest. These were the families of Nicholas Strasbach, Joseph Noel, Eneas Noel, John Francis Christian, Peter Delon, Nicholas Gerard, Francis Ory and his adult son Nicholas Ory.

Of 330 passengers on the ship, these were the only families for which the captain made an addition to his ship's passenger list which indicated whether the male passenger had brought a wife and also included a tabulation of the number of children in each family.

If you would like to add you address to the list below contact DN.

Those Interested In The Seven Families In Europe Who Arrived

on the Princess Augusta In 1736 May Contact:

By e-mail:  To: All Listed Below

                 Or To An Individual:

Chretien/Krichten/Christian
      Joesph Krichten

Dulon/Delon/Delo/Dillon/De L'eau/Delaune
    Floyd G Delon
     Nancy Woodburn Schrecongost
     Russell J Holmes
     Helen Ormsby
     Mildred L Prather-Garner

Gerard
    John House
   Dann M. Norton

Ory
     Jim Ory
   Carolyn Ory Thornton   

Ory - Strasbaugh
     Horace Ory

Strasbaugh
     Wayne Strasbaugh
     Anita Strausbaugh Hartman
     Shirley Gorman
     Floyd  E Strasbaugh

Strausbaug
    Chuck Strausbaug

Strasbaugh/Trosper
    Katrina Monticue

Strasbaugh/Trosper - Delon
    Jean Vore

Strasbaugh - Noel
     Theodore 'Ted' Von Mechow
     Jeanne Stewart Bok
     Colleen Theis
     Cindy Loggins Fenn