Familie Allwein: Volume 1: an Early History

By Duane F. Alwin

This information is not available at this time. Author will provide once available.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 12, 2009
• ISBN: 9781984575418

Duane F. Alwin

Duane F. Alwin—a sociologist by training, the author practices an ethnographic approach to doing family history, one that emphasizes going to the places where the families he researches lived, familiarizing himself with the environs, and tapping local resources for information on their historical roots.

Book preview

Familie

Allwein

Hans Jacob and Catharina Allwein

and their Descendants

Volume I

An Early History

Allwein Family in America

Duane F. Alwin

Copyright © 2009 by Duane F. Alwin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

The cover art for this book is based on a photograph of the Deppen Cemetery, located at the Berks County Heritage Center, Berks County Parks and Recreation Department, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. The gravestone to the left of the tree on the front cover is that of Elizabeth Allwein Schmidt, daughter of Hans Jacob and Catharina Allwein. She was the first known Allwein descendant born in Pennsylvania.

Rev. date: 01/03/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

56720

Dedicated to my father

Lawrence Sylvester Alwin

Content

Volume I

An Early History of the Allwein Family

in America

Foreword

Introduction-On The Shoulders Of Giants

Part 1-The First Two Generations In America

Chapter 1 - Separating Fact From Fiction

Introduction

European Origins

Migration From Europe

Settlement In Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Land Records

The Allwein Family Name

Religious Faith Of Familie Allwein

The Family Of Hans Jacob And Catharina Allwein

Closing

Appendix 1A—Aloenz/Alwentz/Alweins Family Baptisms, Marriages And Deaths In Fürfeld Church Books (1717 To 1772)

Appendix 1B—Copies Of Land Surveys

Chapter 2 - Establishing Kinship

Introduction

Children Of Hans Jacob And Catharina Allwein

Philip Alwine (1773-1850)

Catharine Elizabeth Allwein (1778-1843)

Joseph Allwein (Unknown-1806)

Elizabeth Allwein (1783-1859)

Magdalena Allwein (1786-1843)

Sarah Allwein (1802-1875)

Margaret Allwein (1808-1827)

Closing

Appendix 2A—Deppen Cemetery

Appendix 2B—Allwein Descendants In The Berks County Estate Records

Appendix 2C—Estate Records Of Jacob Allwein

Appendix 2D—Last Will And Testament Of Johannes Allweins

Chapter 3 - Conrad Allwein (1753-1816) Lebanon County, Pennsylvania

Introduction

Goshenhoppen Registers

Christian Henrich’s Mass House

Revolutionary War Service

Militia And Muster Lists

Lieutenant Accounts

Lebanon Township

Catholic Faith

Children Of Conrad And Catharine Allwein

Closing

Appendix 3A—Conrad Allwein’s Land Survey

Appendix 3B—Additional Photos

Appendix 3C—Allwein/Allwine/Alwine Men Named Conrad

Part 2 - The Third Generation In America

Chapter 4 - Philip Alwein (1773-1850) Somerset County, Pennsylvania

Introduction

The Alwein Family Name

Amish Mennonite Migrations

Marriage And Family

Fourth Generation In Somerset And Cambria Counties

Jacob Alwine (Bef. 1800-Unknown)

John Alwine (1801-1873)

Joseph Alwine (1805-1877)

Lydia Alwine (Abt. 1815-1880)

Sarah Alwine (1816-1887)

Philip Alwine (Abt. 1817-1853)

Alwine Lands In Somerset County

Closing

Chapter 5 - Jacob Alwine (1771-1854) Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

Introduction

Western Migration

Hempfield Township

Marriage And Children

Samuel Alwine (1820-1901)Pioneer Landowner

Children Of Samuel And Elisabeth Alwine

The Lutheran ConnectionJohn And Jacob Alwine

Children Of John And Anna Alwine

Closing

Appendix 5A—Westmoreland County Wills

Chapter 6 - John Allwine (1779-1849 Dauphin County, Pennsylvania

Introduction

Family Origins

St. Peter’s Catholic Church Elizabethtown, Lancaster County

Children Of John Allwine

Movers And StayersDescendants Of John Allwine

Movers And Stayers—Descendants Of John Allwine

John Felix Allwine (1805-1878)

Mary Magdalena (Polly) Allwine (1807-Bef.1860)

Conrad Alwine Iii (1810-1904)

Elizabeth Allwine (1811-1863)

Samuel Allwine (1813-Unknown)

Catharine Allwine (1817-1893)

Jonathan (Jonas) Allwine (1820-1885)

Henry E. Allwein (1821-1899)

Sarah Allwine (1823-1904)

Theresa Allwine (1825-1888)

Lawrence Allwine (1827-Abt. 1884)

Jacob Allwine (1829-1879)

Sabina Allwine (1833-1915)

Philip S. Allwein (1835-1897)

William B. Allwine (1837-1912)

Closing

Appendix 6A—Roman Catholic Baptismal Records, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Chapter 7 - Philip Allwein (1781-1855) Lebanon County, Pennsylvania

Introduction

Lebanon Township

Family And Children

St. Mary’s Catholic Church Lebanon County, Pennsylvania

Descendants Of Philip Allwein

Elizabeth Allwein (1808-1850)

Joseph Allwein (1810-1873)

John Allwein (1811-1879)

William Allwein (1813-1888)

Samuel Allwein (1817-1885)

Philip Allwein (1819-1856)

Mary (Polly) Allwein (1822-1900)

Sarah (Sallie) Allwein (1824-1902)

John Edward Allwein (1828-1909)

Rebecca Allwein (1830-1890)

Mary Ann Allwein (1831-1878)

George Elijah Allwein (1833-1909)

Anthony Frank Allwein (1835-Bef. 1855)

John Henry Allwein (1837-1919)

John Adam Allwein (1839-1918)

Catharine Anna Allwein (1841-1864)

Isabella Allwein (1849-1915)

Closing

Appendix 7A—Will Of Philip Allwein

Chapter 8 - Conrad Alwine Ii (1783-1846) Adams County, Pennsylvania

Introduction

Dauphin County Origins

The Conewago Settlement

Conewago Chapel

Marriage And Family

Children Of Conrad Ii And Susanna Alwine

Samuel Alwine (1809-1875)

Catherine Alwine (Abt. 1810-Bef. 1846)

James Alwine (1811-Unknown)

Conrad Alwine Iv (1814-1870)

John Adam Alwine (1816-1901)

Michael Alwine (1817-Aft. 1882)

Mary Elizabeth Alwine (1821-1884)

Mary Susan Alwine (1824-1903)

Closing

Chapter 9 - Samuel Allwine I (1792-1865) York County, Pennsylvania

Introduction

Dauphin County Origins

York County In The 19Th Century

Marriage And Family

Children Of Samuel And Mary Allwine

John Allwine (1817-1879)

Sarah (Sally) Allwine (1818-Unknown)

Conrad J. Allwine V (1819-1897)

Mary Allwine (Abt. 1822-Unknown)

Catharine Allwine (1824-1891)

Peter Samuel Alwine (1831-1895)

Margaret Allwine (1832-1891)

Lydia Allwine (1836-1914)

Closing

Appendix 9A—Allwein/Allwine/Alwine Men Named Samuel

Part 3 - Fourth And Fifth Generations

Chapter 10 - Allwein Families In America

Introduction

The Allwein Line In America—A Synopsis

The Branches Of The Allwein Lines

Generation One

Generation Two

Generation Three

Generation Four

Generation Five

Appendices

Appendix A - Indexed List Of Family Members

Appendix B - Cemetery Abbreviations

Appendix C - Places Of Residence In The 1880 Federal Census

Literature Cited

Index

About the Author

L I S T O F E X H I B I T S

Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come

in yours and my discharge.

William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1

F O R E W O R D

In the pages that follow, the reader will find the results of several years of research into the first few generations of the Allwein family in America. Specifically, these pages contain the early chapters of a book I am putting together about the history of the people who make up the Allwein family in America from its earliest beginnings in Pennsylvania. Members of this family are descended from an 18th century German immigrant Johannes (Hans) Jacob Allwein and his wife Catharina.

This is the first of several volumes on FAMILIE ALLWEIN—Hans Jacob and Catharina Allwein and their Descendants. This first volume, entitled An Early History of the Allwein Family in America, is intended to be the foundation for a more extensive treatment of the Allwein family history to be completed in future years.

What is reported in these first ten chapters reflects the results of research carried out by me and several other Allwein family researchers. This research is far from complete and in most respects represents a work in progress. Nevertheless, I have decided to go ahead and make the first several chapters available to family members for two basic reasons. First, I want to share with Allwein family members what we have learned about their heritage. And second, I want to offer my conclusions to other family historians and genealogists who can provide feedback and criticism on what I have prepared so far.

For this research I have relied on a variety of sources of information to establish what we know about Allwein family history. These include ship lists of immigrant passengers, lists of persons who signed loyalty oaths, early Pennsylvania tax lists, military records, estate and other probate records, church registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths, tombstone inscriptions, census materials, family genealogies, and local histories. I have also relied on the broader archival record dealing with early Pennsylvania history.

This volume covers the first four generations of the Allwein family in America. It is made up of ten chapters. To give an idea of what is contained here, Part 1 covers the first two generations of Familie Allwein. Here I discuss (in Chapter 1) what we know about the lives of the first generation of Allweins in America, Hans Jacob and Catharina Allwein. The theme of the chapter is the separation of fact from fiction in what some of our family genealogists have written about the lives of Hans Jacob and Catharina. Topics I cover include: Hans Jacob’s German origins, his migration from Europe, his settlement in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the origins of the Allwein family name, what is known about the religious faith of Hans Jacob and Catharina, and what we know about their children. Chapter 2 takes up this latter topic in greater detail, focusing specifically on establishing an empirical basis for the existence of the children that make up the second generation of Allweins, of which I believe there were four—Johannes (John), Mary Elizabeth (Elizabeth), Conrad, and Catharine Allwein—and what is known about them. Since we know quite a lot more about Conrad (I call him Conrad I, the first, because he was the first of many men in this family named Conrad) than the other children of Hans Jacob and Catharina Allwein, I devote the third chapter of Familie Allwein to what we know about Conrad I and his wife Catharine Allwein, who settled in Lebanon County and from whom there are many Allwein descendants.

Part 2 focuses on the third generation of Allweins in America, including Philip Alwein (1773-1850) of Somerset County, Pennsylvania (Chapter 4); Jacob Alwine (1771-1854) of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Chapter 5); John Allwine (1779-1849) of Dauphin and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania (Chapter 6); Philip Allwein (1781-1855) of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania (Chapter 7); Conrad Alwine II (1783-1846) of Adams and York Counties, Pennsylvania (Chapter 8); and Samuel Allwine (1792-1865) of York County, Pennsylvania (Chapter 9). While my primary focus is on the male lines of descent, I provide as much information as possible on the daughters when further information is available on the lines into which they married.

Part 3 provides a synopsis of what was presented in Parts 1 and 2—a short version of the genealogical content contained therein—and a guide to future volumes. As presently envisioned, future volumes of this work will cover later families and related families. Volume 2 will cover fifth, sixth and later generations, and Volume 3 will cover related families.

Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the support I have received from others. John Fred Alwine and Christine Alwine Paige were enormously helpful a few years back in getting me started in this research, and they have continued to help along the way. John sent me copies of his own genealogical work, plus a copy of the 1902 Genealogy of the Allwein-Arnold Families assembled by Jerome A. Allwein. Christine has routinely offered new information, support, encouragement and guidance. In addition, I benefited greatly from a compilation called Alwine Families of York County, Pennsylvania and Surrounding Areas, put together by Michael Lau, which I obtained from the Adams County, Pennsylvania Historical Society Library. Dr. Charles Glatfelder, Director of the Adams County Historical Society and Professor Emeritus at Gettysburg College, provided critical assistance at an early stage of this research.

Also, I am indebted to other Allwein/Allwine/Alwine researchers who I have met, some in person and some on the internet—Edward F. Allwein, Jr., Bob Allwine, Kenneth and Betty Mae Allwine, Leota Alwine, Marlin L. Alwine, Ray L. Alwine, Peter Byrne, Joseph Conrad, Jim Cyphert, Joseph Eckroat, Ron Frey, Dan Hecker, Jim Hoffheins, Kathleen Hoover, Kathy Komaromy, Cheryl Lutz, Dorothy Michael, Nancy Allwein Nebiker, Adam Schofield, Tommy Sims, Thomas Stobie, Eric Troutman, Victor Zimmermann—who have supplied useful information and feedback from time to time. Alyson Otto supplied valuable clerical assistance. There are also countless librarians, innkeepers, and churches throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Indiana and Kansas that have given nourishment to my body, my soul and my thirst for knowledge. My deepest gratitude goes to my wife Linda, my partner and soul mate, who helped nurture my desire to learn more about the Allwein family. She has been beside me in many of my travels, sharing the work and the fun, and I acknowledge her many contributions. None of this would have been possible without Linda’s help, encouragement, and love.

Duane Francis Alwin

December, 2008

State College, Pennsylvania

I N T R O D U C T I O N

On the Shoulders of Giants

"If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders

of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, in a letter to Robert Hooke¹

At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street in Philadelphia, one can find a set of volumes, edited by Wilbert Jordan, titled Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania—Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, which contains hundreds of biographies of prominent men of Pennsylvania. Jordan was a former curator of Independence Hall, Philadelphia, and was active in genealogical and historical activities in the middle of the 20th century. His series on colonial families was an effort to record and legitimate the genealogical research of his contemporaries.

In one of these volumes, published in 1948, there is presented some of the earliest genealogical work on the history of the Allwein family in America.² It is contained within an entry for James Sidney Hammond, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who had achieved success in the steel industry. Hammond was a graduate of Princeton University, a veteran of World War I, and a successful business executive. He was a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute and was active in a number of other trade organizations. In addition to his business and professional pursuits, he took an interest in his family history and was a member of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. The biographical narrative for James Sidney Hammond includes the results of his research on Johannes (Hans) Jacob Allwein (he spelled it Alwein), one of his ancestors, and the man who many now believe was the progenitor of many Allwein, Alwein, Allwine, Alwine and Alwin families in America.

The published lineage of James Sidney Hammond is of particular interest here because material taken from this entry in Jordan’s Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania often appears in Allwein family genealogies, but without proper reference to the author.

Hammond’s entry contains results from his research on several families whose ancestry he claimed—Chapman, Sage, Wheeler, Waters, Manning, Seaman, Alwein and Riddle. Hammond’s mother, Alice Grace Seaman, was a descendant of two immigrant German families who settled in Bern Township of what would become Berks County—Johannes (Hans) Jacob Alwein and Johannes Ludwig Seaman. Ludwig Seaman, the progenitor of the Seaman family in America, settled in Bern Township around 1748 and lived his entire life there. He is buried with his wife Anna Maria Seaman in St. Michael’s (Lutheran) Church Cemetery, Tilden Township, Berks County. Alice Grace Seaman’s great grandmother was Catharine Elizabeth Allwein, daughter of Johannes (son of Johannes Jacob Allwein) and Eva Christina (surname unknown) Allwein. The lineage from Johannes Ludwig Seaman down to James Sidney Hammond (drawn from Hammond’s narrative) is summarized as follows:

1. Johannes Ludwig Seaman and Anna Maria (unknown) Seaman

2. John (1) Seaman and Elizabeth (Schlabbig) Seaman

3. John (2) Seaman and Catharine Elizabeth (Alwein) Seaman

4. Elias Seaman and Margaret Charlotte (Goehring) Seaman

5. Joseph Sidney Seaman and Hannah Alice (Slater) Seaman

6. James Holland Hammond and Alice Grace (Seaman) Hammond

James Sidney Hammond’s parents—James Holland and Alice Grace (Seaman) Hammond—lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where their families had been for several generations. Alice Holland’s great grandparents—John (2) Seaman and Catharine Elizabeth (Alwein) Seaman—had both been born in Bern Township of Berks County and had moved to western Pennsylvania around 1825. According to Hammond’s narrative (p. 553), John (2) Seaman was employed by the Harmony Society—a utopian religious society that stressed celibacy and communal ownership of property.³ John Seaman became the clerk for the Harmony Society and was their trusted agent for many years. He also practiced surveying in connection with his employment, and was appointed justice of the peace, holding this office on several occasions.⁴ I return to a presentation of what is known about Catharine Elizabeth Alwein and John (2) Seaman in Chapter 2.

James Sidney Hammond produced an extensive narrative on his Seaman ancestry, but what interests us here is the following narrative on the history of the Alwein family (reproduced here in its entirety):⁵

The Alwein Line

The name Alwein is of great antiquity in the Netherlands, where it was found spelled as Alewijn or Halewijn. The meaning is, literally, ale-wine, and the original bearers were probably the owners of large vineyards or vintners, a profession highly esteemed in old and modern times. Bearers of the name held positions in the courts of the Holland nobility. Gerrit Alewign was in charge of munitions under Willem III, Count of Holland, in 1332, and was appointed to the same post in 1342 under Willem IV. Jan Alewijn was a schepen or magistrate in Amsterdam in 1405 and another of the same name was a councilor in 1469 under Karl the Bold. Diedrick de Halevin alias Alewijn was made a knight by the French King, Francis I, at Pavia, in 1525. His grandson, of the same name, who was born in 1574, and died in Amsterdam in 1637, received a large estate in Beemster, thirteen miles north of Amsterdam. Many persons of the name served as burgomasters in their localities. Mr. Wiliam Alewijn of Amsterdam, born 1769, died 1835, was granted a coat of arms in 1815.

Jacob Alewijn was mint-master in Zutphen, in the province of Gelderland near Arnhem, and died in Harder, a locality about thirty miles east of Amsterdam, May 26, 1606. [J.B. Rietstap: Wapenboek van den Nederlandischen Adel, Vol. I, pp. 6, 7. A.A. Vorsterman Van Oyen: Stamen Wapenboek van Aanzienlijke Nederlandische Familien. Vol. I, p. 7] His name indicates that he may have been the progenitor of the family whose records follow:

(I) Hans Jacob Alwein, or Alwine, as the name appears in early Pennsylvania records, was probably a descendant of Jacob Alweijn, a mint-master in Zutphen, above mentioned. Hans Jacob Alwine was born about 1719 and died in Berks County, Pennsylvania, at an unknown date. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in the ship St. Andrew, sailing from Rotterdam, and took the oath of allegiance required of foreigners in Philadelphia, October 2, 1741, being then twenty years old.

April 24, 1748, Jacob Alwein, probably identical with Hans Jacob Alwein, above mentioned, and his wife, brought a son to be baptized at Hohn’s Church, Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The son’s name was recorded as Alwein in the church records.

Hans Jacob or Jacob Alwein married, but the name of the wife is not known. They had a son John. [Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. V, p. 54, Records of Hohn’s Church. W.H. Egle: Names of Foreigners Who Took the Oath of Allegiance to the Province and State of Pennsylvania, 1717-75, p. 213]

(II) John Alwein, as the name was spelled in his generation, thought to be the son of Hans Jacob or Jacob Alwein, and is probably identical with the above mentioned John Alwein, who was baptized at Hohn’s Church, Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, April 24, 1748. He resided in Bern Township which is near Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. John Alwein married Eva, whose surname is not known. They had a daughter: Catharine Elizabeth.

(III) Catharine Elizabeth Alwein, daughter of John and Eva Alwein, married John (2) Seaman.

As I noted, many genealogies of various branches of the Allwein family reproduce some or all of this information, often without adequately or correctly attributing the source: James Sidney Hammond. As we shall see in the following chapters, much of the information can be verified in the sources provided. In certain other ways, however, the information provided in the Hammond narrative is incomplete, but this is to be expected, as any one researcher often does not have access to all of the available information. If, for example, he had access to the Berks County estate records, he would have discovered when Jacob Allwein died, the name of his wife, and a list of his heirs (among whom are listed John and Catharine Elizabeth (Alwein) Seaman). And, if he had access to Strassburger and Hinke’s now standard source on lists of passengers on ships entering the port of Philadelphia, he would have discovered that Jacob Allwein probably did not sign the Oaths of Allegiance and Abjuration.⁶

What is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Hammond narrative is the potential link to the Netherlands, and the surname of Alewijn or Halewijn. We have reason to believe that Johannes Jacob Allwein originated from the northern Palatinate, specifically from Fürfeld, a village in what is today the Federal State of Rheinland-Pfalz, and that his family may have migrated from the province of Brabant (today divided between Belgium and the Netherlands), or had relatives living there (see Chapter 1). Establishing a linkage to the family Alewijn may also help connect the name Allwein to the surname Alewine belonging to a family that settled in Newberry County, South Carolina in the mid-1700s.⁷ It is not as yet clear how these various families are related, but the Hammond entry suggests that this may be a very real possibility.

The Hammond entry in Jordan’s Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania is an invaluable reference, and is the earliest known genealogy of the Allwein family in America that lists Hans Jacob Alwein as the progenitor of the Allwein family in America. Another genealogy of the Allwein family—the Genealogy of the Allwein-Arnold Families—written by Jerome Allwein in 1902—predates it by nearly 50 years, although it focuses primarily on families originating in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, the Jerome Allwein genealogy has proven to be an extremely valuable source of information on what was known about Allwein descendants more than a century ago, one on which many have come to depend. Like any such document, it was incomplete in several respects, but we are very fortunate to have this document, in addition to the supplemental notes of the genealogical work of Jerome Allwein’s son, the Rev. Monsignor Charles L. Allwein.⁸ The Allwein families of Lebanon County, Pa. are central to any genealogical work on the Allwein family in America, as it was in Lebanon that Conrad (brother to John Allwein) and his wife, Catharine (Weibel) Allwein, settled and raised their family.

Jerome Allwein was the son of John Edward Allwein and Elizabeth (Arnold) Allwein, a descendant of two of the families that had inhabited Lebanon Township in Dauphin County (an area that would eventually become Lebanon County), and in 1902 published a definitive Genealogy of the Allwein-Arnold Families. In his own words, Jerome Adam Allwein, the . . .

. . . youngest son of Edward and Elizabeth (Arnold) Allwein was born and reared on his father’s farm in Lebanon County, Pa. (He) attended the Public Schools until he was 16 years of age after which he attended Normal Class at Mount Nebo Normal School at Lock Haven, Pa. and a Normal Class at Annville. (He) started teaching Sep. 1885. (He) taught successfully for three terms in the Public Schools of Lebanon County. At the close of his third term as a teacher he entered the Eastman National Business College of Poughkeepsie, New York, April 3, 1888, where he took a course of business training graduating with honor July 24th following.

In the Spring of 1889 he left Lebanon, went to Philadelphia in search of employment. After a week’s hunt he found employment with the Knickerbocker Ice Co. and continued with this company for several years. In the Summer of 1892 the National Wall Paper Co. was organized and in August of that year he accepted a position with their principal Jobbing Branch in Philadelphia taking charge of the accounting department which position he held until dissolution August 1909, after which he filled like position with the succeeding firm, Carey Bros. & Crevemeyer.

When the Order of the Knights of Columbus was introduced in Pennsylvania he was among the first to subscribe his name and take up the cause. (He) was elected Financial Secretary of the first Council November 1896 and unanimously re-elected each year, filling the office 9 years.

On May 9, 1894 he was married to Sophia M. daughter of Frank and Mary Schaefer by Rev. Conrad Rephan, C. SS. R. at High Mass 9 A.M. Wednesday at St. Bonifacius Church, Philadelphia.

Jerome Allwein’s Genealogy of the Allwein-Arnold Families, which is dated 1902, begins with Conrad and Catharine (Weibel) Allwein (see Chapter 3) as the first generation in the record of the Allwein family in America, and there were no claims about Conrad Allwein’s parentage. Although Allwein’s genealogy shows no awareness of Conrad’s link to Hans Jacob and Catharina Allwein, it is nonetheless an extremely valuable document with respect to providing an informative background on Conrad and Catharine (Weibel) Allwein and their lives in Lebanon County during the late 18th century.

In the Preface to his Genealogy, where he outlines his desire to preserve to posterity the history of the Allwein-Arnold family, Jerome Allwein notes that:

The first authentic record of the Allwein family is found in Rev. Theodore Schneider’s marriage register at Goshenhoppen where is recorded the marriage of Conrad Allwein, May 16, 1773.

Regarding the origins of the family, Jerome Allwein writes (in 1902, p. 1):

After a careful and thorough examination of all the records obtainable at this time all indications point to the fact that the ancestors of this family lived in Germany, likely along, or near the river Rhine, (and) there followed agricultural pursuits. It is practically impossible at this late day to obtain any information regarding the early history and traditions of this family. No member living today has the remotest idea of the movements or antecedents of this family prior to the arrival at Goshenhoppen, Pennsylvania of Conrad and his sister Elizabeth Allwein.

It appears that several members of the family decided to cast their lot in the New World. The date of their sailing is not known but they came when quite young as we will see later. The landing beyond doubt was in Philadelphia as we find them first located at the Catholic Mission founded in 1741 by Rev. Theodore Schneider, a German priest of the Society of Jesus, at Goshenhoppen, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

It is definitely known that there were two brothers and sister in this family who settled here but the name of the brother and his descendants seem to have been lost. The writer was informed that this brother was married and had some children, resided at one time in Berks County, Pennsylvania, but the family either died out or moved away so long ago that the oldest living members of the Allwein family today have no knowledge of them.⁹

What is ironic about this conclusion is that if he had had access to the complete set of Goshenhoppen Registers, he would undoubtedly have found Conrad’s lost brother and sister. The compilation of baptisms, marriages and deaths to which he refers comprises the sacramental records of the mission church at Goshenhoppen in Washington Township (now Bally), Pennsylvania. This has come to be known as the Goshenhoppen Registers. It is considered the oldest Catholic Church register of its kind and represented the work of several Jesuit priests, including Father Schneider, Father John Baptist De Ritter, Father Peter Helbron, Father Nicholas Delvaux, and Father Paul Erntzen.¹⁰ Msgr. Charles L. Allwein would later serve as rector of the Most Blessed Sacrament Church and School at Bally.

There are several gaps in the Catholic Church records kept at Goshenhoppen, so we may not expect to find evidence of all baptisms and marriages that took place on the mission circuit. Indeed, according to Jerome Allwein’s Genealogy, No record of the baptism of any of the children of Conrad and Catharine Allwein is found in the Goshenhoppen register, concluding that this proves that they did not make their home at this place for any length of time after their marriage. He goes on to note that the only time where the name Allwein appears again on these records is where Conrad and his wife Catharine were sponsor for a child of the wife’s sister Eva.

Of course, now we know more, in part because of the continuation of Jerome Allwein’s excellent work by his son Monsignor Charles L. Allwein, among others. The notes of Msgr. Allwein can be obtained from the Berks County Historical Society, Reading, Pennsylvania.

One of the important contributions of Msgr. Allwein was in the preservation of the records of the Goshenhoppen mission. The Goshenhoppen Fathers were itinerant priests who traveled a wide circuit in ministering to their flock. While the Goshenhoppen mission was principally centered on the area in Berks County between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, the Goshenhoppen priests traveled as far west as Lebanon and Sharp Mountain (now known as Spitzenberg Hill) in Albany Township in the north of Berks County.¹¹

It is perhaps of some value to point out that if one looks a little farther into these early records, allowing for the possibility of alterations in the spelling of the name on the part of those keeping the records, there are several additional sacramental events recorded in the Goshenhoppen Registers that pertain to the Allwein family. I list these verbatim in chronological order, as follows (page numbers in brackets are from The Goshenhoppen Registers 1741-1819):

1. Marriage of Orendorff-Aloine: July 12, 1795, the banns having been called once, in the presence of the congregation of Reading, John Orendorff and Magdalen Aloine. [p. 181]

2. Marriage of Aloin-Miller: October 11, 1807, at Reading, in widow Fricker’s house, John Aloin, Sr., and Magdalen Miller; in the presence of me, Paul Erntzen, parochus of the place. [p. 207]

3. Marriage of Weirich-Aloin: December 13, 1807, at Reading, James, son of James and Magdalen Weirich, non-Catholic, and Elizabeth, daughter of Conrad and Catharine Aloine, Catholic; witnesses Sebastian Allgayer and John Franz. [p. 207]

4. Baptism of Mary Margaret, daughter of John and Madeline Aloin, born April 14, 1808, baptized 11 September, 1808. [p. 230]

5. Marriage of Grett-Aloine: July 11, 1813, at Reading, John, son of Andrew and Elizabeth Grett, and Theresa, daughter of Conrad and Catharine Aloine; witnesses Magdalen Shmidt and John Sigfrid. [p. 211]

6. Marriage of Aloin-Eckenrod: August 11, 1816, at Reading, John, son of Conrad and Catharine Aloin, widower, and Magdalen, daughter of Henry Eckenrod; witnesses John Arnold and Ph. Aloin. [p. 213]

Notice that in these six entries the name Allwein is spelled in two different but related ways, as Aloin and Aloine. The priest keeping the records during this period (roughly from 1795 to 1816) was Father Paul Erntzen. I believe this represents an unintentional mis-spelling of the name, either because of simple transcription problems, or because the recorder was trying to make what he heard come out in English. By contrast, in the record of Conrad and Catharine’s marriage, during the (earlier) time of Father De Ritter, the spelling is given as Allwein, which is consistent with what Conrad and Catharine eventually adopted. The later records, then, appear to represent an effort on the part of Father Erntzen to Anglicize the spelling of what was clearly a German name. We have no proof of this, but his consistent use of these alternate spellings suggests this to be the case (see Chapter 2). I know of no other explanation of these facts.

The above records include two entries that pertain to John Allwein, eldest son of Hans Jacob and Catharina Allwein. One is his marriage to Magdalena Müller (Miller or Mueller) on October 11, 1807 in Reading. This was his second marriage—his first wife, Eva, having died subsequent to the birth of their five children. The second is the baptism of John and Magdalena’s second daughter, Mary Margaret, who was born April 14, 1808 and baptized September 11, 1808. One can make what one wants of the timing of these various events, but in addition to whatever confusion this may engender, when added to other sources of information these records may in the end reveal much more (see Chapter 2).

Also these records include four entries that pertain to marriages of children of Conrad and Catharine Allwein—Magdalena, Elizabeth, Theresa and John (his second marriage)—which are all now a part of the collective record. Indeed all four of these marriage dates are recorded in Jerome Allwein’s genealogy, who must have come by them through other means. One needs to keep in mind that when Jerome Allwein’s Genealogy was completed (in 1902), the third and fourth series of the Goshenhoppen Registers had only recently been published, in 1897 and 1900 respectively. So it is understandable that he would not have been aware of the Aloin and Aloine listings, even if he had used a broader compass for the spelling of the family name. And he would have had no knowledge of the fifth series (which contained the baptism of Mary Margaret, daughter of John and Magdalena Allwein) because it was not published until 1950.

We are blessed in having those who have come before—James Sidney Hammond, Jerome Allwein, Msgr. Charles Allwein, and the Jesuit priests at Goshenhoppen who went before him—all of these men have preserved what was known to them of Allwein family history. It is on the shoulders of these giants that we look to the past, reconstructing what can be known on the basis of the available record about the history of the Allwein family in America (and eventually) in Europe.

We can see farther now. This is in part because we have a better lens through which to see—within which I include the vast improvements in technology and informatics—but also because we are literally standing on the shoulders of giants. In the words of an earlier version of Isaac Newton’s aphorism on which the main theme of this presentation is based, Bernard of Chartres used to say:

We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.¹²

The intent of these sentiments is to express humility and to give credit elsewhere, namely to those who have gone before. It is their stature, not ours, that allows us to take in what we see. Our accumulation of facts literally rests on the foundation set by our forbearers, without which we would not have the vision we appear to have.

It is all too often forgotten that what we know about our past rests in part on those that have gone before, and we unfortunately often ignore the efforts of others. By failing to take these early foundations into account in our credits we run the risk of transgressing the boundaries of ethical standards, and in some cases actual plagiary.¹³ Genealogists are notorious in not crediting their sources, and in many cases not even documenting where they obtain information. Even worse, it is sometimes the case that people document their work by citing the sources of the others from whom they have taken material (without proper credit), and without ever having consulted those sources themselves.

To avoid these problems, in what follows I rely principally on primary sources, rather than secondary sources. Knowing the difference between primary and secondary sources, is what James Beidler says is critical in determining the believability of an individual’s research.¹⁴ The distinction goes as follows (see page 486):

Primary sources are documents or records created around the time of the event in question by or with the help of someone in the position to have participated in or observed the events and ideas in the document or record. The definition of secondary sources is easier. Secondary sources are any records or documents that are not primary. Examples, as usual, will help turn words into learning. The original will of an individual on file in a county courthouse is a primary source. A compilation of abstracts from that original will and others, possibly rearranged and usually indexed, is a secondary source. The convenience of secondary sources often makes them a seductive substitute for primary sources in genealogists’ eyes. But good genealogists never rely on that secondary source unless the primary data is literally no longer available (as opposed to merely difficult or inconvenient to access); instead, they use the secondary source as a gateway to finding the primary source, and then use the primary source as their evidence.

Thus, throughout this volume, the main elements of what I consider to be historical evidence come primarily from ship lists, censuses, tax lists, court records, military and pension records, estate records, tombstones, and other archival material. I also rely on genealogies, local histories, obituaries, and other secondary sources. I rarely, if ever, use anything obtained from