In Annette K. Burgert’s work Colonial Pennsylvania Immigrants from Freinsheim in the Palatinate, we find a possible hometown of our immigrants, Jacob and Anna Bernhard. Freinsheim is a small Palatine village located about eight miles west of Frankenthal and an additional ten miles from Mannheim. In the middle ages, walls and towers were erected to protect the inhabitants of the village from outside enemies. At Freinsheim these walls and towers still stand and Freinsheim is often called the "Rothenburg of the Palatinate". The church, as in most Palatine towns, is the largest and most imposing structure. An article describing the village as it appeared in the late 19^th century was published in The Perkiomen Region, Past and Present, Vol. II, pp. 20-21.; "Days Devoted to Research Abroad" by Henry S. Dotterer, Part II: Freinsheim in the palatinate.

Freinsheim had both Lutheran and Reformed congregations. The earliest surviving Reformed book, with records dating from 1698-1788, is available from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The microfilm # is 488,286. The Pastor Johann Adam Scheffer started keeping the record on 1 May 1704. He mentions that an earlier record had been burnt when French troops swept through the area in 1688.

Several of the Freinsheim families emigrated before 1727, when the Pennsylvania ship lists start, and they are designated as prelist. Few of the emigrants appear in archival emigration records, and only one referenced to the emigration appears in the Freinsheim church books: in the 1723 confirmation record of the Bottig and Mulleman children, the Pastor mentions that they are preparing to emigrate to America with their parents and siblings. Otherwise, the records are silent about all others who left. At best, the evidence of immigration for most of these families is circumstantial, and some of the names are offered only as possibilities. Since many of the emigrants did not apply for permission to leave the Palatinate, and the following records are compiled entirely from events recorded in the church books, the conclusion that they are immigrants to Pennsylvania is based on the following factors:

1. Arrival on a ship with other proven or probable emigrants from the same village.

2. Association with other probable emigrants from the village after their arrival in Pennsylvania

3. Coinciding names of other known family members in the ship’s list.

4. Supporting evidence found in Pennsylvania records.

5. No further entries on the family in the Freinsheim records after the presumed date of emigration.

In the Freinsheim Reformed Kirch Buch is listed a Velten Neizeholtzer and his wife, Elisabetha, and they had a son. The son is listed as:

Johan Jacob, born 19 Feb 1701; baptized 23 Feb 1701; Conf. 1714. The surname is spelled Neunzehenholtzer in the confirmation record. (I do not have an ‘umlaut’ in my fonts). The name also appears as 19holtzer. (Neunzehen =19).

Died 13 Mar 1725, Vel. Neunzehenholtzer, citizen. (Names are frequently either misspelled or, at least, spelled differently).

In the Falckner Swamp Reformed Church of New Hanover, PA, Montgomery Co., PA we find:

1. Jacob Neunzehenholtzer and wife (Sibilla?) appear as sponsors at several baptisms, including Jacob Bernhard, Jr.

2. 1750; Confirmed, Michael Neunzehenholtzer son of Jacob N.

3. 1751, Confirmed, Elisabetha Neunzehenholtzer, 14, daughter of Jacob

4. 1751, Baptized, Elisabetha, daughter of Jacob Bernhard; witnesses Johanes Muller and "—Neune(unreadable)"

 

Lastly, the Philadelphia Wills, Book L; p 467.

Jacob Neiteholtzer, dated 5 May 1760; prob. 16 Jun 1760

Executors: wife, Sibilla and son, John Michael

"To eldest son John Michael, horse and plantation; wife Sibilla has the right to remain in the house. Mentions two youngest children. To son John Michael, the book of sermons; son Jacob to have the Bible; Youngest son Jacob to be bound to a trade 1 Nov 1760. If wife dies before youngest dau. comes of age, she is to be free and not bound out."

We may have sufficient reason to investigate the area of Freinsheim further if we consider that association with other probable emigrants from the village after their arrival in Pennsylvania may be a valid argument considering the findings regarding the Jacob Neunzehenholtzer family’s witnessing the baptisms of the early Bernhard children and later, Anna Maria Dotter (Dotterer) married the other Jacob Bernhard. There is other supporting evidence found in Pennsylvania records.