Schwenkfelder Information
Our ancestor, Mathias Marker, arrived in Philadelphia in 1734 on the St. Andrew Galley, by chance with another body of travelers, a group of Schwenkfelders. This group was fleeing religious persecution. They were a literate, educated group, and several members kept diaries of the trip. They did not keep track of individuals not in their own group, except referring to them as "the Palatinates." For example, Christopher Schultz, in his diary writes, "In the afternoon it happened that many of the Palatinates were sitting on the bow of the ship, hence they had their lodgings in the fore part of of the ship, when the wind hurled a big wave over the ship, which swamped the bow and rushed in the forepart of the ship, so that it was flooded with water, and the people sitting there were drenched, whereupon a great cry arose, but not a single person was drowned."
"During the night a Palatinate woman gave birth to a child, and during the night such a strong wind arose that the ship sailed 9 English miles an hour, whereas the day before she made only 7 to 8 miles. On the 9th towards noon it became quite calm, and on the day the child of Gregoirus Schultz died; it was born on the first day of our journey, thus being 16 weeks old. Again a mother and daughter of the Palatines quarreled. The calm continued until the 10th..." (Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelder Families, ed. by Samuel Kriebel Brecht, A. M., Rand McNally & Company, New York, 1923)
Official Schwenkfelder site
More Schwenkfelder information
A 48 page booklet, The Ship St. Andrew, Galley, A Hypothesis, by Alfred T. Meschter, was published by the Schwenfelder Library in 1992. Copies were available for sale this summer for $3. It lists all voyages, probable dimensions, etc. and includes some excerpts from the diaries.
Well worth it. 215-679-3103
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