CLINE Family from Postorff, Alsace, Germany to East Texas, USA
My interest was sparked to know more about the area our ancestors came from. I hope you will enjoy what I've found and find it interesting as I have.
The German Palatinate is a land steeped in history. Its villages and their populations were virtually destroyed during the Thirty Years War. Even today, many of the low mountain peaks are still crowned with the ruins of a castle or fortress, which was constructed centuries ago from the red sandstone quarried from the steep hillsides by peasants, working for their nobleman. The almost vertical banks along some sections of the Rhine, Mosel and Saar Rivers are lined with the grapevines which have existed on those slopes since the Roman occupation of the Palatinate, two thousand years ago. Alsace is frequently mentioned in conjunction with Lorraine, because German possession of parts of these two régions was contested in the 19th and 20th centuries, during which Alsace changed hands four times between France and Germany in 75 years. This area was a major topic of conflict for centuries, both claimed it for their own. Approximately 2000 Alsace-Lorraine Jews perished there in the Holocaust.
Our ancestors, the Moritz Klein family, marriage, births, and deaths are recorded in the Hirschland church records. (ALS1, p 39). The Hirschland link is from google maps and by zooming out to will give you a perspective of where the villages of Postorff and Hirschland are in conjunction to Germany and France. It is believed he died in Longswamp, Berks county, Pennsylvania.
Moritz Klein's son Jacob Cline appears in the records of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina on November 9, 1764. (In 1792, this area became Cabarrus county, NC). I'm not sure when or why the surname spelling changed from Klein to Cline.
In August 1778, Jacob Cline's son John Cline is on the tax list in Rowan County, North Carolina. Records indicate his estate was settled in Cabarrus, his son David A. Cline was born in Cabarrus County in 1777. The 1810 census finds David A., wife, and child in Lincoln County, North Carolina, on the 1820 census they are in Burke County, North Carolina, 1830 census shows them in Macon County, North Carolina, which was formed in 1828 from Haywood County. By 1850 David and wife Mary are living with their oldest son and his family is Murray County, Georgia. On March 15, 1853 David Cline applies for bounty land for War of 1812 service and states he is a resident of Chilhowee, Blount County, Tennessee (google map, Chilhowee View can be located by zooming in, I assume this is the same.) In 1872, he applies for War of 1812 pension and states he resides at Kelle Mills, Gilmore County, Georgia. (I've only found a Gilmore, Cobb County, Georgia, and no record of a place named Kelle Mills). He died in 1873 in Gilmer County, Georgia, so possibly the pension application should have been Gilmer County instead of Gilmore County.
David's son George W. Cline married Narcissa Newton in 1852 in Haywood County, North Carolina . We visited this area in October 2011, the Fall foliage was awesome there. They are found on the 1860 and 1870 census in Jackson County, North Carolina, which was formed in 1851 from Haywood and Macon. The last census we find them on is the 1880 Bartow County, Georgia. An application for a Civil War Headstone for George W. Cline states his date of death as 1894 and burial place as Steiner Valley, Whitney, Hill County, Texas. Our heritage continues through Robert Cline and Ida Daniel married on 24 Jul 1889 in Bosque County, Texas. Their oldest daughter, Pearl's death certificate shows her 1894 birthplace as Hill County, Texas. The June 1900 census finds them in Farmersville, Collin County, Texas. Their daughter, Irene was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1901. Claude's birthplace is still questionable, born in 1904, he was probably born in the Indian Territory. Records show Renner, Oklahoma, but no place by that location name has been found by our family.
When the 1910 census was taken, the Robert and Ida Cline family is found in East Texas, Their family continued to live, marry and raise their families in the East Texas area, and many are buried here. Robert and Ida are buried in the Mount Sylvan, Cemetery, Smith County, Texas. Their son Claude Cline married Gertrue Perryman and continued to live in East Texas.
(Updated with all links working April 2016)