ENTER THE FINEFROCKS
- westmohney
- Oct 13, 2024
- 13 min read
Johann Michael Fünffrock is the legitimate unmarried son of Philipp Fünffrock, the deceased maker/repairman of umbrellas in this area ~ from Johann Michel's marriage record
We owe a debt of gratitude to our cousin Charlene Finfrock Wilcox (4C1X) who spent 20 years researching the Finefrock family. She did all of her work at a time before the age of computers when information was not as readily available as it is today. Fünfrock is a German name. Funf means five, frock means coat or skirt. Cousin Charlene speculates that possibly the first Fünfrock to take the surname was wealthy enough to own five coats.
our earliest Fünfrock relative
Our grandfather, Johannes Fünfrock (11GGF) was born c. 1530 in Saargemünd which was then, as it is now, part of France. The town today is called Sarrgüermines and it is still part of Lorraine, France. The Alsace Lorraine region has been an area of contention between Germany and France for hundreds of years. In 1871 the region was ceded to Germany. After World War I, it was returned to France. Germany regained control during World War II but lost the region again after the war.
According to our cousin Charlene, there are still Fünfrocks living in the area today. The Saar River runs through Sarrgüermines which lies directly south of the German/French border. In 1553, our grandfather Johannes moved east into Germany when he enrolled at the University of Tübingen, a prestigious school founded in 1477.
The fact that Johannes was able to attend such an esteemed college indicates that he may have come from a well-to-do family. Below is a photograph of the university's Alte Aula or Old Auditorium which was built in 1547.
By the time Johannes graduated in 1558, he had married our grandmother Anna (11GGM) and converted from Catholicism to the Lutheran religion. The couple's first child, Johann Philip (10GGF) was born in Tubingen about the time of Johannes' graduation. The Fünfrocks were still in Tubingen two years later in 1560 when their second child, Susanna (10A), was born. Below is her baptism record:
Johannes' first job that we know of was teaching Latin in the village of Pfulgriesheim in France. Then, it appears that the family moved around quite a bit. In 1863, they returned to Germany where Johannes continued teaching in a town called Blaufelden. In 1569, the family was in Künzelsau, Germany, where Johannes was still teaching Latin.
Cousin Charlene wrote a letter to the Office of the Mayor in Künzelsau to see if she could get information on the Fünfrocks. She received a friendly response from Herr Riedinger who wrote in part:
At the time when your ancestor was teacher in Künzelsau, there was here not yet an actual grammar school which taught Latin, but only rather a course in Latin. . .Then the School building of that time does not exist any more. . .torn down in 1827. . .Whether the Family Fünfrock in Künzelsau had further children born in not known. . .there is, however, evidence that one daughter Katharina was christened on 11.07.1563 in Blaufelden. . . Johann Fünfrock is mentioned there in the year 1563 as a teacher.
Herr Riedinger also sent Charlene evidence of Johannes' records as a teacher in Künzelsau.
The Fünfrock's finally returned to France in 1582 to the town of Duntzenheim.
No record has been found of either Joannes or Anna's death. Charlene surmises that they either died in Duntzenheim or in Gries, 15 miles east, where their son Philip had settled.
Johannes Philipp Fünfrock
Our grandfather Johannes Philipp (10GGF) was born in 1558 in Tubingen, Germany while his father was still attending the university there. He moved around a lot with his parents when he was younger but, by 1605, we know he had settled in the town of Gries, France where he was the "schultheiss" or village mayor. In 1607, he married Anna Regina Fachinger (10GGM) in her hometown of Buschswiller, France. They then returned to Gries where they had four children.
The main event for the family happened in 1622 during the Thirty Years War which raged from 1618 to 1648. The conflict, involving most of the major nations in Europe, has been called one of the most destructive in all of European history. In 1622, the town of Gries was completely destroyed and the Fünfrock family was forced to flee to the town of Strasbourg, about 20 miles south of Gries.
We don't know what year the family returned to Gries, which was being rebuilt, but Anna and her daughter Regina (1C11X) died there on the same day in 1633 and Philipp followed shortly afterwards.
three more Fünfrock grandfathers
Our grandfather Philipp, Jr. (9GGF) was born in 1609 in Gries. He, like his father, was mayor of the town for many years, from 1638 to 1671. He married Margaretha Burger (9GGM) ca. 1629 and their first child was born in 1640.
While mayor, Philipp "rendered himself periodically to the Castle of Bouxwiller for his revenue to the Lord Johann-Reinhard." Other duties included making sure city ordinances were published and followed and overseeing executions.
Philipp and Margaretha had four children. Philipp died in Gries in 1671 at age 62 and Mararetha died in Strasbourg at age 60.
George Fünfrock (8GGF) was born in Gries in 1640. He married Eva Hietz (8GGM) in 1662. The couple had thirteen children. George died in Gries 1733 at age 93. We have no information on when or where Eva was born or died.
Another Johann Philipp (7GGF) was born in Gries in 1664. He married Ursula Sweiger (7GGM) ca. 1700. At some point in time the couple moved about twenty miles northeast of Gries to Niedermodern.
All of Philipp and Ursula's five children were born in Niedermodern. Phillipp died in 1725 at age 61. Ursula died in 1743 at age 69.
Johann Michel and Barbara Stambach Fünfrock
Our immigrant grandfather Johann Michel (6GGF) was born in Niedermodern in 1711. He must have made a move to the village of Merkwiller because he was married there in 1734. and in 1735 he is listed on town records as "kieffer," or barrel maker.
In 1735, Michel was listed on town records as "kieffer," or barrel maker. His skill might have been much in demand there as the practice of growing grapes and creating wine in the Alsace region dates back to the Ancient Roman times.
When Michel married Maria Barbara Stambach Nonnemacher (6GGM), she was a widow about 8 years older than him with five daughters ranging in age from 12 years to an infant. Barbara was the daughter of Jacob Stambach (7GGF). In her blog Opening Doors in Brick Walls, the self-proclaimed genealogist Cathy Meder-Dempsey wrote about a man who, in 1994, had found the house of our grandfather Jacob Stambach in Merkwiller:
In May 1994 Mr. & Mrs. Ray B. Grove visited Merkwiller. He wrote: “Back on the road again we headed for Merkwiller to see the home of Jakob Stambach which had been sited on a plat plan dated 1717 which we had found in a Füenfrock genealogy. Sure enough, we were able to identify the structure from the plan and took several pictures of this very old but still lived in structure.”
Note: I have been unable to find a picture of the the house in Merkwiller but will continue the search.
Below is Michel and Barbara's marriage record which says:
On March 2nd (1734), after a preceding proclamation, Johann Michael Fünffrock and Maria Barbara Nonnenmacher were married in a public gathering. Johann Michael Fünffrock is the legitimate unmarried son of Philipp Fünffrock, the deceased maker/repairman of umbrellas in this area. Maria Barbara Nonnenmacher is the widow of the deceased townsman Johannes Nonnenmacher of Merkweyler .
Note: All of the translations from old German to English on this page were done by Erika Tweed, a friend of Charlene's.
Maria Barbara Nonnenmacher
Our aunt Barbara Nonnemacher (5A) was the oldest daughter from our grandmother Barbara's first marriage. Barbara was about 12 when her mother married Michel Fünfrock. In 1746, the younger Barbara married Johann Rupp. The couple had four children born between 1746 and 1751. Their oldest child, Jorg Heinrich Rupp (1C6X) died at only two months.
In 1752, the family decided to emigrate to Americia.with their three remaining children, Jacob, Michel and Martin. They arrived in Philadelphia on October 20, 1752, on the ship Duke of Wirtenburg.
Note: Our cousin Barbara made the journey with her husband 18 years before her step-father and two of her half-brothers came across in 1770.
The Rupp's finally settled in Baltimore County Maryland where Johann Jacob purchased 115 acres called Rhineharts Folly in 1770. Ca. 1790, Jacob sold 100 acres of this land to his youngest son Heinrich (1C6X) "for a fraction of what he paid for it." We'll have more on Heinrich and his overland travel to Virginia in a future post.
two births and two marriages
Michel and Barbara Fünfrock had seven "known" children of their own. We only have extensive information on two of their sons, Michel, Jr. (5GGF) and Stephan (5GGF). In what I like to call a genealogical rarity, both these sons just happen to be grandfathers of ours because Michel Jr.'s daughter Barbara (4GGM) married Stephan's son George Henry (4GGF).
Michel, Jr. was born in 1735. Below is his birth record which named his parents as "Johann Michel Fünffrock, the townsman and barrel maker at Merweyler, and Maria Barbara his wedded wife."
Stephan was born the 19th of November, 1742. Below is his birth record which says:
On the 19th November there was born to Johann Michel Fünffrock, the townsmen of Merkweyler, by Maria Barbara, nee Stambachin, his legitimate wife, a little son, on the 22nd baptized and named Johann Stephan.
Also listed were several witnesses at Stephan's baptism.
Stephan, although younger, was the first of the two sons to marry. His marriage took place on the 10th of October, 1768, a month and a half shy of his 26th birthday. Below is the record of his rather scandalous marriage, with translation:
Monday the 10th October there were after preceding Proclamation once and forever, publicly joined (wed) and consecrated: Johann Stephan Fünffrock, Hans Michel Fünffrock's, the townsman's and farmer's at Merkweiller legitimate unmarried son, and Anna Catharina, Niclaus Nonnenmacher's the townsman's and farmer's of Merkweiller legitimate unmarried daughter, who had run away for several days with a married man and a rumor went as if she by that same man had been made pregnant. The bridegroom himself, however, declared to me to be the father of the hidden fruit of the womb. As such it is being put on record. Attested by Minister Seyhsoff.
Note: Stephan's first wife, Anna Catharina Nonnenmacher, who was not our grandmother, was probably related to our grandmother Barbara's first husband, Johannes Nonnenmacher.
Stephan and Anna were married at the Protestant Church of Kutzenhausen, two miles from Merkwiller. Their daughter, Catharina Salome, was born four months after the marriage and baptized at the church in Kutzenhousen. Even though Stephan claimed the "hidden fruit" of Catharina's "womb," it seems doubtful that the child was actually his.
In Salome's birth record, Stephan was listed as a weaver. The child was baptized the day after her birth and chosen as godmother was our grandmother Maria Catharina Mueller (5GGM) who would later marry Stephan after both of them arrived in America.
Note: Stephan's first and second wives were both named Catharina, a popular German name at the time.
The Protestant Church in Kutzenhausen, shown below, where the marriage and baptism took place is still standing today.
Michel, Jr.'s wedding, when he was 34, was also somewhat scandalous:
On Monday, 21st August (1769), after a preceding proclamation, Johann Michel Fünffrock and Margaretha Sennin were married and consecrated in public after both had slept with each other too early. Johann Michel Fünffrock is the legitimate unmarried son of Johann Michel Fünffrock, the townsman and farmer of Merkweiller. Margaretha Sennin is the surviving legitimate unmarried daughter of the deceased forester Wieland Jacob Senn who was in the service of the sovereign aristocrat of Merkweyler.
Note: Michel's first wife, Margaretha, was also not our grandmother.
the journey
It's possible that the stigma of the two marriages and births caused the Fünfrock move to Feldbach, about 100 miles south of Merkwiller. In any case, Michel and Margaretha's daughter, Maria Eva (4A), was born in Feldbach on September 29, 1769, just one month after their marriage in Merkwiller.
Our grandmother Barbara died shortly afterward in Feldbach. Her death may have been what prompted Michel, Sr., 59 at the time, to agree to make the trek to America with his two sons. Sometime around the beginning of summer in 1770, the three Fünfrock men set off on their journey with two wives and two infant daughters in tow. Charlene described the probable stages of the trip:
It was up the Rhine River the immigrants traveled on their voyage to to America. The first part. . .was the journey down the Rhine river to Rotterdam. . .The journey down the Rhine lasted four, five and sometimes, six weeks. When the ships came to Holland, they were detained there again five to six weeks.
The second part of the journey was from Rotterdam to one of the English ports. . .In England there was another delay of one to two weeks. . .then the real misery began with the long voyage. . .The passengers were packed densely into the ships, without proper food and water and were soon subjected to all sorts of diseases. Gottlieb Mittelberger in his book Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750. . .writes "The misery reaches the climax when a gale rages for two or three nighs and days, so that everhone believes that the ship will go to the bottom. . .the people cry and pray most piteously. . .it will be readily understood that many of these people, none of whom had been prepared for hardships, suffer so terribly from them that they do not survive."
arriving in America.
The Fünfrocks sailed on the ship Minerva which probably left Cowes, England in early August of 1770. Also listed on the ship's roster was Johann Georg Müeller who came with his wife, our grandmother Maria Catharina Müeller (maiden name unknown). Two Stambachs sailed on that ship as well. One of them, Jacob (7U), was the brother of our grandmother Barbara Stambach, the other probably a cousin. The Minerva arrived in Philadelphia on the first of October and all three Fünfrock men took the required Oath of Allegience to Britain. Below are their signatures on the document. Stephan and Michel, Jr. were able to sign their names but Michel, Sr. signed with his mark which looks like an H. For his name is written Mich: 5 Rock.
In an interesting sidenote to the Fünfrocks immigration, Charlene discoverd that:
Although German in origin, the Finfrock family is classed among that group of early Americans called the "Pennsylvania Dutch." This term, coined by the English settlers, was applied to (certain) German and Swiss immigrants who arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1700s . . . The term was originally meant to be 'Pennsylvania Deutch," meaning German, but it soon became corrupted into "Dutch."
four deaths
Four deaths that occured either on the ship or shortly after the arrival in Philadelphia illustrate the dangers of a journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
Since there are no records in America found for Michel, Sr. after he signed the Oath of Allegience, it is assumed he died shortly after his arrival.
It's possible that Stephan's first wife Catharina died on the journey across the ocean. If not, she died within a few short months of the ship's landing in Philadelphia. Also dying within months was our grandmother Catharina's husband, Georg Müeller.
Stephan and Catharina Müeller were obviously well known to one another in Merkwiller since she had been chosen as godmother for his daughter Salome. With both their spouses gone, it probably seemed only natural for the two to come together. The marriage took place at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Philadelphia on the 28th of January, 1771, only four months after their arrival in America.
Since there were no more children born to Michel, Jr. and his wife Margaretha, it's assumed that she, too, died on the ship or shortly after arriving in Philadelphia.
life in America
After their marriage, there are no further records of Stephan and Catharina in America until 1775 when their daughter Elizabeth (4A) was baptized. Cousin Charlene speculates that Stephan may have been "indentured. . .to pay his passage, for a period of 2-4 years and this may account for the missing records."
Aunt Elizabeth was baptized at the Christ Lutheran Church in Manchester, PA which lay near the banks of the Susquehanna River. Three more children were also baptized there, including our grandfather George Henry Finefrock (4GGF) who was born in 1777.
Grandpa Michel also moved to Manchester and it may have been there that he married his second wife Eva in 1774. The couple had three children together, the first born in 1775.
Even though they had only been in America for eight years, both Michel and Stephan served in the army during the Revolutionary War. Michel served in the York County Militia in 1778 and 1780. Stephan served in 1778 and 1782.
Michel and Eva's last child, George (4U) was born in 1779. Eva either died in childbirth or shortly after George's birth. Michel married his third wife, yet another Catharina, ca. 1780. At the time, he had four children aged 11, 5, 3 and 1. Catharina may have died giving birth to their one daughter, also Catharina (4A), who was born in 1782 as there are no more children listed for the two of them.
Michel didn't marry again until ca. 1789 when he married his fourth wife, our grandmother Barbara (last name unknown) (5GGM). The couple had six children together including our grandmother, another Barbara (4GGM).
later life
It appears that the brothers and their families stayed in the Mancester area until ca. 1800 when Stephan and Catharina moved 50 miles west to Letterkenny, PA. They were in their late 50s at the time and all of their children had been born. Charlene wrote that "[a]fter carefully examining all material, at hand, including census records, it was determined Stephan was the father of at least 12 children." That is possible, but only seven have been accurately accounted for.
Stephan and Catharina most probably died in Letterkenny but no death rocords for either have been found. We know that Stephan died after 1814 when he witnessed a deed for two of his brother Michel's sons.
Michel had 11 children with his four wives. The last one was born in 1802. The 1810 census shows Michel in Hamilton, PA, about 10 miles south of Letterkenny.
Michel died in Hamilton in 1813 and left a will which names him as Michel Finifrock. Michel's will was that all his "estate real and personal shall be disposed of. . .one third of the proceeds of which I bequeath to my dearly beloved wife Barbara Finifrock." The rest was to be divided in equal shares to his nine children with one share going to the children of his son John (4U) who had died sometime before his father.
Michel gave the guardianship of his children under 21 to Grandma Barbara. Barbara was also made executrix along with Michel's friend John Buttsfield.
Finally, Michel stipulated that if any "difference, dispute, question or controversy" should arise, that no "suit or suits. . .shall be brought, commenced or prosecutied. . ." Rather, Michel wished that his heirs settle their differences with the help of an arbitrator chosen by a majority "of the contending parties" and "what they shall order direct or determine shall be binding and conclusive. . ."
Between the two of them, our grandfathers Stephan and Michel left twenty children to begin a new life in the budding United States of America.
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