1702 A French map shows Niederhochstadt and Oberhochstadt as H[aut] Hostett and Bas Hostett. [1]
1696-98 Balthaser Bortner was born about this time, based on the date of his confirmation and age at immigration to America, perhaps in Oberhochstadt, Germany.
Niederhochstadt and Oberhochstadt are on the Hainbach River about 10 kilometers east of Landau, Germany. They are now one urban area named Hochstadt. The Rhine River flows north to Rotterdam nearby.
This area was beset by repeated warfare between France and Germany during the time that Balthaser was a youth.
1687 Landau was a fortified area on the border between France and Germany. The Vauban fortress is a part of the 17th century initiative by the Marquis de Vauban to turn Landau into an impregnable fortress. In 1687 Vauban chose Landau as the chief place of arms of Lower Alsace, and lavished on the place all the resources of his art. [4] His design for the fortification of Landau in Bavaria is sometimes reckoned as his greatest work. [5]
1689 Louis XIV annexed Alsace to France in 1672/78 and the area around Landau became a border region. Being the largest town into the area Landau had quite some military significance. In 1689 Landau shared the fate of most towns and villages on both sides of the Upper Rhine: French troops burned it to ashes in the Palatinate Heritage War.
1697 Landau was restituted to Palatine by the peace treaty of Rijswijk. Rebuilding the burnt town took its time.
1703-13 Landau was besieged by the French in 1703, 1704, and 1713 for weeks at a time. [6] [7]
1710 Balthaser Bortner, from Oberhochstadt, was confirmed at the Niederhochstadt Reformed church. [8] [9] "Protestants were usually confirmed around age 14, Catholics about age 12.", suggesting a birthdate circa 1696. [10]
1727 The Host reformed Church was founded in 1727 at a place called Host in Pennsylvania located on the Tulpehocken Trail between the Delaware Indian village of Shamokin (now Sunbury) on the Susquehanna River, and Womelsdorf, home of Conrad Weiser, a leader in the Tulpehocken Settlement and mediator with the Indians. Host is about 3 miles northwest of Womelsdorf. The church records begin in 1748 and included several records of the Bortner family, as indicated below. [11]
1731 Johann Jacob Bortner, son of Baltazar Bortner and wife Elisabetha, was born on August 10. He was baptized August 12, 1731 at the Oberhochstadt Reformed Church with sponsors Jacob Sauter and Apollonia Meyer, both single. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [Oberhochstadt is currently at address 76879 Hochstadt, Pfalz, Germany] Maria Elizabetha's maiden name has been reported as Born or Merrilis. However, Jacob was ten years old in 1732 and a muster role of troops in service in King George's War in 1746; listed Jacob Bordner, a soldier, as age 26.
1732 Baltzar Bortner [20] came to America on board the ship "Adventurer", Robert Curson, Master, from Rotterdam, Holland, last from Cowes, on September 23. Jacob Bortner, under age 16, was also listed. The names were listed as Pantcy Porterner, age 34 [21]; Merreles Porterren, age 37 [22]; and Katterena Paulteren, age 25; Hanna Mela Porterren, age 8 [Anna Maria]; and Jacob Porttener, age 10. [23] [24] [25] Balthaser Bortner's signature [Balser] is in the list of Oaths of Allegiance taken on September 23, 1732. [26] [27] [28] Oral family tradition reports that Balthaser and Maria had a babe-in-arms (George Bortner) when they arrived. [29] [30] [31]
1732 Baltzar Bortener was listed in the Philadelphia Council minutes, on September 23, among Palatines who came on the ship Adventure. [35] [36]
1734 Balthaser and Maria Elizabetha were members of the Little Tulpehocken (Christ) Church, which was an Evangelical Lutheran Church. This church, which was founded in 1734, was first housed in a log structure in the Tulpehocken Settlement. Today the church is located 1.5 miles southwest of Bernville, Jefferson Twp, Berks County, Pennsylvania. [40] [41]
1734 Son Peter was born in the Tulpehocken Settlement. [42] [43] However, this birthdate is inconsistent with the 1735 land warrant for Peter!
1735 Peter Bortner received a warrant for land on Mill Creek Bridge on Tulpehocken Creek in Heidelberg Twp, Lancaster County on November 12, 1735. The land was surveyed on June 30, 1737 and was adjacent to tracts owned by Ludwick Plumb, David Evans, and Erasmus Buggamer. The land was vacated and then patented by Martin Heckaborn in 1743. [44] [45] [46] [47]
1736 Daughter Phillipena was born in the Tulpehocken Settlement. A son, Philip Jacob, who married in 1760, may have been born about the same time. [48] [49]
1737 Jacob Burtner received a warrant for land in on Swatara Creek, Tulpehoken, Earle Twp, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on January 26. The survey reported the name Jacob Kitzmiller. The warrant was vacated and the tract was patented by Jacob Byerly in 1743. Henry Weaver owned an adjacent tract. [50] [51] [52] [53] [54]
1738 Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Balthasar Bortner and wife, was baptized at the Tulpehocken Christ Church in Jefferson Twp, Berks County, Pennsylvania. [55] [56]
1747-48 Balthasar Bortner died. [57] Record of his estate are found in Philadelphia County. Apparently, the Bortners spoke "High German", since their recorded wills were written in that dialect.
1746 An undocumented memorial reports that Balthaser Bortner was buried at Berks County, Pennsylvania. Balthaser Bortner was reported born in 1697. [58] [59]
Research Notes:
776 The village of Hochstadt, several miles northeast of the city of Landau in the Palatinate (the Pfalz), was mentioned in documents for the first time in the year 776. In the middle of the 15th century an adjacent village was founded west of the Haardt Mountains; it was called "Oberhochstadt" (where Balthasar was born), while the original was called "Niederhochstadt" [Today both parts of the village are united under the name "Hochstadt" with the zip code 6741][60]. Hochstadt is located in the salient of present West Germany, projecting into France, almost due east of Saarbruecken. It is in that part of the Pfalz west of the Rhine River that was coveted (along with Alsace and Lorraine) by King Louis XIV of France. During the several French invasions in the latter part of the 17th century and the early part of the 18th century, it was severely ravaged. [Attributed to Stephen F. McGovern]
1454 There is a record in the Berlin Museum of a coat-of-arms authorized in 1454, by the German Emperor in Neustadt, to be displayed by one Hans Bortner, and his sons, Hans and Paul, presumably presented for valor in battle. Neustadt was in the Palatinate at that time. The relationship to Balthazar is unknown. [61]
Another account, recited at a Bortner family reunion in 1897, reports that Balsar Bortner came from Holland and settled in Bucks County. Son George then moved to Codorus Twp, York County. [62]
"The following are the names of the children (as near as I can find out) of Baltzer Bortner, who was born in Germany, about 200 years ago: George, Peter and Rozena. Rozena became the wife of Frederick Frasher. Peter, who was born about 1734, came from Bucks county to Dauphin, and had five sons and several daughters, one of whom was married to a Hoofnagle, in Ohio." [63]
"Balthaser (Baltzer) Bordner, who at the age of thirty-four years, together with his wife Marilles, aged thirty-seven years, and three children - Jacob, Hanna, and Mela, aged ten, eight, and seven years, respectively, - sailed from Rotterdam on the ship 'Adventurer', and landed at Philadelphia, Sept. 22, 1743. Bathnaser Bordner settled in Tulpehocken township, Lancaster (now Berks) county, immediately after landing, and died there in 1747." [66]
See the Kirchenbuch, 1727-1798, Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche Oberhochstadt [https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/211459, FHL film 247646]
A biosketch reports [67]
Balser (Balthaser) Bortner (c1698-1747/8) - m. Maria Elisabetha __ (c1695-c1750) Farmer in the Tulpehocken Settlement in Lancaster Co., Pa. (part in Western part of Berks Co. after 1752). Arrived in Philadelphia in September, 1732 on Ship, "Adventure", from Rotterdam, Holland. Came from one of German States in the Rhine River Valley, probably the Palatinate. Common anestors of almost all of the Bortners, Bordners, and Burtners in the United States. Children: Born in the Old Country: Jacob (Bordner), Anna Maria Barbara (Mrs. Henry Kann), and perhaps, George (although he might have been born in the Tulpehocken Settlement). Born in the Pennsylvania Colony: Peter, Philip Jacob, Phillipina (Mrs. Charles Shaffer, Mrs. Frederick Frasher), (Maria) Elisabetha (Betsey - Mrs. Michael Lau or Low).
A Sons of the American Revolution application has been recorded. [68]
Miscellaneous secondary sources. [69] [70] [71]
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[2] Gaspard Baillieul, Partie du Cours du Rhein, ou se Trouvent les Villes de Spire Philipsbourg (1708), [Old Maps Online], [Old Maps Online].
[3] Gabriel Bodenehr, Die Gegend zwischen Landau, Speyer near Philipsburg (1715-1730), [Old Maps Online], [Old Maps Online].
[4] Wikipedia article about S%C3%A9bastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban, content subject to change, [Wikipedia].
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[7] Jamel Ostwald, Vauban's siege Legacy in the War of the Spanish Succession 1702-1712 (2002), 323, [URL].
[8] Kirchenbuch, Neiderhochstadt, Bayern, Germany, Film 193076, DGS 4034172, image 153, [FamilySearchImage].
[9] Annette Kunselman Burgert, Palatinate Origins of Some Pennsylvania Pioneers (2000), 37.
[10] FamilySearch Wiki for Germany Church Records, [URL].
[11] Wikipedia article about Tulpehocken_Creek_Historic_District, content subject to change, [Wikipedia].
[12] Kirchenbuch, Oberhochstadt, Bayern, Germany, Film 247646, DGS 102332992, image 9, [FamilySearchImage].
[13] Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
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[18] Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898, [AncestryRecord].
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[21] John B. Linn and William Henry Egle, Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Volume 17. (Oath of Allegiance 1727-1775) (1890), 58, bottom, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive].
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[27] Daniel Rupp, Names of immigrants in Pennsylvania from Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France and other countries from 1727 to 1776, [AncestryImage].
[28] Michael Tepper, editor, New World Immigrants, Vol. II A Consolidation of Ship Passenger Lists and Associated Data from the Periodical Literature (1979), [AncestryRecord].
[29] Harold Bordner, The Bordner and Burtner families: and their Bortner ancestors in America (1967), 4, [InternetArchive].
[30] U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, [AncestryRecord].
[31] U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, [AncestryRecord].
[32] 1675 Francis Place, Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight (Used with permission from the Victoria and Albert Museum), [Victoria and Albert Museum].
[33] Cornelis Boumeester, View of Rotterdam, A tile painting, composed of 33 Delft tiles. (about 1700–20, Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), [MFA], [MFA terms of use].
[34] Thomas Jefferys, George Heap, An east prospect of the city of Philadelphia; taken by George Heap from the Jersey shore (London: 1768), [LibraryOfCongress], [LibraryOfCongress Catalog].
[35] Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, Vol. 3 (1852), 456, [HathiTrust].
[36] Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808, Vol. I, [AncestryRecord].
[37] Nicholas Scull, George Heap, A Map of Philadelphia and Parts Adjacent with a Perspective of the State House (Philadelphia: 1752), [LibraryOfCongress], [LibraryOfCongress Catalog].
[38] Thomas Kitchin, A map of the province of Pensilvania (London: 1756), [LibraryOfCongress Map].
[39] Paul A.W. Wallace, Indian paths of Pennsylvania, Map of Tulpehocken Path, page 162, [URL].
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[41] Genealogical and Biographical Annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania (1911: J. L. Floyd & Co), 359, [GoogleBooks].
[42] Harold Bordner, The Bordner and Burtner families: and their Bortner ancestors in America (1967), 6, [InternetArchive].
[43] Charles Henry Glatfelter, George Bortner of Codorus Twp, York County, Pennsylvania and His Descendants (1949), 5, [HathiTrust].
[44] Pennsylvania Land Warrant, Lancaster County, B-30, [PHMC Warrant].
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[46] Pennsylvania Archives Land Office Survey, A-49-18, [PA Survey Map], [PASurveyBooksIndex].
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[48] Harold Bordner, The Bordner and Burtner families: and their Bortner ancestors in America (1967), 6, of 6-7, [InternetArchive].
[49] Charles Henry Glatfelter, George Bortner of Codorus Twp, York County, Pennsylvania and His Descendants (1949), 5, [HathiTrust].
[50] Pennsylvania Land Warrant, Lancaster County, B-138, [PHMC Warrant].
[51] Pennsylvania Archives Land Office Survey, A-76-48, [PA Survey Map], [PASurveyBooksIndex].
[52] Pennsylvania Archives Land Office Survey, A-76-49, [PA Survey Map], [PASurveyBooksIndex].
[53] Bureau of Land Records, Pennsylvania Land Patent Books, A11-288, [FamilySearchImage], [FHLCatalog].
[54] Pennsylvania Archives Land Office Survey, C182-277, shows the adjacent tract of Jacob Senseny, [PA Survey Map], [PASurveyBooksIndex].
[55] Pennsylvania, Church Records - Adams, Berks, and Lancaster Counties, 1729-1881, [AncestryRecord].
[56] Notes and Queries Historical and Genealogical Chiefly Relating to Interior of Pennsylvania Annual Volume 1899, [AncestryRecord].
[57] Morton Luther Montgomery, Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 (Chicago: Beers, 1909), 515, Biosketch of George C. Bordner, [InternetArchive].
[58] Find A Grave Memorial 7026635, [FindAGrave].
[59] Find A Grave Memorial at Ancestry.com, [AncestryRecord].
[60] Annette Kunselman Burgert, Palatinate Origins of Some Pennsylvania Pioneers (2000), 37.
[61] Harold Bordner, The Bordner and Burtner families: and their Bortner ancestors in America (1967), 5, [InternetArchive].
[62] George R. Prowell, History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume 2 (Beers, 1907), 223, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
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[64] Annette K. Burgert. The Hochstadt origins of some of the early settlers at Host Church, Berks County, Pa (1983), 6, not yet seen.
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[66] Morton Luther Montgomery, Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 (Chicago: Beers, 1909), 515, Biosketch of George C. Bordner, [InternetArchive].
[67] Harold Bordner, The Bordner and Burtner families and their Bortner ancestors in America (1967), 95, [AncestryRecord].
[68] U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970, [AncestryRecord].
[69] Lebanon Daily News, [AncestryRecord].
[70] Geneanet Community Trees Index, [AncestryRecord].
[71] Geneanet Community Trees Index, [AncestryRecord].