1710
Philip Sixt and Anna Catharina Gertrude have been named as parents of Anna Elizabeth Sixt, spouse of Michael Meiser. [1]
1645 Philip Sixt was born about this time, based on his age at immigration in 1710. He may have been baptized at Marienfels, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
1710-45 Marienfels, 56357, Germany is 7km northwest of Nastätten. Marienfels is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. An idyllically situated Romanesque church greets you from afar. It was built on a rock in the middle of the 12th century and is the oldest church in Nassau. Marienfels parish records started in 1678 but are not available digitally at FamilySearch. [2] Marienfels is shown on several maps made about the time that Philip and family emigrated to America, on or near the river flowing to Nassau from the south on the east half of the maps. The large river to the west is the Rhine and Koblenz is in the northwest of two of the maps. The changes in names of several town and the presence of many fortifications may reflect the wars taking place during this time.
1710 Eleven or twelve ships sailed from London in 1710, carrying about 3200 Palatine immigrants to New York. Among them (ship 6) was the James & Elizabeth with Captain Henry Gravener arriving in New York on June 14. On the ship were Johann Philipp Sex, 53; Anna Gertraud; Johann Henrich, 20; Anna Elisabetha, 16; Anna Magdalena, 13; (son), 5; (daughter), 1 1/2 (recorded on Hunter lists as Heinrich Sex. 3rd arrivals in London.). [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
1710-12 Henry Sex and widow were listed on "Palatine Heads of Families from Governor Hunter's Ration Lists". The family had 3 adults in 1710 and 1 adult in 1712. [8] [9] [10] [11] Henry and Anna Christina Theiss were married in 1713, so these records refer to him before his marriage. Perhaps this is the record for Philip, who was alive in 1710 when the ship arrived but dying and leaving son Henry and Philip's widow by 1712. Two successive entries are "Sex, Henrich, his widow (E)" followed by "Sibelin, Anna Getha". [12] Some researchers may have interpreted the second listing as the name of the widow. [13] However, other entries on this and the next page do not include another line naming the widow.
Son Henry is named in the Kocherthal records:
1715 Christina Elisabetha, daughter of Henrich and Christina Sixt, was born on November 1. She was baptized with sponsors Andreas Finck, Christina Fuxin, and Elisabetha Sixtin at Schoharie. [14]
1715 Johann Henrich, son of Jacob and Anna Barbara Schneider, was born on September 26. He was baptized with sponsors Henry Sixt, Johann Christman, and Dorothea Schumacherin at Schoharie. [15]
1716? Gerdraut, daughter of Henrich and Christina Sixt, was born on April 16, with sponsors Georg Seybold, Gerdraut Christmanin, and Gerdraut Hettmanin. [16]
A summary has been published by Mary Ann Wohlschlager Ramey at Ancestry.com:
Six Family History
Posted Nov 24, 2019 by Mary Ann Wohlschlager RameyThe Sixt (Six) Family History - Abstract
The Six family is that of my paternal grandmother, Lena Mae Six Hissem. The name is common in a number of countries. In England it is found overwhelmingly in Kent, in the southeast of the country. It is also found in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, and in South Africa, India and Indonesia due to the colonial influence. Some common variations are Sicks, Sixt, Saxe, Sykes, Secht, and Seek.
*Note: The bulk of the research in this section was performed by my cousin, Richard Six. Everything I have done has been built upon his work.
Steve Hissem, San Diego, California
The Origin and Evolution of a Name - SIX:
It is generally thought that the Six/Sixt Family of America derived from a German Family, surnamed Sixt, that came to America during the great Palatine Emigration of 1709 to 1710. The Palatine is an area in western Germany along the Rhine river.
The Sixt Family in Germany
*Hans Bernhardt Sixt (1625)
The proposed progenitor of the family was born in 1625 in Germany. He married in about 1647 and was a church elder in the village of Ehr, in the Rheinland-Pflaz. Another source claims he was from Marienfels, in Hesse, like his son below - from "History of the Mohawk Palatines Relating to the Christman Family." The family appears to have been Lutherans. He died in Germany in 1695 at the age of 70. He had one child of importance to our story.
*Johann Philip Sixt (1656)
Of Marienfels, Germany, southeast of Ehr, near Koblenz. When he was 24 years old, or in about 1680, he married Anna Elizabeth Gertraud [Gertrud] in Marienfels, Hesse-Nassau, Germany. Ann was born sometime after 1656 in Marienfels. A Johann Philip Sixt was noted, with wife Anna Gertraud, as living both in Ehr and Huntzel, in the parish of Marienfels. He was "possibly" a son of Hans Bernhardt Sixt, church-elder at Ehr.
Marienfels, Germany
Marienfels is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. In the 17th century this area was comprised of electoral states of the Holy Roman Empire. That is, their rulers, dukes, princes, and landgraves, each had a vote in who became the next Empereor. It included Alsace, Lorraine, Wurtemburg, Baden, Mainz and Treves and ran from Cologne to Mannheim.
Johann left Germany in the early 18th century as part of the great Palantine emigration.
The Palatine Emigration
In the late 17th century Louis XIV's France was waging war throughout the Palatine, his goal being to push the French kingdom's borders out to the Rhine. Religious conflicts between a Protestant population and a Catholic ruler followed. Calvinists, Lutherans and French Hugenots who refused to convert to Catholicism, suffered greatly at Louis' hand. Finally, in the winter of 1708, record low temperatures froze the Rhine River and closed this waterway for five weeks. Grapevines died, cattle froze, and any wine from previous harvests was ruined. Along with two previous years of crop failure, there was no immediate recovery in sight. For 30 years leading up to this point, the Germans of the Palatine had endured war, religious persecution and now potential starvation and, for many, this was the final blow.
The Reverend Joshua Von Kochertal, a Palatine, was the moving force behind the first Palantine emigration to America. As early as 1704 he went to London to negotiate transportation for the Palatines out of their war-ravaged country. England under William and Mary had taken the lead in opposing Louis XIV's aggressive plans and in supporting the Protestant cause. Queen Anne had continued these policies.
In 1706 Reverend Kochertal published a pamphlet in which he recommended South Carolina as a favorable site for German colonization. He later petitioned Queen Anne to permit 60 Palantines then with him to sail for one of the British colonies in North America. "We humbly take leave to represent," he wrote to the London Board of Trade, "that they are very necessitous and in the utmost want, not havlng at present anything to subsist themselves: that they have been rendered to this by the ravages committed by the French in the Lower Palatinate, where they lost all they had." On 28 April 1708, permission was granted Kocherthal and his 53 Paletine refugees to sail for America. They founded the town Newburgh, on the Hudson.
In 1709, Britain passed a naturalization act that allowed any foreigner who took oaths professing to be a Protestant and pledging allegiance to the British government would be immediately naturalized and have all privileges held by English-born citizens for the cost of a shilling. These offers brought opportunities for a new life. Under Queen Anne's direction, land speculators who had obtained land patents in the colonies sent agents to the Palatines with offers of forty acres of land, plus paid transportaiton to the colonies and maintenance. In addition to the goal of supporting these Protestants, resettling these emigrants to New York, north of New York City, would provide a buffer against the French in Canada.
The emigration took place via England, and at one point 14,000 German emigrants were camped in Britain in Blackheath, Greenwich Heath and other sites near London in appalling conditions.
The first German emigrants began arriving in England in May 1709. Some of these emigrants eventually returned home. Others went to other parts of England and Ireland, and some settled in North Carolina and the West Indies. Of the 13,000 Germans who reached London in 1709, about 3000, including the Philip Sixt family, continued on to the New York colony. Most of the Palatines for New York began boarding ships in December 1709, but these did not leave England until April 1710.
Reverend Kochertal returned to London to straighten out the deed to their land and discovered that thousands of Palantiners had followed him to London. He helped arrange for 3000 of them to be transported to America in a fleet of eleven ships.
Conditions on the ships were poor. Food and water were spoiled, vermin ran rampant, and illness spread quickly. Many of the emigrants, especially the elderly and children, died either on board ship or shortly after landing. After spending three months on shipboard in port and three months crossing the Atlantic, the Palatines' suffering was intense. Upon arriving in New York in 1710 they were housed in a tent city on what is now Governor's Island.
Johann Philip Sixt and family arrived in the New York colony on 14 June 1710 aboard the James & Elizabeth. They were amongst the 3rd set of arrivals in America. They were Lutherans, and he a husbandman and vinedresser. From the London Lists:
"1710, Sixth List
Ship: JAMES & ELIZABETH
Captain: Henry Gravener
From: London
Arrival: 16 June 1710
This reconstructed passenger list is based on the first part (60 names) of the 4 July 1710 subsistence list along with any who appear to have been part of their households. Johann Christ Gerlach, a passenger listed below, was the listmaster on the ship James & Elizabeth which arrived 16 June 1710 indicating most of these passengers were probably on that ship.
. . .
Johann Philipp Sex, 53
Anna Gertraud
Johann Henrich, 20
Anna Elisabetha, 16
Anna Magdalena, 13
(son), 5
(daughter), 1 1/2
Place of Origin: Marienfels, Hessen-Nassau
10+/Under 10: 3-0
Remarks: Sixt; listed on Hunter lists as Heinrich Sex. 3rd arrivals in London.
Did Johann Philip come to America with the intent of founding a vineyard and did he possibly emigrate with like-minded Rhineland vintners? Some of the country's oldest vineyards can be found in the Hudson River Valley of New York.
The Hunter Lists
These were lists of Palatine emigrants to the New York colony who were on state subsistence in the first years after their arrival. Named for the New York Governor, Robert Hunter. The lists were maintained from 1710 to 1712.
One of the eleven emigrant ships was wrecked. 470 emigrants died during the voyage and 250 succumbed to a fever after landing at New York. Johann Philip himself died not long after arriving. He was the head of the household on the London List of 16 June 1710, but by the time of the Hunter List of 4 July 1710 his son, Heinrich Sex, was listed as the family's head. The Hunter List had 3 persons over 10 years under the heading Heinrich Sex, Johann's eldest son. Heinrich again was listed as head of the household on 24 June 1712 with one person over 10 years of age.
In the winter of 1710 Governor Hunter purchased 12,300 acres of land from Robert Livingston and resettled 1400 of the Palatines on land that had been part of the baronial Livingston manor, as well as other sections along the Hudson river south of Albany. The villages they set up were generally referred to as East Camp, West Camp, Germantown and Saugerties. These settlements were in Columbia, Greene and Dutchess counties.
Initially, life seemed to hold promise and the Palatines worked hard to fulfill their part of their contracts that guaranteed each family 40 acres of land. Under this contract their passage should have been paid by Britain and Queen Anne. The contract stated
"that after seven years after they had forty acres a head given to them, they were to repay the Queen by Hemp, Mast Trees, Tar and Pitch, or anything else, so that it may be no damage to any man in his family."
What they found was that they were now working under different expectations, with no time frame with which to complete their service, almost making them indentured servants. They claimed that they were deceived and bitterly complained to the Governor of New York. A number of them secretly decided that they would resettle to Schoharie to claim the rights that they felt were previously promised to them by Indian leaders.
The Sixt family lived on the Livingston Manor for about 2 years. They were, however, amongst the rebellious group that felt they had been cheated into a state of servitude by the government. In the winter of 1712 a group of 150 Germans, including presumably the Sixt family, moved to New Annsburg [Schmidsdorf], about 60 miles to the northwest. This trip took three weeks, the people pulling sleds loaded with their few goods through the deep snow.
In October 1712 fifty families arrived in Schoharie and managed to survive the winter with the aid of friendly Indians. The second group of families came in March 1713 by way of Schenectady, living off the land, in loosely constructed huts and walking 40 miles in deep snow to get to their destination. The first few winters were hard but along with assistance from friendly Indians and a fierce determination to survive, the Palatine families began to establish a thriving community.
Unfortunately the settlers didn't have clear title to these lands which resulted in many years of legal disputes. In the end, many of these families were forced to relocate again, some further along the Mohawk river valley, while 15 [60?] families emigrated to Pennsylvania.
After Johann Philip's death Anna married Johannes Christman. The Christmann and Sixt families were linked together twice in Kocherthal's records. Gertraut Christmann sponsored Heinrich Sixt in 1717 and Hans Christmann and Anna Gertraud were recorded living next to Heinrich Sixt at Neu-Ansberg circa 1716/17.
Kocherthal's Records
These were the records of the Reverend Joshua Von Kochertal, the moving force behind the first Palantine emigration to America.
Anna Sixt Christman was recorded as a member of church congregations at Germantown, Schoharie and Manheim, in New York. These towns are all in and around the Mohawk Valley. She probably died there, already around 65 in 1720.
According to Sandra Purcell, Johann and Anna's children were,
Johann Heinrich Sixt (1689)
Johann Gerhardt Sixt (1692), he was born on 28 February 1691/2 in Marienfels, not in the Hunter List
Anna Elizabeth Sixt (1693/4)
Anna Magdalena Sixt (1696)
Son (1705)
Daughter (1708)
*Johann Heinrich Sixt (1689)
Also as Henrich, Hendrick or, Americanized, as John Henry. He was born on 4 September 1689 in the Parish of Marienfels, Hesse-Nassau, Germany (present day: Nastätten). "Hendrick Sixt was Anna Gertraud Christman's son. Therefore Hendrick Sixt and the Christman boys: Hans Nicholas, Jacob, and Frederick were all brothers of the same mother. That's why we always find them listed together on the ship, at Livingston Manor, and in Schoharie" - from "History of the Mohawk Palatines Relating to the Christman Family."
Heinrich emigrated to America in 1709/10 with his parents, arriving in the New York colony. According to family legend of the 19th century, he came to America when he was 'banished' from Germany on account of his tendency toward mutiny. This appears to relate to poaching, the infringement of the game laws with regard to hunting rabbits. However, the simpler story is that he came for the same reasons the rest of the Palatines did, to escape an intolerable situation in his native land.
The Hunter List of 4 July 1710 has Heinrich Sex [sic] leading a household with 3 persons over 10 years old. Henrich Secs (Sex) was also listed amongst those male Palantines over 21 years old living on Livingston Manor in the winter of 1710 and summer of 1711. Heinrich again was counted on the Hunter Lists as head of the household on 24 June 1712 with one person over 10 years of age.
On 3 [or 7] August 1713 Johann Henrich Sixt of Hessen [Hesse], who was then 25, married Anna Christina Theis [Theiss, Theus] at the Nicolas Baasen/Bassau Farm in Schoharie county, New York. Anna was born between 1692 and 1694 in Niederbachheim, Hesse-Darmstadt [Nassau?], Germany - from the New York City Lutheran Book. She had emigrated to New York with her parents, Johann Philip Theis (-1711) & Elizabetha Magdalena, in 1709/10.
A Hendrick Seix was naturalized as a citizen at Albany, New York on 11 October 1715 - Albany Common Council Minutes. "[O]f County of Hassan [Hessen?]."
Schoharie County, New York
Schoharie county is located west of Albany, just across the Catskill Mountains from the Hudson river and just south of the Mohawk river valley. Schenectady and Troy are other major cities in the area.
The first Europeans arrived in the Schoharie Valley in 1712. These were Palatine German refugees who believed they had been granted lands there by Queen Anne. They settled in seven villages which they called "dorfs." Dutch American settlers also migrated from nearby Schenectady, purchasing land from the Indians. At first the two groups clashed. But, by the late 1700s, they were living harmoniously.
Heinrich Sech [sic] and Christina, with one child, were at Neu-Ansberg [New Annesbury or Hartsmannsdorf], in the Schoharie Valley of Upstate New York, circa 1716-17 - from the Simmendinger Register.
Simmendinger Register
This register was originally prepared by Ulrich Simmendinger after his return to Germany from the colonies, where he had been part of the Palatine migration for seven years. The names given are all who were living in 14 early New York settlements at the time of his departure in 1717. It is assumed most of these were passengers of a fleet of 10 ships leaving England around January 1710.
From The Kocherthal Records:
- 21 January 1716: Christina Elisabeth, born on 1 November 1715, child of Henrich and Christina Sixt: sponsors: Andreas Finchk, Christina Six, Elisabeth Sixt. These last two may have been her aunts.
- 6 June 1717: Gertraut, born 16 April 1717, child of Henrich and Christina Sixt; sponsors: Georg Seybold, Gertraut Christmann and Gertraut Hettmann.
During the period since their movement off the Livingston Manor, Governor Hunter had grown more upset with the Palantines. He ordered the settlers to pay the New York Colony for the lands they had settled in Schoharie or move off of them. The settlers, who had paid the Indians for the land, refused. By the way, the Indians had previously sold the land to the British government, but hadn't minded selling it twice. Always under the threat of expulsion from the homes they had worked so hard to build, by the early 1720's a number of German family's chose to leave the area.
Perhaps as a result of title issues with the land bought from the Indians in the Schoharie valley, Heinrich had moved to the Stone Arabia patent by 1733.
Stone Arabia
A small town in the Mohawk valley of New York settled by German and Swiss emigrants, though today an Amish community. The Stone Arabia Patent was a grant of 12,700 acres south of Garoga creek made to 27 men on 9 October 1723. The grant was apparently made in return for military service in 1711 against the French in Canada. This would have been during Queen Anne's War. Each family received about 470 acres [or 50 acres per family and "they held the rest of the land in common for future distribution."]. A second allotment of the patent was made in 1733. An alternative history claims that when the Palantine's title to the Schoharie valley properties was challenged a period of rioting ensued which culminiated in running the Sheriff out of town on a rail. As a compensation, the Palatines were offered land in the Stone Arabia area.
The origin of the town's odd name is unknown, but may be a corruption of the German Steine, pronounced "stoina" in the local Palatine dialect, meaning stones, and Riegel, but in the local dialect rasseln, literally a bolt as in a door-latching bolt, but locally applied to the rows of piled up fieldstones that served as boundaries between farmer's fields. The double "s" of rasseln is written, in German text, as a Greek beta. The assumption is that English speakers read this as "rabeln." Over the years the town was known variously as Ston Raby, Ston Rabi, Stein Raby, Steen Rabbi, Steen Arabia, and Stone Arabia.
"Hendrick Sixt bought Lot 98 Stone Arabia Patent in 1733." This was in the Second Division, or allotment, of the original patent, which was made in 1723.
"Deeds were given to all who shared in this allotment, a few of which are still in existence. Most of the new grantees were sons of the patentees, in several instances were men from Schoharie, and in some cases Dutchmen." - from Stone Arabia History.
Heinrich and Christina eventually joined the migration of Germans from the Mohawk valley down the Susquehanna River and up Swatara Creek to the Tulpehocken area, later Womelsdorf, in Pennsylvania. A Heindrick Six sold his land in the Stone Arabia in 1743 to Frederick Getman and Johannes Bearman, early settlers in Fulton County, New York.
"Frederick Getman (at that time written Kittman / Gettmann) and Johannes Bearman (Bierman) together bought, in 1743, from Hendrick Sic, lots 92, 94, 96 and; 98 of the Stone Arabia patent. Frederick Getman subsequently purchased Johannes Bearman’s interest in the property." - from Getman Genealogy
The Sixt family was noted on Pastor Sommer's Mohawk Valley Family List circa 1744. They probably moved south in the latter days of 1745, based on the marriage of Heinrich's daughter, Elisabetha, to George Michael Jesserang in Stone Arabia in February 1745.
Johann Heinrich moved down to the southeastern Pennsylvania / northeastern Maryland area, perhaps as part of the 15 Palatine families who resettled there from the Mohawk valley. See the Seek Family website. Court records of Frederick County, Maryland refer to Heinrich, over 60, in June 1755.
Over the years Johann Heinrich and his wife were members of church congregations in Germantown, Schoharie and Stone Arabia, New York, and Monocacy, Maryland.
Monocacy, Frererick County, Maryland
The name of the town and valley that surrond it were derived from the Monocacy river, which was named after an Indian word, menagassi, meaning "creek of many bends." The Monocacy river flows southwards, through the middle of the county, feeding into the Potomac river that separates Maryland and Virginia.
In March 1732 the proprietor of the Province of Maryland, desiring to attract settlers to the Northern and the Western areas of his territory, made a proclamation declaring special land prices and taxes for new settlers. While many of these settlers were English, a large number were Palatines from southern Pennsylvania. The first German settlement in Frederick County had actually occurred earlier, in 1729, in the village of Monocacy, near the present village of Creagerstown. It was the first village beyond the lower part of Montgomery County in Western Maryland.
During the French & Indian War, beginning in 1755, all the settlements of western Maryland came under attack. Monocacy was destroyed, though the old log Church was saved. After the war was over, Creagerstown was laid out about a mile from the original settlement of Monocacy and a short distance north of the old Log Church.
Heinrich died in Frederick county, Maryland circa 1757 at the age of 68. Anna also died in Frederick county, at an unknown date. They had the following children:
Catharina Sixt (1714)
Christina Elisabetha Sixt (1715)
Gertraud Sixt (1717)
Anna Maria Sixt (1719)
Elisabetha Sixt (1721)
Johannes "John" Six (1722)
Johann Henrich Six Jr. (1723)
Johan Philip Six (ca 1724)
John Conrad Six Sr. (1731)
Johann Adam Six (ca 1735)
Margaretha Six (ca 1738)
*John Conrad Six Sr. (1731)
Also as Sycks, Sykes, and Sickes. His given name was probably orginally Johann Conrad. He was born in about 1731 in Schoharie, New York. He was a weaver. Others claim he was born in 1721 and was a fur-trader on the Susquehanna river in 1746, though this is based on documents widely believed to be a hoax.
John Conrad Sycks married Margarethe Catherine Bonnett on 10 October 1749 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Jean Jacques Bonnett and Anna Marie Desreaux and was born on 24 May 1725 in Friedrichstahl, Baden, Germany and came to America with her parents.
At some point John Conrad and his family moved south, through Maryland, into the Shenandoah valley of Virginia and were living there in 1757, where their first child, Henry, was born on 12 February 1757 - from "John Waggoner, 1751-1842, Margaret (Bonnett) Waggoner" by Crystal V. Wagoner.
The Shenandoah Valley
The valley traces the course of the Shenandoah river, which flows north eastward into the Potomac, just above its confluence with the Monocacy river. The valley extends from the present Frederick county, Virginia, in the north, in a line southwest along the current border with West Virgina. Frederick county is in the extreme north of the state, bordering the eastern tip of West Virginia. See the map, above.
Ever restless, John later removed, perhaps as early as 1763, to Dunkard's Creek in far south western Pennyslvania. The earliest routes to that area were from Virginia, and for a time it was considered part of the Virginia colony [at least by the Virginians who colonized it]. Only later did Forbes road open a route from eastern Pennsylvania.
From the Horn Papers: "John came to Big Whiteley Creek and lived at Syckes Corners [I haven't been able to locate this place] from 1763 to 1771. Fort Dillinger was built on the site of Greensboro by Augustine Dillinger in 1763. Augustine Dillinger and Conrad Syckes were partners in hunting and trapping along the Monongahela River from Gist Point (Point Marion) to the mouth of Eckerlin Creek (Big Whiteley) from 1760 to 1763. Then they each tomahawked a homestead on the north side of the creek at the site which later became Garard's Fort. These two partners disagreed over the ownership of a spring and in 1764 Augustine Dillinger moved to a site which he called Fort Dillinger"
The Horn Papers
Be aware that many consider these documents to be a hoax. They purport to be early records, written by a Jacob Horn, of the history of the area comprising western Pennsylvania, southeastern Ohio, western Maryland and northern West Virginia, from 1765 to 1795.
Greene County, Pennsylvania
Greene county is located in the extreme southwestern corner of the state, bordering Ohio and West Virginia. Settlement of western Pennsylvania started after the French and Indian Wars of the 1760's, but didn't really accelerate until after the Revolutionary War.
Big Whiteley Creek, an eastward flowing tributary of the Monogahela river, is in Greene county, in southwestern Pennsylvania. The waters of Dunkard creek are separated from those of Big Whiteley by a range of hills, but their names often seem to be used interchangeably.
Greensboro is a small village on a bend in the Monongahela river.
A note in "The Tenmile Country and Its Pioneer Families" says a letter dated 10 June 1774 referred to an Indian massacre led by Logan [?] near the site of a fort just lately built on Dunkard Creek [Big Whiteley] and identified it as Garard's Fort. There is a white covered bridge in pristine condition at Garard's Fort.
The following is from the Horn Papers as reproduced in the family genealogy "The Six Family."
"An agreement made by Conrad Sycks and one Parson John Corbley on April 10, 1770, the said Conrad Sycks did trade his tomahawked rights to his 274 acres of land on the North Shore of Whiteley Creek - with all his rights - his good will and peace of life to the said John Corbley for the sum of 36 pounds and six live goats. All his own free property from Staunton, Colony of Virginia.
The said parties ask confirmation of this agreement by the Camp Cat Fish Corte. The Corte made each state under oath their agreement and on payment of 10 shillings made Ord that this first land title made by Order of this Corte be set in the Cort records - payment being made this 4th day of June 1772.
The same is set down in Book III. (The Horn Papers) Complaint being made by two settlers - Conrad Sycks and Jeremiah Glasgow - two loyal Virginia homesteaders that one Elizabeth Bozarth, known as Experience Bozarth, the French Commissioners widow, did destroy by fire the bridge built across the aforesaid creek because the French in Quebec have conspired to drive out all the English homesteaders from these frontier borders.
The Corte signed the complaint and set the 4th day of June 1772 for the trial of Sycks and Glasgow against Elizabeth Bozarth for racehatred and destruction of property on Virginia soil, in Northwest Augusta County, Colony of Virginia ( The Horn Papers.)
Conrad Syckes of German-English descent was born in Chester County in 1721. He was a fur trader on the Susquehanna River in 1746. John Syckes, son of Conrad Sykes, was born at Hagerstown, Maryland in 1751. He came to Big Whiteley Creek and lived at Syckes Corners from 1763 to 1771. He served in the Virginia Militia in Colonel Cresaps rifle company in 1775. His brothers, James and William, were in field service in 1776-77. The sons and daughters of these Syckes families lived in Greene County for many years. So many of the descendants of John Syckes migrated to Illinois in 1818. (Horn Papers, p170, 704)
Fort Dillinger was built on the site of Greenboro by Augustine Dillinger in 1763. Augustine Dillinger and Conrad Syckes were partners in hunting and trapping along the Monongahela River from Gist Point (Point Marion) to the mouth of Eckerlin Creek (Big Whiteley) from 1760 to 1763. Then they each tomahawked a homestead on the north side of the creek at the site which later became Garard's Fort. These two partners disagreed over the ownership of a spring and in 1764 Augustine Dillinger moved to a site which he called Fort Dillinger. (The Horn Papers)
Henry and Christina, farmers, bought 100 acres of the tract Cat Tail Branch (northeast of later Emmitsburg) from George Smith in 1755 (Deed E-811) and sold it to George Garry in 1761. Conrad Sycks named as settlers recorded at Camp Fish Cort in 1772. (Horn Papers, p. 79)
Some time during 1764, a party of hardy pioneers left Berks County Pennsylvania to seek out new homes on the frontiers of Virginia and Western Pennsylvania and for a time found the freedom they sought on Dunkard Creek, in what is now Green County, Pennsylvania. The party consisted of the families of John Bonnett, John Wetzel, the Eberlys, Waggoners, Rozencranz and Zanes, most of them intermarried to some extent. With them was John Conrad Sykes who had married Catherine Bonnet, a daughter of John Bonnett. Other children of John Bonnett were Mary, wife of Captain John Wetzel; Susannah, wife of Hezekian Stewart; Lewis Bonnett, who married Elizabeth Waggoner; John and Samuel Bonnett. Most of this party soon moved on to settle near the Ohio River at Wheeling, but John Conrad and Catherine Bonnett Sykes and some of the Waggoners stayed on Dunkard Creek, where in July 1778, he and his son, John Sykes, Jr. were soldiers in the Frontier Ranger Company under Captain John Wetzel. (Pennsylvania Archives series VI, Vol 2, p321 )"
During the Revolutionary War John served as a private in Captain John Wetzel's Company of Virginia Rangers, under the command of Colonel Daniel McFarland, Ranging throughout Monongahela and Ohio counties, in Virginia. Other sources claim that John served from Washington county, Pennsylvania - from an article written by John's descendents [grandchildren of Philip Six, below] in "Shelbey County, Indiana History & Families." Captain Wetzel was John Sykes [sic] brother-in-law (from: Genevieve Sicks Pfeiffer's application to the DAR). This relationship was through his wife, Margarethe Catherine Bonnet. Captain Wetzel's wife was her sister, Mary Bonnet. John is referred to as John C. Sickes in a Bonnet family site. John may have been with Captain Wetzel in the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, Fort Henry in 1777, and the second Fort Henry, 11-13 September 1782, which is known as the last battle of the Revolutionary War.
John Conrad died on 20 May 1783 in Dunkard Creek, Greene county, Pennsylvania at the age of 52. His coffin was purchased on 20 May 1783. He had been found in the woods, leaning against a tree, dead. John Conrad Sykes estate was probated in Washington County, Pennsylvania, February 178?, with his son Henry Sykes, Administrator (O.C. Docket I, p26) (Ten Mile Country) Washington Co, Pa, Orphans Court, p.247:
"Know all men by these presents, that we, Henry Sicks, William Minor & Leonard Garrison, all of the county of Washington are held & firmly bound unto James Marshal, Esquire, Register for the Probate of Wills and granting Letters of Administration in & for the county of Washington, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the sum of five hundred pounds, to be paid to the said James Marshal, his successors, Administrators or Assigns: To the which payment well and truly to be made, we bind ourselves jointly and severally for and in the whole our Heirs, Executors and Administrators, firmly by these presents, sealed with our seals. Dated the 30th day of September of the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty Three.
The Condition of this obligation is such that if the above bounden Henry Sicks, Administrator of all land singular the Goods, Chattles and Credits of Conrad Sicks, deceased do make or cause to be made, a true and perfect inventory of all and singular the Goods, Chattles and Credits of the said Deceased, which have or shall come to the Hands, Possession or Knowledge of him the said Henry Sicks, for into the Hands and Possession of any other person or persons for him and the same so made do exhibit or cause to be exhibited, into the Registers office, in the County of Washington, at or before the thirtieth day of October, next ensuing; and the same Goods, Chattles and Credits of the said Deceased, at the time of his death, which at any time after shall come to the Hands or Possession of the said Henry Sicks, or into the Hands and Possession of any other person or persons for him do well and truly administer according to Law.
And further do make or cause to be made, a true and just Account of his Administration, at or before the 30th day of September 1784.
And all the rest and Residue of the said Goods, Chattles and Credits which shall be found remaining upon the said Administrat or Account (same being first examined and allowed of by the Orphans Court of the County of Washington) shall deliver and pay unto such person or persons respectively as the said Orphans Court by their Decree of Sentence, pursuant to the true intent and Meaning of the federal laws now in force in this Commonwealth shall limit and appoint.
And if it shall hereafter appear, that the last Will and Testament was made by the said Deceased, and the Executor or Executors therein named do exhibit the same into the "Register's Office" making request to have it allowed and approved accordingly, and if then the above abounded Henry Sicks being thereunto requiree, do render and deliver the said Letters of Administration (Approbation of such Testament being first had and made to the said Register's Office) then this obligation to be void and of none effect, or else to remain in full force and virtue.
Sealed and Delivered Henry Six (seal) in the presence of W. Minor (seal)" - from "The SIX Family"
Margarethe Catherine died in Dunkard township, Greene Co, Pennsylvania in 1798 at the age of 62. Another source claims she died after 17 September 1809 in Washington county, Pennsylvania, but based on what source I do not know.
John and Margarethe had 12 children,
Henry Six (1757)
John Conrad Six Jr. (1758)
Jacob Six (1760)
Christina Six (1764)
Phillip Six (1765)
Lewis Six (1766)
Elizabeth Six
Catherine Six
Adam Six
Mary Six (1772)
Margaret Six (1776)
Barbara Ellen Six (1778)
*Adam Six
He was born circa 1770 and married Elizabeth Isabell Hall.
Other family names mentioned in the Schoharie records of interest to our research include Ruhl, Bender, Frey, Schneider, and Hoffman.
There was also a different Sixt family near Stuttgart at this time.
1657 Anna Elisabetha Sixt, child of Achilles Sixt and Anna Catharina Sixt, was baptized on January 1, 1657 in Evangelische Kirche. Stiftskirche Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Württemberg (baden-württemberg), Deutschland (germany). [17]
1679 Heinrich Secht, child of Johann Philipp Secht and Anna Elisabeta Secht, was baptized on 23 Sept 1679 in Kirnbach, Preußen, Baden. [18]
DNA [19]
[1] U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, [AncestryRecord].
[2] Evangelische Kirche Marienfels, Kirchenbuch, 1678-1876, [URL].
[3] "Lists of Germans from the Palatinate who came to England," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 40 (1909) 49-54, 93-100, 160-167, 241-248 at 161, [HathiTrust].
[4] Wikitree link for all ships, [URL].
[5] ProGenealogist link for James & Elizabeth, [URL].
[6] U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, [AncestryRecord].
[7] Extracts from The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, [AncestryRecord].
[8] Walter Allen Knittle, Early 18th Century Palatine Emigration (1937), 290, [InternetArchive].
[9] Lou D. MacWethy, editor, The Book of Names, Especially Relating to the Early Palatines, 70, [URL].
[10] The National Archives of the United Kingdom Catalog, [UKNationalArchives].
[11] U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, [AncestryRecord].
[12] The Book of Names, Especially Relating to the Early Palatines and the First Settlers in the Mohawk Valley (2010), 71, [URL].
[13] Hunter Ration List, [URL].
[14] "The Kocherthal Records," Olde Ulster: an historical and genealogical magazine Vol. 3, (Kingston NY: 1907), 217-223, 247-254, 281-286 at 250, [HathiTrust].
[15] "The Kocherthal Records," Olde Ulster: an historical and genealogical magazine Vol. 3, (Kingston NY: 1907), 217-223, 247-254, 281-286 at 250, [HathiTrust].
[16] "The Kocherthal Records," Olde Ulster: an historical and genealogical magazine Vol. 3, (Kingston NY: 1907), 217-223, 247-254, 281-286 at 284, [HathiTrust].
[17] Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500–1985, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[18] Baden, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1502-1985, [AncestryRecord].
[19] The family tree of a person who has a DNA match to Robert suggests a lineage to this family, Gertrude Sixt (born April 16, 1717, Schoharie, Schoharie, New York).