278 Years

To all my Vogt/Vaught cousins out there, I wish you a Happy Arrival Day!

This day in October, 278 Years ago, Johan Paulus Vogt, his wife and children, sailed into the bustling colonial port at Philadelphia, passengers on the Charming Betty.  History records tomorrow as the day Johan Paulus and his eldest son, Johan Andreas, disembarked with the other men of age and Captain John Ball and walked to the courthouse where in the presence of the Lieutenant Governor, they swore allegiance to the British King.

But it was today, a brisk autumn day in 1733, October the 11th, that the Charming Betty ghosted to a stop at one of the numerous quays bristling from Philadelphia's riverside.

Two hundred and seventy-eight years.  The United States of America has only been in existence for 235 years.  That's something to reflect on.

So take some time today and tomorrow, think about your ancestors, the ones who huddled along the rails of the ship, or kept themselves (somewhat) drier in the shadowy bowels of the Charming Betty all those long days and weeks it took to cross the stormy Atlantic.  Think about what sacrifices they had made---giving up a homeland, friends, family, an entire life for their entire family...traveling to a land that was full of people who were increasingly fearful and hostile towards Germans (Ben Franklin was fanning the fires of intolerance through his newspaper at the time in Philadelphia, but it was a sentiment carried all up and down the English colonies---the Germans were coming in numbers large enough to scare most God-fearing Englishmen into thinking the entire continent would be speaking German in a generation).

And yet their adventure was just beginning.  Now they had to find winter quarters, because Philadelphia can have some pretty brutal weather for the uninitiated---especially for those who were no doubt weakened and malnourished from long, trans-Atlantic journey.  Then they had to find land and get to it.  Land was scarce around the safety of the colonial cities.  Foreigners, like the Germans, had to go even further west---into Indian disputed territory.  The dark unknown forest on the edge of civilization.

Remember them and thank them.  Without their courage, sacrifice and ambition, we would not be here today.

Here is our First Family and their ages, taken from the ship's manifest on October 12th, 1733.

Johan Paulus Vogt, 53
Maria Katerina Vogt, 46
Catharina Margaret Vogt, 18
Maria Catherina Vogt, 16
Johan Andreas Vogt, 12
Johan Gasper Vogt, 8

Just think...in 12 years (2023), we can celebrate the 300th Anniversary of our family arriving on the shores of the New World.  Now that's something to party about!

The Signature of Johan Paulus Vogt

Years ago, when I was in high school and just starting out on this family history journey I'm addicted to, a fellow Vaught researcher named Nancy Dodge, who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, saw my online pleas for information at the Rootsweb message boards. 

She replied to me that she had been to the courthouse where the importations of passenger ships in the 1700s had been kept and had made photocopies of the records pertaining to our ancestors, the Vogts, from Frankfurt.  Their ship was called the Charming Betty, captained by a man named John Ball.  The document goes on further to state that they departed from London.

On board the ship were 15 other men, heads of their respective families.  Of those 15 "Palatines" (called so because they originated from the Palatinate, a region in south western Germany) only 7 could sign their own names to the official document.  The rest made marks.  Johan Paulus Vogt was one who signed his name, indicating a level of literacy at least enough to recognize and spell his own name.

Here is the photocopy that Nancy sent me,  page 125 from a book called Pennsylvania German Pioneers that listed the passengers on the Charming Betty and replicated their signatures.



And below is our ancestors signature extracted from the others:

Old Newspapers and Land Patents

I have discovered a couple of very cool websites today that I just couldn't keep secret (although I'm sure many of you out there know about these or have heard of them).

First off, I was curious about searching old newspapers to find more information on some ancestors, specifically the Early Virginia Vaughts.  I searched in Google for "early Pennsylvania newspapers" (trying to confirm a snippet quoted to me in the past about John Paul Vogt in Ben Franklin's newspaper of 1734).  What came up was a particular site entitled Historical Newspapers Online from the University of Pennsylvania.  This is a listing of searchable newspapers that have been completely, or partially put on the internet for your use.  It has newspapers from most if not all 50 states and is simply fantastic.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything in Pennsylvania, however, I did find The Virginia Gazette, courtsey of Colonial Williamsburg (if you have never visited this amazing piece of living American history, I urge you to do so, it's an experience you'll never forget and may even bring you closer to your ancestors by showing you the way they worked, lived and fought!).  It was fantastic! 

While a search for Vaught and Vogt didn't turn up much of anything, I decided to search on another line of research I'm currently working on: proof that Gasper Vaught (my direct line ancestor) and his brothers fought in Lord Dunmore's War of 1774-1775.  Family lore has it that Gasper (sometimes known as Casper) was part of Captain William Love's company of frontier militia that accompanied Lord Dunmore at the Battle of Point Pleasant.  There's a significant lack of information on this time period in our family history, so anything would be useful.  'Lo and behold, I found an entire article about the battle where Captain Love and his men were mentioned.  It had been scanned from the original newspaper in 1775 and posted online---remarkable!  I'll post some more just on this line of research later...

The next website I want to tell you about is from our US Government.  I was trying to find some patents for ancestors of ours in Indiana and stumbled across the Bureau of Land Management's record office.  They actually have millions of government issued land patents digitized and ready to view and save.  You can also order certified copies (for only $2 each!).  The system is very user friendly and easy to search.  I looked under Indiana, typed in Vaught and let it fly.  I was surprised to see my great-great-great-grandfather, George Washington Vaught and his brother, Andrew Jackson Vaught, listed as getting patents from the US Government in Indiana.  I quickly got a digitized copy of the official certificate in .pdf form. 

Once I get the actual document in the mail, I'll scan it and post it here!

Check out your ancestors on these sites and see what you can find!