Continuing on with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, this Week 10 challenge of Amy John Crow relates to “Language”.
The lines of my paternal and maternal ancestors are a
mix of peoples. The languages my ancestors spoke include German, Welsh, Irish,
Portuguese, French, and more. In this blog post, though, I want to focus on my
paternal grandmother, Neoma Ann Kolb’s (m. Lois Cauble), father's line, the Kolb’s
of Pennsylvania. The Kolbs have stayed close to their Mennonite roots since the early
1700s.
Grandmother Neoma descends from Johannes Kolb, born ca 1683, a son of Dielman Kolb and wife, Agnes Schumacher, who were Mennonites. It
was in 1707 that Johannes and two of his brothers, Martin and Jacob, left
Wolfsheim, Hess, Germany and headed for America. The Kolb brothers were part of
a people who were seeking freedom to worship and make a living as they saw fit.
Their maternal grandfather, Peter Schumacher, had come
to America in 1685, and he died in 1707, the year the three brothers came to
America. Peter had been a Mennonite, but had converted at some point in his
later life to the Quaker faith.
The brothers came to Germantown, Pennsylvania, and
then moved over to Skippack, Montgomery, Pennsylvania by 1710 where they owned
land.
In 2007, I made a trip to Skippack to attend a family reunion which celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Kolb brothers coming to America. See The Kolb-Kulp-Culp Family Association.
The reunion was held at the Lower Skippack Mennonite
Church. I learned that for more than two hundred years the Kolbs and other
Mennonite families had spoken and written mainly in the German that we know now
as Pennsylvania Dutch (influenced by William Penn’s colony). I also learned
that some of our Kolb families anglicized their names and to this day use the
spellings of Kulp and Culp. It was surprising to me that our Johannes Kolb, who
left Montgomery County to go to Chester County, Pennsylvania, and ended up in
South Carolina in 1737. Johannes joined the Welsh Neck Baptist church and lived
on the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. His land in Darlington County has been
an archaeological site for many years (not active at this time). Site No.
38DA75. The Johannes Kolb Site 20th and Final Field Season | News
and Press – Darlington County Historical Commission & Museum (dchcblog.net)
Just a few years ago, I was contacted by a cousin’s
wife about a bible she found on Ebay. The old German bible was from a family in
Indiana and their spelling was Kolp. Yes, inside that old bible included
information that led right back to my common ancestors of Dielman Kolb and his wife,
Agnew Schumacher. Speaking of that bible, I still have it stored away and would
love to pass it on to anyone that descends from that family.
At that long ago family reunion celebration of the
Kolb brothers coming to America, I heard distant kin speak and sing in Pennsylvania
Dutch (or Pennsylvania German, as some called it).
The language of my ancestors, and those of my family
in Pennsylvania who still spoke it, was beautiful.
-Revis
This content was crafted for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, focusing on the theme "Language" this week.
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