The Immigrant Ancestor

Johannes Valentin (John Valentine) Pressler, born 1669, died after 1742, was a vine dresser in the vineyards of the Rhine Valley. Married and with five children, he wearied of the destruction of wars, the vicissitudes of weather, the lack of a goverment concerned with the welfare of its citizens, and the general difficulties of surviving in the early 18th century Palatinate.

Discouraged with his prospects for the future, inspired by the reports of land for the asking in America and freedom to make one's own life what they will, and caught up in the emigration excitement all around him in the Spring of 1709, he abandoned the village where his family had lived for generations, gathered his family and his few belongings together, and set off on an adventure into the unknown with only a hopeful vision of a promising future.

It was a journey of hardship which did not end when he touched the shores of the New World. His children and grandchildren and all the generations that followed continued the journey and the search for a better life. In the twentieth century a young descendant named Elvis Presley obtained financial success and fame which would have been beyond the most outrageous imagination of his little-known and poor ancestor. For his success he was dubbed "the King", but even so, he continued the journey in his lifetime, searching inward for a spiritual goal, only dimly understood.

Below is an excerpt from the List of Palatines who arrived in London on 3 May 1709, showing the family of Valentine Presler, age 40, Husbandman & VineDresser, Rom. Cath., with wife, one son age 6, one son age 4, one son age 1½, one daughter age 10, and one daughter age 8.

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