The following essay focuses primarily on Joseph’s immediate family. For a discussion of his European origins, the reader is directed to "The Search for Joseph's Home" on Ken Florey’s site.
Joseph and his family arrived in Philadelphia in 1733, aboard the ship “Hope”. Unlike many of the other captains, the captain of the Hope made a list of all passengers and their ages. Men, women and children were listed separately.
A copy of the complete transcribed passenger list, in its original order, can be seen here.
A photocopy of part of the original list can be seen here. (Joseph is the 12th name on the Mens list and Anna Maria Bugh is the 17th name on the Womens list.
At the time of the voyage, Joseph was 51. Accompanying him were four young adults, Maria (21), Joseph (19), Hanliey (17) and John (15). Absent from this list was his wife. Recently, the research of Richard Davis at MennoSearch has shown that during this time period, Swiss Mennonite women, upon marrying, retained their birth name rather than taking her husband’s last name. All of the evidence of Joseph’s European roots points to him having been of Swiss origin and he seems to have been closely associated with the Mennonites. We know, from the inventory that was made following Joseph’s death in 1741, that his wife was named Mary. Thus, we now believe that the name immediately preceding the two Flory daughters on the passenger list (Anna Maria Bugh, age 40) is Joseph’s wife.
It also seems reasonable to infer that Anna Maria is Joseph’s second wife. There are two lines of reasoning leading to this conclusion. First is the age difference. Based on historical records from this time period, men and women were approximately the same age (or the woman was a few years younger) for their first marriage. However, if either remarried, it was not uncommon for them to marry someone much younger than themselves. Secondly, there is the question of the age of the children. It is generally assumed that Joseph had eight children (the four listed on the passenger list and four others, to be discussed shortly). The first four were born in two year intervals from 1712 to 1718. The last two were born in 1733 and 1735. The birth year of the other two is unknown.
Thus, Joseph fathered four children in a seven year period, then two more over the next 15 years, then two more in a three year period. Although there certainly could have been (and probably were, given the times) some children who did not survive to adulthood, a pattern such as this strongly suggests at least two wives. We can assume that the four children listed on the passenger list were born to his first wife, and that the last two (Katherine and Abraham) were born to Anna Maria. We are uncertain as to the mother of the other two children (Jacob and Barbara).
Several of Joseph’s children were baptized into the Conestoga congregation of the German Baptist Brethren, but it is not clear whether Joseph himself was baptized into this congregation. There are two different lists of baptism records for the Conestoga congregation. Dwayne Wrightsman has analyzed the two lists and has generated a side by side comparison of the two. One list (the Brumbaugh list) lists “Joseph Flory, 1741” and “Joseph Flory’s wife, 1747”, while the other list (the Bomberger list) lists “Joseph Flory, 1741” and “Joseph Flory & wife, 1747”.
The Brumbaugh list is the more commonly known of the two lists. Based on this list, we have always assumed the the Joseph baptized in 1741 was Joseph the son. However, the Bomberger list would suggest that the father was baptized in 1741 and that his son and daughter-in-law were baptized in 1747. Depending on which list is correct (of course, we have no good reason to accept one list as being more accurate than the other), Joseph may have been baptized into the Brethren in the same year that he died.
Following Joseph’s death in 1741 (at the age of 59), the family appears to have remained intact until 1759, when sons Joseph and Abraham moved away. Joseph moved to Paxtang Township and Abraham moved to Franklin Co., PA. John remained on the original homestead in Rapho Township. Was it coincidental that both brothers moved away in the same year, or did this signal a major event in the family, such as Mary’s death? Mary would have been 66 in 1759.
The children:
MARIA: the only record we have of Maria is from the passenger list of the Hope, which listed her as being 21 in 1733. This would place her birth around 1712. We have no further information about her.
JOSEPH: Joseph was 19 at the time of the voyage, which places his birth sometime around 1714. He was baptized into the Brethren church in either 1741 or 1747, as discussed above. He married Catherine Zollinger around 1741. In 1759, he migrated to Paxtang Twp., Lancaster Co., which later became part of the new Dauphin Co. He apparently lived the remainder of his live in Paxtang, dying there in 1785. By all accounts, he was a successful farmer and businessman, as he was the tax collector for a while in Rapho Twp., and then was involved in numerous land and business transactions while living in Paxtang Twp. He spent his final years with his daughter Katherine and her husband, John Bomberger.
HANLIEY: her name was probably either Hanneli or Anneli (little Hanna or little Anna). The passenger list of the Hope appears to have been written by someone who was not fluent in German, and probably wrote down the names more or less phonetically, as he heard them. Hanliey was 17 at the time of the voyage, which places her birth around 1716. Like her sister Maria, we have no further information about her.
JOHN: John was born around 1718 and was 15 at the time of the voyage to America. He married Anna Marie Dankers, probably around 1740. He and Anna were baptized into the Conestoga Congregation in 1747. Walter Bunderman was able to examine their family bible and record the names and birth dates of their children. They had 20 children, 14 daughters and 6 sons over a 30 year period (1741 - 1771). In his will, written in 1780, he mentions nine daughters and two sons, thus we assume that 11 of the 20 children were living in 1780. He appears to have lived all of his adult life in Rapho Twp. and died in 1781 at the age of 63.
The above four children were listed on the passenger list of the Hope, but the next four children were not listed. Based on what information we have about them, at least one (and probably two) of them appear to have been born prior to 1733, and should have been included in the passenger list. These two are Jacob and Barbara, and their birth dates have been estimated from the year they were baptized. In this time period, people usually were in their mid to late 20s when they were baptized. Jacob Flory was baptized on May 1, 1748 and Barbara Flory was baptized in either 1754 (Brumbaugh’s list) or 1755 (Bomberger’s list).
If Jacob and Barbara had been as young as 20 at the time of their baptism, then Jacob would have been born around 1728 and Barbara would have been born around 1734. For comparison, Joseph, their older brother, was baptized either at the age of 29 or 33, and his brother John at the age of 33. There is, however, at least one case of a teenager being baptized, that of Christian Stouder jr., who was also a passenger on the Hope. In 1733, Christian was 9 years old and was baptized 1741, which would have made him 17.
If Jacob and Barbara were born prior to 1733, then why are they not included on the passenger list of the Hope? The Hope list, as mentioned above, included a list of children and their ages. Is it possible that Jacob and Barbara might have been a niece and nephew, or perhaps adopted children? In that case, they still might be included on the passenger list, but with a different last name. However, a careful examination of the list of children's names reveal no siblings named Jacob and Barbara. Another possibility is that Joseph initially left his younger children behind and sent for them later, once he had established himself in America. They do not appear as passengers on any other ship, but since most passenger lists do not identify children, this is not surprising. Finally, it is possible that their names were simply left off the passenger list.
In an attempt to answer this latter question, I placed a request on various newsgroups asking people with ancestors on the Hope to contact me. I heard from descendants of ten of the passengers. In three of the ten families, there were young children born prior to 1733 who were not included on the passenger list. Adding to this list the Flory children gives us four families with unlisted children out of a sample of eleven families.
Finally, in looking over the Hope passenger list as I was preparing this, I noticed that the youngest child listed was 3 1/2 years old. When I checked the listings for other ships that arrived in Philadelphia in 1733, four listed children and their ages, and all of the lists included children under the age of three. In fact, about 16 % of the listed children were less than three years in age (The range was 10 % to 20 %). Thus, the question is raised as to why there were no children under the age of three on the Hope list? One obvious answer is that simply by chance, none of the children were younger than three. Alternatively, for some reason, the Captain of the Hope may have excluded very young children from the passenger list.
Since Joseph’s family is the only known Flory family in the Conestoga congregation at this time, the most reasonable conclusion is that both Jacob and Barbara are Joseph’s children.
JACOB: Jacob was baptized into the Conestoga congregation on the first of May, 1748. His baptism was recorded in both the Brumbaugh and Bomberger lists. The only other person baptized on that date was Maria Conrad. One of the traditions at this time was for engaged couples to be baptized together, and since Jacob and Maria were the only two baptized on this date, we can assume that they were married shortly thereafter.
Jacob next appears in the land records of Frederick Co., Maryland in 1767. He purchased and sold property over the next 15 years, the last known entry being a sale of his farm in 1783. At about the same time, he appears in the records of Bedford Co., VA in 1782. In 1786, Franklin Co. was formed from part of Bedford Co., and from that time until 1795, Jacob appears on the tax lists of Franklin Co.
As far as we can tell, the first of Jacob’s five children was born around 1760. It seems strange that Jacob and Maria would have been childless for the first 12 years of their marriage, and then had five children. The youngest was born in 1776, when Maria would have been around the age of 50. All of this suggests that the Jacob was married at least twice and that the mother of his children was probably not Maria. Unfortunately, we have no record of his wife’s name.
BARBARA: Barbara was baptized into the Conestoga congregation in either 1754 or 1755. Other than this, we have have no further information about her within the Flory family. However, we have found two marriage records from this time period that might involve her. Both marriages were within the Lutheran Church.
First, there is a marriage of a Maria Barbara Florin and Johan Bartolomaeus Shuh in Philadelphia on September 19, 1757. In 1757, Barbara probably would have been in her 20s. I have been unable to find any further records of Johan Shuh.
The second marriage is that of Barbara Florin* of Rapho Township and Adam Bach jr., of Lebanon Township. They were married on May 27, 1769 by John Casper Stoever. Adam Bach jr. was born around 1741 and died before 1792. In his fathers will, written in 1792, the only mention of Adam jr. is a provision for his son George. Adam was in his late 20s when he married, but Barbara would have been in her late 30s, at best.
KATHERINE: Katherine married Jacob Naff, although the only known reference to her in the Naff genealogy refer to her by the name “Eva”. Isaac Naff, in his unpublished 1895 autobiography, states that his grandfather married “Miss Eva Flora or Florh, whose parents also emigrated from Germany, but she herself was born on their passage across the Atlantic."
In Bunderman’s book, there is a photocopy of a document announcing either the birth or baptism of either Katherine or Kathleen Florin, on September 8, 1733. The quality of the photocopy makes it difficult to translate. The location of the original document is unknown. It was last known (around 1945) to be in the possession of one Mr. J. A. Naff, a 2ggrandson of Jacob and Katherine/Eva Naff.
Jacob and Katherine Eva were married in Lancaster Co. around 1755. By 1782, they settled in Franklin Co., VA, at about the same time as her brother, Jacob.
ABRAHAM: Abraham is the only son of Joseph that we know was born in America. He was born about 1735. He appears to have been part of the Brethren migration (around 1759) first to Washington Twp, Cumberland Co. (which became part of Franklin Co. in 1784), and then on to Bedford Co., PA around 1796. Sometime between 1805 and 1809, Abraham, along with three of his sons and at least one daughter, migrated to Montgomery Co., OH. He died in 1827 at the age of 92.
* - although the online publications of John Casper Stoever report her name as Flohr, an examination of the the original document (LDS film #20436) clears shows her name written as "Florin".
Sources:
Pennsylvania German Pioneers, A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals In the Port of Philadelphia From 1727 to 1808. 1980, by Ralph Beaver Strassburger, LL.D. Edited by William John Hinke, Ph. D., D.D 1980
Wrightsman, Dwayne, Conestoga Baptisms, Brethren Roots, volume 38, No. 2, 2006.
Flory, Flora, Fleury Family History. 1948, by Walter Q. Bunderman.
Supplement to the Flory, Flora, Fleury Family History of 1948. 1973, by John P. Marcinkowski.
Genealogy and History of descendants of Jacob Flora, senior, of Franklin County, Virginia. 1951, by Joel Cephus Flora.
Naff and Related Families. 1979, by John W. Boitnott.
Deis, Frank, BAUGH in Pulaski Co. KY, <http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~deis/bau4.html>
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