Anna Christina Zerbe

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lauck-26

Anna Christina Lauck was born in 1715, in West Camp, NY. She was a daughter of the Palatine immigrants Abraham Lauck and his wife Anna Catharina. Her christening, according to West Camp churchbooks, was sponsored by Philipp Wilhelm Moor and his wife.

Anna Christina Lauck married George Peter Zerbe.[1]

Origins

28 Jan 1771. The will of Abraham Louck of Heidelberg Township [4] names 6 children: Maria Catharina (1711- ); m Jacob Mountz, m John Tieter, Anna Christina (1715- ); m. George Peter Zerbe, Anna Catharina (1721- ); m. Lazarus Wegner in 1738, Johan George (md. Susannah Unknown ; left a will dated 22 Mar. 1783; probated 10 Feb. 1786.), Abraham (m. Anna Margaretha Elberscheid on 9 Apr. 1754), and Elizabetha (m. Peter Zerbe).

GEDCOM Source

MH:S2 5CFC8A872BB0D29779CB70DCCA666235 Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. @R1@ @N299@

GEDCOM Source

MH:SC1113 Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=18278086&pid...

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Jan 28 2021, 3:58:38 UTC

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GEDCOM Note

Life of Elizabeth Christina Laux
THE LAUX OR LOUCKS FAMILY The German home of the LAUX family was in Hesse Darmstadt, now a part  of Hesse Nassau, in the neighborhood of the ancient town of Wallau.   This area is called the Palatinate, which was the garden spot of  Germany.  However, the Thirty Year's War and the Wars of King Louis  XIV had ravaged and desolated the palatinate of the Rhine.  Where  once were fields of grain and vineyards and contented villages,  nothing was left but the blackened ruins of cities, towns and  hamlets.  Famine and pestilence was prevalent.

To flee from these horrors became the thought of thousands, who had  given up any hope of ever seeing Germany the abode of peace again  where men might reconstruct homes, rear families and make a living.   Also, the Wars of King Louis the XIV had been directed particularly  against the Palatinate because it was the home of thousands of his  Protestant subjects, who'd fled from his tyranny, both before and  after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.  His desire was to see  them completely destroyed, which he almost accomplished.  In 1708 and  1709 30,000 Palatines left the valley of the Rhine and went to London  where the kind-hearted English Queen Anne had invited "the distressed  Protestants of Germany to make homes in her American Colonies.

Among the group of Palatines were three cousins, Phillip, Nicholas  and Valentine Laux and their families.  Of these suffering, starving  and almost naked Palatines many were sent back to the Rhine in a  heart-broken condition. Several thousand were sent to Ireland where  they made homes in the County of Limerick.  ThoUsands more perished  at sea while on shipboard from fevers and lack of food and drink.

Among four thousand Palatines which left England in ten vessels on  Christmas Day in 1709 were Phillip, Nicholas and Valentine Laux and  their families. After a perilous voyage of nearly six months, they  arrived in New York on June 14, 1710.  Of the four thousand who left  England, seventeen hundred died at sea.  Among them were Valentine  Laux and his wife.  The remaining 2300 were encamped in tents on  Nutting Island, now known as Governor's Island.

In the late autumn about fourteen hundred were taken to Livingston  Manor, about one hundred miles up the Hudson River.  The widows,  sickly men and orphaned children remained in New York where they were  treated shamefully.  The children were taken from the remaining  parentand were arbitrarily apprenticed by Governor Hunter to the  citizens of New York and New Jersey. Many of these orphans never saw  their fathers or mothers again.

Arriving at Livingston Manor were Phillip and Nicholas Laux.  Also, Valentine's four children--Johann Jacob, Abraham, Elizabeth Catharina  & Elizabeth Christina Laux--ended up there.  Valentine's oldest son,  Johann Jacob Laux, who'd married Anna Elisabeth Stemler 29 Oct. 1709  at Wallau, died there prior to 24 June 1711.  His widow md.  (2) 26  June 1711 at West Camp, Livingston Manor, New York THOMAS EHMANN,  widower of Schornbach in Wurtenburg, Germany.

Since it cost Queen Anne a considerable amount of money to send the  impoverished Palatines to the American Colonies, the emigrants were  expected to reimburse the government for the 10,000 pounds they'd  spent getting them there. The government set up a contract with them  to manufacture naval stores, such as making tar, pitch and raising  hemp in America.  However, the plan proved to be a failure, for the  forests and soil in that region were not adapted to the production of  naval stores.  Thus, the condition of~'the Palatines again became  desperate for the necessities of life.

Still the Palatines were men of honor and were willing to carry out  the terms of their contract, but in a region where their labors would  be rewarded by sure returns.  Also, they showed their loyalty to  Queen Anne by enlisting in the military expedition (French & Indian  War--also called Queen Anne's War from 1709-1713) against Canada in  1711.  One-third of their able-bodied men served in that campaign  with the promise that they would receive wages the same as the other  soldiers and that their families would be taken of while they were  gone. Also, the arms they carried and fought with would be given to  them on their return.  After serving with great bravery and credit in  this expedition,  in which quite a few of them lost their lives, the  survivors returned home to find their families in a famished  condition.  No food had been given to them by the Colonial Governor  Hunter as he'd promised during their absence.  Despite the  government's promises made when they enlisted, the rifles they  carried during the battles were also taken away from them.

Knowing that they had been unjustly wronged and mistreated, the  Germans remembered that, while they'd been waiting in London for  transportation to the American Colonies, a group of Indians from the  Mohawk Valley, who pitied their forlorn condition, told them they  could have lands in Schoharie when they came to America.  Remembering  this, they petitioned Governor Hunter, when he visited their village,  if they could settle in Schoharie on the lands promised them by the  Indians..  In a great fury, he insolently refused, saying, "Here is  your land where you must live and die."

Determined to break away from the injustices inflicted on them and  from the spot where nothing but treachery and starvation seemed  eminent if they remained, one hundred and fifty families, among them  Phillip Laux's family, made their preparations late in the year 1712  and started for Schoharie, about sixty miles northwest of Livingston  Manor.  With their women and little children, they had to make their  way through a roadless wilderness without horses to draw or carry  their belongings.  So they harnessed themselves to crudely construct  ed sledges on which they loaded their baggage, children and the sick  and then dragged them the best they could through the snow which  covered the region they traveled through.  Often they encountered  long stretches of snow three feet deep.  After three weeks of much  hardship and suffering from exposure to the intense cold, they  reached their destination.

After their arrival there, famine stared them in the face and, had it  not been for the charity of the friendly Indians, who showed them  where to gather edible roots and herbs, all of them would have  perished.  But their indomitable courage and enegery enabled them to  survive their dreadful plight and a year later they had made  improvements on their land and had houses to live in.

For the next ten years, more Germans left Livingston Manor for the  Schoharie Valley where they flourished.  This caused vindictive  animosity by Governor Hunter and his associates at Albany, so they  set out to destroy what the Germans had accomplished.  Due to  defective titles cunningly contrived by unscrupulous land agents, the  Germans lost their lands and improvements.  Once more the victims of  injustice, the Germans left the scene of their unrequitted labors to  found new, and this time, permanent homes in more hospitable regions,  the majority going to the Mohawk Valley where they soon became  properous and where their descendants are found today.  Among them  are many of the descendants of Phillip Laux.

As for the German families who remained at Livingston Manor, they  endured the hardships the governor inflicted upon them.  But that  didn't keep them from trying to better themselves.  When they heard  Sir William Keith, Baronet and governor of the Province of  Pennsylvania, extole the opportunities in his province as well as the  protection afforded the pioneers, they were willing to risk their  lives and property to locate within the borders of Pennsylvania.

So, in 1773 thirty-three families made the dangerous trip to  Pennsylvania.  Led by a friendly Indian, they started out with their  meager household goods packed on horses or on their backs and headed  over an Indian trail for the headwaters of the Susquehanna River in  southern New York.  They traveled over mountains, valleys and through  forests until they reached the headwaters of the Susquehanna River.   Here they constructed rafts upon which they placed their women and  children and household goods.  Under the most thrilling and  adventurous experiences, they floated down the river for about two  hundred miles to the mouth of Swatara Creek (south of Harrisburg,  Pa.).  Here they met the men who'd driven their cattle and horses  along the river bank.

From the Swatara, they followed its windings until they reached the  beautiful New Lebanon Valley and came to the source of the  Tulpehocken Creek. (Tulpehocken is an Indian word that means "Land of  Turtles.")  This beautiful stream winds through the valleys and among  the hills for seventy-five miles and empties into the Schuylkill.  It  was along this stream and in the northwest section of what's now  called Tulpehocken Township that the Germans settled.

Five years later more German families migrated from New York to the  Tulpehocken settlement.  Among these were Abraham Laux, Elizabeth  Catharine Laux and her husband, Michael Schauer, and Elizabeth  Christina Laux and her husband, John Van Hoosen.  In German the  surname is spelled LAUX, but the English interpreted it as Loucks or  Laucks, which is the way it's spelled today in the United States.

JOHANN VALENTINE LAUX, the father of Elizabeth Christine Laux, was  born at Wallau, Hessna-Darmstadt, Prussia (now Germany), the son of  Hans Laux and Anna Catharina Ruhl, the daughter of Henrich Ruhl and  Elizabeth Schneider, the daughter of Lorentz Schneider of Medenbach.   Hans Laux and Anna Catharine Ruhl were md. 8 Nov. 1681 at Wallau.   Wallau is 10 kilometers south-east of Weisebaden, Germany.  Although  the church books begin in 1658, most of them are in poor condition  and some are partially destroyed.  

According to the church records of Wallau, HANS LAUX AND ANNA  CATHARINA RUHL had the following children : 1.       Jacob Laux, confirmed as the son of the late Hans Laux in  1667. He md. 8 Jan. 1678 Elisabetha Margreta Stiglitz at  Wallau. 2.       JOHANN VALENTINE LAUX, confirmed as the son of the late  John Laux in 1672 at the age of 13 in Wallau, md. 8 Nov.  1681 at Wallau Hesse-   Darmstadt, Prussia (now Germany) ANNA  CATHARINA RUHL, who was         confirmed in 1670 as the  daughter of Henrich Ruhl & Elisabeth    Schneider.

A note in the Wallau church records states that Velten Laux with his  wife and four children went to Ireland in 1708 because they couldn't  go to the New Land.

According to the records of Wallau, JOHANN VALENTIN~ LAUX and his  wife, ANNA CATHARINE RUHL, had the following children: 1.      Johann Jacob Laux, chr. as Johan Jacobum 5 Apr. 1683 at  Wallau; md. 29 Oct. 1709 at Wallau Anna Elizabeth Stemler;  d. before 24 June 1711. 2.      (daughter) Laux, chr. at Wallau & d. 19 Jan. 1685 at  Wallau. 3.      Elisabetha Margaretha Laux, chr. 21 Dec. 1686 Wallau; bur.  20 June         1690 at Wallau. 4.      Johann Reinhardt Laux, chr.  12 Trin.,  1689 at Wallau.  NFI 5.      Johann Abraham Laux, chr. Dom.  Invocavit.  1691 at W            allau; confirmed at Wallau in 1702, aged 15 years; md.  Marie Catherine         Becker in 1710  in New York. 6.      Johann Michael Laux, chr. 5 June 1694 Wallau; d.  19 Nov.   1695. 7.      Elisabeth Catharine Laux, chr. 7 Oct.  1696 at Wallau; md.  Johann Michael Schauer in 1717. 8.      ELISABETH CHRISTINA LAUX, chr. abt.  1700 at Wallau.  Her  baptism record isn't found in the badly damaged church  books.  She md.  11 Apr.  1720 JOHANNES VAN HOESEN at East  Camp, Albany, New York.

(5) JOHANN ABRAHAM LAUX OR LOUCKS, was chr. in 1691 at Wallau,  HessnaDarmstadt, Prussia (now Germany), the son of Johann Valentine  Laux and Anna Catharina Ruhl; md. 27 Sept. 1710 in Albany Co., New  York ANNA CATHARINE BECKER.  On 31 Jan.  1715/6 Abraham Lauck & his  wife became naturalized citizens of the United States.  He was a  freeholder of the North part of Livingston Manor in 1720 (Albany Co.  Freeholders), but moved to the Tulpehocken region after 13 May 1723.   He returned and moved with his family prior to 10 Jan.  1725 when the  first tax list for Tulpehocken was taken.  In 1732 he owned a tract  of land about three miles north of the Old Ried's Lutheran Church.   On 31 May 1751 he deeded land to St. Daniel's Lutheran church, which  was part of a tract of land (94 & 1/4 acres) which was granted to  Abraham Luke by deed 29 Oct.  1746 by William Allen and his wife.

Abraham Laux was bur. 10 Aug. 1771, aged 88 years in St. Daniel's  Lutheran church.  He left a will dated 28 Jan.  1771 in Berks Co.,  Pa.  He and his wife had the following children: 1.      Maria Catharina Laux, chr. 7 Sept.  1711 Albany Co., N.Y.;  md.     (1)     Jacob Mountz & (2) John Tieter. 2.      Anna Christina Laux chr. 24 Oct. 1715 West Camp, Albany,  N.Y.; md.       George Peter Zerbe or Zerwe. 3.      Anna Catharina Laux, b. -- Oct.  1721 Tarr Boss, Albany,  N.Y.; md.       Lazarus Wenger 10 Nov. 1738. 4.      Johann George Laux, md. Susannah  ......        ; left a will  dated 22 Mar. 1783; probated 10 Feb. 1786. 5.       Abraham Laux; md. 9 Apr.  1754 Anna Margaretha  Elberscheid. 6.       Elisabetha Laux; md. Peter Zerwe or Zerbe.

(7) ELISABETH CATHARINE LAUX OR LOUCKS, was chr.  7 Oct.  1696 at  Wallau, HessnaDarmstadt, Prussia (now Germany), the daughter of  Johann Valentine Laux & Anna Catharina Ruhl; bur. 17 Sept. 1772; md.   abt. 1717 in Albany Co., N.Y., JOHANN MICHAEL SCHAUER or Shower, chr.  30 May 1699 at Massenbach, three kilometers north of Schwaihern  Germany, the son of Michael & Magdalena Schawerin.      He left a will  dated 17 Nov. 1771 and probated 26 Aug. 1772 in Berks Co., Pa.  They  had the following children: 1. Johann Adam Schauer; md.  (1) unknown & (2)  16 June 1748          Elisabeth       Koch; will dated 27 June 1762 & probated 21 Aug.           1762. 2.       Elisabetha Schauer, chr. 1 Feb. 1720 Tar Boss; chr,.  Loonenburg. 3.       Catharina Schauer; md. 30 Aug.  1743 at Heidelberg  Henrich Frey. 4. Magdalena Schauer; md.  13 June 1744 Johann Henrich Fiedler          (Fitler).         5. Anna Maria Schauer, chr.  19 Nov.  1730 at Heidelberg. NFI         6. Maria Catharina Schawer; named in father's will.         7. Anna Christina Schawer; named in father's will.         8. Ephrosina Schawer; named in father's will.         9. Sybilla Schawer; named in father's will.         10. Susanna Schawer; named in father's will.          11. Eva Schawer; named in father's will.