| Message: |
This is all the information I have received from my relatives who have
accumulated this. The original home of the Lowdermilk family was Bavaria, Germany. It was
situated in a region west of the Rhine River. Here are found the Glan Lauter, in all
probability, what the Lowdermilk name was derived. The work "lauter" in German
means "pure", as as the spelling of the family name was Lautermilch, some
decided that as much as "milch" in German is "milk", that the original
family name means pure milk. As all this regions was known for its' fine dairy products,
it is reasonable to conclude the origin of the name is wrapped in these meanings. This
territory was ruled by a court Palatine, beginning in the 10th century, when Herman the
First ruled from 945 A.D. to 996 A.D. to be followed by a long list of his descendants
until 115 A.D. when the German King Frederic the First appointed his step-brother Conrad
as court Palatine. Most of the inhabitants of the Palatine region were of Protestant
faith, hence, when in 1685, a Roman Catholic ruler was appointed, religious troubles
began, and it is due to this that soon we find many people of the Palatine region
beginning to look elsewhere for their homes, and emigration began, resulting in thousands
of these people emigrating to America. In the Secretary's office at Harrisburg,
Pennsylvannia is preserved the lists of many of the early settlers who landed at the Port
of Philadelphia, giving their names and the names of the boats on which they sailed, and
it is notable that many of the first list that were recorded, and later published in such
computations as Professor Lupps list of 30,000 German, Swiss, Dutch and French immigrants
in Pennsylvania from 1729-1776, were mostly from the Palatine region. They were some of
the earliest to come across to accept the cordial invitation of William Penn (an English
Quaker and the founder of the colony of Pennyslvania) which was issued to all peoples who
wished for freedom from religious persecution. On November 3, 1939, Philip Kinsley
(possibly Kingsley) wrote an article in the Chicago Tribune which was later included in
his book on "Origins of American Population". He stated that, "Next to the
English and Irish the largest national group coming to America in the colonial period was
the Germans. Migration originated chiefly in the Upper Rhine Valley on the Palatine, where
economic disorganization, political discontent, and religious persecution were the causes.
More than 100,000 came during the 18th century. Here were thousands of German settlers
pouring into Pennsylvania, representing the Lutheran faith and the Reformed faith. Then
other Germans of the Noravian faith came to make their homes in Wachovia now known as
Winston, Salem. It is in the Forsyth county where Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were added to
the others. The promise and attractiveness of this Piedmont territory was becoming well
known. No place in all the world seemed to offer more to the large numbers of German
settlers than this particular part of North Carolina and it was natural that they should
seek this section for their homes. While there is no exact date of their move from
Pennsylvania, they had to go over 435 miles to reach North Carolina. In the first census
of 1790 the record stated that Jacob Lowdermilk (Jr) and his wife and 4 sons and 4
daughters and his brother John Lowdermilk with his wife and son and daughter were in
Randolf County. Then in the 1800 census they were both recorded as living in the Iredell
County of North Carolina.
My information goes back to a Melchoir Lautermilch April 8, 1665-June 19, 1733 born in
Kirchart Baden, Germany. He had 6 children (I have some information). I have more
information on the family tree if you are interested. I don't know which lineage you are
looking for though. My lineage goes like this - Melchoir's son is Emil, Emil's son is
Jacob, Jacob had 2 son's Jacob Jr & John. My lineage continues with John who had a son
Stephen who had a son William who had a son Vincent Hedge, who had a son Roscoe. Roscoe is
my father's dad. I am currently residing in Ontario, Canada but was raised in
Saskatchewan, Canada. That's where Roscoe Lowdermilk moved to from the U.S.
Linda Manley (Lowdermilk)
email: linman53@hotmail.com. |