Email From Gary Aden to Gary Aden
Email Dated 7/22/01 

     En route to my next stop, I ponder the phrase "What's in a name?".
I think back to the time when I was a Navy psychiatrist in the early
1960's and befriended a fellow Navy doctor named Darrel Hunsaker who
specialized in otorhinolaryngology. We eventually co-authored an
unpublished paper on some original research entitled,"Delayed Auditory
Feedback in Schizophrenia." He stayed in the Navy and eventually his
name came up again when the realtor presented his name as the successful
prospective buyer  for my house on San Aquario a couple of decades
later. He was stationed overseas so I didn't have an opportunity to
renew old times, but I was curious in retrospect that had we
additionally known of our possible family connection whether it would
have made a difference in the sales price and, if so, to whose
advantage.

      In addition to continuing to follow the Hunsucker root, I am going
to study the origin of the Adens in Ostfriesland and the Mechling and
Lauer twigs in Germany. As Rotterdam, Holland is only going to be a
touch down stop so that we can find the Port of emigration and
embarkation for Theobald Mechling and Peter Hunziker, I have
incorporated HOLLAND into my discussion of GERMANY. 

      Switzerland seemed like a nice place to live, so I wonder why
Peter's ancestors left. I don't know, but from what I read, Europe
became engulfed in chaos and war. For centuries, Europe had been haunted
with religious problems. They could have moved to avoid conflicts or
conversely to profit from them. They moved to an area known as "The
Palatinate". Germany as a country has not existed very long. Prior to
1871, what is now Germany was a number of separate states, such as
Wurtemberg, Prussia, Bavaria, etc., whose boundaries changed frrequently
as a result of war and other causes. The Palatinate was one of these
states, and was located along the Rhine River, roughly where the modern
German state of Rhineland-Pfalz is located. 

      The district was inhabited largely by Protestants under the sway
of their rulers. Frederick III, 1459, was a Calvinist. His son, Louis VI
was a Lutherine, and the next ruler, Frederick IV, 1583-1592(Frederick
the Wise) encouraged the Calvinists and the Evangelical Union to combat
the aggressive tendencies of the Roman Catholics. The result was the
Thirty Year's War(1618-1648). This war was a catastrophe for the area.  

      Prior to the War, the district was one of the most powerful and
influential German States. It was known as the Garden of Germany.  An
historian of the time observed,"Their houses were comfortable, their
barns capacious, their stables well stocked with horses and cattle,
their crops were plenteous, and many had considerable sums of money
safely stored away against a rainy day, some even boasted of silver
plate."   At the end of the war, there was a wilderness of uncultivated
land, marked here and there by the blackened ruins which designated the
site of former farms and villages. A short peace with prosperity
followed until the Catholic King Louis, XIV, of France, up against the
combined might of England, Holland and Germany, declared,"If the soil of
the Palatinate was not to furnish supplies to the French, it should be
so wasted that it would at least furnish no suppliess to the Germans."
The flames went uup from every market place, every parish church, every
county-seat, within the devoted province. The fields where the corn had
been sowed were plowed up. The orchards were destroyed, and the promise
of a harvest was left on the fertile plain. Not a vine, nor an almond
tree was to be seen on the slopes ;of the sunny hills round what once
had been Heidelberg. Louis' wrath was to be suffered in 1673, 1688, and
1707. Rember Peter was supposedly born in 1685 so he's now experiencing
some of these disasters. So just when everyone thought it might be over,
Charles II, the childless king and the last Hapsburg on the throne of
Spain, died in 1700. His death resulted in the War of the Spanish
Succession, 1701-1714, and the Palatinate was the battleground between
various factions seeking the throne. Once again the land was in ruins
and taxes for rebuilding sapped the energy of the people. Nor were the
curses limited to war, the winter October until April of 1708-09, was so
severe that firewood would not burn in the open air, wine and spirits
froze into solid blocks of ice, birds on the wing fell dead and spittle
congealed in its fall from the mouth to the ground. The snowfall was
heavy and rivers froze. Meanwhile, Louis XIV had built the Palace of
Versailles. The German princes of the Rhine Valley were dazzled by its
beauty and decided to emulate his gorgeous court life, by emulating him
thrusting the burden for paying for it on the the people. That was the
last straw!
 
      Germans started a mass migration to other areas of Europe.
Concurrently, "wondrous tales" of life in the New World began to
circulate. Agencies proliferated to facilitate immigration and pamphlets
promoting a life free of war and the hassles of Europe were distributed.
Foremost among those proferring a "new beginning" was William Penn, a
Quaker who was deemed to be one who shared the religious tenets of the
Protestants, and his agent, Benjamin Furley. It is commonly  believed
that religious persecution was the primary cause of emigration. Perhaps
in a few instances, it was. More accurately, the major reason for the
Palatine emigration was the promise of sustained economic opportunity
unhindered by War and religious conflict, high taxes, etc.. For example,
fully one third of the emigrants were Catholics who had not experienced
religious persecution. 

      I note that Peter Hunziker married Anna Benedicta WELTI(1685
Germany- ? year Pennsylvania). A correspondent researcher writing in
1971 while studying the family claimed to have made an on-site visit to
a small(unnamed) town near the French bordeer where Peter and his son,
Abraham, actually lived prior to coming to America. The same person
stated that they had visited descendants of the same ancestors whose
names were spelled HUNTZICKER. Here we go again!

In any case, I don't know what I will find chasing down my Hunsucker
origins, but my visit to ZWEIBRUECKER(population around 50,000),
BRIETFURT, and OBERAULBACK hopefully will prove enligtening. 

      In 1727, fears that German immigrants would remain loyal to
Germany, later to be proved unfounded, led the British to require an
Oath of Allegiance to the King by all male immigrants to the new world.
Peter emigrated to America on the ship "Bilander Thistle", a two
masthead vessel(see website for picture), which sailed from Rotterdam,
Holland in 1738.The ship was commanded by George Houston and arrived at
Philadelphia October 28, 1738 with 142 Palatines: 42 men, 36 boys, and
64 women and girls. In taking the Oath of Allegiance to the King, he
wrote his name PETER HUNTZIKER age 53, wife 53, Abraham 23, Hannah Crett
19, Madelina Katherine 14, Creeta 18, and Marites 22. Their children
are: (1) Abraham b. 1715  23  {m. Katherine} (2) John b. 1716, age 21
upon arrival  ship "Virtuous Grace" (3) Anna Maria b. Breitfurt
September 2, 1719{arrival with parents in 1738} age 19, {m. Henry Haller
jof Alsace, 3 children-Abraham, Elizabeth, John- died June 6, 1787} (4)
Simon b. 1719, came to America with brother John in 1737{m. Eva Rosina}
(5) Anna Margaret b. April 22, 1722 in Oberausbach in Zweibruecken{m.
1740 George Biningleaushec}. Page 18, R. E. Strassburger "Pennsylvania
German Pioneers" references the Philadelphia debarkation as November 3,
1738 and spells the surname HONSHOKKER. The Pennsylvania German Society,
"Records of Pastoral Acts at the Lutheran  and Reformed Congregations of
the Muddy Creek Church, "East Cocallico Township, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, 1730-1790, near Reamstown, Pennsylvania shows that he was
the Founder and along with his son Abraham signed the church's original
constituion in 1743.

      Gary Carl Aden July 23, 2001