German Relatives

For the most part, my family is from the British Isles area, with a few exceptions. Some of our family lines originated in Germany and other places, but this post will be about our German relatives.

German Heritage

Johan Jurg Meisser - b. Abt 1680, Germany, d. 1745 Scoharie Valley, New York State. First Immigrant to America of this Line is our 8x Great Grandfather according to documented ancestors. Johan Jurg Meisser translates to John George Meisser.

Johan Jurg Meiser came from the Phatz (Pflaz) region in Germany, his wife and four children (stated as vvrow & 4 kinder) were in the 6th group of the first immigrants to leave Germany through Rotterdam, Holland, 28 July 1709. In 1710, they sailed to England, then on to New York, America. Leaving Germany was believed to be due to religious persecutions and heavy taxes and the promise of freedom in America. After their long and arduous journey and over the span of several years, they settled in the well-known German immigrant area of southeast Pennsylvania.

According to histories, the religious persecutions were against Protestants and included Germans, Austrian, Swiss, Dutch and French people's arriving in America during the early 1700s by the thousands, settling in the state of New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and eventually Pennsylvania. England assisted and encouraged the settling of these people's in the English Colonies in America to increase the number of people in America.

Three separate immigration records have been found to prove that Johan, his wife and four children, including son Johan Michael Meisser were those that finally arrived in New York, NY, America in 1709.

The Meiser/Meisser (and various spellings) have been well-documented from this first ancestor and the children by the Meisser Genealogy Association who compiled and wrote a book.

Zecht/Sixt Family

According to family histories, Johan Jurg Meisser's wife was Anna Elizabth Zecht/Sixt - exact last name spelling not known, but I tend toward the Zecht, as it sounds more German. Her parents were:

Johan Philip Zecht b. abt 1656, Germany and married wife Ann Gertraud in Germany before immigrating with other German's to America. Johan Philip Zecht and family arrived aboard the Ship James & Elizabeth 14 June 1710 to New York, which departed from London, England. They were Lutherans and his occupation was a husbandman and vinedresser.

Those that arrived together from his family in June 1710 were:

Johann Phillip "Sex" is how it is spelled on the immigrant records - Age 53.

Anna Gertaud

Johann Henrich (John Henry) Age 20

Anna Elizabetha, Age 16

Anna Magdalena, Age 13

Son, Age 5

Daughter, Age 1-1/2 yrs of age

Place of Origin: Marienfels, Hessen, Nassau

Family Histories state that Joahann Phillip died 1710 in the Mohawk Valley, Scholarie County, New York. Although, if their ship arrived in 1710 in the ship harbors of New York, it would be fairly impossible to travel to mid-state New York in the same year and die there. More research is needed about his life and death in America.

Remembrance - William and Mary Hill - Non Relatives

I found a site that contains some old Love Letters from 1854 to 1862 of a couple who met, fell in love through writing to one another, married and had children. During the times they were apart because of duty and necessity, they wrote to one another.

I was very touched and moved by these letters and not only do I want to be able to refer to them and point others to them, but believe they serve as a testament to true love and how it never fails to touch and move our hearts.

The link to these love letters of William Hill and wife Mary (Carnes) Hill is HERE.

There are over 50 letters written back and forth between these two people, who are not my relatives, but I believe they should be read by as many people as possible who are interested in live and love during that period of time in our history.

They met in 1850 where they were both students at Burritt College in Spencer, Tennessee. After completing the course, William moved away to find work, and began writing Mary expressing interest and eventually love for her. She was cautious at first, having formed an impression of William that proved to be inaccurate and she soon found herself falling for him. They were married 22 July 1854 and Mary moved away from her parents, extended family and home she had known, to where William was working and made their new home there in Sparta, TN. Mary had been teaching at the college where her father was President, after she finished her courses there during her courtship with William.

I think it's very interesting to read about this obviously well-educated family and couple, (read the letters if you think they didn't have a great education!), because I think it is thought by a lot of us that many people during that time period were uneducated. There are plenty of our own relatives who could not read nor write as indicated by the census records, so to read the Love Letters between two highly educated people, and she becoming a teacher and he studying to be a Lawyer is a refreshing change of pace. I know many areas had teachers and educational facilities, but this was, for the most part, not the norm for most of our ancestors. By the way, these families were not well-to-do as indicated by the letters.

William and Mary are buried side by side in the Smyrna Cemetery near Pikeville, Bledsoe County, TN. I found their Memorial Pages on Find A Grave.com, which are completely devoid of the memory of their love and relations. Perhaps I can persuade the owners of the Memorials to include a link to the Love Letters pages because people should be remembered in the best way possible.

Links on Find A Grave:

William Jasper Hill 1827 - 1862 - 34 yrs old

Mary (Carnes) Hill 1827 - 1901 - 74 yrs old

Mary's Mother Elizabeth (Billingsley) Carnes is buried in the same cemetery. In the summer of 1859, Mary went to take care of her Mother who was stricken with cancer, and while I'm sure she was happy to be with her Mother, she expressed deep sadness at watching her slowly waste away before her eyes. Elizabeth's husband, and Mary's Father was William Davis Carnes and was a great educator and ran several colleges during the middle part of the 1800's.

The Love Story of William and Mary has a sad ending as he died of Typhoid Fever before he even served six full months as a Confederate Captain in the Tennessee Army of the Civil War, or should I say the War between the States, as my Southern Cousins ask me to call it. They were married for only a little over 7 years and had six children, the youngest being only 4 months old at the time of William's death.

This husband and wife and family should be remembered as often as possible so I am making this post for their Remembrance and for their relatives, if they should ever find this post.

The letters and posting on the web link is by: Charles Massey, who is a direct descendant of William and Mary Hill.

For My Family

I want to do a series of posts that my family can read about our Ancestors and where we came from. They get tired of me talking about our family, but maybe one day, they might be interested in taking a closer look at . . . The Life and Times of our Ancestors.

I don't want to simply do a run down of the facts only, but provide the stories that make our family's history come alive.

It's interesting to note what country our ancestors came from to settle in America. The list of countries that I have traced so far is listed below, given with the understanding that some of the information has yet to be proved with 100% accuracy - but it's always a work in progress. More and more records and information is becoming available all the time. Also, it must be understood that a lot of very "valuable records" were destroyed for various reasons, but mainly due to fires of the wars held in America - Revolutionary War about 1776 and the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

British Isles - England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales

The majority of our Immigrant Ancestors are from this area in Europe.

Germany - 
See Link to German Ancestors on this site:
http://doss-strange-mclelland-vaughn.blogspot.com/2010/10/german-relatives.html

First I'll begin with our Doss surname heritage. From that pedigree (family line) alone, we are from a long line of "Virginians". It is thought that our first Doss immigrant may have been John Doss (Jno Dawe) most likely from the southwest portion of England. It is also believe he was probably an indentured servant for years before he married and had 3 known children in Christ Church Parish, Middlesex County, Virginia.  He married Ann Taylor. These are our 6th Great Grandparents and the line ends there. 

Vaughn surname. This name is also spelled Vaughan and the two spellings from the 1600 to 1800's are interchangeable. It has been difficult to prove the parentage of our ancestor Starling Vaughn, born in North Carolina 1814 and died in Arkansas 1878

Doss Family Association

In about 1994, Libbie Griffin began the Doss Family Association for the purpose of sharing information among all Doss descendants.

Nathan Murphy of Kentucky has been especially generous and helpful.

For much of the 1990's she worked tirelessly untangling the Doss genealogy and compiling genealogical information. She spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars doing original research in all the southern and mid-western states on the various Doss families. I launched the Doss Family Association and for six years published the results of her work in a journal which anyone could obtain by joining the association.

In 2003 the Doss Family Association website was launched.


In regards to the FACTS about Immigrant John Doss - here are the FACTS and RECORDS found to date:

Found Christ Church Parish, Middlesex County, Virginia records:

The Christ Church Parish Register of Middlesex County, Virginia records the marriage of John Doss and Ann Taylor. It also records the births of three of their children: William and Eleanor, twins, and their son Thomas, who we believe was the ancestor of most Dosses in America today.

Incidentally, the Church where John and Ann likely married and
where they probably brought their children to be christened is still in use
today.

Marriage Record: 1679
Children Christenings:


Here is what WE DO NOT KNOW about John doss - as of today:
We have NO RECORD of where in England the immigrant John Doss may have come from.

Many Middlesex County records survive, but he appears in very few of them, indicating to us that he was poor and landless.

Nathan Murphy, AG, (Accredited Genealogist) discovered very early records of people named Doss in the hamlet of Chedzoy, near Bristol, England but to date we've found no absolute proof of a connection. We hope to find it perhaps through the DNA research that Nathan got us into. NO PARENTS of our Immigrant John Doss have been found yet. Any person saying they know this information, is guessing.

Per Nathan:
There is no known record in America that identifies Immigrant John Doss' age.

The 1661 arrival may or may not apply to our John Doss.  It's the only possibility that has been found in headright grants, but not all immigrants appear in surviving headright grants.

Other info found about Immigrant John Doss comes from theories or guesses. There are several possible records for him, but it's really hard to say whether they actually pertain to him.


For further information on Doss DNA Test Results from around the world, please refer to:

The Doss DNA Project: Patriarchs