Mower Family History Association
Third Quarter 2005 Newsletter

3 November 2005

Hi Jerry and Tedi Jeen:

Once again, I say sorry to let you wait so long with writing up a summary on the Briel research findings. Here now is the finished product.

How I came to trace the Brill emigrants to Niederasphe, in Kreis Wetter of the Hessen-Kassel State of Germany.

Over the past circa 8 years finding the origin of the three passengers on the ship Halifax, Martin Briel, Johann Henrich Briehl and Johann Hermann Briell, who signed their names after arrival in Philadelphia on 22 October 1754 among a list of foreigners, was a challenge. After studying the names on the ship Halifax, I found them to be a group of people from many areas of Germany and Alsace-Lorraine. The names from the Alsace Region are listed in a book authored by Annette Burgert. The name Briel is not mentioned in this book, so this area could be ruled out. Another area is the State of Wuerttemberg and the name Briel is not known there accept for some Brill families, this was not a likely area to devote time to since the name Hermann is not used in the given names of boys in the early 18th century.

The given names of the three Briel travelers gave clues as to the area of Germany where they may have come from and this is Hessen-Kassel in central Germany. At one time this was a part of Prussia. So the search was mainly concentrated to this area. The name Briel is found in the area of Eschwege also and a detailed search in the Lutheran church records of many villages of this district resulted negative.

The county of Wetter in the Hessen-Kassel district was the next attempt. All the research had to be conducted on-site going from village to village to the Lutheran parishes to search the church records. It has been known that several early Pennsylvania emigrants came from Wetter and surrounding villages. While conducting this search, I found the name Briel, also Briehl in every village, yet I could not find exactly the family of Martin Briel or others traveling with him. In the meantime a Lutheran church archive was established in the town of Kassel where all church records became available for viewing on microfiche. This is not the most convenient way of searching church records, bus surely more convenient than going from village to village. All Briel entries were extracted so a better picture could be painted of the Briel, aka Briehl families who lived in this area between 1700 and 1754. It was only in the village of Niederasphe (where the pastor could not be reached at the first attempt of this vast research adventure) that the given names Martin, Herman and Henrich appeared among the Briel families. I felt this to be the right place yet for some reason I found no marriage to a Martin Briel between about 1736 and 1754 when the emigrant should have been married and no children born to him either.

I contacted an archivist who lives in one of the nearby villages by the name of Dr. Stoehr who assured me that he will help solve the problem. Over a year later Dr. Stoehr sent a letter in which he made the following statement. He speaking: "While in the process of preparing to compile a historical book of Niederasphe, I found that the pastor from the time 1736-1756 omitted to record any vital data. After his death another pastor found this big mistake and put together vital data from the memory of the residents of Niederasphe who lived there at the time. Therefore we now know why nothing is recorded of Martin Briel because he was not there any more. Furthermore at one of the baptisms of a child between 1754 and 1756, Martin Briel and his wife Anna Maria are recorded as sponsors with the remark, 'they are in the island', meaning America" End of Dr. Stoehr's remarks.

This is of course the information we needed to hear and know. It is therefore a fact that Martin Briel and his family had left for America in 1754. The Briels lived in a house which is near the house number 63 at the creek in modern day (2005 AD). Martin and his wife were subjects before they emigrated and paid taxes in 1750. The publishing of Dr. Stoehr's book, which will mention Martin Briel should become available in about 2 years.

This research done by Trudy Schenk, AG (CM) October 2005.