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Based on findings in the Archives of Maryland, the Maryland Gazette, and other sources, Mr. Nead assembled this celebrated exposition of the Pennsylvania-Germans in Maryland. Taking the early settlements, churches, colonial wars, and the Revolution as points of departure, he quotes chapter and verse on the origins of the Pennsylvania migration to Maryland, identifies many of the early Pennsylvania-German settlers, and settles the question of the settlers' cultural and political influence in the state.

The migration of the Pennsylvania-Germans into Maryland began in the mid-18th century, and this basic work deals with their settlements, activities, and contributions to the growth of the state. There was apparently no marked movement of Germans into Maryland until the 1740s, when Joseph Hite moved from Pennsylvania with a colony of approximately sixteen families. Shortly thereafter the first permanent Pennsylvania-German settlement in Maryland was established at the village of Monocacy in Frederick County, and the first church was erected. Lists of early members and baptisms are presented in this survey. The Pennsylvania-Germans, including a sizable colony of Moravians, soon dominated events in Western Maryland and began distinguishing themselves in virtually every aspect of colonial life. Their achievements are legion. At intervals throughout the text, thousands of these early settlers are named from church rosters and lists of redemptioners, militiamen in the French and Indian War, members of the Committees of Observation, and soldiers of the Frederick County Flying Camp and the German Regiment.

This book will prove indispensable to genealogists interested in Pennsylvania-German origins.

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Pennsylvania German Church Records