George Jacob is another mystery, although his story begins later in time than some of the other immigrants in the Beeks line. He was born in the Palatinate, which is the southwestern part of Germany, but an exact location still eludes researchers. However, knowing that he came from that region tells us that he probably came to the New world with others from his village and of his religious belief.
He settled with his wife and children in Roxborough (Roxborrow) township, which is now part of Philadelphia but at that time would have been outside of the city. There he died, in 1731.
Most of what we know of George comes from his will, actually. He had married Gerdrew, maiden name unknown, in about 1699. The will tells us he was a weaver by trade, but we don't know if that's what he did in the Old World, too. It's believed that the children were born in the Palatinate but once again we refer to the will for information. It names his wife, Gerdrew, and lists his children as Henry, Jacob, Peter, Catherine, Sarah, Jane, and Matthias. His sons in law were Samuel Kastner, Hans Jerk )Jorg, maybe) Trout, and Uleriah (Ulrich) Rubel. This is from an abstract only; I don't yet have a copy of the actual will. It was written November 28, 1731 and proved January 20, 1732, so the actual date of death is somewhere in that time period.
That is what we know of George Jacob. We don't know when he came to the New World, how he fared after he arrived here, what religion he was, or any of the other dozens of things we'd like to know. I don't think it likely that he was one of those who came through England, because most of those people ended up north of Philadelphia, in Berks County. So he likely made the trip from Rotterdam to Philadelphia, but I'd sure like to find his name on a passenger list!
George is important to the Beeks family because he is one of the relatively few German ancestors this family has.
The line of descent is:
George Jacob-Gerdrew
Jane Jacob-Ulrich Ruble
David Ruble-Sarah Malin
Hannah Ruble-Samuel Dunham
Jacob Dunham-Catherine Goodnight
Samuel Dunham-Eliza Matilda Reese
Margaret Catherine Dunham-Harvey Aldridge
Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks
Mary Margaret Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger
Their descendants
Actually, when you look at this list, several German lines show up. So maybe George isn't such an anomaly and maybe more can be learned about him!
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