Holbrook line: Dethmarus Sternberg, Immigrant

I've been waiting for several years for the facts about this ancestor to come out.  I think I've waited in vain, and it will be some time, if ever, before the origins of this man are determined.  We know where he was baptized, and we know his parents' names and when and where they were baptized.  But after that, it gets confusing.  Was Detmar's father a German count, or a Dutch count, or an Englishman named Stansbury who decided to stay in the area of the Low countries after spending time there during one or another of the many wars those countries had?  Was his mother some relation to William of Orange?  All these theories are mentioned on various internet sites but no one seems to really have documents that show anything for sure.  The one exception is a crude drawing of heraldry, with a 1609 date, and the name Sternberg written on it.  It's written in a foreign language so I have no idea what the sketch actually says. 


Detmar was the son of Dethmarus and Catherine Morske Sternberge, and was baptized in the Protestant church honoring St. Rainaldi in Dortmund, Prussia in 1628.  He was probably born shortly before that.  He married Catherine (Renske was her nickname but we don't know her given name) probably about 1650. Their first and perhaps only son was named Tobias.  The three of them came to Maryland in 1658 according to Detmar's claim for headrights, and he had also transported a man by the name of John Dowlin.  So he had 200 acres, or at least the right to 200 acres. 

I wish I knew more about Detmar.  He arrived in 1658 and was in 1663 selling land.  Why?  Did he acquire other land?  Did he originally acquire unsuitable land?  What crop was he trying to raise?  Did he actually work the land, or was that done by servants and slaves?  Did he have another trade or way to support himself?  What was his religion?  We know he was living in 1678 but we don't know when after that he died.  And most certainly, I'd love to know more about his origins.  Did he find fellow Germans in the area, or Dutch, or English?  What was his relationship with his neighbors?  Could he speak English at all?  Since we don't know the answers to these questions, this post is not a story of his life but just a beginning, hoping to point us toward a fuller understanding of our ancestor with the strange sounding name. 

Two generations after Detmar arrived, the family, or at least some of it, changed its name to Stansbury, and that is the name our line is using today. 

Here's the line of descent:

Detmar Sternberg-Catherine (renske)
Tobias Starnborough-Sarah Raven
Thomas Stansbury-Jean Dixon Hayes
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansubry-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants

Holbrook line: Luke Raven, Immigrant-but when?

It's fun sometimes to pull my head out of New England and go south to our ancestors who came early to Virginia and Maryland.  Their stories were different than our New England ancestors, if only because their worship was different.  In Virginia, you were a member of the state church, or else.  In Maryland, you could be almost anything as long as you were Protestant (except for brief periods when Catholics were in control).  So far, I've not learned which religion Luke followed, and there are a lot of other details I don't know, also. 

Luke was born about 1630 somewhere in England.  John Washington,  an ancestor of President George Washington, paid for his passage here in 1662, for which John received 50 acres headright, as well as the services of Luke, either personally or sold to another, as an indentured servant for some period of time.  Records showing what happened with Luke are lacking, or at least I haven't found them yet.  I found a reference in "Genealogy of some of the descendants of Thomas Dew, to the fact that "Both Robert Gorsuch and Luke Raven of the last two records above were early colonists around Jamestown, who migrated to Northern Neck and after a stay there for a few years migrated again (they and their offspring) to Baltimore County, Maryland".  From this, it's not clear whether the author thinks that Raven was here prior to 1662 or not.  But we know he was here in 1664, when he was a witness for Thomas Browne of Piankatank River on January 4.

Luke may have married  Elizabeth, possibly the daughter of Thomas and Mary Hughes, probably in Virginia.  They are believed to have had three children together, Luke, Sarah, and Avarilla.  By 1671 and for whatever reason, Luke had moved to what is now Baltimore County, Maryland.  There he purchased land and continued practicing his trade of blacksmith.  (Smiths were quite needed in the New World and probably had a higher status, and a higher income, than we would think, looking back through our wrong-colored glasses.  That may explain how Luke was able to acquire several pieces of land.)

He is believed to have died in 1687, which means he was in Maryland for at least 16 years, long enough to call it home.  It seems that his wife, possibly Elizabeth, must have been sick or died early with only three children in the family, but there seems to be no information about her. 

I need to keep researching this man, to try to figure out who his parents were (John and Joan Raven, of Northumberland County, have been suggested but there's no proof as far as I know) and to learn more about his story.  I'd love to know where he came from, why he decided to come to Virginia, and whether he was glad he'd made that decision.  I'd like to know his religion, and whether he had slaves, and so much more about him.  That's why genealogy is never done-we always ask more questions!

The line of descent is

Luke Raven-Elizabeth
Sarah Raven-Tobias Stansbury
Thomas Stansbury-Jane Dixon Hayes
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansbury-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants