European Roots, Part 1: The Germans

It´s finally time to use all of that information I have been accumulating off the Internet and from my family over the last couple of weeks. I decided that since I am here in Europe I should see where last lived before they left for Canada..

Out of my four grandparents, three have German surnames: My father's mother is a Slauenwhite, my mother's father was a Hebb, and my mother's mother is a Haughn. The original Slauenwhite, Hebb and Haughn men were among the original settlers of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. Here is some more background info to let you know about the Lunenburg settlers:

In the early 1750s a sizable group of German, Montbéliardian and Swiss settlers were recruited by the British Crown to settle in Nova Scotia, the fourteenth colony settled in British North America. The settlers were enticed to come to Nova Scotia with the promise that they would receive 50 acres of land for each head-of-household, and additional acreage for each dependent. [...] This offer was attractive enough to encourage 2460 foreign Protestants to relocate to Nova Scotia.

Successful in diverting a large number of settlers to Nova Scotia, the government was still not fully prepared for them, although the idea of their recruitment had been developed at Halifax. The foreign Protestant settlers arrived in Halifax between 1750 and 1752 and languished there until the government finally sent them to Merliguesh Bay to found the township of Lunenburg under military protection and supervision. The cost of the settlement scheme, the problems of settling a large group of people in the wilderness, and the outbreak of the Seven Years War (known here as the French and Indian War) in 1755-56 put an end to further recruitment of Central European Protestant settlers.

The majority of settlers (about 75% of Lunenburg's initial population) were from the German States. [...] the Lunenburg settlers did not come from Lüneburg in northern Germany [1], but from such southwestern German states as the Palatinate (Pfalz), Hessen-Darmstadt, Baden-Durlach, Württemberg, Erbach, Isenberg, Löwenstein-Wertheim, and other small states scattered among them. [... The name Lunenburg was choosen ] by the governor of Nova Scotia in honor of the House of Hanover, the ruling family of both the kingdom of Great Britain and the electorate of Han[n]over. The town of Luneburg lies in the jurisdiction of Hannover. [...]

After the relocation from Halifax to Lunenburg, the Crown surveyed the town, garden and farm lots, which were then granted by lottery. The farm lots were laid out in a series of ranges along the shores of Mahone and Lunenburg Bays and the LaHave River, and on interior land immediately adjacent to the Mahone Bay and South ranges. [...]

The settlement had a rough start; the settlers were dependent on government provisions for five years, until 1758. This dependence on the Crown was necessary because Lunenburg had no cleared land for cultivation. Fortunately for the settlers, the government had chosen a site with the only arable land on Nova Scotia's southern and eastern shores. [...] The Seven Years War broke out officially in 1756, and led to attacks by the Mi'kmaq [...] on Lunenburg. The Mi'kmaq made several raids on outlying farms and killed several settlers, with a chilling effect upon the development of the community, especially land clearing. After the fall of Québec in 1759, which put an end to the Mi'kmaq raids, Lunenburg began to grow and prosper as an agricultural community (the development of the fishing and boat-building industries for which Lunenburg is famous today did not occur until the nineteenth century).

[...] Nova Scotia was initially an Acadian province (until the Acadians were expelled in 1755) and, after 1760, an English province. Lunenburg was thus an insulated cultural island in an English-speaking province. With a population of 1451 in 1755, the town was the second largest community in Nova Scotia throughout the eighteenth century, surrounded by 8,000 to 10,000 New Englanders in townships they settled, plus 2,000-2,500 inhabitants of Halifax. After 1760 Nova Scotia was essentially the fifth New England colony after Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Culturally and economically it was an extension of New England.
[...] Like many other new settlements Lunenburg experienced a period of demographic instability and fluctuation during its first decade. Many settlers left for more [...] established communities, either at Halifax or in the lower thirteen colonies. Many wandered back and forth between Halifax and Lunenburg before settling at either place. Large numbers of settlers died in the early years, as seen in local Anglican church records; the deaths of many more went unrecorded.

Records and documents for early Halifax and Lunenburg are generally very good (although not flawless). While it is possible to reconstruct family histories from extant church, probate and poll tax records, victualling and ship passenger lists, deeds, and other documents, gaps do exist.

(From Kenneth S. Paulsen, http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/NEXUS/Nexus_10.4.2.asp?print=1)

So there you have it. The first Haughn, Hebb and Slauenwhite didn't die on the ocean voyage to Canada. They didn't starve with no land cleared on the South Shore. They didn't give up and leave Nova Scotia and they weren't killed in Mi'kmaq raids.

It is clear why the Crown wanted the German settlers there, they were protestant in opposition to the French Catholic enemies. But why did settlers choose to emigrate? Weren't there enough English, Scottish, Wesh, and Irish to settle New England? What could persuade someone to move their whole life halfway around the globe in an age where international travel was unheard of?

I may not be able to answer these questions, but it is certainly interesting to ask them. Going to the hometowns of my German ancestors will shed little light on why they came, but will at least gives me some impression of what they left behind.