The Dietz line

Before arriving at the Moravian settlement in old Surry County, North Carolina, before marrying the first Wolff or any other early settlers, before relocating to the foothills of the Yadkin Valley and beyond -- our Dietz ancestors were already anticipating the long voyage across the Atlantic.

Political and economic conditions in Europe had changed; the Protestant Reformation had sent European society into turmoil.

Many came to America to increase the power and resources of the old European world. New monarchs had the resources to finance exploration, which gave way to a growing class of merchants eager to expand trade. These came for economic reasons, to procure the minerals and resources of the new world or, failing in that quest, to see what the new land had to offer.

Some came for political reasons, representing powerful European kings and queens who sought to expand their empires. Other early settlers were criminals sent over from prisons as their punishment. Others came as indentured servants.

Others came primarily for religious reasons, either to escape persecution and the religious upheaval at home or to convert Native Americans. For whatever reason -- they came to America.

It was circa 1540 when Jacob Dietz's great-grandfather Christian was born into a life of strife and persecution in Germany. His determination for freedom and a better life continued through at least three generations, through his son Rupel (1568) and his grandson Bartholomew (1582 -- married to Maria Dorthea Schmitt), to his great-great-grandson Johann Jacob Dietz (c. 1697) who departed Germany for America in 1741 with his wife and son.

Jacob Dietz's wife Letfroh ______ is said to have died enroute to America. Dietz subsequently settled in Pennsylvania where he raised a large family with multiple wives.

It was his son Johann Jacob Dietz Jr. (c.1722) who later departed Pennsylvania for the rich farmlands of the Yadkin Valley. Young Jacob settled in Wachovia with a succession of (at least) three wives, one of whom was Anna Katherina Mumbacher, the mother of Anna Catherine Dietz (1759 - 1 Dec 1779). Anna Catherine Dietz subsequently married Johann Ludwig Wolff (28 April 1759 - 8 Nov 1842) and lived out her life in the area that became Stokes County.


So is this fun to learn about or what?

Christian Dietz is a link to my family's past, our pedigree -- i.e., our ancestors, the "line" of people from whom my family has descended.

And there is more .... much more to share ....