Pennsylvania
This map shows Philadelphia
in relation to Moncton, New
Brunswick.
Our earliest
ancestors to come to North America were three German-speaking families
from southwest Germany
near the River Rhein in the mid-1700's.
They came
to Germantown, Pennsylvania (now part of northwest Philadelphia) and
later, in 1766, departed for Monckton Township in what was then part of
the British colony of Nova Scotia (now Moncton, New Brunswick).

The City of Philadelphia bordering on the Delaware River.
The current boundaries of
Philadelphia
correspond to the original County of Philadelphia seen below. Today's
downtown core corresponds roughly to the original City of Philadelphia.
In 1749, Captain John Randolph
sailed the Lydia from Rotterdam in the
Netherlands, via Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England onward to
Philadelphia, arriving on Oct. 9, 1749. The ship was carrying
passengers from the Palatinate, the survivors of whom would often
become
indentured servants in
Philadelphia until they had worked off the cost of their passage.
One
of the passengers was Carl Schantz whom we believe to be the
same Johann Carl Schantz of our
family tree.
Thirteen days earlier Jacob Trites
(Treitz,
Treuz) likely arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Dragon and later, around 1750, married the widow Maria Christina
Gmelin whose family came from Württemberg.
The Schantz, Treitz and Sommer
families likely all originated in the Baden region of Germany west of
the Rhine, and in Pennsylvania lived in or around the Township of
Germantown, the
boundaries of which correspond today to Philadelphia city wards 9, 22,
59 and 12
(see map below). Today this includes the neighbourhoods of
Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy and Germantown.
The upper end of Roxborough Township (ward 21 today), near Barren Hill,
is where Matthias Sommer was
living when naturalized in 1765 (a year before setting sail for
Monckton Township). Carl Schantz also resided in Roxborough.

The marriage of
Matthias Sommer
and Christina Null was recorded at St. Michaelis
Evangelical Lutheran church in
1749 in the heart of the old City of Philadelphia, as were the baptisms
of their two
daughters, Anna Catharina and Eva Magdalena.
Carl Schantz and Margretha Linz were
also married there in
1752. Their two daughters Anna Margretha and Catharina Elisabeth were
baptized at the church on the day
of the families' departure to sail to Monckton Township on Apr 26 or
27, 1766.

St. Michaelis Evangelical Lutheran Church, formerly
in the heart
of old
Philadelphia,
Built 1743, demolished 1872
"On the Southeast corner of Fifth and Cherry St. The grounds
bounded on the south by Appletree Alley."
Photo by Frederick De Bourg Richards, March, 1859 (not
to be reproduced without permission from the Library
Company
of Philadelphia)

Photo from 1867 in the John Moran Photograph Collection at the Library
Company
of Philadelphia (not to be reproduced without permission from LCP)

Watercolour by William L. Breton ca 1830 from Historical Society of
Pennsylvania (not to be reproduced without permission from HSP)
The oldest Lutheran Congregation in
Pennsylvania was St Michael's
Lutheran Church in Germantown founded ca 1728. Johannes, the
first son of
Carl and Margretha Schantz, was christened there in 1753
(establishing the likelihood the family lived in the Germantown
area).
It is likely that Jacob and Christina Treitz attended this church as
well since 2 of their children's baptisms were also recorded there.

St. Michael's Lutheran Church of Germantown at the corner of
Main and Phil-Ellena Streets, Germantown. This photo
ca 1900 may not be the original building since there
have been
three successive buildings housing the congregation at this site.
(photo by Moses King from "King's Views of Philadelphia. Illustrated
Monographs. Part 1", copyright 1900 by Moses King)
These
were pre-revolutionary times, and to support settlement in the northern
colonies the Crown (King George III at that time) would grant large
tracts of land to Companies who would act as land agents to contract
settlers. One such business was Benjamin Franklin & Co. with
land agents John Hughes and Anthony Wayne. Our three ancestral
families signed John Hughes' contract, agreeing to sail to Monckton
Township, land from which the Acadians had been evicted some years
before.

The last page of the Articles of Agreement as
reproduced in Les Bowser's book "The Search for Heinrich Stief" (Nimbus
Publishing Limited, 2001)
The Philadelphia phase of their lives
ended when the Schantz (anglicized to Jones), Treitz and Sommer
families, along with the Stief and Lutz families under contract with
Benjamin Franklin &
Co. and 6 other families contracted by two other companies, boarded
Captain Nathaniel Shiverick's sloop, the Lovey, on Apr 26 or 27, 1766 and
set
sail to settle in Monckton Township in future New
Brunswick.