Do You Know Your Immigrant Ancestor?

It has been a while since I have written, and I have missed it dearly.  I hope that it will not be so long between blogs going forward.  I am shocked at how many people have read my blog in my absence.  I originally started it for my family to see their ancestors in story form; little did I know I would be helping people all over the world with their own ancestors.  This puts a smile on my heart.

I have been watching “Finding Your Roots,” and in the one called “Mystery Men” Season 5, Episode 2, one of the guests is #Felicity Huffman.  As they traced her line, the names started becoming more familiar.  I pulled up my #Ancestry app; sure enough, her 9th great-grandfather is my 10th great-grandfather.

Sometime after that, someone commented on my blog about this ancestor, William Hickox.  We share this 9th great-grandfather, our immigrant ancestor!  She plugged me in her tree, which makes us 10th cousins 1x removed!!  10th!  Now that is pretty awesome!

So, that got me thinking, who are all my immigrant ancestors?  Have I traced them all?  Let’s see.

Well, as always, let me start with the Logan clan.

John Loggan, Sr. (1699-1777)- Arrival 1717 to Boston from Scotland (maybe through Ireland)

John Rowan (1760-1843) – Immigrated in 1791 to Pennsylvania from Ireland (immigrated with his wife, Laetitia Porterfield (1765-1831)

Robert Stitt (abt. 1774) and Margaret Appleby (abt. 1759) to Pennsylvania from Ireland (more research needed on this line)

James Galbraith (1666-1744) to Pennsylvania from Ireland

John Lane (Johannes Lehn)  (1655-1754) to Pennsylvania from Germany

John Kunkle (Johannes Gunkel) (1722-1795) to Pennsylvania from Germany, immigrated with his wife, Anna Margarethe Lorentz (1729-1785)

Johann Adam Schäffer (Schaeffer) (1709-1767) to Pennsylvania from Germany, immigrated with his wife, Elizabeth Bauer (1711-1777)

Christoph Heydrich (1704-1781) to Pennsylvania from Germany, immigrated with his wife, Magdalena Sontag (1715-1763)

Johann Michael Köppel (Kepple) (1697-1764) to Pennsylvania from France, immigrated with his wife,  Anna Elizabeth Benzin (1707-1750)

(above’s son) Johann Nickel Köppel (John Nicholas Kepple) (1724-1804) to Pennsylvania from Germany and immigrated with his wife, Anna Maria Willems (Williams) (abt. 1736-1821)

Conrad Haag (Hawk) (1741-1833) to Pennsylvania from Germany

Michael Schlonecker, Sr. (abt. 1696-1769) to Pennsylvania from Germany

Johann Henrich Heilig (1700-1775) to Pennsylvania from Germany

(the above wife’s father) Nicholas Rittenhuijsen (Rittenhouse) (1666-1734) to Pennsylvania from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Hans De Neus (abt. 1716-1736) to Pennsylvania from Germany

(above’s wife) Jenneken Blomen (abt. 1717-1762) to Pennsylvania from Holland (married Hans in Holland)

Michael Kocher (1730-1808) to Pennsylvania from Germany

William Wescoat (Wescott) (abt. 1641-1683) to from England to Virginia

Nicholas Granger (1604-1652) to Virginia from England

Richard Davenport, Sr. (1642-1714) to North Carolina from England

John Coker (1641-1720) to Virginia from England

Anne Barham (1625-1682) to Virginia from England

Charles William Davis (1781-1855) to Virginia from England

Matijas Stefanc (Mathias Stephanz) (1867-1936) to Kansas from Stari Trg ob Kolpi, Črnomelj, Austria, immigrated with his wife, Marija  Švegelj (Mary Swegel) (1867-1942)

Johann Leopold Schwitkowski (Hennig) (1865-1933) to Wisconsin from Germany

(father of the above’s wife), Johann P. Reikowski (1844-1932) to Wisconsin from Poland

Well, this certainly proves that not only am I a mutt from hardy stock, but I am not finished researching my immigrant ancestors; the hunt continues.   This also shows you can find your immigrant ancestor as far back as 350 years or as close as 150 years ago.  It’s amazing how all these people somehow found each other to produce me!

I have come a long way since 1993 when I started tracing my Dad’s roots.  It actually started in 1985 or so, but with the help of the internet in the 1990s, I started really started to dig.  So, when you hit a brick wall and get discouraged, look back at how far you’ve come.

Read more about our Logan immigrant at

As always, please email me if you see any errors or have any questions.

Click Below To Start Your Ancestry

2 thoughts on “Do You Know Your Immigrant Ancestor?”

  1. Marlee, I am very impressed with all the research you must have done to get back to all of those immigrant ancestors! That took a lot of work!

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