family history
Forged in Fire
A surprising family origin story
My parents met at college in Missouri. Mom’s family is traceable way back into Ireland’s misty history. Dad’s family, the Chrysts, were mostly a mystery. We didn’t know much about them. Elders were long gone. Uncles were estranged. Stories were rarely told. Luckly, there were just enough bread crumb details left behind that like Hansel and Gretel, I was able to follow the path back in time to find out from whence we came.
This part of my family story starts in an Upstate New York farmers market in 2021. I moved to upstate New York 20 years ago for work. It’s a beautiful place to live, but my family has pressured me to move for the entire 20 years. “We don’t have any NY connections” they would claim.
Oh my, were we in for a huge surprise!
I had purchased from one of the vendors five shadowboxes of a fun old fashioned red truck hauling a Christmas tree home. I carefully wrapped and sent the art to each of my five brothers’ households for Christmas.
These shadowboxes are filled with hand rolled paper roses with a vinyl image attached to the glass. The red truck had white roses as the background and a white frame. I wanted to get my brothers a matching piece by the same artist for Christmas 2021.
I looked over all the options on the artist’s table and settled on a tree with our family name at the base. I had regretted not putting our name on the truck door the previous year.
The difficult choice now was what colors did I want for the background flowers? I was not calling each of the five sister-in-law’s and asking what colors would match their houses! I wanted them all the same-like I did with the trucks. My brothers individually had commented how much they liked receiving the same thing.
To help me make the decision on background colors, I hunted down information about the village in Europe where my ancestors came from; Old world villages typically had a banner or flag with village colors.
I realized as I collected more and more information I was producing a document tracing our family back to 1659. I decided to arrange the material into a narrative to go with the shadowbox gift.
We six children of W. E. Chryst are the 10th generation of North American Chrysts.
Family lore is that we were German on the Chryst side, turns out we are from a spot in Europe called The Palatines. This area has been ruled at different points in time by the Ancient Roman Empire, Germany, Switzerland, and France. A series of wars, from the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), to the War of Grand Alliance (1688–1697), to the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714) left the area devastated. It was under French rule when our ancestors were forced to leave.
Part of the Palatine migration to the US colonies was due to slash and burn policies of Catholic King Louis of France in his campaign to eradicate Protestant-Anabaptists (Amish and Mennonite) persecution from French soil. French armies in the name of Catholicism burnt everything owned by the Protestants of the Palatines, all the fields, houses, forests, leaving nothing but scored earth in their wake. According to historical documents from Montgomery County, New York, our ancestors were Mennonite from this devastated area.
In addition to the persecution, there had been successive years of crop failure. Then came the winter of 1709. Horrific reports from a variety of sources describe the desperation created by the relentless freezing temperatures. There are reports of birds freezing in flight and dropping to the ground.
England’s Queen Anne heard of the horrible situation from her cousin living in the area. The Queen offered refuge to the Protestant Palatines. Coincidentally, several Chiefs from the Mohawk-Onieda Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (“people of the flint”) were visiting London at this time and offered land to the refugees.
This land so generously offered is located in Herkimer, Scholharie and what was Montgomery county, NY.
Hey brothers-o-mine, surprise, we are New Yorkers.
My ancestors are listed in a Mennonite Book of Names that documented refugees who arrived in Holland on their way to England. The full entry for the John Christman household on the 11 June 1709, known as St. Catharine’s list is as follows: “Christman, John, husbandman & vinedresser, age 41, with wife, sons age 7 and 5, and daughters age 9 and 2, Baptist.”
Queen Anne of England offered to subsidize passage to the Colonies in exchange for working in areas related to shipbuilding, 100,000 Palatine immigrants signed up. Many were sent to county Kerry, Ireland, and to the Caribbean Islands. Around 3000 ended up making the arduous journey across the Atlantic to the North American Colonies. My family was among those that came to the American Colonies.
Hundreds died on the ships, the conditions were deplorable. Promises made by the English government were not kept, and our ancestors found themselves in the Mohawk Valley of New York trying to scratch out a living. Two of my ancestors died as toddlers, one in the crossing and another shortly after arrival. My great-times nine-grandfather, five year old Jacob survived.
The first entry for my family, on the British government subsistence list for 1 July 1710, indicated a household with three persons over 10 years of age and three persons under 10 years of age. This is a perfect match with the Mennonite John Christman family as enumerated at St. Catharine’s list the previous year. The Mennonite, John Christman, went to New York, and is believed to be the person who was naturalized in Albany, New York, on 17 January 1715/16 and later lived in the Mohawk Valley (The Palatine Families of New York, 1:123–24).
The ships carrying the Palatines arrived in North America in 1710. Our ship, called Fame, arrived June 14, 1710, docking at Nutten Island (now Governor’s Island) in New York harbor.
I was so excited to discover the name of the ship in which we came to the Americas — but the brothers collectively seemed unimpressed.
This is from the manifest list of the ship
Ship: Fame Captain: Walter Houxton From: London Arrival: 14 Jun 1710 103 Johannes Christmann, 42 (wife) (daughter), 9 (son), 7 Jacob, 5 (daughter), 2 Christmüller, Krisman; Mennonite; Howlentzen’s in Holland; London list.
Here is the web link if you want to see the list for yourself.
I was so delighted to have commissioned the family tree piece of art from an artist living in the Mohawk Valley representing the journey of our ancestors. The Christmann/Chryst’s were strong as oaks! We apparently survived and thrived making many branches to the family tree. Spreading out from New York to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri.
The beautiful red, gold and green colors in the background represented both the colors of the village in Europe where we likely lived (Roggwell, Switzerland/France) and the magnificent colors of the Mohawk Valley in full autumn glory.
Our American Family line goes:
Johannes Niclaus Christ(mann) (1659–1728) Born in Roggwill, Alsace, France arrives North America 1710. “John” Niclaus Christmann was a vinedresser by occupation.
Jacob Christ (5 when he arrives in the America’s (1705–1790) dates on Ancestry are all wrong for this grandparent!-1705 is calculated from the ships manifest), He lived with the Mohawk Indians for a year. Married an Oneida woman/girl from the Wolf Clan, Catherina Grey (Palatine German Father). Had 11 children. Lived into his 80s.
Johann Marcus Christ, Jr. (1721–1789)
Valentine Chryst (1742–1813) had 5 sons and 4 daughters, Buried in Bethel PA
Johannes Christ (Chryst) 1770–1836 buried in Youngstown, Ohio
Jacob Chryst (1797- 1877) Change to “y” seems permanent at this point
Hezekiah Chryst (1837–1890). Mother died when he was 2 years old. He served 3 and half years in Union Army during Civil War. In a spooky coincidence, he likely camped in my generation’s backyard in Oxford, Ms.
Chauncey Byron Chryst, I (1874–1952) He was nearly 46 when Dad was born. [Carrie Steele Chryst was 35]
Dr. W. E. Chryst (1920–1969)
to us six siblings.
We have proven to be a hale and scrappy lot, with amazing resilience and fortitude. One obituary says of great- grandfather Hezekiah “a man of impeccable character.” As Dad passed that legacy on to us, I’m certain it was passed on to him from this family tree of ours.
Some Family History for Johan Jacob Christman
Posted 13 Oct 2020 by lwillicats
Birth: Oct. 5, 1705 “Jacob Christman was undoubtedly the first of that name who became a resident of Palatine. He settled at an early date on the farm now owned and occupied by Hannibal Gray, Esq. He was born, probably in Germany, in 1706, was married in 1738, and died at Stone Arabia, April 29th, 1790. Jacob, Jr., his son, participated somewhat in the Revolution. He lived at that time where James Christman, his grand-son, now resides. Passing Mr. Gramps’s sugar bush one evening on his way from Fort Paris to his house, he discovered several Tory scouts bivouacked there, and, without being observed by them, returned to the fort with the information. A detachment was immediately sent out, which soon returned with the Tories as prisoners. It is said that while at the fort they were tortured to some extent, for the purpose of making them confess to their being Tories, and the nature of their visit in the vicinity, but to no purpose”.
More history from Chris Wilson, record: May 30, 2011 Find A Grave Memorial# 70624661
The second son of immigrant Johannas Christmann and his wife, Anna Gertraud, Jacob was perhaps the rebel of this Mennonite family. Schoharie Reformed Church records indicate he married Catharina Grey, allegedly an Indian girl, in 1738. It is believed that she was of the Oneida Tribe and was a cousin of Hanyery, the infamous Oneida chief warrior of the Wolf Clan. Jacob had learned the language of the Indians, probably in the Tar Camp in the Hudson River Valley, and later in the Schoharie Valley as the family was making its way to its ‘promised land’. His growing up years were spent with friends Conrad Weiser and Nick Pickert. As a result, he became an adept outdoorsman, i.e. a hunter, a trapper, a woodsman. He also became an Indian interpreter, communicating between the native Americans and the colonial settlers in land deals, trading, etc. His name appears as a witness on the Snell-Zimmerman Patent. A copy of that signature appears herein.
Jacob Christman played an important role in the implantation of our ancestral roots in the Mohawk Valley. The Line of Jacob is vast, and today knows no bounds throughout America. His humble grave, however, can be found within the wilderness area he conquered. On a hill facing into the rising sun from Eaker Road in East Stone Arabia, Town of Palatine, County of Montgomery, State of New York. His death and burial are recorded in the Reformed Church of Stone Arabia records as having occurred April 29, 1790 and “buried May 1, aged 84 years and about 6 months”. The grave is situate on Lot 11 of the 3rd Division, Stone Arabia Patent. Johan Jacob had two other brothers. The older, Johannes, Jr., a/k/a “Hans” settled in the Herkimer area with the Feller family and married a Feller daughter, Margaretha. The younger brother, Frederick, was born in the United States in 1711, while the Christman family was ensconced in a Tar Camp at Annsbury in the Hudson Valley. Hence, there are three lines of Christmans descending from the original immigrants, Johannes Christman and his wife, Anna Gertraud, who arrived on the shores of America in 1709~1710 with their family as part of the greatest single migration the world has ever known. Burial: Christman Family Cemetery East Stone Arabia Montgomery County New York, USA Created by: Chris Wilson Record added: May 30, 2011 Find A Grave Memorial# 70624661
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70624661/johan-jacob-christman References and links to Read more about it:
1) The Skippack Palatines https://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/WebberSkippackPalatines.pdf
2) Ship manifest https://web.archive.org/web/20120625085834/https://www.progenealogists.com/palproject/ny/1710third.htm
3) Catherina Grey Christman wife of Jacob was likely Oneida Indian from the Wolf Clan https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70635600/catherine-christman
5) https://schenectadyhistory.org/resources/mvgw/history/031.html