OUR MAYFLOWER
PILGRIMS
OUR MAYFLOWER
EARLY ITALIAN AND
HUEGONOT IMMIGRANTS
Pietro Cesare Alberti is the first known Italian immigrant. He was born the island of Malamocco June 20, 1608. This would have been at the height of Venice's commercial power. He is believed to be a member of the Venetian branch of the Florentine Alberti family and this family was influential throughout the Italian peninsula.
46,000 of the 140,000 cities residents died as a result of the bubonic plague during the Thirty Years War. The Netherlands stationed troups in Malamocco and these troups were the carriers of a virulent strain of the plague. With the decline of power caused by the loss of population Alberti made the decision to set out for the New World to seek a better life.
George Washington Etters is a direct descendant of Pietro and Judith Alberti.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1776
Artist Emanuel Leutze's depiction of Washington's attack on the Hessians at Trenton on December 25, 1776.
The Hessians were caught off guard when one of Washington's spies told them that Washington's army was too demoralized, tired and weak in numbers to attack them any time soon. The Hessian troups ,all fighting massive hangovers from thier Christmas celebrations were caught completely off guard when the patriots after crossing the Delaware River launched their attack.
Washington's success encouraged him to set up an elaborate spy ring on Long Island which was key to his winning the war. The Townsend family had been on American soil since the sixteen hundreds, and a prominent family in Oyster Bay, Long Island since before the Revolution. Robert Townsend of this family was recruited to be one of Washington's spies. He became the most important spy and his identity was not known until just a few years ago. Brian Kilmeade wrote a book about this spy ring titled "George Washington's Secret Six" The spy ring that saved the American Revolution.
George Washington Etters is a direct descendant of the John Townsend family of Oyster Bay, Long Island.
The Howards'
Early Illinois Settlers
In the southeastern part of Madison County, Illinois the first traces of settlement appear in 1809. Mrs. Lydia Stewart Howard, a widow with several grown sons (Abraham and Joseph) and daughters had emigrated from Tennessee and made their home on a beautiful ridge covered with timber on the edge of the Looking Glass prairie. History of Madison Co., Illinois, page 80
Abraham Howard was a 3rd ggrandfather of George W Etters.
CHRISTOPFF KETTENMANN OR
CHRISTOPFF KETTENMANN
What are the chances of two men immigrating from the same country at about the same time with the same name? That is exactly what happened in the Ketterman/Kitterman/Ketteman family. Christopff Kettenmann born 1729 in Grobgartach, Wurttemberg Germany was the first with this name to immigrate to America. He settled in Frederick county, Maryland. His descendants used the name Kitterman and Ketteman.
Next was a man with the same name but born in 1735. He went first to Pennsylvania but then migrated south into what was Virginia but now is West Virginia. His descendants use the surname Ketterman .
Stewart Family
Early Pioneers
When the Boones migrated from Pennsylvania to the Yadkin River area in North Carolina, Daniel Boone became friends with John Stewart, a skilled outdoorsman, and Boone and Stewart explored the wilderness. Around 1865 John Stewart married Boone's sister Hannah. The hunting trip that begin in May 1769 lasted for a year. Boone and Stewart went off by themselves and twice were captured by Indians. All this was taking place in what is now southeast Kentucky.
Early Pioneers
Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois
The Pioneer Home On Western Frontier by Currier & Ives Lithograph 1867
James and Mary "Polly" (EDWARDS) EAST moved from Henry County, Virginia to Oglethorpe County Georgia, and from there to Robertson Co Tennessee and finally settled in Madison County, Illinois. The following is a condensed version of Donald McKinneys websiteNancy East died 1870’s in Pierce County, Wisconsin and was a grandmother of Orval Etters.