Person:Johann Reiner (7)

Johann Dietrich Reiner was one of the Early Settlers of Germanna Colony

Johann Dietrich Reiner's Immigration to Germanna Colony

Johann Dieterich Reiner arrived in Philadelphia on the Fane in 1749.

Information on Johann Deitrich Reiner

From "Germanna Colony Notes":

Nr. 683:

The Second, or 1717, Colony contained a Reiner but she was hidden from view as she was the wife of Michael Cook. Thirty-two years later (in 1749), her brother, Johann Dieterich Reiner, with his wife, Maria Margaretha Schleicher, and their children came to Philadelphia on the ship Fane. Information on the family was published in "The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine," v.XXI, n. 3, p. 242, 1960. The church records in Schwaigern tell a lot about the family. Their eleven children were:

1. Hans Dieterich, b. 21 Sep 1716, d. 5 Oct 1719,

2. Johann Christian, b. 10 Apr 1718,

3. Maria Magdalena, b. 21 Sep1720,

4. Maria Margaretha, b. 12 Feb 1723,

5. Maria Sara, b. 21 May 1724,

6. Georg Philipp, b. 30 Jan 1727, d. 31 May 1729,

7. Anna Maria, b. 9 Jun 1728, 9 Jun 1729,

8. Johannes, b. 13 Jul 1730,

9. Eberhardt, 23 Mar 1733,

10, Johann Georg, b. 20 Apr 1736, d. 1 Sep 1738, and

11. Maria Barbara, b. 3 Dec 1738, d. 8 Dec 1738.

The civil records from Germany state that the parents and children numbered here as 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9 emigrated; however, there is no record of Johannes in America, so it is presumed that he died during the trip.

For the children, Christian was 31 years old, Magdalena was 29, Margaret was 26, Sarah was 25, and Eberhard was 16. This was not a typical family, because the children were essentially adults by this time and at least four of the "children" were of an age that they could be thinking about marriage. I have wondered whether marriage might have been a motivation for moving from Germany to America. From Philadelphia, the family moved at once to Virginia.

In Virginia, seventeen year old Eberhard purchased a 530 acre farm from Ambrose Powell in 1750. Before 1764, this land was divided between Eberhard and Christopher. The father never purchased land. The girls were married very quickly. (I have wondered whether the people in Virginia had not written "home" to the Reiners and told them that the marriage prospects were very good.) The overwhelming sense of the emigration of the Reiners is that it was a deliberate, planned trip.

Johann Christian, the eldest son, was known in Virginia as Christopher.

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/johnsgermnotes/germhs28.html