My Story

Having never written a novel before, I became interested in writing while researching my family's genealogy. My research took me to Essenheim, Germany where my first ancestor was born. The more I researched, the more I became interested in wanting to tell the story about the Palatines. The foreword to the book is shown to the right.

Before attempting to write 'The Palatine', I spent two years researching what life in 1750 was like in Germany.

I am looking for an agent and understand this can be more difficult than the actual writing of the book itself.

Updates

Have finished the book and started a sequel which picks up on life in America for the Palatines.

The Palatine

Foreword

The first mass migration from Germany to the Americas began with the "Palatine" emigration of Germans to New York in 1709-1710. Emigration from Germany to the colonies grew until it hit its highest numbers in the period 1750-1753, with many of the North American colonies in direct competition in recruiting of Germans in Germany. Although the term "Palatine Emigration" has been applied to this migration in general, the Germans were not only from the Palatinate (Pfalz) region. They were primarily from protestant parts of central and southern Germany which had been heavily hit in the wars of the previous century.

The people of the Rhineland Palatinate were deeply religious people. The Electoral Palatinate had become ‘Lutheran’ in 1556, and then ‘Reformed’ in 1560. From 1576 to 1583 a new elector reintroduced ‘Lutheranism’, only to have this faith replaced by the ‘Reformed’ until 1620. During the Thirty Years' War, the ‘Spanish and Bavarian Catholics’ were twice dominant, but the treaties of Westphalia placed a ‘Reformed Elector’ on the throne. After each change, the new party attempted to repress completely the other faiths. In other words, within the space of one hundred fifty years the official religion had been changed eight times!

This was an era of change in central and southern Germany. Many areas had been devastated during the 30 Years' War (1618-1648) and the subsequent War of Louis XIV (1688-1697). The areas hit hardest were those bordering France and along the Rhine River (Rheinland, Pfalz, Baden, Hessen, etc.). Many of these towns were partially or completely depopulated.

Prior to the 1800s, Germany was not a united country but made up of many kingdoms, duchies, knightly estates, margraves, etc. Each had its own laws and record keeping methods. A manumission record from Baden might be a single line entry; in Hessen an eight page document listing all of the property and who it was sold to, for how much, etc.; or might not exist for the lands ruled by the count of Kastell-Rüdenhausen family in Unterfranken (Bavaria).

There are no general census records or tax lists for all of Germany. If these types of records exist they will be for the particular jurisdiction that ruled over that part of Germany in the 1700s.

While this story is fiction, many of the historical names are real. The cities of Germany, much of its culture and events are real. The Palatine is a fictional representation of life in the Rhineland Palatinate district and in America.

Glen E. Philmon, Sr.