Oyler Family Roots. October 24, 2019

Copyright © 2019                               John F. Oyler 

October 24, 2019

Oyler Family Roots

Family history is a subject that regularly attracts my interest. I am not sure what kicked it off this time, but recently I decided to take another look at the Oyler family tree and see if I can add any information to it.

For many years our family has maintained and updated a master copy of our own genealogical history. It actually is a descendancy chart recording all the descendants of Adam Douglas and Annie Malinda Smith Oyler (my grandparents) and a trail of Oyler ancestors back four generations to Johan Georg Euler. At each family reunion we make a big fuss over adding the names of new babies and recently added spouses.

There are two prominent descendancy charts beginning with Johan Georg Euler available on the Internet. One is attributed to John C. Dawson; the other to Roger and Sue Cramer. Both of them are highly detailed and well documented, and both of them eventually find their way to my grandparents.

In both charts the progenitor, Johan Georg Euler, is reported to have arrived in North America in October, 1737, on the vessel “Billinder Townsend”. His wife is Anna Catherine Pobb; they had seven children, including Johan Jacob. Johan Jacob is identified as my great-great-great-great grandfather.

Several years ago a New Jersey genealogist, Joe Klett, encountered information that contradicts our version. He refers to a gentleman named George Iler who lived in Pilesgrove, New Jersey, southeast of Philadelphia on the other side of the Delaware River. His research indicates that this gentleman almost certainly is the Johan Georg Euler who came on the “Billinder Townsend”. He and his wife Mary had eight children with names and ages much different than those on our chart.

Obviously it is time for us amateur Oyler family genealogists to “go back to the drawing board”. What do we know for sure and what is mostly a guess?

I am confident going back four generations to my great-great grandfather, Andrew Oyler. We have a lot of information on him and his farm on the Falling Spring Creek near Chambersburg. Our family tree reports that his father’s name was John or Jacob and that his mother was Marie Wetzel. 

Thanks to Sue Cramer we now have a copy of Andrew’s father’s will. Probated late in 1829 it names him as John Eyler. In it he bequeaths one third of his estate to his wife, Anna Margaretha. Apparently “Marie” was her familiar name. According to the will, their children were Susannah, Henry, John, Amelia, Andrew, Michael, Phillip, Jacob, and George.

This is interesting information that we previously did not have. However, if the Johan Georg Euler who emigrated in 1737 is not his father, who was? And when did John Eyler arrive?

The classic source for information regarding eighteenth century German immigrants is “Pennsylvania German Pioneers” by Ralph Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke. It provides information on 38,000 immigrants who passed through Philadelphia between 1727 and 1808.

This reference gives three lists for each vessel arriving in Philadelphia – a passenger list, a list of passengers who signed the oath of allegiance (to the Crown), and a list of signers of the oath of abjuration (renunciation of the Supremacy of the Pope). In most cases the lists only included heads of families. There are numerous inconsistencies between the lists for a specific vessel, frequently because of the difficulty of Anglicizing German names.

Joe Klett suggested we investigate “Hans Jerg Ohler aboard the St. Andrew, arriving in Philadelphia in 1743” as a possible father for John Eyler. He turned out to be a gentleman who died in Lancaster in 1769. He and his wife, Johanna, had four sons – Johann .

Sue Cramer wondered about Hans George Eyler who arrived in 1754 with his wife Susanna and five sons, including one named Johann Jacob. She got this information from a book by Annette Burgert entitled “Eighteenth Century Emigrants from the Northern Alsace to America”. This is a possibility, although two of the sons are Martin and Samuel, neither of which correlates with our list of John’s siblings.

The ships arriving in 1754, however, suggest another possibility. Hans George and his family came in September on the “Barclay”. Johan George Ilgar came the same month on the “Adventure”. In October Philip Eygle, Jacob Eyler, and George Eyle arrived on the “Hennrietta”, followed by Henrick Eyler on the “John and Elizbeth” in November. The Johann Jacob (John Eyler) in our charts was born in 1736; he would have been eighteen in 1754. Perhaps he was a member of one of these families.

Equally interesting is the fact that five potential Wetzel families came through Philadelphia in September 1754. We think his wife was born in Germany in 1750. Could she have come with them, as a four-year old?

Another Oyler family legend is that Andrew’s parents were both indentured servants who met on the voyage from Europe and that John helped Marie work off her obligation after he had completed his. We believe they were married in 1770; if the legend is correct, they would have had to emigrate in the early 1760s. 

I was surprised to learn that indentured servitude was a common way to pay for passage from Europe to America in the eighteenth century. Men had to work five years to pay off their debt; women, seven years. One source reported that half of the German immigrants in those days came as indentured servants.

Two different immigrants named Johann George Wetzel came in 1764; one on the “Sara”, the other on the “Hero”. Johann George Eller came on the “Polly” that year; some researchers speculate that Eller is a variant of Euler/Eyler. I have contacted “The Eller Family Association” with a request for a descendancy chart for Johann George Eller.

So we are left with many questions and few answers. I will attempt to list possible answers to my question: “Who was John Eyler”s father?” Candidates at this time include George Iler’s son Jacob, one of Hans Jerg Ohler’s three sons with the first name Johann, Hans George Eyler’s son Johann Jacob, Jacob Eyler (came in 1754 on the “Henrietta”, a possible son of Johann George Eller, and half a dozen more we have not yet identified.

The important thing is that we have been successful in determining the portion of our family tree that is reasonably well documented, in addition to adding a few more components.