Many Americans can trace their genealogy to an immigrant ancestor but cannot find the specific town (or perhaps even the specific country) where that ancestor lived before coming to America. The difficulty of pursuing our genealogy across the ocean often results in family "traditions" that cannot be verified, and which often are not true.

Fortunately, because of excellent research by professional genealogists, we are able to replace many old traditions about our Mohawk Valley Zimmerman and Snell immigrant ancestors with facts. I will summarize some of that research in this article.

This is only a brief introduction to the subject. For more detailed reading, I encourage you to obtain the excellent books by Henry Z. Jones, Jr. and David K. Martin that are cited below and described elsewhere on this web site.

Traditions

Among many old (but incorrect) traditions are these: (1) The Zimmermans in the Mohawk Valley were German, while the Timmermans were Dutch. (2) Zimmermans of the Mohawk Valley also have Indian ancestry because Jacob Zimmerman married an Indian Princess in the Mohawk Valley. (3) Jacob Zimmerman was of Swiss origin and "came to America with four of his brothers in 1710 as part of the great migration of the Palatine Dutch."

The research summarized below disproves tradition #1, (ie., the SZT Zimmermans and Timmermans are descendants of the same German family). Tradition #2 about the Indian Princess is addressed in a detailed article elsewhere on this web site and shown to be wrong. And research has shown that most of tradition #3 also is not correct, (ie., while Jacob did arrive in 1710 as part of the Palatine migration, the Palatines were German not Dutch, Jacob had no known immigrant brothers, and he had no known connection with Switzerland.)

Since I may have rejected some of your cherished traditions, let me move on quickly to known facts.

# 1: The Zimmerman vs. Timmerman Surname

The Zimmerman surname has been spelled in a variety of ways. "Zimmer" is a German word with several meanings, including "room". (When in Germany, I stay in private homes that advertise "Zimmer Frei", or Rooms Available.) Zimmerman could refer to a builder of rooms, ie., a carpenter. In Dutch, Timmerman has the same meaning.
The proper German pronunciation of a "Z" is very difficult for English speakers, and for the Dutch. When the Zimmermans arrived in America, they encountered English and Dutch officials and clerks. It was natural for those officials to pronounce and spell the name with a T instead of a Z. Eventually, many of the Zimmermans began to spell their own name with a T. There are numerous examples where the same person signed his name at different times with a Z, a T, and even a D.

See David Martin's The Eighteenth Century Zimmerman Family of the Mohawk Valley, for more details on this subject.

# 2: The Indian Princess Myth

See separate article on this subject.

#3: The Palatine Homeland of the Zimmerman Family

Hank Z. Jones, Jr. has spent many years searching the church and civil records of Germany, looking for the origins of the Palatines of New York. He used professional Geman genealogists in this endeavor.

In 1985, Jones published The Palatine Families of New York 1710, (two vol.), followed in 1991 with More Palatine Families, (one vol.) His thoroughly documented findings have been recognized by national and international genealogy associations as the most authoritative information about the origins of the Palatines who settled in New York. His books contain extensive quotes from original source material (church and civil records, etc.) found in German archives. When David K. Martin updated his own book, The Eighteenth Century Zimmerman Family of the Mohawk Valley, in 1994, he integrated Jones' German research with his own New York research.

What did Hank Jones find? In his words, "After all these years of searching, the German ancestral home of Johann Jacob Zimmerman ... has been established firmly as Dunzweiler (4 km n.e. of Waldmohr)," More Palatines, p. 382. Dunzweiler and Waldmohr are located between Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken in the present German state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

Jones cites christening and marriage records, tax lists, and the 1709 "export tax" that the Jacob had to pay before he was allowed to emigrate. While it is not known how long Jacob had lived in Dunzweiler prior to his marriage there in 1685, there is no indication in the records that he had lived previously in Switzerland.

Jones has been able to document only one sister to Jacob and only one son, also named Jacob . Therefore, there is no support at this time for the story that Jacob Sr. came to America with four other brothers. However, Jacob Jr. had fifteen known children, all born in America. In 1753, one of Jacob Jr.'s sons, also named Jacob, joined with Johann Joost Snell to obtain land in the Mohawk Valley that became known as the Snell-Zimmerman Patent. The Zimmerman portion of that patent was later divided among four of the brothers of this third Jacob. Perhaps this is the origin of the story that the immigrant Jacob came to America with four of his brothers. Martin's book covers the New York land records in detail.

Who Were the Palatines?

One oft quoted writer of New York Palatine history has referred to "... the great migration of the Palatine Dutch ...." But the Palatines were not of Dutch descent.

The word "Palatine" has several meanings, including a Latin definition that is relevant to medieval history only. But at the time of the Zimmerman family, the Palatinate (or Pfalz in German) was that part of Germany east of France and Luxemburg and west of the Rhine. Sometimes, the political jurisdiction of the Pfalz also extended to adjacent lands on the east side of the Rhine in the vicinity of Frankfurt, Heidelberg, and Mannheim.

Jacob Zimmerman was married in Dunzweiler, in the Pfalz, in 1685. The Snells and many others known as Palatines also have been traced by Hank Jones to the Pfalz, or to nearby areas on the east side of the Rhine.

This region had been devastated repeatedly during the 1600's, first as the result of long religious and political wars (including the 1618-1648 Thirty Years War) and later when Louis XIV of France repeatedly attempted to expand his kingdom's border through this area eastward to the Rhine River.

Palatines and the Dutch

When the Palatines began to leave in large numbers in the early 1700s, they traveled down the Rhine and through Holland on their way to America. Some stayed in Holland for a year or two awaiting passage to England or to America. When they eventually settled in New York state, they again came in contact with Dutch people who had been the original colonizers of New York (known as New Amsterdam until 1664).
Many of the Palatines shared a religious association with the Dutch via the "Reformed" or Calvinist churches of the 18th century. Reformed churches were especially strong in Holland, along the lower Rhine, in the Pfalz, and in Switzerland. The Dutch Reformed Church was the first Reformed church to come from continental Europe to America. It was well established in New York before the English seized that colony in 1664. After England took control, they allowed the Dutch church to maintain its ecclesiastical ties to its governing body in Amsterdam. In the absence of any other Reformed churches in the New York area, the German Palatine settlers often turned to the Dutch Reformed Church to provide ministers for their new congregations.

Despite these frequent associations with the Dutch, the Palatines were not Dutch. They came from Germany, not from Holland. That fact is now well established via Jones' genealogical research. We also should remember that in American usage, the word "Dutch" is often a corruption of the German word Deutsch. For example, today's Pennsylvania Dutch are actually descendants of 17th and 18th century settlers from the German Rhineland and southern Germany.

The Snell Family

The German origin of the Snell Family has not been established with as much certainty as is the case with the Zimmermans. However, Hank Jones believes he has found it. There is a tradition among the Snells that their ancestors came from Mannheim in Germany. If true, that might explain the choice of the name Manheim for the township in Herkimer County that included Snells Bush. But that is just speculation.

However, we do have one firm piece of evidence in David K. Martin's The Eighteenth Century Snell Family of the Mohawk Valley,1982. On page 1, Martin quotes from the Stone Arabia Reformed Church death record of Johannes Snell, who died Sept. 12, 1787. That record states, in German, "... Johannes Schnell, Sen. geb. im Jahr 1696, in der Pfalz in Europa...." So, there is no doubt that Johannes Snell was born in the Pfalz. And the city of Mannheim, which lies on the eastern bank of the Rhine, was part of the Pfalz in the 18th Century.

Hank Jones has not yet located the birth or christening record of Johannes Schnell in Mannheim or elsewhere in the Pfalz. However, his research leads him to believe that he could be the unnamed son of a Jacobus Schnell who was christened at Mannheim in 1674. Jones also has found the 1668 marriage of a Jacobus Schnell in Mannheim, who could be the father of the son christened in 1674. However, I am not aware of any definitive proof that these Schnell records are those of the Mohawk Valley Snell family.

Further Information

I have not conducted any personal research in the original source records associated with these Snell and Timmerman families. Rather, I have relied on the excellent research of Henry Z. Jones, Jr. and David K. Martin. The above is my effort to present some of the findings of Jones and Martin. If I have misrepresented their work, or if you wish to add to or correct any of the above, I would welcome your comments. Please contact me at: Raymond Kuehne.

I also welcome your comments, corrections, and additions to the Snell and Timmerman pedigree. As the coordinator of the data extraction project, I believe it to be the most extensive and accurate Internet genealogy of the Mohawk Valley Snell and Zimmerman (Timmerman) families, even in its present uncompleted status.