What Are We?

WHAT ARE WE?

The following is an abbreviated summary of definitions published in 1994 in the Contra Costa Genealogical Newsletter.

HESSIANS:
German Troops employed by the British Troops during the Revolutionary War. Many remained here after the war.

HUGUENOTS:
French Protestants who left from 1685 onward due to religious persecution. They went to the German Palatine, Prussia, England, Ireland and then to America. They also went from the French West Indies to the southeast coast of America.

MENNONITES:
A Swiss Protestant group founded in 1525. They migrated through Alsace, England and Russia to America, where they primarily settled in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Kansas.

MORAVIANS:
A Protestant group (United Brethern) formed in Bohemia about 1415. They spread to Poland, Prussia, Germany and England before migrating to America.

MELUNGEONS:
They are often considered to be of Portugese descent who migrated into the eastern part of the Applachian Mountains. They are noted for blue eyes and long dark hair. (NOTE: This definition is perhaps the most popular description of these mysterious people.)

QUAKERS:
The Society of Friends was founded in England in 1648. They fled to New Jersey in 1675 due to religious persecution. Some 230 English Quakers founded Burlington, NJ in 1678. One of their more famous members, William Penn, was granted Pennsylvania in 1681.

SCOTCH-IRISH:
Descendants of Presbyterian Scots placed in the northern counties of Ireland by their British rulers in the early 1600's. Many emigrated to America during the time period from 1718 and the US Revolutionary War in 1776. They settled first in Pennsylvania and then south and west as the forntier moved west.

WALLOONS:
These people from southern Belgium spoke a French dialect. A group of 40 families came to America with Cornelius May of Flanders. They settled Fort Orange, which is now known as Albany, NY.

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