Do recognize that symbol? It is identified with a group of German immigrants that are commonly referred to as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Both Sylvia and I are descended from these folk.

After retirement, I set out to learn more about my ancestors, and those of Sylvia. It was part of a project that I was doing for our granddaughter, Briana.

I used Rootsweb for searching out family connections. Later, I joined Ancestory.com. Other family members held pieces of the puzzle that began to come together to form a picture of what was up our family tree.

And then came the day when I made an amazing discovery. Sylvia and I had come from Pennsylvania Dutch families through the maternal grandmothers of our maternal grandmothers. I found that interesting. As I traced those family lines back, I found that they started in Switzerland. One family in Bern, the other in Zurich. Both families were German-speaking Mennonites. Both families had moved into separate communities in Germany. This was becoming very interesting.

These Mennonites became the objects of persecution, and so in the spring of 1717 several communities of these folk left Germany. They traveled down the Rhine River to Rotterdam. There they boarded 3 ships and set sail. After a stop in England, they sailed on to America. They arrived in Philadelphia in September of 1717. On those ships were Sylvia’s 5th great grandfather and my 6th great grandfather.

Sylvia’s family moved west into Lancaster County. Mine moved north into the area of the great swamp, where my 6th great grandfather, a bishop in the church, started a church. Sometime later, when the bishop was visiting the community where Sylvia’s family lived, he became ill, passed away and was buried there.

Little did Sylvia or I know when we met in 1957 that our ancestors knew each other 240 years earlier.