Malachi Isley Families Migrations

Isley Migrations

The EISELE/ISLEY family journey to America began most likely in the spring of 1750 in Wuerttemberg, Germany. The trek would first take them to Rotterdam. This trip would take several weeks, either by wagon or riverboat.

Wuerttemberg in 1789

The family boarded the ship Osgood in Rotterdam. William Wilkie was the ship’s captain. According to the manifest, there were a total of 486 passengers. The manifest shows one of the names as LUDWIG EISELE. The passenger list can be found here. A photographic copy of the original manifest indicates that Ludwig signed his own name. This Ludwig was probably the brother of Malachi; but that is a story for another time. The ship sailed from Rotterdam via Cowes, England to Philadelphia.

Another passenger on the Osgood was Gottlieb Mittelberger. He recorded his impressions of the voyage. For those of you who have not read his account of the conditions onboard, I would recommend reading it. It is quite enlightening. This account can be found here, here or here.

Mittelberger also wrote about the general journey. I found this excerpt here.

"The journey to Pennsylvania fell naturally into three parts. The first part, and by no means the easiest, was the journey down the Rhine to Rotterdam or some other port. Gottlieb Mittelberger in his Journey to Pennsylvania in the year 1750, writes:
(24) [(24) Gottlieb Mittelberger's Journey to Pennsylvania in the year 1750 and return to Germany in the year 1754. Translated from the German by Carl Theo. Eben, Philadelphia, John Jos. McVey, 1888, p. 18.]

"'This journey lasts from the beginning of May to the end of October, fully half a year, amid such hardships as no one is able to describe adequately with their misery. The cause is because the Rhine boats from Heilbronn to Holland have to pass by 26 custom houses, at all of which the ships are examined, which is done when it suits the convenience of the customhouse officials. In the meantime the ships with the people are detained long, so that the passengers have to spend much money. The trip down the Rhine lasts therefore four, five, and even six weeks. When the ships come to Holland, they are detained there likewise five to six weeks. Because things are very dear there, the poor people have to spend nearly all they have during that time.'"

"The second stage of the journey was from Rotterdam to one of the English ports. Most of the ships called at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. Other ships touched at one of seven other channel ports ... Deal, Dover, Portsmouth, Gosport, Porte, Plymouth, Falmouth ...

"In England there was another delay of one to two weeks, when the ships were waiting either to be passed through the custom house or waiting for favorable winds. When the ships had for the last time weighed their anchors at Cowes or some other port in England, then, writes Mittelberger, 'the real misery begins with the long voyage. For from there the ships, unless they have good wind, must often sail eight, nine, ten to twelve weeks before they reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind the voyage lasts seven weeks.'"

The Osgood arrived September 29, 1750 in the Philadelphia harbor. No known documentation listing the arriving EISELE/ISLEY family exists.

Our family’s first migration in America was to North Carolina. Some Malachi Isley descendants then left North Carolina for other states, state index is below. These pages will give a general overview of the migrations, the time period, and the families who left North Carolina for the “new” frontiers.