For some time I have been working on a theory that the Housh family of North America is descended from the Hausch family which emigrated from Württemberg (now included in the German state of Baden-Württemberg). This will be of particular interest to descendants of Adam Housh, born 1756, married to Becca, who spent the latter years of his life in Indiana. The families of his descendants have spread throughout the United States from there. There are many attributions of birthplaces for Adam Housh. "Germany", "Kentucky", "Pennsylvania" and "Virginia" are a few I have seen. It is my theory that Adam was born in Pennsylvania in 1756 and that his father, Hans Adam Hausch, his name anglicized on arrival in America to John Adam Housh, was born in Württemberg in 1730, and came to Pennsylvania in 1750.

Adolf Gerber, Beiträge zur Auswanderung nach Amerika im 18. Jahrhundert aus Altwürttembergischen Kirchenbüchern (Stuttgart: J. F. Steinkopf [n.d.]).

Adolf Gerber, Neue Beiträge zur Auswanderung nach Amerika im 18. Jahrhundert aus Altwürttembergischen Kirchenbüchern unter Hinzuziehung anderer Quellen. (Stuttgart: J. F. Steinkopf, [1928]).

Both the above works have been reprinted and translated by Don Yoder: "Emigrants from Wuerttemberg: The Adolf Gerber Lists," Pennsylvania German Folklore Society Yearbook, v. 10 (1945), pp 103-237; Don Yoder, ed., Pennsylvania German Immigrants, 1709-1786; Lists Consolidated from Yearbooks of the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984), pp. 1-137.

There exist also additional Württemberg church records, which make reasonably clear the series of events which led to the children emigrating to PA by themselves, and that they were required to leave some property behind.

My thought in sharing these notes is they may be of assistance to other genealogy researchers of the Housh family. It is my plan to digitize and provide links here to copies of the original documents and images to which these notes apply. They will be added as the work is completed.

Here is the section from Yoder's work on the emigrant party noted in the passenger list indexes as "Hausch Children," who travelled to Pennsylvania on the ship Patience in the summer of 1750.

HAUSCH, JOHANNES -- Reudern (1750)

Farrier [Hufschmeid]. Wife (1st): Agatha (Mueller). Children: (Hans Adam, b. 8-13-1730; (2) Maria Barbara, b. 12-13-1735; (3) Catharina, b.11-2-1738, "went to Pennsylvania, 1750." No children of the second marriage listed in Baptismal Register. Because they were minors, these children were not permitted to take their property along; in 1751 they sent an attorney from Philadelphia to secure their property. Gerber [author of German language version] is uncertain whether the father emigrated. See also the ducal letter of 1749 in our Introduction.

There is another section in Yoder consisting of a translation of a 1749 letter in response to the children's petition to emigrate, from the Duke of Württemberg to a local official saying the children may go, but their property should be put "under administration," and not allowed to be taken with them, because of their status as minors. I did not understand the translation of the letter to go so far as to say their property should be confiscated.

Furthermore, I have located the original church records (in Schwabisch German) relating to this family, and they show the father did NOT accompany the children to PA, nor did their natural mother Agatha, who had died by 1749-1750. Some of the confusion is that there is a separate note in the church records that "Catharina" had gone to PA in 1750. The confusion is caused by the fact that the second wife of the father, Johannes, was also named Catharina, the same as the daughter. Catharina, the second wife, died in 1748.

The church records further show that the father had abused his second wife Catharina, who left him because of it. He then abandoned the children and fled to the interior of the country. After their stepmother, Catharina, died in 1748 the children applied for emigration in 1749. They went to PA alone in 1750 on the Patience. They were, in 1750: Hans Adam 20, Maria Barbara 15, and Catharina 11.

The misfortunes and misdeeds of the father, Johannes, the death of the children's natural mother, Agatha, and the misfortunes and death of the second wife and children's stepmother, Catharina, are all chronicled in the Württemberg evangelische Lutheran church records. I have not yet been able to find any record of the lawyer Yoder says returned to collect the children's property in 1751.

I have discovered the signature of Johannes (Hans) Adam Hausch in the passenger book of the Patience for that 1750 voyage. It is clearly not that of his father, Johannes, because the elder Johannes Hausch had no middle name, and the signature is "Hans Adam Hausch," the son's name. I found this last year and have a photocopy which I have digitized and placed here for your examination. The handwriting is difficult to read, and was very difficult to find. A search of the transcribed passenger lists for several years on each side of 1750 revealed no one named Hausch. However, a number which the transcriber was uncertain about were typed as best they could be read, with a question mark after, to indicate uncertainty. When I finally found a "Johannes Adam Lauch?", I found the graphic reproduction of the book for that page, and, on close examination, decided it was indeed the signature of Johannes Adam Hausch. I think those of you who have had lots of practice reading old german script will agree. The difficulty of locating the signature, however, made me understand just how it had escaped notice for so many years. Click here to view image of signature.

I have no further record of Hans Adam Hausch's whereabouts until two years later, when the name "Adam Housh" shows up in the 1752 taxpayer records for Berks County, PA, near Philadelphia. This Adam Housh obviously cannot be "our" Adam (b. 1756). I believe he is Hans Adam Hausch, and that he was the father of "our" Adam. Of course I cannot rule out the possibility that Johannes the elder came later from Wüttemberg to PA to be with his children, but, given the circumstances in Wüttemberg, that seems highly doubtful, and there is no record of it anywhere I have been able to find. I concluded the father did not emigrate.

Ultimately, I'll be happy to share the records with all Housh researchers, but right now I haven't finished organizing them, and I want to make absolutely sure of the translations. The microfilm copies are difficult to read because they are faded, but even after that is overcome, they are in handwritten in old German script, in an antiquated German dialect which must be interpreted as well as translated. I want to make sure I'm comfortable they are correct before I release the translations.

Nevertheless, here are some further notes from the church records which are not subject to interpretation. "OA" means Oberamter, roughly equivalent to "county seat" here in the U.S.A.

Johannes Hausch was from Eckwaelden OA Goeppingen.
His father was Hans.

Johannes' first marriage was to Agatha Mueller on
22 Sep 1729 in Reudern. Agatha was born 25 May 1663
and died 22 Oct 1739.

Agatha's parents were Caspar Mueller (b 25 May 1663),
 (d 25 Nov 1730, m 29 Aug 1683 in Reudern)and Regina ?
 (d 16 Nov 1730 age 78y 3m) from Frickenhausen.

Johannes second marriage: Catharina in Reudern in 1741.
Catharina died 30 Dec 1748 age 42 in Reudern.  Her father
was Jerg Schietinger from Unterensingen. (His family came to
Unterensingen in 1661 from Pfrondorf)

Children of Johannes and Agatha Hausch:
  (1) Hans Adam,  b. 13 Aug 1730
  (2) Johannes, b. 12 Jan 1733, d 10 Mar 1736
  (3) Maria Barbara, b. 13 Dec 1735
  (4) Catharina, b. 2 Nov 1738

I have also been working with some other Housh researchers, notably Betty Ramsey and Muriel Caillau, but most frequently recently with Todd Housh, a Scientific Researcher at the University of Texas in Austin, in attempting to trace our common ancestor Adam Housh (the one born in 1756) to his roots. Todd has done some impressive work. It appears likely that Adam was living, with his family, near a probable brother, Andrew, west of the Ohio River in the late 1770's, just after the end of the Revolution. The location was in Washington County, Fallowfield Township, 20 or so miles south of what has now become Pittsburgh. Adam and Andrew, and the other residents of the area, were more or less "kicked out" as squatters, as the U.S. had promised the lands to the Indians for helping fight the British. There is some correspondence between, among others, Adam Housh (often spelled House), with Congress and the local military commander which fairly clearly indicates they were forced to leave and went to Kentucky, where we pick them up (spelling their name as "House" in Kentucky). Andrew stayed in Kentucky as "House", and Adam ultimately moved to Indiana, as "Housh." During the stay in Pennsylvania the spelling of the last name was highly variable. Understandable, as apparently all were unable to read or write.

It also appears likely there was another brother John, also in PA just after the revolution, who lived near his father, also John, who would have been Adam and Andrew's father also, and most likely the original Johannes (Hans) Adam Hausch. Johannes translates to John in English. They moved to a different part of Kentucky (Mason County), then later to Ohio, where they settled, as Housh. Adam, Andrew and John probably also had a sister Mary. Some of this is not fully documented yet, so these relationships are a theory at this point, but it appears likely based on material discovered so far. It is fairly clear that Adam, Andrew and John all were soldiers for the U.S. in the Revolution, John and Andrew entering service in 1781, Adam in 1782. To view some supplementary tax, military and land records for this geographic area, pertaining to John, Andrew, and Adam, click here

Muriel Caillau has an excellent site with lots of Housh family tree type information. You will find some photos of Housh family members there, and if you click on the link for the "Anderson Family Tree", that's where the Housh genealogical information is located:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ransom/

You are also invited to view some historical photos of my own ancestors who lived in early Kansas, if you have not already. These are on an external web site at the University of Kansas History Department's "Kansas Collection":
http://www.kancoll.org/graphics/housh.htm

Both of the above web sites are external, so you will have to use your browser's "Back" bar to return here.