Search for the Claycomb(e) Family

by Gary Horlacher

In 1998 Mary Alice Claycombe Adney of Richmond, Indiana contacted me about tracing the origins of her Claycombe family into Germany. She was the author of theGenealogy of the Claycomb(e) Family 1985 and had done extensive research on the family tracing the family back to a Johann Conrad Claycomb (Kleikam, Kleckham, Kleckam, Kleinkamm) and Anna Elizabeth of Lancaster Co, Pennsylvania and later Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Virginia). She identified their 11 children and church records of the family from the New Holland (Earl Township), Lancaster County Lutheran Church.

Studying extensive references to the family between 1764-1772, Kleinkamm and Kleikam seemed to be the most common spellings for the name, the name Kleikam listed on the very earliest documents. The family was also found on the passenger list of the Good Hope dated Philadelphia 1 Oct 1753. Unlike most ship lists from this time period this ship had left from the port of Hamburg rather than Rotterdam.

After going through all of the materials that had previously been researched and double checking many US sources for additional clues the search began. First all of the emigration sources from the survey were searched for the Kleikam/Kleinkamm names with very little success. These sources were searched for other names on the same passenger list. At the end of the initial search there had been much less success than was usual. Not a single passenger on the list could be found in any of the published 19th century emigration sources. This seemed very unusual. Generally there will be at least some mention of passengers on the same ship from some of these sources but there was absolutely nothing on any of them.

From U.S. sources it seemed two families were mentioned quite often in connection with this family: the Lippert and the Oberkehr families. In the hopes that there might be some connection to these families, a search was done to learn more about each of these families and their German origins. 

Johannes Lipper(t) and wife Maria Catharina had at least seven children. No indication was found as to when this Lippert family emigrated to America. There was a Johann Lippert of Niederklingen, who left the town of Niederklingen in Lengfeld Parish for America in 1724, however this was probably too early to be the same person. The records of Lengfeld Parish were searched and no indication of the Kleikamm family was found there. No other leads were found on the Lippert family at this time.

Johann Peter Oberkehr was born about 1705 and died after 1767. His wife was Sophia Charlotta. They had at least two children. He probably also had a sister named Sophia Charlotte Oberkehr who married Johann Jost Schwab. There was a Johann Georg Oberkehr of Staudernheim that emigrated to America in 1748. There was a Peter Schwab listed on the ship Mary that came over June 28, 1735. It is not known if either of those was part of the above families. There was, however a Hans Peter Oberkehr, 33 years old, who arrived in Philadelphia on the ship GlasgowSeptember 9, 1738, who was probably our Johann Peter Oberkehr.

Since the name Oberkehr is a fairly unusual German name, all leads listing where families with this name were from in Germany were noted. There was a Bernhard Oberkehr who was married in New York in 1864. Checking that record he listed his birth place as Ebernburg on 26 Apr 1835. Also the International Genealogical Index(IGI) listed people named Oberkehrs being from Heddesheim, Ebernburg, and Windesheim, all in Rheinland Province of Germany.

The towns of Staudernheim, Ebernburg, Heddesheim, and Eckelsheim are all found near the city of Bad Kreuznach. There was a lot of emigrants who left this area for America during the 1700s, so the Protestant records of each of these towns was searched. Various Oberkehr families were found in the records of these towns, but none that could be proven to be the same as the family that moved to New Holland, Pennsylvania, and no references were found to any Kleikamm family in these records or any of the other names that we had been searching for. It does seem that most of the Oberkehr families originated in this area however.

The next lead was to try all of the Kleikam or Kleinkamm families in Germany. This appeared to be a fairly uncommon and regional name. It was hoped that by finding leads in general sources to the surname, that this would lead us back to our family. Although no Kleikam's could be found there did appear to be several Kleinkamm or Kleinkamp families in Westfalen, Rheinland, and Mecklenburg, areas where not a lot of Germans were leaving from in the 1700s.  Many of these leads from the IGI were checked out and families compiled, but none of them seemed to fit a Johann Conrad Kleikam.

Having researched many 18th century Palatine families, the results of this searched seemed particularly perplexing. Never had I done so much research on the people who came on the same ship with the immigrant with absolutely no clues. The total absence of any mention of these people in the emigration sources seemed in itself to be trying to say something, "Hey, this group may have been an anomaly. Perhaps they weren't from the typical centers of emigration in Southern Germany. After all, they did leave from Hamburg rather than Rotterdam."

More determined than ever to try to figure out what was going on and why the strategies that had worked in the past were not working in this case, the names on this passenger list were much more closely analyzed. The names of people were not typical of the southern-central German names of this era. Given names such as Joachim Behrnt, Henrich Christopher, Justus Carl Wilhelm, Gerdt, and Jüregen Henrich, are not typical southern German names but rather typical in northern Germany. Definitely the names Gerdt, Behrnt, and Jürgen are common in northern Germany. Although Christopher is found in the south, it is much more frequent in the north and was very frequent in the number of people with that name on this ship. When emigrants had double given names in the south during this period it was usually a name where the first part was Johann or Hans and the middle name was Peter, Heinrich, or Georg. In the north, however, it was common to give 3-4 given names and they did not always start with Johann or Hans.

Besides the given names indicating a northern German origin, many of the surnames were fairly unusual surnames. To see the distribution of these surnames, the IGI was checked again. Over and over again it was seen that these unusual surnames were found only in northern Germany, mostly in the provinces of Westfalen, Hannover, Saxony, Lippe, and Schleswig-Holstein. For some names they were found in both north and south Germany, however those whose distribution was limited seemed to be found only in the north. For example, the following was noted:

Surname Provinces of Origin most commonly listed in IGI

Although in the past I have been prejudiced for southern and central German areas, this new case was causing me to have to re-think my paradigm. The ship left from Hamburg rather than Rotterdam. All the names on the ship indicate northern German origins. This particular family name appears to be coming from areas of northern Germany (Westfalen, Rheinland, and Mecklenburg), and family tradition gave Saxony as a possible place of origin. 

Although the IGI is a good guide to get general placement, it is somewhat skewed toward those areas for which we have microfilm copies of records here in Salt Lake City. There are fewer names in the IGI from the areas of Saxony and Hannover because very few of the records in those areas have been microfilmed. 

In any case, it was beginning to appear that although this family settled among the Pennsylvania Germans, they were not your typical "Black Dutch" Pennsylvania Germans, but rather part of a smaller group of northern Germans who also came to the colonies. This was becoming quite fascinating to me and I decided to put in extra time until I was able to come up with something more substantial or at least had eliminated all the likely leads.

Of particular interest was the emigrants named Johann Christopher Mohmeyer, Gerdt Hurrelmann, and Ernst Alborn. These three names seemed unusual enough that if the family could be pinpointed, it might be a telling factor. In spite of various attempts, no origin could be found for the name Hurrelmann. There was an Ernst Alborn born in the town of Elliehausen in Hannover in 1720 who was the son of a Christopher Alborn. Other Alborn families were from Bovenden, Lenglern, Güntersen, and other towns in that area. Although no marriage was found for this Ernst Alborn, it appeared he might be the same person that was on the ship in 1753. Nothing was found on the Mohmeyer family at this time.

Although conclusions seemed to be pointing to this family being from northern Germany, the leads we had from Westfalen, Rheinland, and Mecklenburg seemed to all be panning out or running into obstacles. We had no way to check Hannover or Saxony without microfilm copies of church records from that area and other than a family tradition and others from the same ship that may have been from these areas, there was nothing to point to either of these areas. Perhaps many of the passenger on this ship were from a small area in Hannover or Saxony and that is why they were so elusive.

Having tried all the resources I was aware of, I began scanning the shelves for books from Hannover to see if there was anything I had overlooked. I knew there was a man working on indexes from Hannover in Germany, but wasn't aware that they had been published yet. There must have been something written about emigrants from northern Germany during the 18th century.

Finally I found a set of indexes to marriages (by Franz Schubert) from 1750-1800 from "Lower-Saxony" (Niedersachsen), which equates to what was formerly Hannover. This was the set of books that I knew were being prepared, but hadn't been aware that they were finished. What a shock when I looked in the index and found the spelling variations: Kleikamm, Kleikam, and Kleykamp, but no spelling variations for Kleinkamp. Here was a family that had the exact spelling variations in Germany as the early family listed in Pennsylvania records. These variations had always been quite unusual in other areas of Germany where the Kleinkamp family had been searched. Here it was found exactly how your ancestor signed his name on the passenger list.

The second surprise was to see the area where the family originated. These references were from the towns of Eberhausen (Güntersen), Elliehausen, Harste, Bursfelde, Uslar, and Fürstenhagen, all towns near the city of Göttingen. Where had I seen Elliehausen before. Looking back on my notes, it was the town where the Ernst Alborn was born in 1720 whose name appears two lines underneath Johann Conrad Kleikam on the passenger list.

Searching further in this book, a marriage record was found in another neighboring town for Johann Christof Momeyer of Moring. to Maria Catharina Fixe in the town of Weende. This was another of the passengers on the 1753 passenger list. Searching briefly in the index, it was noted that the name Eberle, Dörges, and Kniple were in the marriage records of Göttingen. Undoubtedly if we continued to check there would probably be several others on this ship from this same group of villages. Finally, it appeared there was something substantial to report.

Following is a list of the Kleikam marriage records listed in this set of books:

Eberhausen (Güntersen) Parish Records

• Catharina Margaretha Kleikamm md 27 Feb 1726 Ricus Meseke
• Hans Michel Kleykamp md 9 Jul 1743 Anna Margaretha Hesse, daughter of Barth. of Güntersen

Elliehausen Parish Records

• Johann Conrad Kleikam of Herste md 19 Jul 1744 J. Maria Margaretha Gerls of Elliehausen.

Harste Parish Records

• Maria Margaretha Kleikam md 29 Sep 1740 Johann Ludolff Gerel
• Sophia Magd. Kleikam md 26 Nov 1743 Johann Friedrich Otto, smith from Volpriehausen

Bursfelde Parish Records

• Hans Henrich Kleikamm, county officer's assistant md 26 Dec 1743 Catharina Elisabetha Krumwieg

Uslar Parish Records

• Hans Jürgen Kleykamp md 9 Nov 1745 J. Dorothea Elisabeh Düsterdiet (Esch) of Dinkelhausen
• J. Maria Cath. Kleykamp of Dinkelhausen md 20 Nov 1745 Christian Müller

Fürstenhagen Parish Records

• Hans Henrich Kleikamm md 26 Dec 1743 Cath. Elis. Krumwieg

Although our Johann Conrad Kleikam in Pennsylvania was married to an Anna Elisabeth, it seems likely that this is him marrying a first wife in Elliehausen in 1744. It is also likely, since all of these towns are fairly near each other and since the dates of these marriages are close together, that these may be almost all siblings or at least cousins. It seems quite likely in any case that we are talking about an unusual name in a small number of towns, which would indicate that they are probably all descended from the same family. These towns were all near the city of Göttingen.

Unfortunately the church records from these towns have not been microfilmed. Considering the spelling of the name, the occurrence of the Alborn and Momeyer and others in this same small area, it seems almost positive that this is the right family. I felt quite confident that the connection had been made.

I then referred Mary Alice Claycombe Adney to an excellent researcher colleague of mine who has lived in Göttingen and who has done several research projects for me in the Lutheran church record archive in Hannover (Jen Th. Kaufmann, Jens-Kaufmann@t-online.de, now lives in Braunschweig). I suggested  having him check the records of Elliehausen and Harste first for the period 1740-1760 to find children of Johann Conrad Kleikam. That would be sufficient to prove if the same children that are later confirmed in Pennsylvania are born in Germany and that the family disappears from the records after 1753. 

Well the postscript is that Mrs. Adney did contact Jens Kaufmann and was able to show from the records of Harste that this was their family. As I had hypothesized, Johann Conrad Kleikam's first wife Marie Margaretha died in 1751 and in 1752 he married Anna Elizabeth Lutzen. It was the second wife that was listed in U.S. sources. She was able to get three more generations back in the German records of this area. Just as in America the name had various spellings, in Germany the name was also spelled variously: Kleikam, Kleykampff, Kleinkam, Kleikamp, Gleykamb, Gleykamp, and Kleykamp.  Anyone researching this family might want to purchase a copy of Mrs. Adney's book and German research on this family. 

NOTE: Those interested in the Claycomb family will be interested in seeking a copy of Doris A. Curns-McVay's 3rd Addendum to the Claycomb Family History previously published by Mary Alice Claycombe Adney, The Claycomb Clan. The book is 8 1/2 x 11 size pages and has between 800-850 pages, including the new German information. Doris A. Curns-McVay self-published this book for several years. However, we have been informed that she has since passed away. If you'd like to honor her dedication, as well as that of Mary Alice Claycombe Adney, you can help by considering contributing to this Claycombe family research, if you have new information to offer. Thank you!