1738 Nassau-Siegen Emigrants

Captain 
From: Rotterdam
By Way of: Southampton, 8 May 1738
Arrival: Savannah, 18 Sep 1738 (134 days)

A colony of about 50 individuals left Freudenberg in the western part of Nassau-Siegen (Westfalen) in March 1738 to settle in Georgia. Their names were written in the end of the Freudenberg death register. This group was described in a history of Freudenberg published in 1956 by Dr. Wilhelm Guethling. The names of emigrants from Freudenberg and other parts of Hessen-Nassau that left at this time was published in the "Siegener Zeitung" of 16 Mar 1961. Dr. Wilhelm Guethling wrote:

The travelers went down the Rhine to Rotterdam and on to England. On May 8 the emigrants put to sea from Southampton and after a voyage of 134 days reached Savannah in Georgia. When further news meets us, because of the unhealthy climate they had later moved north, where they settled in the place Bethlehem (Pennsylvania)."

This group did not remain permanently in Georgia. They apparently went to Virginia first and many continued on to Pennsylvania. Information on the five that stayed in Virginia is found in B.C. Holtzclaw's book: Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia 1714-1750 (1964).

If anyone could get a copy of the above mentioned newspaper article and Dr. Guethling's book and send it to me so we can get the right context from these documents, I would be very grateful!