There are three ancestors of Rothermel Families in America from what is today Germany that researchers and historians have been able to document as forefathers from the late 1600s. All of their descendents should be proud of the fact that a Rothermel ancestor acquired land in America fifty years before the signing of the Declaration of Independences in 1776; and the deed to prove it has survived. In Germanic lands it was the custom to use the name before the surname as the given name by which one was called. A great majority of Rothermel forefathers had the same first name of Johannes or Johann including the three listed below.
J. Peter Rothermel (ca.1686-1743) is the first documented Rothermel to immigrate to America along with his family in 1725. He and his family of five children at the time emigrated from the village of Bohl about 20 miles west of Heidelberg in what is called the Rhenish Palatinate. Today Bohl is in the eastern part of the Palatinate region of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Peter was from Rimbach, which in the early 1700s was in Hesse-Darmstadt, although we do not know if he was born there. He lived from about 1686 to 1743 when he died in the Province of Pennsylvania before the founding of the United States. Records of the Hassloch Evangelical Church near Bohl show that Peter married Anna Margretha Brunner in August 1707, and had the following four children with Margretha before her death in 1718.
Maria Magdalena Rothermel (bapt.1709 -1720)
Anna Catherina Rothermel (1712 - before 1750) m/(married) Peter Haas
Johann Georg Rothermel (1715 -1716)
Johann Daniel Rothermel (1717 -1765) m/ Anna Barbara Schaeffer
m/ 2nd wife Maria Magdalena Keiser
Following the death of Margretha, Peter married Anna Elisabetha Weber at Ludwigshafen to the north of Bohl in July 1718. Elisabetha bore him the following four children.
Johann Georg Rothermel (1719 -aft.1773)
Johann Christoph Rothermel (1721 -1782) m/ Juliana Stempel
Anna Margretha Rothermel (1724 - aft.1771) m/ Peter Haas, widower of halfsister
Leonhardt Rothermel (1729 - 1793) m/ Mary Yocum
Peter's two surviving children from Margretha and the first three with Elizabeth all immigrated in 1725. The last child of Peter, Leonhardt Rothermel, has the distinction of being the first Rothermel to be born in America. He eventually settled and died in what is now Amity Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Peter and his family arrived at the port of Philadelphia in the early Fall of 1725. They settled in what is now Lower Pottsgrove Township in Montgomery County of southeastern Pennsylvania. From the records of the New Hanover Lutheran Church about six miles north of their home all three of Peter's sons with Elisabetha were confirmed at the church; the last being Leonhardt in 1745. The New Hanover Lutheran Church has a web site that tells some of its early history. However, the places of burial and dates of death for Peter and Elisabetha are not known. But there are numerous records documenting the places of residence of Peter's children in Montgomery and Berks County, Pennsylvania.
J. Leonard Rothermel (ca.1688 -1728) is the second documented Rothermel to immigrate to America along with his family in 1727. Leonard and his family also emigrated from Bohl in the Rhenish Palatinate. Leonard's family records were recorded at the same church in Hassloch, Germany, where those of Peter's family had been. It is thought that Peter and Leonard were brothers, or at least close relatives, but no record has been found to prove this. Leonard was born about 1688 and was claimed by later descendents to have died at sea on his way to America. However, researchers have found that he is recorded as having arrived in Philadelphia on the ship "Adventure" or "Adventure Galley" on October 2, 1727. The Hassloch church records show that Leonard married Margretha Zimmerman in October 1709 and who bore him the following six children.
Christian Z. Rothermel (1710 -1769) m/ Juliana (unknown)
Anna Margretha Rothermel (1712 -1784) m/ J. Peter Federolf
Johann Peter Rothermel (1715 -1782) twin to Lorentz; m/ Sybilla Hoch
Lorentz Z. Rothermel (1715 -1759) twin to Peter; m/ Ursala Kuhns
Johann Paul Rothermel (1718 -1811) m/ Maria Margretha Maurer
m/ 2nd wife Sophia Maurer
Johannes Z. Rothermel (1722 -1785) m/ Maria Elizabeth SiegfriedBecause nothing else has been found about Leonard, it is surmised that he died shortly after he arrived or after settling in Berks County, Pennsylvania. However, records have been found of his children who resided in the townships around Fleetwood in north central Berks County. The death dates and place of burial of Leonard and his wife Margretha are unknown. It is believed that they were possibly buried in a private cemetery on the farm of their son-in-law Peter Federolf near the village of Seisholtzville in what is now the northeast corner of Berks County.
J. Jacob Rothermel (ca.1680 -1737) is the forefather of the Rothermel line in which three of the same fifth generation family immigrated to Texas starting in 1839. Jacob married Maria Grassberger in 1708 in the village of Rot about 10 miles south of Heidelberg, which was then the providence of Baden and now is in the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. His great grandson, George Joseph Rothermel married Maria Magdalena Fellhauer in November of 1813 and resided in the town of Rotenberg four miles to the west of Rot, then in the sovereign country of the Grand Duchy of Baden. George and Maria had the following eight children, only four survived to adulthood and married.
Franziska Rothermel (1812 - unknown) m/ Johannes Foehner
Maria Magdalena Rothermel (1814 -1815)
Anton Rothermel (1816 -1888) m/ Louisa Ohlendorf
Andreas Rothermel (1818 -1866) m/ Anna Marie Meier
Magdalena Rothermel (1821 - unknown) m/ Stephanus Mueller
Johann Friedrich Rothermel (1824 -1825)
Stephan Rothermel (1825 -1826)
Maria Anna Rothermel (1827 -1848)The first to immigrate to the Republic of Texas in 1839, before it became a State in 1845, was the second son, Andreas. His older brother Anton followed in 1846 and then their married sister Franziska Foehner and her family immigrated in 1851. They all settled in and around Bellville in Austin County, Texas, about fifty miles to the west of Houston. The descendents of these Texas Rothermels have reunions today to celebrate their Rothermel heritage.
