Customer Reviews

PALATINE ROOTS: The 1710 German Settlement in NY as Experienced by Johann Peter Wagner

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Nancy Dixon has done a very good job of piecing together the experiences of those of her ancestors who came among the Palatine Germans around 1710, to upstate New York. This is not a general work of genealogy with passenger lists and lists of families, but is more specific to her own clan. This in no way takes away from the book as her history may be extrapolated to cover the experiences of many of the Palatine families who were in similar straits. Nancy knows when she can take the liberty of poetic description, and has not turned this book into historical fiction. It is a decent work of history, and if you have Palatine roots, I strongly recomend it.

This book is a suspenseful and absolutely captivating story of the Palatine experience, based entirely on historical facts. Mrs. Dixon does a superb job of using the historical facts as the basis for giving personal glimpses into the people's lives. She gives a stunning feel for what life was like for the Palatines, both in their homeland and then through the nightmare of emigration. The people were fleeing horrible conditions in hope of a better life. The hardships and tragedy the people endured was staggering as they made their way to America and strove against more disappointment and setbacks to make their dreams come true. This book made my ancestors come alive for me, and I was left with a sense of awe and appreciation for the sacrifices they made to bring themselves (and ultimately their descendants) to America. This book is a "must-have" for any Wagner descendant, and will fascinate anyone with any interest in the Palatines or in the immigration experiences of the past.

A formal review of this book appears in the January, 1996, issue of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register