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View Tree for FRANTZ FRANTZ "FRANCIS" PETER MEY I (b. May 18, 1724, d. Aft. 1784)

FRANTZ "FRANCIS" PETER MEY I (son of JOHANN NICKEL MEY and MARIA CATHARINA GRAEF) was born May 18, 1724 in Niederhausen, Pfalz, Germany, and died Aft. 1784 in Hampshire Co., VA. He married ANNA MARIA on Abt. 1752.

 Includes NotesNotes for FRANTZ "FRANCIS" PETER MEY I:
Fred T. May of Austin, Texas, is going to Germany in June, 1997, to further
document his findings about the German ancestors of our John May (circa
1760-1813). In September, 1998, I bought Fred T. May's book "The Shoemakers Children", Gatewa y Press, Inc., Baltimore, MD; 1998. This book is the source of my information prior to my gr eat-great=great grandparents, John May and Sarah Jane (Phillips) May. Fred states that Fran tz (Francis) Peter Mey was a Cordwalker (Shoemaker who specialized in Cordovan leather).

Fred T. May of Austin, Texas prepared an article for the Floyd County (KY)
Historical and Genealogical Society in June 1996. Entitled "Ancestors of
John May (1760-1813), the article included the following closing paragraph:
"The second breakthrough came from a book entitled "Birth and Baptismal
Register -- First Reformed Church -- Lancaster, Pennsylvania". These
records include the birth and infant baptism records of the first American-
born children of the May brothers. In January, 1760 John May, son of Francis
(Frantz) Peter and Ann Maria May and the future patriarch of the May family
in the Big Sandy Valley, was born. The German connection is made."

The name was spelled MEY (with an umulat --tow dots -- over the "E"; and, they were immigrant s from Germany.

Records of the ship Edinburgh show that they sailed from Rotterdam,
Holland via Portsmouth, England, and on September 5, 1748, arrived in
Philadelphia. (See "Pennsylvania German Immigrants 1709-1786,
Lists Consolidated from Yearbooks of The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, Genealogical P ublishing Co., Baltimore, 1980"). Emigrants had left the {former} Duchy of Zweibruecken in th e Palatinate during the period 1728 to 1749. Noted in the book is a brief account of the mig ration of a MEY family to America. The MEY family members who left the small village of Nied erhausen of the Nahe Riber in 1748 were: three brothers, Leonhard, Daniel and Frantz Peter ; three sisters, Maria Elisabetha, Anna Margaretha, and Anna Maria {Lorentz}; and their sixt y-two year old mother, Maria Catharina Mey.

NOTE: The shipping routes from Germany to the United States in the time
mentioned seemed to be to reach Rotterdam, Holland then across the channel
to Portsmouth, England and thence to our eastern shores. In my husband's
family of Rhoades (Rodt) who also came from the Palatinate area of Germany
in 1737 much confusioning opinions arose that the name was really Holland
and/or English. Apparently some new shipping manifests were made at these
ports in Holland and England with the resulting changes in the spelling of
surnames. Rodt became Van Rhoodt, for example, then being changed to
Rodes, et cetera.

In 1991, at the Kentucky Historical Society Library at Frankfort, KY, in the
Vertical Files (Family Folders) I found an incomplete typewritten 1967 document titled: "TH E DESCENDANTS of JOHN MAY, SR. and SARAH JANE (PHILLIPS)
MAY - 1760 - 1967 - (of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa,
Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and all points West)
AND ALLIED FAMILIES of HANSON, WALL, ROOK, MUNDELL" - Compiled by Mrs.
Howard Walker WOODRUFF, 7231 Sycamore, Kansas City, Missouri, 64133 - in 1967.

A later address had been written in for Mrs. Woodruff: 1824 S. Harvard, Kansas City, Missouri .

The pages included were the cover page, and pages 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and 9.
However, page 9 which started the history of John May, Junior, was only
started. I would like to find the entire manuscript and should start with
Kansas City, MO libraries or historical/genealogical societies of that area.
(Virginia May).

Her first two paragraphs are entitled, "JOHN MAY, THE EMIGRANT ANCESTOR".
It reads as follows:
"The earliest record that we have of this branch of the MAY family states
that three brothers, JOHN, LEONARD and THOMAS MAY, of GERMAN descent, came to America in Col onial days and settled near Baltimore, Maryland. (Now this does NOT coincide with statement s made by Eiler that the May's were of English descent, coming to Baltimore, by way of Hollan d.) However, the above was given by a fourth generation member of the family, Colonel Andre w Jackson May, born near Prestonsburg, Floyd County, Kentucky on Jan. 28, 1829, who was speak ing of his great grandfather, John May, the emigrant. Colonel May continued that Thomas Ma y finally settled in Buckingham County, Virginia and the two remaining brothers moved to Berk ley Co., Va (in 1994, West Virginia) and eventually to North Carolina. Cite: Annals of Tazew ell County, VA by John Newton Harman, SR.,
Vol. II:420).

There was most likely a fourth brother, Daniel May, unknown to Colonel May, who left a wi ll in Berkely County probated June 17, 1777 naming his wife Mary May and his nephew `Daniel M ay, son of my brother Leonard May'. There is also a will of David May, probated Nov. 22, 178 0, no doubt a close relative. There was a large settlement of May's from this area that migra ted to AsheCounty, N.C. near the Tennessee-Virginia line between 1780-1800 who are of the sam e family." (End of quoting from the "Woodruff Papers" above).

My cousin, Charles Woodrow May of Naples, Florida, sent me a copy of the
handwritten notes that his father, Thomas May (1853-1933), and MR. HOMER EILER of Topeka, Kan sas, prepared about 1926 preparatory to writing a book about the family. I will quote from th ese notes: "John May, Leonard May and Thomas May, three brothers emigrated from Germany abou t the year ----(year left blank).
John May settled in the state of Maryland and his son, John, was born near
Baltimore. John married Sarah Phillips, a daughter of Thomas Phillips. Said
John and Sarah had eight children, viz: John, Samuel, Thomas, Daniel,

Elizabeth, Mary, Reuben and Pollard. Said John and Sarah left Maryland,
removed probably to North Carolina, thence to Watauga River East Tennessee and thence about t he year 1800 to Kentucky, where they both died." (end of quoting from Thomas May/Homer Eile r notes shared with me by Charles Woodrow May, the son of Thomas May). Homer Eiler was a Dir ector of the Kansas Historical Society and his "Our Ancestors--A Record of May, Hanson, Polla rd and Phillips Families" was privately printed by James S. Dancy, Grenola, Kansas, 1929.

More About FRANTZ "FRANCIS" PETER MEY I:
Record Change: March 02, 2004

More About FRANTZ "FRANCIS" PETER MEY I and ANNA MARIA:
Marriage: Abt. 1752

Children of FRANTZ "FRANCIS" PETER MEY I and ANNA MARIA are:
  1. +JOHN (JOHANNES) MAY, b. January 06, 1760, near Baltimore, Maryland, d. January 25, 1813, Floyd Co., KY.
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