Book Reviews

54 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Book Reviews Standeserhebungen sand Gnadenakte das Deutsche Reich und die Osterreichischen Erblande bit 1806 sowie kaiserlich iisterreich bis 1823 mit einigen Nachtriigen turn "Alt-Osterreichischen AdeIs-Lexikon" 1823.1918. Band 1, A-E. By Karl Friedrich von Frank. (Schloss Senftenegg, Post Ferschnitz, Niederosterreich, Austria. 1967. xvi, 290 p. DM 96.) This is the first of a series of volumes abstracting the names and dates of ennoblement (patents of nobility), or of recognition as "acts of grace," to the year 1806, with additions for selected areas in Austria carrying the records to 1823, and in another section to 1918. The work naturally omits hereditary titles of "ancient" source, since bearers of such titles required no ennoblement. Names are given alphabetically and are cross-indexed. This is in no sense a biographical dictionary as the entries refer only to these matters, and do not contain vital records or other honors. Mr. von Frank has collected these abstracts over a vast period of years; since he made them, many of the original records, those dealing with Bohemia and its related lands, have been removed from the archives and are now in the State Archives in Prague, where they are not easily consulted. Such items are identified by an abbreviation at the end of the entry. This volume, and those that will follow it in the series, will be valuable to the researcher in determining what persons of a particular surname have been ennobled and when, and so lead the inquirer into related records. The author is well known to Americans for his outstanding work in the identification of German-speaking immigrants to this country and in tracing their pre-Colonial ancestry. That he can find time to compile this useful volume of abstracts while still continuing his researches and his genealogical writings is a matter of amazement to his collaborators and friends. WALTER LEE SHEPPARD, JR. Genealogy as Pastime and Profession. By Donald Lines Jacobus. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1968. [2nd edition.] 120 pp. $7.50.) When a man with the gift of self-expression writes about that which he loves best, he writes with an enthusiasm that seizes the reader's interest and holds it. And when his love is genealogy and that man is the finest living genealogist — Don Jacobus — the result is a book that is at once delightful and authoritative. This work was first published in 1930 and promptly sold out. Despite repeated requests for a new edition, Mr. Jacobus has never until now permitted a new printing. It now contains two new chapters, "Dates and the Calendar," and "How to Trace Your Ancestry," which are rewritings of two articles that Mr. Jacobus published in The American Genealogist. He has also rewritten the chapter on "Commercial Firms" to eliminate material no longer applicable, and to bring it up to date. Additional data has been inserted in many places, particularly in the chapter on "Genealogy and the Law." An introduction by Milton Rubincam which, according to Mr. Jacobus, has kept him blushing, heads the text. Mr. Rubincam has also supplied an appendix on the Board for Certification of Genealogists, of which he is chairman. Mr. Jacobus first wrote the book as an introduction to the science of genealogy to interest uninformed researchers and at the same time to warn them of its pitfalls. It Book Reviews 55 was not then intended to be a book of instruction. However, with the new material added in this edition, it has certainly become a how-to-do-it book. It remains, as the late Dr. Arthur Adams said it was, the "classic of genealogical literature," and is unreservedly recommended for both the beginner and the experienced. WALTER LEE SHEPPARD, JR. Wills, Administrations and Inventories with the Winchester Diocesan Records. Compiled by Arthur J. Willis. (Folkestone, Kent, 1968. 94 p. Index. $4.50.) This listing begins with register copies of probate records which had been on file in the office of the Diocesan Registrar until their recent removal to the Hampshire Record Office where they are now bound in fifteen volumes. Mr. Willis's listing is not a collection of abstracts, but is in effect an index to testators' names, with place of residence of the testator or parish, occupation, and dates of probate added. The penod covered is from 1502 to 1640. These are followed by a listing of about seventy loose wills, originals and copies, a few formal administration grants, and a much greater num ber of commissions, arranged chronologically from 1672 to 1739, to take the oaths of executors or administrators. Next are Inventories from 1540 to 1799, listed alphabetically by name of decedent, parish, and date of the inventory which, in some cases, is noted as date of death. When the administration is endorsed, the name of the administrators and date of grant are included. The last listing is a group of twenty-eight undated inventories of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. A comprehensive index of all names within the body of the work is included. Numerous surnames. appear in the several lists which are common ones in Pennsyl vania. Among these might be noted Chapman (p. 31), Songhurst (p. 34), Michener (p. 39), Sharpless (p. 40), Salter (p: 48), Frampton (p. 50), Carpenter (p. 55), Biddle (p. 61), and Dawes (p. 62) to last only a few. For researchers interested in Hampshire families, this listing will be of considerable help in locating possible connections. HANNAH BENNER ROACH The Saltthurgers and their Descendants. By P. A. Strobel with Foreward, Appendix and Index by Edward Descombe Wells, Sr. (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1953. [vii p.] Facsimile 308 p. [309-318 p.] Illustration, foreword, appendix, Index. $5.00.) This reprint, first published in Baltimore in 185$ by a Lutheran minister of the South Carolina Synod, tells the story of the Lutheran settlement of the town of Ebenezer, Georgia. In 1733, the dispossessed Austrian Protestants, the Salzburgers, were shipped from Germany to Georgia to found a settlement on the banks of the Savannah River that became a valuable part of the colony of Georgia. In 1741 the settlement was moved to a new and better site up-stream. The story continues through the Spanish Invasions from Florida, through the Revolution down to the period at which the Rev erend Mr. Strobel was writing. The town, its government and its church, the visits of distinguished persons such as Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the two Wesleys and the Moravians, are all discussed. Though this work is more directed toward regional history, there is much of value in it for those doing research on the Austrian families of this area. On page 112 appears a list of the principal inhabitant, of the settlement in 1741. On pages 180 56 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine and 181 will be found the lists of chmch members for the year 1775. The appendix, added by Mr. Wells, includes as far as he was able to find them, the marriages of the men on this second list, taken from the Ebenezer Town Book. A competent index closes the volume. WALTER LEE SHEPPARD, JR. By Stephen Clay Balliet. (Baton Rouge, La., 1968. Coat of arms, illustrations, facsimiles, maps, genealogical charts, indices. 994 p. 520.00.) The Balliet, Balliett, Balliette, Balyeat, Bolyard and Allied Families. This extensive record should be of considerable interest to many Pennsylvanians. The pioneers of the three major lines were original settlers of French-Huguenot stock in old Northampton, now Lehigh County, and at least eight of the miscellaneous lines included stem from Pennsylvania. The work adds greatly to and corrects earlier accounts of these families. According to research in French sources, the chief lines, at least, of this record descend from one Jacob Baillet (1642-1706) of Schalbach, Lorraine, through three sons, Stephen, Abraham (1684-1766), and Johann Nicholas . Baillet (1680-1745), none of whom emigrated but who had a son or grandson who did. The mass of data presented is arranged in five parts. In Part 1 the early history and movements of the family in France are noted, and some account is given of the Huguenots in general. A critical bibliography is included in this section. Part II deals with the family and descendants of Paulus Balliet (1717'1777) of Whitehall Township, now Lehigh County, the emigrant of 1738, and son of the above Stephen. As the earliest emigrant bearing the family name, and the author's own ancestor, this section understandably has the most detailed and well documented coverage. Part III is concerned with the Ballets who stem from Joseph Ballet (1729-1804), the emigrant of 1749 to Heidelberg Township, now Lehigh County, son of the above Abraham Baillet. Some descendants of Joseph, as they moved west and south in the second and third generations, assumed different spellings of the surname, such as Balyeat and, in the south, Bolyard. Part IV records the known descendants of Johannes Balliet (1746-1831) who was settled in Sugar Loaf Valley, Lucerne County, by 1784. This Johannes, Mr. Ballet concluded on the basis of such evidence as he had collected, probably was a grandson of the Johann Nicholas Baillet (1680-1745), mentioned above. In Part V are miscellaneous fines not yet linked with the previous three. These include the family of John Ballet of Towamensing Township, Northampton County, the Ballets of the Dakotas, the Ballets of Tamaqua, and the Bolyards of Indiana. In addition there are sixteen unidentified lines, many of them covering fairly recent years. A separate index for each of the five parts follows Part V, and five pages for family notes and vital records conclude the volume. In presenting all this information, Mr. Ballet freely admits in his preface that he is neither a writer, historian or genealogist, and that this collection of material "is most unlikely to be considered a classic and is not presented as such" (p. 9). In the light of this admission he should not be faulted for claiming to have accomplished more than he has. What he has done is to make an honest effort to evaluate conflicting evidence which he himself located, as well as that sent to him by members of the various families scattered all over the country, and to draw reasonable conclusions subject to revision if more specific data comes to light. He operated at a great distance from his sources and presumably was not very familiar with the locale. As a result, it is clear that his dependence on printed sources for lines other slut his own hampered his judgement in those .."5. Book Reviews 57 One Instance Occurs in the line of Joseph of Heidelberg. On page 679 he states that Barbara BaIliet, Joseph's daughter, married Daniel Ritter (1758-1836), but could find no trace of their children. That fact is not surprising since Daniel (one of this reviewer's ancestors) did not marry Barbara Bullies, but did marry at St. John's Lutheran Church, Easton, on 23 April 1781, Elizabeth Rohn (1763-1841), daughter of Heinrich Rohn and his wife Anna Regina Hartman, as is evidenced by their tombstones in Drylands Union Cemetery, Hecktown, Northampton County, and in Northampton County deeds. Certainly such records are more authoritative than the 1914 Anniversary History of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, which Mr. Balliet considered "a primary source of information on the kinsmen who remained in Lehigh County and of the families that married imm the Barnet family" (p. 16). That work is not a primary source, but a secondary source useful for providing leads in searching out primary records. A similar instance of dependence on secondary material appears on page 877 in the record of the family of Elizabeth Bullies, granddaughter of Johannes Balliet of Sugar Loaf. Born in 1821, she married Philemon Santee, Jr., son of Philemon Santee, Sr., said to be the son of John Santee, a colonel in the Revolution who died during that struggle. Mr. Barnet's information on this Santee family appears to have come straight from the 1893 History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. This reviewer knows of no primary evidence that there ever was a Colonel John Santee. The references in the Pennsylvania Archives which Mr. Balliet gives for the alleged colonel's service all refer to Captain John Santee of Northampton County militia who died in Lower Nazareth Township in 1807. Further, no primary evidence has come to light as yet that Philemon, Sr., who married C. Louderbach in 1807, was even a son of Captain John Santee. His parentage has yet to be established beyond doubt. Since there may be other similar incorrect records incorporated in the book, the researcher using h should endeavor to check actual primary material for data on these lines. It is also to be regretted that the book should be so peppered with typographical errors. The Reverend William J. Hinke's name is misspelled at least twice (pp. 17, 134). Other examples include Easton given as Eaton on page 108; Oley as Oby on page 213; Sunbury as Sunburg on page 306; E. Bradford Township, Chester County as E. Bradfort Township, Berks County on page 886. Dates, too, frequently have been given incorrectly, particularly in the charts preceding family lines: 1783 for 1773 (F. 132); 1850 for 1750 (p. 296); 1909 for 1809 (p. 789). Such carelessness seriously detracts from the overall usefulness of the book, for the amateur using it without sufficient critical study could easily be led astray. Mr. Balliet is also apparently unaware (p. 101) that assessment lists from 1761 to the late 1780's are extant in the original and on microfilm at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and that subsequent lists are in the Northampton County Archives Building at Easton. A study of these might have helped him to resolve some of the miscellaneous lines. In spite of such faults and omissions, it is clear that Mr. Balliet searched many church and family records, estate proceedings and land records pertaining to the earliest generations. In the later generations Census records were used wherever possible to identify families. He is to be commended for having included information on the ancestry of the spouses whenever it was known. Though the book is far from perfect, it will be a valuable aid for further research in depth, and of great help to descendants in establishing the validity of their own lines. The book is available from Mr. Balliet at 203 Roumain Bldg., Baton Rouge, La. 70801. HANNAH BENNER RogCR