The new site will constantly be changing, check back often.
If there is something you think needs to be added to this website, please let me know at LindaMcCoy@dreisbachfamily.org
DFA VI Homecoming - 100 Year Jubilee Sometime in 2010. This reunion will be held somewhere in the greater Philadelphia area. Philadelphia was the point of entry for all our family lines. As with the previous reunions, we will focus a bit on one line. This time on the Bucks County Henry line.
I wrote the following story while traveling home on the airplane after the reunion. Monday, June 25, 2007. Linda Dresback McCoy
The Dreisbach family arrived at the new world in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They left Germany to find a place of their own, to farm and raise crops that were theirs to sell. They had to get permission from the Count in order to leave Wittgenstein. Some families left without permission. They had to travel overland to a port in order to get on a ship headed to the new world. It was a long trip, months on a ship without the best conditions. Babies were born on the crossing and people died of illness. Burials were done while at sea. Water and food had to be rationed. At that time, they had to rely on the winds to fill the sails. Bad weather was common. People got sick and had to be tended to. The people were crowded below deck. There was the constant worry of sickness, death and arriving at their destinations. There was also the fear of the unknown. The families that traveled into the frontier had to be brave and strong. This world was new and foreign to them. They had to fight to protect their families and valuables. Indians were new to them. The land had to be strange from what they left, but they were used to hard work. Most were farmers. When they found the land they wanted, it had to be cleared. They cut down trees and removed the rocks. The soil was probably a little different from the old country. They had to build a home to live in, built from the trees they cleared from the land. The horse and cow was part of their family. They were very necessary for their survival, probably slept in part of the house. Most homes only had one room at first, with the animals stabled in a lean to on the side of the house. Water was hauled to the house from a nearby spring or creek. A rifle was very necessary, in order to hunt for food and for protection. What did they eat? Pioneer women had to know how to cook, sew, knowledge of healing herbs, tend wounds and shoot a gun. Flour and sugar were like gold - very valuable. Babies were born without the help of doctors and nurses. Hopefully, there was another woman available to help with birthing. They had big families and everyone had chores to do. "Woman's work is never done" , this was very true for the pioneer woman. Wake up before the dawn, feed the chickens, milk the cow, feed the animals, heat the stove, bring in the wood, haul water, cook breakfast, feed the family, clean the dishes, bake the bread, churn the butter, teach the children, sew the clothes, clean the clothes, clean the house, plant a garden, harvest the garden, make the noon meal, collect the eggs, weave the cloth, go to market, trade the eggs for wool, clean the wool, spin the wool, salt and cure the meat that men have killed and butchered, put up the vegetables for winter, clean the children and all this while probably pregnant. And if her husband is away she has to chop the wood, plow the field, harvest the crop, take care of the animals, possible hunt for food and anything else that needs to be done.
