Michael was the 4th of six children per his baptism record in the Stiftskirche archives. Stiftskirche GPS location: 6-85-246E 55-57-672N. Michael immigrated to America in January 1750 as found in the Auswanderer Buch in the Wertheim Stadt Archiv, Bronnbach, Wertheim, Germany. He returned to Wertheim in 1765, but there is no reference as to why. (copies in file from originals) Michael was considered a "Burgher" and had some status in Wertheim as witness his name in the civil records. (laborers and people without a specific trade had no status.) He forfeited any inheritance from his father to the Prince of Lowenstein-Wertheim- Rosenberg for failing to pay manumission when he emigrated. (per the archivist at Wertheim Stadt Archiv) Following is also part of that record: In the "Pennsylvania German Folklore Society" volume XII page 266 there is reference to "Michael Hotz, master butcher of Philadelphia, returning to his natal city of Wertheim, Germany in 1769" It further mentions his late father Heinrich Hotz. He had returned to Wertheim on the commission of "Christian Ernst Beschler", schoolmaster of "Bockhill" in Bucks County, Pa. to obtain Beschler's inheritance. Michael was in Wertheim specifically on May 6, 1769, "now here for awhile, is said not yet to have been manumitted; (freed from his servitude in Wertheim) he emigrated with wife and children. On his marriage, however, nothing can be found in the Wertheim Church Registers. Neither is there any trace of children of his born here". Michael was married at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Phila. and all his children were born in Phila. (Wertheim is a city located at the northernmost point of Baden-Wurtemberg at the confluence of the Tauber and Main Rivers.) As can be seen by the birthdates of his children, Michael had returned to Phila. by October 1769.
Michael was a private 3d Class in the American Revolution. He was a member of Captain John Bergman's Sixth Company of the 2d Battalion commanded by Lieut. Colonel Benjamin G. Eyre. (see source for "Military Service" fact for source details) His records are in the Pennsylvania Archives under "Michael Hutz". (copy in file) "Sons of American Revolution" accepted his service as submitted by James H. Lawrence SAR member #153101 on March 31, 2000. He was also listed as a Private 2nd Class in Captain Peter Mehring's Company of 3rd Battalion, and finally as deceased while a member of Capt. Jonathan Gastelowe's Company in the 1784 muster roll.
Michael's estate administrators on October 7, 1783 were his widow Catharina, and his brother-in-law, John Gravenstine (a grocer Race St. between 2nd & 3rd in 1785), and Abraham Backman. The representative of the City of Phila. (Taxman) was Robert Burchan. (Gentleman, Callowhill near Water Street in 1785) Administration #1783-124. Neither Catharine Hotz nor John Gravenstine could apparently write as they both made "X"'s as their mark. Michael & Catharine had a fair amount of land at their address of 125 North Fourth Street, between Vine and Callowhill (1785 MacPherson's Directory) The estate inventory included "An old white horse, A cart & gear, 2 old saddles & a bridle, 2 Milch Cows, 18 Sheep and and One ton of hay. Witness to his trade as a butcher were the following: "A grind stone & a wheel barrow, 2 pair Steelyards & 2 Chain, An old shed slaughter house, rope & Asundry tools". A steelyard is a large suspended scale. It would have been used to weigh the meat after butchering. Catharine, probably with the help of her children, carried on the business after Michael's death, being listed as a butcher in MacPherson's first city directory in 1785 as well as in 1791 and 1796.
Pennsylvania Wills, 1682-1834 (This is undoubtedly Johann Michael Hotz as a witness.) HINCKELL, CHRISTIAN. Phila. Yeoman. December 28, 1773. March 27, 1775. Wife: Anne Elizabeth. Execs.: George Wack and Anne Elizabeth Hinckell. Daughter: Mary (wife of Philip Heyman). Witnesses: Jacob Ulrich Siltzel, Jacob Michael Hutz and Christian Lehman. (Q:118)
Following ALL apply to this Johann Michael Hotz: [Broderbund Family Archive #354, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index] Individual: Michael Hotz Place: Pennsylvania Year: 1731-1769 Primary Individual: Hotz, Michael Family Members: Wife; children Source Code: 4525 Source Name: LANGGUTH, OTTO. "Pennsylvania German Pioneers from the County of Wertheim." Translated and edited by Don Yoder. In The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society [Yearbook], vol. 12 (1947), pp. 196-289. Source Annotation: Date of emigration and intended destination or date and port of arrival. Extracted from manuscripts in the princely archive of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Also in source nos. 4517 and 9964 (indexed in PILI 1991 and 1983, respectively). Source Page #: 226
Individual: Michael Hotz (Initial Emigration from Wertheim in January 1750) Place: Philadelphia Year: 1750 Primary Individual: Hotz, Michael Source Code: 2883 Source Name: HALL, CHARLES M. "Pal-Index": A Surname Index of Eighteenth-Century Immigrants. Salt Lake City: Global Research Systems, 1979. 147p. Source Annotation: Data on immigrants from France (Alsace-Lorraine), Switzerland, southern Germany, and some adjacent places, arriving between 1727 and 1775. "Palatines" was a term adopted from British merchants and the people of Philadelphia whose first contact with large migrations from continental Europe in the 1700s was with Palatines (Pfaelzer in German), people from the Palatinate (Pfalz). A third of the immigration in this period was from what later became Baden-Wuerttemberg. Information includes name, origin, date, place of settlement, and sometimes the religion. About 6,500 names gathered from about 50 sources. Source Page #: 53
Broderbund Family Archive #354, Ed. 1, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, Date of Import: Apr 27, 1999 Individual: Michl Hotz (Michael Hotz) Place: Pennsylvania Year: 1765 (reason for return to Wertheim in 1765 is unknown) Primary Individual: Hotz, Michl Source Code: 2564 Source Name: GIUSEPPI, MONTAGUE SPENCER, editor. Naturalizations of Foreign Protestants in the American and West Indian Colonies (Pursuant to Statute 13 George II, c.7). (Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, 1921, vol. 24.) Manchester [England]: The Huguenot Society of London, 1921. 196p. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1964. Repr. 1979. Source Annotation: Data derived from return-forms connected with the naturalization of foreign Protestants, papers that were sent from the Colonies to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. Transcribed from two Entry Books, once the property of the Board of Trade and Plantations, now with the Colonial Office in the Public Record Office, London. Much other information. Contains returns from the West Indies, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania. A more complete record of New York naturalizations can be found in no. 9860, Wolfe, and for Pennsylvania in no. 6680. Source Page #: 102
Index, Date of Import: Apr 27, 1999, Internal Ref. #1.354.1.45424.15] Individual: Michael Hotz Place: Philadelphia Year: 1750-1769 Primary Individual: Hotz, Michael Family Members: Wife & children Source Code: 4517 Source Name: LANGGUTH, OTTO. "Auswanderer aus der Grafschaft Wertheim." In Familiengeschichtliche Blaetter, Jahrgang 30 (1932): part 3 (Mar.), cols. 53-60; part 4/5 (Apr./May), cols. 109-124; part 6 (June), cols. 155-164; parts 7/8 (July/Aug.), cols. 205-208; part 9 (Sept.), cols. 263-270; parts 10/11 (Oct./Nov.), cols. 299-304; part 12 (Dec.), cols. 343-352. Source Annotation: "Emigrants from the County of Wertheim." Date of application for release from servitude and intended destination. Recorded in manuscript materials in the Fuerstl. Loewenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg and the Fuerstl. Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg Archives and in the City Archives in Wertheim, Germany. Reprinted in the Jahrbuch des historischen Vereins Alt-Wertheim, 1935. English translation by Don Yoder, "Pennsylvania German Pioneers from the County of Wertheim," appeared in The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society [Yearbook], vol. 12 (1947). Source Page #: 266
Individual: Michael Hotz Place: Pennsylvania Primary Individual: Hotz, Michael Family Members: Wife & children Source Code: 9964 Source Name: YODER, DON, editor. Pennsylvania German Immigrants, 1709-1786: Lists Consolidated from Yearbooks of the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1980. 394p. Repr. 1984. Source Annotation: Five lists originally published between the years 1936 and 1951. See no. 2444, Gerber; no. 4525, Langguth; no. 3193, Hinke; no. 4357, Krebs; and no. 8945, Steinemann. The lists cover emigrants from Wuerttemberg, Wertheim, Zweibruecken, and Schaffhausen. Indexed. Source Page #: 222
Individual: Michael Hutz Place: Pennsylvania Year: 1731-1769 Primary Individual: Hutz, Michael Source Code: 4525 Source Name: LANGGUTH, OTTO. "Pennsylvania German Pioneers from the County of Wertheim." Translated and edited by Don Yoder. In The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society [Yearbook], vol. 12 (1947), pp. 196-289. Source Annotation: Date of emigration and intended destination or date and port of arrival. Extracted from manuscripts in the princely archive of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Also in source nos. 4517 and 9964 (indexed in PILI 1991 and 1983, respectively). Source Page #: 226
More About Johann Michael Hotz: Address 1 1: Bet. 1731 - 1750, #7 Zollgasse, Wertheim, Württemberg between 12 & 1 pm.812, 813 Address 1 2: 1783, prob 125 N 4th Street, Phila(bet Vine&Callowhill).814, 815 Baptism: 31 January 1730/31, Stiftskirche, Wertheim, Württemberg.816, 817 Burial: 05 October 1783, German Lutheran, bet Race & Vine, Phila.817 Emigration: January 1750/51, Phila from Wertheim, Württemberg.818, 819 Military service: Bet. 1780 - 1784, 3d cl pvt Capt John Bergman's Co 2d Batt.820, 821, 822, 823, 824, 825, 826 Occupation: Bet. 1769 - 1783, Butcher.827, 828, 829 Will: Phila Admin. #1783-124 (I-70).830, 831
More About Johann Michael Hotz and Anna Catharina Günzler: Marriage: 24 March 1761, St. Michael's Lutheran Church, 5th & Appletree, Phila, Pa.832, 833
Marriage Notes for Johann Michael Hotz and Anna Catharina Günzler: [Evans, Virginia.ged]
Witnesses to their marriage were Martin Gunzler, Balth(azar) Hoffmann, John Ronner and Jeremias Traut (Jeremiah Trout?). (Martin Gunzler is probably a brother or the father of Catharina Gunzler.)
Children of Johann Michael Hotz and Anna Catharina Günzler are:
Johann Michael Hotz (b. 30 January 1730/31, d. 04 October 1783)
Notes for Johann Michael Hotz: