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Descendants of George Zavitz (Zavietz)

Generation No. 1

1. GEORGE ZAVITZ¹ (ZAVIETZ)^1,² was born 1695 in Strasbourg,France ^3,⁴, and died 1759 in Center Valley Bucks County, PA ^5,⁶. He married BARBARA^7,⁸ in Strasburg ^9,¹⁰.

Notes for GEORGE ZAVITZ (ZAVIETZ):
[Combined Families.FTW]

From the Sherk Genealogy:

George S. Zavitz, the first to come to America, is reported to have "lived within sight of the spires of the famous cathedral in Strasbourg, France." As a Protestant he and his family were part of a flood of immigrants to the William Penn Colony where rights to religious freedom had been included in the founding constitution as early as 1681. There is no specific documentation that the Zavitz's were Mennonites on arrival although they were part of that community once in America and after 1797 in Canada. Strasbourg seemed to be a "safe haven" for many years to Anabaptists like the Mennonites. There is no record of the death sentence against these individuals in Strasbourg.

Nevertheless, Protestants in that city felt the pull from the new world. The Rhine was just two miles away with its access to Dutch religous freedom, ships to America and there was news of British support for settlement. Undoubtedly the Zavitz's had heard much about the migration of tens of thousands of Palatine Protestants down the Rhine to Holland and Britain and then on to settlement areas in the Pennsylvania and New York colonies. Promoters were advertising the "good life" in these colonies and Anabaptists, much attracted to the prospect of escaping the harshness of European society, the lack of productive farm land and the security to raise a family. They must also have been aware of the long waits in refugee camps before ships would be available to take them, the thousands who embarked who never made it to the new world,many as forty percent of those attempting the crossing died of disease at sea ]and the settlement mismanagement that plagued many who did survive the Atlantic crossing.

There is no record of GEORGE ZAVITZ, and his wife BARBARA on the immigrant ship list nor of his arrival in Philadelphia. Since these records were started in 1727 we may assume he arrived before that time. The first record of him in the new world is his purchase of three hundred acres in 1732 from a Caspar Wistar, near Center Valley about 50 miles north of the ciry in a new district in a fertile valley along the Saucon Creek, Upper Bucks County, about 6 miles south of what was later to be the site of Bethlehem. As a miller he looked for mill sites. He and the small group of Mennonite settlers he was with were also influenced by the opening of the Durham Iron Works about 15 miles away. The local Indian tribes, Saucon, Lenni-Lenapes and Shawnees were friendly at this time, and did not resist the arrival of these "whites" in their hunting grounds.

About 1731, George built a grist mill in Center Valley, PA. He was naturalized on March 29,1735. George and Barbara died on the homestead, he in 1759, she about 1766. George's will was probated on June 13,1759. He is buried in a Mennonite Cemetery less than a mile south of his homestead. As the immigrant progenitor he had lived about half of his life in Europe, and half in PA where he experienced religious toleration. All of their eight children lived to adutlthood and married. Most were still in Bucks Co. close to their parents. All probably spoke German exclusively.

Children of GEORGE (ZAVIETZ) and BARBARA are:

2.	i.	ABRAHAM² ZAVITZ, d. April 18, 1777, Allentown, Pennsylvania-killed in revolutionary war.
3.	ii.	ESTER ZAVITZ.
4.	iii.	HENRY ZAVITZ, d. 1771.
5.	iv.	JOHN ZAVITZ, d. Easton, Pennsylvania.
6.	v.	MARY ZAVITZ.
7.	vi.	JACOB ZAVITZ, b. 1728, Center Valley Bucks Co. PA; d. 1800, Humberstone Twp. P\ort Colbourne Canada Wellland Co..
8.	vii.	JOSEPH ZAVITZ, b. 1735; d. 1792.
9.	viii.	GEORGE ZAVITZ, b. December 25, 1755; d. October 23, 1830, North Carolina.

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