Our First Hamrick Forefather in America
The Hans George Hamrick Family:
Hans George Hamrick left his native Germany in 1730 and arrived in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1731, after spending seven months on the high seas. He had set sail from Rotterdam, Holland. (The original name was Hammerich, but today it is spelled Hamrick here in America.) The Hamricks came to the country seeking religious freedom. George had been an officer under the Kaiser, something on the order of Examiner of Passports. According to S.C. Jones, author of The Hamrick Generations: Being a Genealogy of the Hamrick Family, published in 1920 in Raleigh, N.C. (to whom this writer is deeply indebted), 80 percent of the Hamricks married their own kin from the time they came to this country. George settled in the area of Germantown, Pa.
George Hamrick married Nancy Cook and they had twenty-four children, but the name of only 18 are known: George, David, William, Moses, Thomas, John, Elijah, Greenberry, James, Reuben, Jane, Susanna, Hannah, Rebecca, Mollie, Mary, Sarah, and Benjamin. They died and were buried in Virginia but most of their children came to what was then Mecklenburg County, North Carolina about the year 1765....
This excerpt from: The Heritage of Rutherford County North Carolina (page 240) article by: Dr. Eleanor Cargill Strickland and Mrs. Mabel Bridges Cargill.
Note: What the article above doesn't tell you is that George Hamrick Sr. was married and had 8 children in Germany before he came to America. His wife, Maria Elisabetha Bieber Hammerich died. G-g-g-g-g-g Grandfather George sailed to America with his oldest son, Paul on the Snow Louther. He may have had more of his children with him but they were not listed. It was common practice that women and children's names were not recorded on the ship's logs.
Mom was researching genealogy in Cleveland, LDS Stake library in the 80s and she came across ships logs. In one book she found Hans George Hammerich (my 6th great grandfather, the 9th generation back). His son, Paul, was listed with him being under the age of sixteen.
...Yvonne Kimbrell Gray
This excerpt from: The Gray Matter (http://ourfamilyforum.org/FamilyForum/html_pages/July%201,%202005%20Page%204.htm) newsletter published by Yvonne in 2005