Blann-Watts Genealogy

Welcome to The Reichert Family Page, which furnishes historical detail beyond the site index, exploring five generations of Reicherts in the line of Joseph Reichert of Germany as well as four generations of Mattheus Schwartz of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
 

11. Anna Constantia Reichert (Nehr) --The mother of Anna Maria Nehr (wife of Johann Nicolas Feller), Anna Constantia (Constance) was born Dec. 13, 1689 in Germany. She immigrated to NY at age 20 with her parents and siblings, where she married her first husband, Johann Carl Nehr, in 1715, the union which produced their daughter Anna. After Carl died in NY in 1733, she remarried Zacharias Haber. Her date of death is unknown. Anna’s parents were Joseph Reichert (Joosep Reykert) and Anna Vogel of Germany.
 

12. Joseph Reichert --The father of Anna Constantia Reichert (Nehr), Joseph was born Jan.12, 1662/3 in Kirchberg, Germany. His first marriage was to Anna Vogel, the mother of Anna Constantia, in 1687. Joseph and his wife immigrated to America in 1709 (Rotterdam list) along with 6 children, including their daughter, Anna. He became an overseer of ye King’s High Ways in the North Ward (Dutchess Co. NY) in 1726 and is also listed as a representative of the Lutherans. The first church erected in Rhinebeck (The "High Dutch Reformed Protestant Church") stood half a mile from Joesph's homestead and was at first attended by both Lutherans and Calvinists. But in 1729, the congregation decided to divide and build a second church for the Lutherans, which was erected less than a half mile from the first: the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Peter the Apostle (popularly known as the "Stone Church"), which Joseph and his son-in-law, Carl Nehr, participated in founding. After the death of Anna Vogel, Joseph remarried widow Anna Maria Traver in 1711. He died ca. 1742/3 in Rhinebeck, NY. Joseph’s parents were Hans Reichert and Constantia Schwartz, of Kirchberg, Germany. (See below for further notes on Joseph.)
 

13. Johannes Hans Reichert --The father of Joseph Reichert, Hans was born Oct. 24, 1634 in Kirchberg, Murren, Germany. After the death of his first wife, Anna Hartman, Hans married Constantia Schwartz (1634-1678), the daughter of Adam Schwartz and Agatha Alle, in 1658 in Kirchberg, Marbach u. Oa, Württemberg (Baden-Württemberg), Germany (Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985). The marriage record lists her father as Adam Schwarzen and her husband as Hanns Reichardt. Constantia was the mother of Joseph Reichert. (See below for further Schwartz ancestry.) Hans (who was also known as Schmidt-Hanseln) died ca. 1654. His parents were Georg and Christine Reichert of Germany.

    

14. Georg Reichert --The father of Hans Reichert, Georg (Jerg) was born in Germany Dec. 23, 1595. He married  Christine Appergers (1610-1639) in Württemberg, Germany in 1621 (Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985). Georg's parents were Joseph Reichert and Katharina Zeissner.

 

15. Joseph Reichert --  The father of Georg Reichert, Joseph was born in 1540 in Kirchberg, Marbach u Oa, Germany (Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985) Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 records the birth of  Johann Georg Reichert to Joseph Reichert and Katharina Zeissner. Katarina was born in 1547 in Germany and died March 21, 1617 in Kirchberg, Biberach, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. It is worth noting that Katarina would have been 48 when George was born, which raises doubts as to whether their documented child named Johann Georg Reichert is the same as the Georg Reichert in our line. However Joseph and Katarina lived in the same region as Georg in Württemberg (near Stuttgart and Zurich in southern Germany) and Joseph is a family name, so they cannot be ruled out as parents of Georg on age alone. No further details are known about this ancestral line.

Joseph Reichert --further notes

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    Some four years after their arrival at West Camp, perhaps late in 1714, thirty-five families, including that of Joseph Rikert, removed to Dutchess county and settled on lands laid out for and sold to them in fee, by Col. Henry Beekman, on that part of his patent now covered by the town of Rhinebeck. Their settlement was about twelve miles down the river from West Camp, and from one to three miles north of the present village of Rhinebeck. The name Rhinebeck was confined to these people until the organization of Rhinebeck precinct in 1715. He records the marriage of Joseph Rikert's daughter (by his former marriage), Anna Constantia, to Carl Naher, "at Rhinebeck" January 11, 1715. This is strong evidence that Rikert then was living at Rhiebeck, probably having settled there in 1714 after the census.
   It previously was stated that Joseph Rikert was without family upon his arrival at West Camp in 1710, and was called "widower" when married in 1711. Yet he is known to have had a daughter, Anna Constantia, and a sister, Anna Maria, who are presumed to have followed him to America. Both were married by Kocherthal, Anna Maria at West Camp, in 1711 and Anna Constantia, as already stated, at Rhinebeck in 1715. The name of his father is learned from the marriage record of his sister, which calls her the daughter of the late Hans (John) Reichard of Kirchberg, County of Marbach, Wurtemberg. We have no definite knowledge concerning his age. The records are silent as to the date of his birth or death, but as already stated he is known to have died either in 1742 or 1743. Having a daughter who married in 1715, his age at the time of his arrival at West Camp in 1710 is placed at no less than 40 which would make him 70 or more in 1742. The place of his burial remains to be discovered. (*) There is no indication of a family burying ground on the farm. The oldest marked grave in the cemetary at St. Peter's church is that of Carl Naher, Joseph's son-in-law, who died in 1733. Since Joseph died about 13 years after the founding of St. Peter's, in the affairs of which he was active, it was presumed he was buried there in an unmarked grave. It is not known that he left a will. His widow is last mentioned in 1749. She is assessed each year from 1743 to 1749 as Joseph Rykert's widow. The tax lists for 1750-51-52 are missing and her name is omitted from 1753 list. She is named as a communicant of St. Peter's November 2, 1746, and again January 22, 1749.

(Thanks to Bette Rider who collected and originally posted these notes.)

More notes:

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     The Rikert-Rykert-Riker Family.  Manuscript compiled by Smith Henry Riker and Carroll Rikert 1932  A 929.2 9R5392 State Library, Albany, NY copies of the records compiled are also in St Catharines, Ontario Public Library and Toronto Public Library
    The Riker-Rikert-Rykert American lineage begins with one of three immigrant ancestors. Abraham Rycken, or de Rycke, is presumed to have emigrated in 1638, locating at the Wallabout, where the Brooklyn Navy Yard now is, and later in New Amsterdam. His descendants spell the name Riker. Joseph Reichert came from Wurtenberg, Germany in 1710, settling first at West Camp, on the Hudson, and four years later removing to Dutchess County. With his descendants the name is Rikert, Rykert, Riker. William Richter, born in Germany about 1716 came to America in 1728, settling probably in Pennsylvania. Their name is now Riker. ("Joseph Riker and Some of His Descendants" by Smith H Riker, Albany, NY, March 1933)

     Joseph Reichert, 1662-1742, a native of Kirchberg, County of Marback, Grand Duchy of Wurtenberg, Germany, came to America in 1710 with a large emigration mainly from the Palatinate. With the beginning of the eighteenth century two currents of immigration rapidly outdistanced all others in numbers, importance and amount of attention which they attracted. These were the Palatinate and the Scotch Irish. The Palatines were so called because their original home was in what was known as the Palatinate, a section of Germany bordering on both sides of the Rhine from Cologne to Manheim. The portion of the country brought it into close relations with the Reformation, and large numbers of the population became protestants. Wars had borne heavily on the Palatinate, when, in 1709, more than 6,000, most of them Lutherans, left their homes and, passing through Holland, crossed over and made England their refuge. Many, being without means, were subsisted by the British government. Some remained in England, some were sent to Ireland, others to Carolina, and about 3,200 men, women, and children to New York. While they were yet in London and the government was considering means for their disposal, in November, 1709, Robert Hunter was appointed governor of the province of New York. Hunter proposed to the government that 3,000 of the Palatines be sent with him to New York to be employed there in the production of turpentine and tar for use in the British navy. The proposal was accepted and the people sailed with Hunter from Plymouth near the end of January 1710. The fleet consisted of ten ships, being the largest immigration to America in colonial days. Beset by storms, the voyage was greatly prolonged. Living conditions were bad aboard the vessels, much sickness prevailed, and more than 470 persons died at sea. The first ship, the LYON, landed at New York June 15. The people disembarked on Nutten, (now Governor's) Island, where they sojourned about three months while the governor and his aides searched for suitable pine lands upon which to settle them. Sickness continued and about 250 died on Nutten Island. After having considered several locations, lands on the Hudson about 115 miles from New York were selected as the most suitable for the purpose. The majority were conveyed up the river in sloops, probably late in September, and were settled on both sides of the river. Two camps were established, one on the west side called West Camp; the other on the east side called East Camp. The latter now is Germantown. The pine trees proved to be of the wrong species to yield the pitch needed for tar, and the tar making enterprise was abandoned two years later.
    Joseph Rikert's name is found first in a "Statement of heads of Palatine families and number of persons in both towns on ye west side of Hudson's River. Winter, 1710." (Dec Hist of NY, Vol. III p 569) The list shows him to be a widower, without children. (However he had 6 children with his first wife Anna Vogel at least some of whom came to America because their descendants later intermarried with their distant half cousins.) The statement contains also the name of Anna Maria Traver, widow with two sons. Joseph Rikert and Anna Maria Traver were married. The marriage is recorded in the West Camp church book, which is still preserved, as follows: "January 9, 1711, Joseph Reichert of Kirchberg, county of Marbach, grand duchy of Wurtemberg, a widower, and Anna Maria, widow of the late Johann Niclaus Traver, a wheelwright, of Wollstein in the county of Creutznach." Tradition says John N Traver died on the voyage to America. The same church book records also the births of two sons born of this marriage: "Johann Bernhard, born December 30, 1711, a child of Joseph and Anna Maria Reichart; sponsers Johann Bernhard Zipperlin and his wife Anna Maria; April 18, 1714, Johann David, born the 17, child of Joseph and Anna Maria Reichert; sponsers Johann Bernhard Zipperlin and his wife." Zipperlin's wife was a sister of Joseph Reichert. The first child seems to have died young. With some 34 of the Palatine families Rikert moved to Duchess county, probably in 1714, there becoming one of the founders of Rhinebeck. The deed of the farm of 76 acres which he purchased there bears the date October 20, 1718. The deed, like about a dozen others, was given some time after he took possession of the land. The deed has been preserved and is filed in the New York Public Library.
     Joseph died probably in 1742. It fell to his lot to help found three churches, all of which have since been continuously active. Upon their arrival at West Camp the Palatines lost no time in providing themselves with a place of worship. The 220th anniversary of this church was celebrated in May, 1930. The original church records contain the earliest American records of the Rikert and many other families. Among the people who removed to Rhinebeck were Lutherans and German Reformers. They jointly built the High Dutch Reformed church and worshiped in it together 15 years. This was the first church in Rhinebeck, and is thought to have been the first in Duchess county. In 1729 the Lutherans sold their share in the church to the Reformers. Joseph Rikert was a Lutheran, and one of the committee to receive the proceeds of the sale. The Lutherans then built themselves a church. This was St Peter's Evangelical Lutheran church. It still functions. The Reformed church was removed to Red Hook in 1800. It is presumed that Joseph Rikert and his wife were buried in St Peter's burying ground. Their graves are not marked.

(Thanks to Bonnie Hamilton who collected and originally posted most of these notes.)
 

SCHWARTZ
 

13.  C onstantia Schwartz --The wife of Johannes Hans Reichert and mother of Joseph Reichert, Constantia was born in 1640 in Dacknang, Neckar, Wertemberg, Germany and died Sept. 27,1678 in Murr, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. She and her husband Hans Reichert had at least 11 children together. Her parents were Adam Schwartz and Agatha Alle.

 

14. Adam Schwartz -- The father of   C onstantia Schwartz, Adam  was born March 2, 1605 in Backnang, Rems-Murr-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and died in 1654 in Württemberg, Germany. In 1630 he married Agatha Alle in Backnang, Wurttemberg, Germany. Agatha was born March 22, 1608 in Oberensingen, Wurtemberg, Germany and died in Wurtemberg in 1648. Her parents were Ulrich Alle (1572-1511) of Oberensingen, Esslingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany and Barbara Brauns (1571-1611). They married on Dec. 30, 1593 in Oberensingen (Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985). Adam's parents were Hans Schwartz and Agnes Krenn.

 

15. Hans Schwartz -- The father of Adam Schwartz, Hans was born Jan.9, 1565 in Webenheim, Saarpfalz-Kreis, Saarland, Germany and died there in 1656. His wife, Agnes Krenn, was born June 19, 1567 in Scharnhausen, Esslingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany and died Nov.13, 1625 in Evangelisch, Denkendorf Neckarkries Wurttemberg, Germany. Her parents were Josef and Anna Krenn of Baden-Württemberg (Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898). Germany, Select Marriages, 1558-1929 records the marriage of Hans and Agnes Schwartz on Sept. 15, 1590 in Evangelisch, Denkendorf, Neckarkreis, Wuerttemberg and gives the name of Hans' father as Mattheus Schwartz.

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16.  Mattheus Schwartz -- the father of Hans Schwartz, Mattheus was born ca.1535 in Denkendorf, Esslingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and died there Sept.20, 1585. His wife's name may be Anna Veigelin (born ca. 1540 in Denkendorf), however I have not found records which would confirm the identity of Mattheus' wife. No further details are known about this ancestral line.