This is information from a distant cousin living in Germany,
Peter Jung. He has done an incredible amount of research on the Flick line. He and I were discussing
some information in my database when he dropped this bombshell on me, which he then posted on the
Flick Forum at GenForums.com
FLICKS to AMERICA 1751 - 1785
A lot of American members of the Flick-Family try to find their traces back as far as possible
in the New World; some of them are related to Gerlach Paul Flick who arived 23.09.1751 aboard
the ship Neptune. His further live and descendents are documented in the USA, his origin is proofed
from the church books of Emmerichenhain parish. Being a descendant of Flicks in several ways, I
started my family research 25 years ago, using and reading the original churchbooks of Emmerichenhain
as well as the old Beilstein-tax-lists from Wiesbaden archive (I took abt 10 000 copies from 14th to
20th century). In 1999 May 15th I documented and published my result in Genealogy.com "Flick Family
Genealogy Forum" titled Descendants of Chun Flick * abt 1540
Since that time a lot of people used that source to continue their own pedigree.
Some of them copied my research and published it as their own work in the internet!
That`s shabbily.
Nevertheless I still find mistakes and gaps in a lot of essays, comments and homepages of members of the
American Flick-Family. So I decided to help you all with my knowledge to find some right information as
well as some surprising news. Whatever I found out can be proofed from my documents.
1. No one was born 07.03.1728 in Emmerichenhain parish at all; I don`t know who posted that wrong
information first.
Gerlach Paul Flick was born 7 March 1731 in Emmerichenhain
Copy from Emmerichenhain baptism record 1731
10) 7. March (1731) Jonas Flick the younger and Anna Margarethe spouses from here bring a son for
baptism. Godfathers are...
...the child
Gerlach Paul
2. It was in 1750/1751 when several (young) man from Emmerichenhain parish decided to
leave their country. You find them together in the Neptune passenger list: Johann Christ
Schmidt (from Niederrossbach or Rehe ) Johann Henrich Reinhard (from Oberrossbach)
Johann Peter Flick, Johann Martin Flick, Gerlach Paul Flick and Johann Philipp Flick (all
from Emmerichenhain village);
Using all my data and documents I could find out, that there is no doubt about Gerlach Paul
Flick`s identity because he is the only one with that name in that time. From the nearly 20
Johannes Peters, Johann Martins and Johann Philipps I could more and more exclude:
some died before 1751, others left Emmerichenhain and appeared in other villages after
1751, others stayed in Emmerichenhain, had property, families and died later then 1751.
At last there were only 3 Persons left: Johannes Peter Flick *15.06.1717, Johann Martin
Flick *04.01.1728 and Johann Philipp Flick *11.02.1731. They disappeared without any
trace from the churchbooks, tax-list, soldier-list and so on.
And it`s surely no chance, that they were brothers and sons of Johannes Peter and Anna
Elisabeth Flick. Those young men were not married except of Johann Martin. He
married 27.11.1749 Anna Margarethe Größer and had a son Georg Wilhelm Flick *
15.11.1750; may be somebody can find out if his wife and his first son are
mentioned later on in any U.S. document.
3.What`s about Johann Gerlach Flick?
Johann Gerlach Flick is a cousin second degree once removed of the three other
Flick emigrants. His parents Johann Christianus Flick and Anna Margarethe Geist
married 09.02.1727 and had 8 children. The second child was Johannes Peter *1729
and the third was Gerlach Paul *1731. It seemed reasonable to suppose both brothers
sailed to America; But now we know it`s wrong.
Johannes Peter Flick (brother of Johann Gerlach) 13 Mar 1749 married Anna Gertruda
Goebel * 23.12.1729, widdow of Johann Jacob Sahm. In 1750 young husband Johannes
Peter left Emmerichenhain to serve as a Soldier in the Netherlands. While being absent his
wife got an illegal boy;
Copy from Emmerichenhain baptism record 1751
because of the extraordinary meaning of that I translate the original baptism record word by word:
the 4th of February (1751) Johannes Peter Flick`s wife from here named Anna
Gertruda brought during he is absent serving in Dutch services
an illegal son to baptism and to be the father of that child
she declared her husband`s brother GERLACH PAUL FLICK, Schöffe (Alderman?)
Jonas (i.e. short form of Johann Christianus) Flick`s son from here. Godfathers...
The childs was baptized Philippus Henrich
Johannes Peter came back later and had 7 own children (between 1756 and 1766) in
Emmerichenhain. That showes definitv that he didn`t emigrate.
I don't know if Gerlach Paul had decided to emigrate before; but now he had one more good reason.
You can imagine what might have happened when his elder brother came back and met together with
him. Besides Johann Christianus' family was a very honourable one in Emmerichenhain and Gerlach
Paul was something like a black sheep now. But that`s not the end of the story.
Johannes Peter cared for his brother`s son but everyone knew Philipp Henrich was illegal.
When he married 10.03.1778 Anna Maria Jung from Hof (8km north-west from Emmerichenhain), the minister
declared him as the foster son of Johannes Peter (church-book entry). They had three children:
Johannes (Martin) *1778, Anthonius *1781 and Johann Ludwig *1784.
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lindv/gedcom/emmerichenhain/WC04/WC04_059.htm
The father is wrong, the children are not complete; The third boy`s baptism was unfortunately linked by
Cathy Mellor to a wrong family so that everyone in the States copied that mistakes. It seems no one reads in
the church documents himself!1
Though Philipp Henrich was the oldest boy in the family he had no chance of own property as to be
a farmer on his own land. We know, that early emigrants contacted people in their left country by
sending letters, sometimes they came on visit to clear family affairs; I`ve got such documents from
Wiesbaden archive. So it seems reasonable Gerlach Paul knew about his son and wanted to give him a
chance in his life.
In 1785 Philipp Henrich emigrated to the USA with his whole family – you can find them in the ship
list. http://www.flickfamily.com/images/PassList.jpg
This was only possible with his father`s help. Father and son met together first time in their life
when the ship arived the States and Philipp Henrich settled nearby in the same church district. May
be they had an agreement not to disclose their real connection.
You now understand Gerlach Paul`s last will:
...."whereas I have paid in my lifetime 50 pounds for a certain Philip Flick who is since departed
this life, this 50 pounds with interest should remain in the hands of the children of said Philip" [Flick].
( From http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vgdeagan/flick.htm )
Dear Cousins,
I hope you understand everything and excuse my moderate Englisch knowledge.
I hesitated for some time to publish the secret of the relationship between Gerlach Paul and
Philipp Henrich Flick, but I think it`s fair to help you find your roots; maybe one day all is
lost and it will take a long time that someone finds it out again.
I`m afraid I`ll soon find my information as the knowledge of someone else in the internet, but
I hope the honest members of the Flick community will not forget to mention the real source.
Besides: Chun Flick *abt 1540 was not born in Emmerichenhain,
There are even some hints he is a descendant of a noble family back to 12th century;
I´m working on it¸ but that`s another story...
©Peter Jung /Am Limes 1/56130 Bad Ems/ Germany January 2009 peupi@aol.com
1: I've tried to reach Cathy Mellor repeatedly, even before getting this information
from Peter, but her contact info is no longer valid ~tf
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