#10194 John Andreas "Andrew" Rosensteel◊ ( Johannes Rosensteel◊ )
Other names for Andrew: John Andrew Rosensteel◊, Andrew Rosenstiel◊, John Andrew Rosentiel◊.
Andrew was born 10 Sep 1743. He was christened 18 Sep 1743 in Christ Lutheran Church, York, York Co., Pennsylvania. He died 1821.
Transcriptions of his birth and baptismal record have the surname as Rosentiel. Similar records for his children have it as Rosenstiel.
According to some stories, notably those published in [Hedley], he came to America with the Hessians during the American Revolution. The following is from [Hedley].
The elder Andrew Rosensteel was induced to join the Hessian Army in the belief that the then new world might be made safe for colonization. When he learned that the German king of England had waged war against a people fighting for liberty, he deserted to the American Army and fought with it to the end of the war. When hostilities ended he settled in Hempfield township near what now is know as Middletown, a tract of land being patented to him.
Neither John Merz' listing of Hessians remaining in in America, nor his listing of those taking an oath of allegiance to Pennsylvania list a Rosensteel. There is also the difficulty that his father came over in 1733.
There are two possible explanations I can see. The first is that my ancestor Andrew has been mistakenly identified as the John Andreas who was Johannes' son. If this is true, then Andrew could be a Hessian and John Andreas could have been born and baptized in York. I don't reject this theory but I haven't followed it since it would fail to preserve a lot of information without certainty. A second possibility is that [Hedley] got it completely wrong: it wasn't John Andreas who served, it was his brother, John George, and it wasn't a German regiment in the sense of Hessians, but a German regiment in the sense of the German Regiment from Maryland.
If we assume the second is correct, we find a John Andrew Rosentiel listed as born and baptized in York, York Co., Pennsylvania. I've only seen the indexing of records but other researchers report he was sponsored at baptism by John Andrew Nehwinger and Elizabeth Koerber. Amusingly, both the father and mother are listed as John Rosentiel in the index.
I've found the following paragraph in a number of compiled genealogies. There's the obvious difficulty that the 1890 census would have no information about someone born 150 years before.
In 1781, they traveled west, to Fort Pitt [now Pittsburgh] as it was then called in Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania. They had six children and according to the 1890 census only five were living and these were younger than sixteen. He was said to have been granted a thousand acres of land by the Commonwealth for serving in the Revolutionary War, but confirmatory records have not been found. In 1786, he was granted another patent for 72 acres in Hempfield Township. He then bought 5 acres out of Philip Wentzel's land grant of 1790. Again after Philip's death, he bought another of the parcels from his brother John Wentzel. Both of these Wentzel tracts were assigned to Andrew, Jr. [John Andreas] in 1817. John Andrew and his wife Catherine had married and started their first family while still in their native town of York, Pennsylvania before migrated to Pittsburgh.
We do find Andrew Rosensteel on the 1810 Federal Census of Hempfield Twp. This census shows him, a woman in the 26–45 age bracket (presumably Catherine) and three girls under age 10. Since none of his children that we know about would fit into that category, we might suspect these are granddaughters.
Andrew and (presumably) Catherine are living alone on the 1820 Federal Census of the same place, next door to their son, Andrew, and quite near Andrew's brother, George. Note that Ancestry.com appears to mis-categorize their ages: it shows them as being in the 26–45 age bracket. However, the scan of the original records shows them in columns 6 and 11, which were the 45+ age bracket for men and women, respectively. He is marked as a farmer on this census.
∞ Andrew married #23688 Anna Catherina "Catherine" Altmast◊.
Marriage notes |
They married Abt 1755 in Sewickley Twp., Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. |
Catherine was born Abt 1745 in Sewickley Twp., Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. She died 6 Jul 1830.
There is an older David Altman or Altmast living very near to them on the 1810 Federal Census. If Catherine's maiden name is Altmast, as some have reported, this may be a relative, perhaps even her father.
Children of this relationship:
| #37964 | M | i | John Jacob Rosensteel | (20 Oct 1772–Bef 1790) |
| #37962 | F | ii | Susan Rosensteel | (8 Feb 1774–1790) |
| #10307 | M | iii | John George "George" Rosensteel | (7 Feb 1776–30 Mar 1833) |
| #10306 | M | iv | John Rosensteel | (9 May 1778–1790) |
| #10303 | M | v | John Jacob "Jacob" Rosensteel | (8 Sep 1780–4 Oct 1860) |
| #10305 | M | vi | Christian Rosensteel | (7 Oct 1783–) |
| #37954 | M | vii | John Andrew "Andrew" Rosensteel◊ | (9 Aug 1785–17 Nov 1862) |
| #10304 | M | viii | John Peter Rosensteel | (18 Jul 1789–1800) |
1810 U.S. Census, Hempfield Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania, Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, Roll: 51; Page: 850; Image: 00186; Family History Library Film: 0193677.
1820 U.S. Census, Hempfield Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania, Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, Page: 117; NARA Roll: M33_112; Image: 127.
Capt. Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old And New Westmoreland, Vols. III-IV, (New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), vol. IV, p. 865. Ref. as [Hedley].
F. J. C. Herzog, Records, Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, City of York, York County, Pennsylvania, 1733-1800, manuscript, 1919. Lineages, Inc., comp. York County, Pennsylvania, 1733-1800: Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Jan Bunten, "Jan Bunten's Genealogy Home Page", compiled genealogy, (http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/9347/index.html).
Janet K. Warter, "Mainly German, Swiss, Scotch-Irish Families of Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania", RootsWeb GEDCOM, (Ancestry.com WorldConnect , db=jkw2).
John Merz, AMREV-HESSIAN, (http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~amrevhessians/military/), last checked 8 Jan 2019.
K. L. Baumgarten, Descendents of Johannes Rosenstiel born 1714, https://docplayer.net/52302462-Descendents-of-johannes-rosenstiel-born-1714.html. A note at the end indicates that it was compiled by "K. L. Baumgarten, a descendent[sic] of Jacob Rosensteel through his granddaughter Catherine Rosensteel, who married Thomas Waggoner, through their son William Waggoner and Clara Jesson." This Modified Register of descent appears to be drawn primarily from Robert J. Rosensteel's book, The Rosensteels of America: from Germany to Western Pennsylvania 1733-1892. Ref as [Baumgarten].
Notes from Landis, ref. as [LandisNotes].
Unknown, Charles D. Copeland Ancestors, diagram of ancestry tree found among possesions of Charles Daniel Copeland, Jr.
Line Generation: 2
Relationship: Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather
