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The Footprints of Time
Welcome!
This site is dedicated to documenting the genealogy and history of
our family, which includes the surnames Arambasich, Becker, Beagley,
Burditt, Churchill, Clute, King, Metz, van der Zee, Wrobel, Raczkowski, Wioncek and
Yoder.
Immigration and Genealogy
Genealogy is more than just collecting birth and death dates. The purpose of this web site is to document
the stories we find that would otherwise be lost. How do we do justice to those who have gone before us?
Who braved the privations of frontier life and wars, who survived a long voyage in steerage over storm-tossed seas,
who battled prejudice and religious persecution both in their home countries and after coming to America.
We are all descended from immigrants, even the Native Americans. Our ancestors did not all go through
the citizenship process nor did they always obey the letter of the law. Thankfully, they did not live in a time
when such were scooped up by masked men and carted off to foreign prisons.
What was it like for the Beagley brothers and their Churchill cousin to march with Sherman's army to
Atlanta (although some fell before they got that far, at Nashville and Chickamauga)? What was it like to
drink kerosene to ward off the diphtheria epidemic that had already killed several family members, as it raged across the Midwest after the Great Chicago
Fire? What was it like to bury 5 children and then start over to have 4 more, including our great-grandfather
Sam King? What was it like for the parents of Storm van der Zee in 1636 when their ship had been driven
off course by a storm that nearly capsized their boat?
Before the building of railroads and
superhighways, rivers formed the preferred style of travel for
inland voyagers. Thus, the great cities of the ages were built
on the banks of flowing streams, which provided not only water to
drink, but the means to travel quickly and reliably to the next town
or, in some cases, clear across a continent. In our
family history, the great river of Europe, the Rhine, is prominent
and from mountain villages near its source in the Swiss Alps came the
Yoders and the Kings. From further
downstream in Baden came the Metz family, and
there they were joined by the Beckers and Clutes in
disembarking from Rotterdam, where the Rhine flows into the sea, before making the harrowing
trip across the ocean to the Hudson, the Mississippi or
the St. Lawrence. They often endured cramped
quarters and meager rations as they made their way across the
Atlantic, starting with Storm van der
Zee in 1636, before sailing up the Hudson to Albany and Saratoga.
With the passage of time, they have left footprints along the way, some of them textual,
and some pictorial, which we gratefully pick up and document here as
the Footprints of Time.
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Persistent Pioneers
Most of our ancestors were tillers of the
soil. Storm A. L. Becker
settled down to make his living as a
farmer along the banks of the Hudson River, just north of its
juncture with the Mohawk. That life was cut short, but
meanwhile, the King family settled along the rivers and streams of Southeastern Pennsylvania. As land became crowded in the
Eastern United States, both Beckers and Kings made their way westward,
in covered wagons or by canal boat, crossing the Cumberland
Gap or sailing their way across the Great Lakes. They cleared
the land of its primeval forests, built their log homes, suffered
disease and accidents, crop failures and Indian raids
and through it all, raised their families and settled the
homestead, laying the foundations for generations to
come. Samuel
Koenig's story is but one example.
Soldiers, Sailors
Danger was an element of every pioneer's life
and often military service was among the challenges they faced. Members of
the Clute, Becker and van Schoonhoven families served with distinction
in the Revolutionary War, in campaigns along the Mohawk
and the Hudson Rivers. Beagleys and
Churchills fought bravely in the 100th Illinois Infantry
at Chickamauga, Nashville and Missionary Ridge during the Civil War,
taking their ease along
the way on the banks of the Tennessee
River. At least two of them never came back. George Becker answered the
call when the Spanish-American war broke out, mustering
in at Cincinnati along the Ohio River, and members of the Metz family served in World War II and
Korea. Other family members served in the Army during
Vietnam and some are serving in the Armed Forces even
today. We salute their bravery and dedication, for as Thomas
Jefferson famously wrote
, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the
blood of patriots...".
They Also Came In Peace
The Kings and Metzes were originally
followers of the Mennonite faith, which proscribed military service,
according to their interpretation of the Bible. Despite
persecution for their beliefs, they remained steadfast in following
their strict interpretation of Scripture, in the face of martyrdom
and banishment from their ancestral homes. Visit the Peace Page for
a synopsis of the Scriptural basis for these beliefs.
Come Again
We try to update the site with something new every month (as our schedule permits), so come back
for trip through the Footprints of Time when you can. Comments and suggestions are
always welcome.
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