12 | Johann Becomes John
It now seems odd that I hadn’t made the connection before. It was as plain, as they say, “as the nose on my face.” But it happened when I was reading a history of the German Hessian soldiers where it said that “many of the deserters who were responsible were let out of the Fort Frederick prisions to work on the farms nearby. Many local residents claim descent from the Hessians who remained in this area after the war, and americanized their names.”
That was it! Johann and John were one and the same! Sure, Johann had left a wife in Germany, and I didn’t know what happened to her. Sure, Johann was a little older than I thought John would be with his younger children. But everything I knew came together in a dramatic moment of realization. There were Census records of John’s living in the area… none of Johann. There was no record of Johann ever returning to Germany. The dates and events fit! Yes, Aunt Grace had said that she had heard that John spoke German and “Broken English.” The “third missing link” had been found! So, after more research and much more collaborating information, I found that the following is the story of our ancestor.