Johan Valentine Laux and Anna Catherine (Ruehl) Ruhl

This family lived in Hesse Darmstadt, now a part of Hesse Nassau, in the area of the old town of Wallau. Wallau in what was called "The Palatine" in Germany.  After the Wars of King Louis XIV this area along the Rhine was totally devastated and starvation was a reality. King Louis the XIV was upset with this group of people and worked to destroy them.  Johan Valentine and family went with 30,000 other Palatines to London in 1708 and 1709.  The Queen had invited these German Protestants to live in England's American Colonies.  Some of these people ended up being sent to Ireland and others were returned to the ruined area of Rhine.  In 1708 Valentine and his family were sent to Limerick, Ireland per church records at Wallau.  At first he was not included in a group being allowed to go to the American Colonies.  As it turned out, Johan Valentine along with his wife and children were among 4,000 Palatines that left on one of 10 ships from England on Christmas day 1709 for the American Colonies. These people were destitute and looking for a new home and opportunity.  The ship arrived in New York on June 14, 1710, but it was not without casualties.  Among the 4,000 Palatines who set sail for America, seventeen hundred died at sea.  Both Johan Valentine and his wife Catherine were almost half of the passengers on this voyage who died at sea  A number of their children did arrive in New York and among them was our ancestor Elisabeth Catarina (Laucks) Laux.  The hardship of the journey would not end here.  Problems continued into the next generation of our family that arrived in America.