Johan Nicholas Weinert

The following material was donated to the Berks County Genealogy project by: The Lequia Family.

Johan Nicholas Weinert arrived in America in 1749 aboard the ship Dragon. It is interesting to note that aboard this same ship was a Grubaugh family also traveling from the same area of Germany as Johan Nicholas. According to the documentation of the Grubaugh family, they were from the small town of Boebingen which is located about five miles from the birthplace of Johan Nicholas Weinert. A relationship between the two families is suspected; but at this time has not been proven.
    Johan Nicholas Weinert was traveling from his hometown of Hassloch, Pfalz, Bayern or Bavaria in Germany. He had been born there on February 10, 1716, to "Johannes Conradt Weynath and Margretha Pabst". He was christened as "Johan Nicolaus Weynath" in the Evangelisch or Reformed Lutheran Church or Hassloch, Pfalz, Bayern on February 16, 1716. The records of this same church contain the christening records of the other children of Johannes Conradt and Margretha Weynath, who are listed as the parents of at least seven children born to them between 1713 and 1728. The Weynath family had apparently been in the area of Hassloch since at least 1688 when Johannes Conradt himself was christened in the same church as the son of a "Johannes Weynath". Johan Conradt's siblings lived in the same town of Hassloch as did their descendants who would be born there many years after Johan Nicholas left his homeland and traveled to a new life in America.
    Traveling aboard the ship Dragon with Johan Nicholas was probably his new wife whom he had married only a short time before leaving Germany. It is recorded in the Evangelisch Church of the town of Friedelsheim, that "Johan Nicholas Weinerth" married Anna Clara there on June 5, 1747. The marriage record for them states that Anna Clara was the widow of a "Hennrich Christoph Maurers", and that "Johann Niclas Weinerth", was "a widow of Hassloch". Earlier records of the Evangelisch Church of Hassloch reveal that "Johan Nicholas, the son of Johan Conradt Weynath and Margretha Pabst" had in fact been previously married to a "Maria Elizabetha" who became his wife in 1741. A child had been born to this first marriage, a son christened on April 23, 1742 and named "Johan Jacob". A year later another child also was born to this couple, but the second little son must have died in childbirth or soon thereafter for he was christened after he died. No mother is listed nor sponsers indicating that perhaps Maria Elizabetha died while giving birth, and that the child who did not live would have no need of Godparents to sponser the christening. The death of Maria Elizabetha left Johan Nicholas as a "widow from Hassloch" just as had been stated in the marriage to Anna Clara in Friedelsheim in 1747.
    No additional records of Johan Nicholas can be found in Germany. The next record of him is his mark signed on the oath of importation Tuesday 17th September 1749 at the court house in Philadelphia in the presence of Thomas Lawrence, Esquire who was the Mayor. His name was written likely by the ship master, as "Johan Niclas Wyner".
    The descendants of Johan Nicholas have passed down among family records that there were at least three sons born to Johan Nicholas. The oldest known son, Christian recorded at his marriage in 1774 that he was the "son of Johan Nicholas Weinert". No birth record for Christian has yet been found. Birth records for the other two known sons were located only recently and the dates of their births match family records. "Johannes Weimert" was baptized in the Reformed Lutheran Church of York County, Pennsylvania in January 1759 and it was recorded in the records of Johan Jacob Lischy's Private Pastoral Record. The third son "Johan Jacob Weinert" was baptized in the same church and the event was recorded in May 1761. The records of both baptisms state that the parents were "Niclaus Weinert" and "Anna Clara".
    The last record for Johan Nicholas Weinert is an Estate Record dated May 10, 1786. This estate record states that the widow of "Nicholas Weinert", whose name was "Clora" (probably a misspelling of Clara) is to make a full accounting the estate of "Nicholas Weinert" and to become the administer of that estate. This document is witnessed and signed by a John Schnell and Peter Ermolt who in the 1800 census can be found living very close to the "widow Weimert" in the town of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Clara herself signed this document with only her mark.
    No cemetery record for Johan Nicholas has been located and it is supposed that he is buried somewhere in the town of Reading. Clara lived until at least 1800 when she is found on the 1800 Census of Reading listed as "widow Weinert".
    By the time that Johan Nicholas passed away, his three sons John (Johannes), Jacob (Johan Jacob), and Christian had already moved away from Pennsylvania and were living near one another in Virginia. John signed the purchase of his land as "Johannes Weinert". All three sons were on the Botetourt County Tax list of 1784. These three sons had many children, some of whom would eventually move westward to settle in Missouri and Tennessee.
    The surname of Weinert eventually changed to Vineyard over the years. Probably this was because the German pronunciation sounded very similar to Vineyard. As the families became more Americanized the name itself became more Americanized. It is possible that the name "Weinert" had come about in Germany because the family in Germany owned or worked in the Vineyards. One research contact who lives in the town of Friedelsheim states that even today the main industry is producing wine and planting of Vineyards in the town of Friedelsheim. Perhaps Johan Nicholas left behind his father's Vineyards when he set sail to America to begin a new life here. We can only guess as to the origin of the surname. One thing is certain. Based on the birth, marriage and death records of the descendants of Johan Nicholas, the name of Weinert did in fact change over time to become "Vineyard". Some spelled it with an "e" in the middle and others did not. Johan Nicholas himself is often referred to as Johan Nicholas Vineyard; but he never really was a Vineyard. No document shows the Americanized spelling of the name until many years after the death of Johan Nicholas. He was in his lifetime known only as Johan Nicholas Weinert or Weynath.

Parents and Siblings of Johan Nicholas Weinert/Weynath

Johann Conradt was born in 1688, the son of Johannes Weynath of Hassloch, Pfalz, Bavaria. Me married Margretha Pabst on February 15, 1713 in Hassloch.

They had the following Children:
  1. Christoph Weynath b. 1713 in Hassloch, Pfalz, Bavaria.
  2. Johann Nicolauss or Nicholas Weinert/Weinerth/Weynath b. 1716
  3. Johannes Weynath b. 1718 in Hassloch, Pfalz, Bavaria.
  4. Johann Jacob Weynath b. 1720 in Hassloch, Pfalz, Bavaria.
  5. Maria Magdalena Weynath b. 1721 in Hassloch, Pfalz, Bavaria.
  6. Anna Maria Weynath b. 1724 in Hassloch, Pfalz, Bavaria.
  7. Anna Catharina b. 1728 in Hassloch, Pfalz, Bavaria.
Children of Johan Nicholas Weinert
  1. Johann Nicolauss or Nicholas Weinert/Weinerth/Weynath Was sometimes referred to by current day researchers as Johan Nicholas Vineyard although records prove that he never went by Vineyard during his lifetime. He used only the German spellings of the name- see biography above.
  2. Johan Nicholas married first Maria Elisabetha in Hassloch, Germany in 1741. Following her death, he married secondly Anna Clara, widow of Hennrich Christoph Maurers on June 5, 1747 in Friedelsheim, Germany.
    Arrived in America aboard the ship Dragon in 1749.
    Johann Nicholas and Anna Clara had the following children:
    1. Christian Weinert born abt. 1755, probably Lancaster County, Pennsylvania married April 05, 1774 to Anna Christina Tabler, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Middletown, Frederick County, MD. Christian served as a "Patriot" in the Revolutionary War. He died February 27, 1798.
    2. Johannes or John Weinert was born in 1761 in York County, Pennsylvania. His baptism is recorded in Jacob Litchey's Private Pastoral Records. John married Mary Best or Mary Bess Muse. He died July 21, 1834 in Grainger County, Tennessee and is buried in the Vineyard Cemetery there.
    3. Johan Jacob or Jacob Weinert was born in 1759 in York County, Pennsylvania. His baptism is recorded Jacob Litchey's Private Pastoral Records. He married Barbara Bowers . He served in the Revolutionary War and died in 1827 in Blount County, Tennessee.

SOURCE: Evangelical Church Records of Hassloch, Pfalz, Bayern. Copies of original records in papers of Sheri LeQuia.

SOURCE: Evangelical Church Records of Friedelsheim, Pfalz, Bayern. Copies of original records in papers of Sheri LeQuia.

SOURCE : Pennsylvania German Pioneers, passenger lists, Ppg. 481-483

At the Court House at Philadelphia, Tuesday the 17th S'ber 1749
Thomas Lawrence, Esquire - Mayor

The foreigners whose names are underwritten imported in the ship Dragon , Daniel Nicholas Master from Rotterdam but last from Portsmouth in England did this day take the usual Qualifications to the Government

Palatines Wurtembergers Alsatians by --- 88 persons 244 (88 signers, 244 passengers total including women and children)

# 03 : Joseph Georg GRUMBACH (?)
# 06 : Wilbur GRUMBACH
# 08 : Johannes GRUMBACH # 21 : Louis George GRUMBAUGH(?)
# 66 : Conradt GRUMBACH
# 68 : Jacob GRUMBACH
# 42 : Johann Nicklas WYNER (his mark)

Researchers note: In working on the research of my own ancestor Johan Nicholas Weinert, I cooresponded with a Priest of a local church in the town of Friedelsheim, Germany which is the town my immigrant ancestor married in back in 1747. The Priest stated that he had knowledge that many of the townspeople from Friedelsheim, Hassloch, and the small surrounding towns traveled to Berks and Lancaster County, Germany in the mid to late 1700's. I was surprised that he knew this information. He said that many people from nearby small towns would go to Berks and Lancaster County, PA to work. They would then travel back to Germany to bring their families or else send money for the passage of their families to America. He stated that there is a museum in the town of Kusel which is dedicated to the "musicians of Kusel" who made their living in Berks and Lancaster Counties in Pennsylvania and yet lived part of the year back in their homeland of Germany in the town of Kusel and the surrounding area. I suspect that this information could help other researchers to pinpoint their search in Germany. Perhaps it might give just the clue someone needs to locate their ancestor's records.

SOURCE: Berks County, Pennsylvania Estate Record dated 1786. Copy of original record in papers of Sheri LeQuia.

SOURCE: Jacob Litchey's Private Pastoral Record. Copy of transcribed record in papers of Sheri LeQuia.

SOURCE: Frederick County, Maryland Marriage Record of Christian Weinert.

SOURCE: Family stories of descendants of Johan Nicholas Weinert both verbal and written.

SOURCE: Revolutionary War papers.

SOURCE: Research information obtained from the Grubaugh descendants and also the descendants of the Wenger family of Pennsylvania, 1700.

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