The names found on this website represent
the fabric and fiber of the history of my Schrock, Park, Birkey and Zehr
families. They are surnames of two different communities--mostly Anabaptists
and English dissidents, with a few revolutionaries thrown in as counterpoint.
The Anabaptist history of faith in God, quiet, simple living, and non-violent,
peaceful attitudes have shaped the majority. The Swiss German Birki,
Zehr, and Schrag families came to Illinois mostly from Alsace-Lorraine
and Bavaria, after fleeing their native Switzerland following the Protestant
Reformation.
Celebrated farmers in Europe, these former leaseholders of large estates
found the rich farmland of the central U.S. very attractive. After difficult
periods of pioneering, most turned their acreage into profitable farms.
Other immigrants were millers and woodworkers. All sought freedom to
worship God without consequence and practice their faith as they believed
the Bible taught. Their unwillingness to participate in war was another
factor moving many families from Napoleonic France to America.
The dissenters and revolutionaries started their trek to America from
the north of England, along the border with Scotland--Northumberland,
Cumberland, Lancashire. The immigrant Roger Parke was a "dissident" while
still in England, leaving the Church of England to become a Quaker. The
allied Mills family members were well-established Quakers connected to
the Hopewell Meeting House--the first Quaker meeting established in the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Arriving in America in the 1600s, these English immigrants took part
in the forming of the nation, the Revolutionary War, and the movement
west through Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky to Missouri. They
were land owners and farmers, and in a few cases, slave owners.
Varied as they were, we respect those who have gone before--learning
from their mistakes and successes in order to leave a solid legacy for
generations to follow. |