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About the Pennsylvania-Dutch
Are you searching for your German ancestors? If so, here are some clues.
The dialect of German known as “Pennsylvania Dutch” originates from a widely-scattered agricultural population. Several dialects were brought chiefly from the region of the Upper Rhine, and the Neckar Rivers, the latter furnishing the Suabian or Rhenish Bavarian element. The language is therefore “South German”, as brought in by emigrants from Rhenish Bavaria, Baden, Alsace (Alsatia), Würtemberg, German Swisserland, and Darmstadt.
Also, there were natives from other regions, as well as certain French Neutrals deported from Nova Scotia to various parts of the United States, including the county of Lancaster iin Pennsylvania. These persons, and probably some families with French names from Alsace, are indicated by a few proper names, like Roberdeau, Lebo, Deshong and Shunk (both for Dejean), and an occasional word like júschtaménnt (in German spelling), the French justement, but which a native might take for a condensation of just-an-dem-ende.
Welsh names like Jenkins, Evans, Owen, Foulke, Griffith, Morgan, and Jones occur, with the township names of Brecknock, Caernarvon, Lampeter, Leacock (‘Lea’ as lay), and in the next county of Chester — Gwinedd and Tredyffrin; but there seems to have been no fusion between Welsh and German, probably because the Welsh may have spoken…
