The focus of this Part Two are the Pennsylvania and Ohio ancestors of Alfred Krotzer and Matilda Mae Clink, Bonita Jackson Billick’s grandparents.
Pennsylvania Roots
The Krotzer-Clink branch of the family has its most distant New World roots in two Pennsylvania settlers of the early 1700s: Martin Frolich (1735-Oct. 1810) (also known as Johann Martin Froelich) and Anna Margaretta Neiss. There is scant biographical data available about Martin. He was a clergyman who served in the Pennsylvania militia during the Revolutionary War. He died in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Anna Margaretta Neiss was born in 1700 in the town of Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, a hamlet in the center of the state on the banks of the Monongahela River. This is interestingly just a few miles from McKeesport, where the Billick ancestors briefly lived 180 years or so later, on their journey to Ohio. There were a handful of Niess surnamed settlers in Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s, probably ultimately of German-Dutch origin. Anna Margaretta was likely a relative of one of them.[1]
Anna Margaretta and Martin were married July 3, 1757. Their daughter, Anna Maria Frolich (1748-1792), was born in 1748. With her marriage to Adam Brunthaver, a more fully informed account of the family history can begin.
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Notes
[1] Spelling variants include Neiss, Naess, Nesse, and Niess; with the latter being the most common.
{last update: 12-Mar-2023}