Upon arrival, the German immigrants were quarantined on Nutten Island, now Governor’s Island, just off the southern tip of Manhattan. Due to unsanitary conditions, disease had run rampant aboard the ships from England. Typhus, in particular, had taken the lives of hundreds. Fearing the spread of disease, the governor forced the Palatines to remain on Nutten Island until October of that same year, awaiting clearance by examining doctors before allowing them to join the other colonists.

In October of 1710, Philipp and Maria sailed up the Hudson River to East Camp (present-day Germantown), NY. They settled there alongside thousands of other German immigrants, to begin work in the naval stores. It was in East Camp that Philipp and Maria’s youngest son, (Johann) Henrich Schutz, most likely met Anna Christina Keller, also from a Palatine family.

Henrich and Anna Christina were married around the year 1735. On October 3, 1736, a son, Simon, was baptized in the Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston, NY. After Simon’s birth, we can trace their existence through the birth records of their next six children. Henrich and Anna first moved to Loonenburg (present-day Athens), NY, where daughters Marytje and Annatje were born. They then moved to Linlithgo, NY, where daughter Sara was born. They finally returned to Germantown, NY, by 1745, where daughters Catharina and Jantjie, as well as another son, Samuel, were born.

Henrich and Anna’s first son, Simon, was married to Christina Schmidt, around 1765 near Albany, NY. Simon and Christina eventually settled in Claverack, NY, then a part of Albany County. Shortly thereafter, the 13 American Colonies declared their independence from English rule. Simon answered the call to arms, and worked his way to the rank of sergeant in Richard Esselstyn’s Company of the Albany County 8 th Regiment Militia. Just a few months after the Declaration of Independence was signed came the birth of our next ancestor. Conrad Schütz was born September 30, 1776, and was baptized October 27 of the same year in Claverack’s Reformed Dutch Church.