Strevell History

Strevell Family History

www.strever.org Strever Family History

The 18th Century Register of Emigrants from Southwest Germany to America and Other Countries show 4 Strübel children coming into the United States in 1752. The children are Anna (b.1735), Appollonia (b.1731), Catharina (b.1727) and Ulrich (b.1728). They arrived with their father, Jacob (b 1704). Also arriving at the same time is: Melchior (b.1706), Johann (b. 1725), and Johann (b. 1732). The Johann born in 1732 is the Johannes that the Strever line comes from and his name gets changed to Johannas. Melchior was a 2nd cousin to both Ulrich and Johann and at some point, he returned to Germany as this is where he died. It is unclear who the other Johann is.

Working with professional genealogist, Warren Bittner, out of Salt Lake City, to trace Ulrich's roots back in Germany. The farthest back we have gone is to Michel Stribel, born before 1611. These details show that Ulrich (b.1728) and Johannes (b.1732) were not brothers, but they were third cousins.

The remainder of this History will be focused on Ulrich, with some information provided about Johannes . There are maps of the area showing they had adjoining farms near the Ancram lead mines, around the 1780's, which in those days was very common for families. The maps show the name spelled as Streval but it was not uncommon for there to be misspellings. The farms on these maps were definitely their farms because the locations tie to all the other historical information. In addition to the adjoining farms, they were sponsors for each other's children.

Johannes` and Ulrich's names are spelled several ways and from here on out, in this writing, they will be spelled as "Johannes" and "Ulrich" unless another source such as a census, map or book is being quoted. It is important to note that names were often spelled incorrectly and it has carried down. The original spelling of Ulrich's name, according to the church records, is Ulrich Strübel.

The original family name was Strübel, sometimes spelled Stribel as well as Striebel. The u with the dots, a standalone " i" and "ie" were often interchanged. Once the family arrived in the United States it became Strevel. This would explain why the census takers and emigration people would have written Strubel in some of the records. In any event, Johannas` line changed it to Strever after Johannas and his wife died. Both of their gravestones have Strevel on them, which would confirm this. Ulrich's line kept the Strevel name until the early 1800`s. By this time this family line had moved up to the Berne area of New York. It appears that George Strevel and possibly Johannis Strevel left the Berne area and went to Canada. Everyone who stayed in Berne changed his or her name to Strevell. George (and possibly Johannis) left the named unchanged. Eventually, some of the Canadian Strevels, came back to the United States and settled in Michigan. There are now Strevels, Strevells and Strevers all around the United States as well as Strevels in Canada. And in Germany, there are both Strübel's and Striebel's that are related.

More about Johannes