Hans Jerg Wehrli ¹

  Research Notes:

Dutch.

From http://www.edenstree.com/:

In speculative view, the roots of our branch of the Wereley family extend back to the Palatine Migrations from Germany. Some Palatine immigrants came directly from the Palatinate through Rotterdam; others journeyed farther through Holland and England, then on to the Colonies. They moved to avoid heavy taxation and harsh conditions in their homeland, and by 1750, an estimated 70-80,000 Germans had emigrated. Most sought land grants promised by William Penn and entered the Colonies through the port of Philadelphia. However, land grants were limited in number, and soon ran out, causing many immigrants to move on to the upstate NY area for farmland. Others entered through the ports of New England and New Amsterdam, traveling to the upper Hudson River Valley area to work in the Naval Stores Project, producing pitch for the Royal Naval Fleet, but they were less well documented. Only Philadelphia kept good records of immigrants and ships' passenger lists; other ports kept sparse records if any at all. It was not until 1820 that ports were required to keep records, making non-Philadelphia immigration before that time difficult to track. With the coming of the Revolution, many Palatines who fought against the rebels split off and traveled to Canada, principally to Stormont and surrounding counties in then Canada West, now called Ontario, and pledged loyalty to the Crown. This entitled many to UE land patents from the Crown in return for their support. The history of the Palatine migration is well documented, and visiting the links at the left will provide an evening's worth of good reading for the history buffs among us. Our purpose here is not necessarily to study the movements of the people geographically - but to examine their movements genetically.
Several principal male lines of the Wereley family and their probable progenitor are of particular interest: Hans Jerg Wehrli and his wife Barbara are recorded in 1754 in the Albany NY area with new-born daughter Eva Gertraut and son Pieter, born in 1753 according to KRRNY records. Pieter married Maria Schmitt (Smith) about 1773. Their son Peter begat the The Peter (Psalter) Werley line. Son George Werley Sr. sired George G. Werely Jr. b. 1808, and likely Jacob b. 1811 and Martin Wereley, b. 1815, each of whom founded long lines. Pieter and Maria also apparently begat John Wereley, b. 1778, who established the Schoharie line which stayed in the Schoharie region when the others emigrated to Canada. The John "Hansie" Werely, b. Abt. 1800 line through a branch yet to be discovered.. "Hansie" appears to have moved to Canada and wed Barbara Ann Werley - Peter "Psalter" Werley's daughter. The "Hansie" line later merged with the Martin Wereley line with the union of Hansie's son, Harvey and Martin's daughter, Henrietta Wereley. The various spellings are not typo's - the name began as Wehrli but mutated and was listed in official and anecdotal records variously as Werley, Wereley, Werely, Werlee, Werlie, Wearly, Warely, Warly, and on, often within the same family - same generation. To further stir the witch's brew, genealogists over the ages have innocently and understandably homogenized the name into one or two spellings. John (Schoharie) Wereley's will spells the name multiple ways in the same document! His own daughter likewise waffles between spellings.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Residence, 1754, Stone Arabia, Albany (Montgomery), New York, (United States).

Hans married Barbara.