The Palatines from the Rhineland arrived in Pennsylvania beginning around 1730 and right up to around the time of the Revolutionary War. Because they settled at first on land purchased from William Penn, They were in close proximity to one another. This led to very tight knit communities and a tradition of marriages between other German immigrants. Therefore, the history of other branches of the Riegel line are very similar. They came from the same area, made the same treacherous journey up the Rhine River, crossed the Atlantic to Philadelphia, and started new lives in a wild new world very different from where they came. But the values, norms, traditions and faith helped them to transform the wilderness into thriving communities with farms, mills, textile factories, and other manufacturing that helped to form the heartland of Pennsylvania. Some of the names of my ancestors include the Rohrbachs, Fenstemechers, Startzlers, Mittlemyers, Kleins, Kintakers, Plattners, TsCudys, and Mosers.

I was able to trace my great grandmother, Harriet Rohrbach,(1863-1924) back to Hans George Rohrbach (1708-1760) and Christina Moser (1708-1762) in the Rheinland. Unable to go further back with the Rohrbachs, I started tracing the Mosers. Here I found a family whose origins were actually in Canton, Bern, Switzerland as far back as 1459. For three successive generations, the only name given was the surname Moser, successive dates 1459, 1485, and 1510. In 1539, I have the name of Hans Moser Mosimann and his wife, Barbel Engel. The Mosers appear in the Rheinland in 1658 with one Johann Michael Moser, who died in 1716.His wife was Eva Mittlemyer (1630-?).