Woolever Family

My research has revealed that our earliest Woolever ancester arrived in New York in 1709 from Baden, Germany, during the Palantine exodus. The surname at that time was Wohlleben. Some still use that spelling but many others have varied the spelling, creating over 75 different spellings or derivitives of the same family name. They spent some time on board ships in Liverpool, England before setting sail. Many perished before the sailing and during the long voyage over the sea.

Many of our ancesters settled in the New York/New Jersey areas and spent many years there. Extensive research has been done by various researchers -- one of the major contributors is Stewart Woolever.

For many years we understood my great-grandmother's name to be Wilbur. Even her death certificate shows that spelling. Imagine our surprise when my sister requested the social security application of this Wilbur grandmother and the name was spelled Woolver. Another derivitive of Wohlleben.

After checking the messages boards I was able to see connections with many of the posters. The names, dates and places were so familiar. One such poster mentioned a book by Henry Jones on his own ancestors - Julia Stull. I was able to obtain a copy of this book which contains several hundred pages of documentation on the Wohlleben clan.