Laurence Sykes,

I have been researching the Bechtlers for several years now. I am very interested in whatever you found out about the family prior to their arrival(s) in Pennsylvania and North and South Carolina.

Some of the sources seem to get a few of the names wrong, and might even mix up the two Christoph names. I just got back from a week in North Carolina trying to resolve the following:

I see that Alt Christoph landed in NY in October 1829 with a Johannes (Jno Bechtler)- 18 y.o. goldsmith, along with a 19 y.o. Augustus and a 12 y.o. Charles (Carl Bechtler).

They appear to have gone together to Philadelphia immediately, but I can't tell if the younger Christoph was already working at the jewelry shop on Cherry St in Philadelphia before then, or if this shop was started by the new arrivals.

The younger Christoph is often assumed to have traveled from Baden to NY in 1829, but I believe he was already in Pennsylvanian in 1828. He was about 10 years older than August and, I assume, a son of Lentz/Lenz not Alt Christoph.

John doesn't show up very often in any records after 1829 except to purchase several items at the estate of Alt Christoph and then August's estate after they both died in the 1840's.

I can see that there are at least two couples named John and Katherine Bechtler who appear in later records in and around Pennsylvania. One of them is originally from Baden, if I recall, but I can't trace for sure if this particular John stayed in Philadelphia or if he ever moved with the family to Rutherfordton. I have suspected that this John was young Christoph's brother, not the older Christoph's brother, based on how his name got entered separately from the first three after disembarking in NYC in 1829.

Is this what your ancestry research shows?

I hope we can share a lot more info...

Thanks,
North Carolina Mountaineer