One of the gaps I had in the family tree was for the wife of John Perlette (Cory’s 3X Great Grandfather through Geneva Perlette Storer). As an aside, John Perlette has a grandson John Perlette who married Hannah Hastings. It always helps to clarify when there are multiple generations with the same name. John the elder was born in Germany and with the help of Roots Quest Research we have been able to trace the family back a few generations in Germany. John’s wife continued to be a mystery. Many online sources had her listed as Dorothea Gelwick, but researching the Gelwick families in Pennsylvania I was unable to find where she might fit.
I was able to work with a Pennsylvania researcher and with some sleuthing in court records we found the answers. It started when I was able to find a court record where Phillip Perlette (Cory’s 2X Great Grandfather) was due a share of his grandmother’s estate. I knew that his Perlette grandparents were in Germany, so this had to be his mother’s parents. Dorothea died young, so her children were due a share of the estate. First, there were several guardianship records with various spellings of Perlette that included Ballot that needed to be sorted through. From there we were able to back track the details and find that Dorothea’s parents were Phillip Gerwig and Eva Magdalena Braun. Phillip’s will was written in German, so we know they were from a German speaking region. Specifically where in the German speaking regions of Europe will will take a bit more research, but it is so nice to be able to place Dorothea with her parents to get started!
Cory and Nicole Family History 