Palatinate

Palatinate  were the Germans who migrated to America from  two different parts of Germany. The Upper Palatinate was located in Northern Bavaria, on both sides of the Naab River as it flows south toward the Danube. And eastward to the Bohemian Forest.

The Lower or Rhenish Palatinate was in southwest Germany between Luxembourg and the Rhine River. It included lands on both sides of the Middle Rhine River. Heidelberg was it’s capital until the 18th century. 

Many of the early German settlers were refugees from the Palatinate.
In 1723 a band of 50 Palatinate families fled from NY (where they were only given 10 acres of land per family and went to Pennsylvania at the invitation of  the PA governor, Governor William Keith.  They settled along the Tulpehocken Creek in Eastern Berks County. By 1734 more families joined them after petitioning the Governor. And they settled in what became known as Lancaster Co.