Becoming German tells the intriguing story of the largest and earliest mass movement of German-speaking immigrants to America. The so-called Palatine migration of 1709 began in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire, where perhaps as many as thirty thousand people left their homes, lured by rumors that Britain's Queen Anne would give them free passage overseas and land in America. They journeyed down the Rhine and eventually made their way to London, where they settled in refugee camps. The rumors of free passage and land proved false, but, in an attempt to clear the camps, the British government finally agreed to send about three thousand of the immigrants to New York in exchange for several years of labor. After their arrival, the Palatines refused to work as indentured servants and eventually settled in autonomous German communities near the Iroquois of central New York.Becoming German tracks the Palatines' travels from Germany to London to New York City and into the frontier areas of New York. Philip Otterness demonstrates that the Palatines cannot be viewed as a cohesive "German" group until after their arrival in America; indeed, they came from dozens of distinct principalities in the Holy Roman Empire. It was only in refusing to assimilate to British colonial culture—instead maintaining separate German-speaking communities and mixing on friendly terms with Native American neighbors—that the Palatines became German in America.

In 1723 a number of Palatine families were allowed to take up lands in the Mohawk Valley of New York. Those settling in the bounds of the present county of Herkimer were known as the Burnetsfield Patentees, after the name of the grant made by New York Governor William Burnet, and are the subject of this formidable work. This book deals with the families established in the area before the Revolution, and detailed genealogies are given for almost 100 of them.

When originally published in 1933, this classic work listed for the first time the names of the early Palatines of New York State, the original settlers of the Mohawk Valley, known as the "Gateway to the West." The estimated 20,000 names are classified, combined, and otherwise arranged to enable the researcher to identify Palatine immigrants in relation to specific categories of records. Among the important lists of names are the following: (1) The Kocherthal records of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, 1708-1719; (2) Palatine heads of families, from Gov. Hunter's Ration Lists, 1710-1714; (3) Lists of Palatines in 1709 (the four London lists of emigrants from Germany, most of whom emigrated to America); (4) Palatines remaining and newly arrived in New York, from the colonial census of 1710; (5) Names of Palatine children apprenticed by Gov. Hunter, 1710-1714; and (6) Various lists of Palatines in the colonial militia of New York.