The large Bruch family of Rhodt unter Rietburg is known in North America as the alleged source of the larger of the two Prugh families (no relation to the author). Jacob Bruch, who settled in Trappe, Pennsylvania in the 1720s, was the father of Conrad Bruch who started going by ‘Prugh,’ nearly a century before the author’s family made the change.
Some histories of this Prugh family claim descent from the Rhodt family. This assertion rests on the recurrence of the name Jacob and that a Jacob Bruch, who was the right age to be the father of the immigrant Jacob, disappeared from the Rhodt church records.
It is true that this Jacob, a surgeon, does indeed disappear from the Rhodt records. However, he turns up in the records of nearby Landau when he marries. His marriage record makes it clear that he was from Rhodt. Jacob lived in Landau for several years before moving to Dürkheim.
Jacob the surgeon had a son named Jacob who would have been the right age to be the immigrant claimed by the Prugh family. However, this younger Jacob became a Lutheran minister, and died in Bechtheim in 1771.
Therefore, since all Jacob Bruchs of Rhodt are accounted for and do not emigrate, I conclude that the Rhodt family is not ancestral to the larger Prugh family of North America.
For more information on the Bruch family of Rhodt, click here.
Bruch Family History 
If the information about the Prugh family is true, as you say, and none of the Prugh family in Europe immigrated to America, then where di the Prugh Family in America begin?
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Hi Bill, thanks for your question! I’m saying that the Bruch family in Rhodt was not the source family of the Prugh families in North America as was once thought. These families certainly came from Bruch families, likely in the Palatinate, but not from Rhodt.
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