The "Immigrant Ancestor"
for the Swiss-German PA-to-VA (and beyond) Hiestand family.
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Hiestand
(Hier Stehe! = "stand here!")
Page 317 of Americana Germanica, edited by Marion
Dexter Learned. Volume IV, No. 1, 1901.
Article: "Studies in Pennsylvania German Family
Names" by Oscar Kuhns.
Page 175 of Deutsche Familiennamen by Wilheim Tobler-Meyer
(Zurich: Albert Muller's Verlag, 1894). |
An "Immigrant Ancestor" is an ancestor who crossed the ocean,
from some other continent, to come to and settle in America.
Heinrich Hiestand is the immigrant ancestor of all of his
American descendants. Daniel Haston and his siblings were
first-generation Americans, in the sense that they were born in
America as the children of an immigrant from Germany, Heinrich
Hiestand (whose ancestors had emigrated from Switzerland to
Germany a few generations before him).
Henry Hiestand was born on October 8, 1704 in the
Palatinate region of Germany and died on October 5, 1779 in
Virginia. "He arrived in America in 1726 and was single
upon his arrival. He was in Lancaster County, PA early but is
not found on any passenger lists. It is assumed that he
arrived before 1727." (Beginning in 1727, ship captains were
required to create and submit lists of passengers.)
Source: Page 83 of "Swiss and German Mennonite Immigrants From
the Palatinate, 1718-1726" by Richard Warren Davis in Volume
XIII, Number 2 (April 1994) of Mennonite Family History.
A grandson of Henry Hiestand reported that "his
grandfather Hiestand was also a native of Germany, and emigrated
to Lancaster County, PA in 1727." The author stated that
this was an "authentic record, personal knowledge, and
statements made to me by Joseph Hiestand, an older brother of
Samuel."
Note: This Joseph Hiestand was a son of Jacob Hiestand, son of
Henry Hiestand.
Source: Page 368 of Authentic Genealogical Memorial
History of Philip Powell, of Mifflin County, PA: And His
Descendants and Others, with Miscellaneous Items and Incidents
of Interest, Volume I. Dayton, OH: Published by author, 1880.
Two major questions remain unanswered
regarding our Henry Hiestand
1. Who were his parents?
The identity of Henry's parents, as well as his
earlier ancestors, may never be known for sure. But what
evidence we have at this time might suggest that they were
Hans Henrich and Maria Gochenour Hiestand.
2. Who was his wife?
As per David B. Trimble (page 347 of Hiestand of
Virginia) "Family tradition states that Henry Hiestand's wife
was named Kauffman and the two families were associated in
Germany, Pennsylvania and Virginia." We do know that Henry lived
adjacent to Coffmans in Hempfield Township in Lancaster County,
PA and just down the South Fork Shenandoah River from
Kauffmans in what is now Page County, VA. In the 1700s,
close proximity was a good possible indicator of family
relationships, but the family name of Henry Hiestand's wife is
not known for certain.
As
far as we know, Heinrich Hiestand lived in only two areas of
America.
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