[Pharmboy]

Especially interesting for those of you who trace your roots to PA and/or have old American/German roots.

[Pharmboy]

Hessian Grenadiers

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...

[married21]

So, does this mean that Hessians brought braunschweiger style liverwurst to America? My mom used to buy that for sandwiches when I was a kid.

[righttackle44]

". . . the Brunswickers and Braunschweigers . . . ."

Candle makers and sausage makers?

[Brad from Tennessee]

A friend of mine traces his lineage on his father's side to a Hessian POW. He said groups of disarmed Hessians in a long, straggling line were walking down a road, unguarded, to a POW camp north of the family farm where his great-great-great grandmother, who was German, grew up. He said when one of the Hessians heard my friend's ancestors speaking in the field in German he walked over to them and struck up a conversation and never left.

[Western Phil]

They supposedly brought the Hessian fly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_fly a pest of cereal crops.

The way to reduce or eliminate damage from this pest is to plant your wheat after the fly free date http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Winter_wheat_and_the_Hessian_fly_free_date/

[Iowa Granny]

A great read. Thank you.

My people came thru PA from Germany.

[KarlInOhio]

I don't know if he was from Reading, but on "Who Do You Think You Are" Rob Lowe's ancestry was being investigated and he was excited about tracing a great (times however many) grandfather and his patriot history. Turned out gramps was a Hessian soldier who stayed after the war.

[huldah1776]

The ancestor of Rob Lowe stayed. It was found out on “Who Do You Think You Are?” Don’t watch T.V. but luckily heard about this episode.

[airborne]

Thanks from a Lebanon County boy!

[JerseyHighlander]

Local legend, and some historical records (I don’t have access to right now), all say Hessians stayed on not just in eastern PA but Northern NJ and Southern NY too.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for posting. My folks spent 40 years in nearby Chester County which has its own incredible Revolutionary history.

[Mountain Bike Vomit Carnage]

I am a direct descendent of the Hessians, last name Shively, that were in the Revolutionary War and settled in Pennsylvania.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I believe either my g-g-g (or gx4) grandfather was one of those Hessian mercenaries, but he settled in New Jersey.

[the OlLine Rebel]

“If they did not have the money, an American citizen could pay it provided the Hessian agreed to be indentured for three years.”

This is not PA-related (I assume), but it makes me think what I found in CT may have been due to this.

As a graveyard- as well as RevWar-lover, I spent many weekends hunting out old graveyards in CT when I lived there. Many touching RevWar-related graves (in those days, they told stories more than now).

Wondering a graveyard I saw a stone with a copper cap “protecting” it - it was a plain squared stone so easy to do. The squaring was unusual for the period, too.

The grave was for a “Hessian” soldier who stayed on, living with the family who hosted him until his death in the early 1800s. Never married, apparently. Makes me wonder (and perhaps it was on the stone; I don’t recall all details 15 years later) if he was 1 of those indentured.

So touching to see these graves.

[OneVike]

My ancestry leads to a gentleman named Mathias Zimmerman who was born on December 2, 1752 in PA. Zimmerman is German for carpenter. So I read that he Anglicized his last name to reflect his trade in English and thus took on the last name of Carpenter.

I often wondered why he would anglicized his name. Who would not be proud of their ancestry? Now I am wondering if he did so because a relative may have been a German who came to America to fight for the British.

He would have been an adult during the revolution, but maybe the name Zimmerman came with bad memories for some. Who knows but my ancestry, on my Grandfathers side, stops with him and thus goes no farther back that I have been able to trace.

Curious is all, just curious.

[AnalogReigns]

I have a g-g-g-g-grandfather who died on board one of the British prison ships anchored off Brooklyn during the Revolution. Conditions were horrendous there, typhus, dysentery, etc.....with OVER 11,000 patriot prisoners dying in those hell-hole scows--more than all of the patriots who died in battle.

I only found out about this a couple years ago--but bizarre to know something like that about a direct ancestor.

Prison Ships Martyrs' Monument in Brooklyn, NY

[Seitzinger]

Wow this is a neat site. I was doing some research and came across this post. I've seen a couple of photos and have read that not much remains of the Hessian Prison Camp. Do you know if it is on public land, or if there is any talk of preserving it? The Hessian Camp is of great interest to me, as my 5th Gr. Grandpa Johann Michael Seitzinger was a prison guard there. My family immigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1763,and when the war broke out my 6th Gr. Grandpa, 5th Grandpa and 2 Uncles signed the Oath of Allegiance to the Colonial cause. I live in Indiana, but have been wanting to visit that area, mainly Berks Co. I have a lot of family roots there.
My Grandma Anna Margareta ‘Vanderslice’ Seitzinger was the daughter of Henry Vanderslice. He was sheriff of Berks Co. at the start of the war, and when the Declaration was adopted it was his duty to read the Declaration of Independence to the public. The Berks Co. courthouse bell called the residents of Reading to Penn Square, for the reading of the Declaration, and he informed the public of what had been declared on their behalf,July 8 1776. After he served his 2 year term, he enlisted as a wagoner supporting the troops with supplies through PA and NJ. I enjoy hearing stories that have been passed down through the generations of families through the years. That is good raw history, and you'll never find that in any book. Some of it disturbing, but at the same time gives insight to what our forefathers had to endure on the frontier.