Hi Suzanne, May I suggest that possibly your Hessian ancestor was not the one who changed his name, but that it underwent a metamorphosis, so to speak, over time. That is what happened in my soldier's case. His name at birth was Johann Jacob Rierschneck. His name listed in French on the Ansbach Muster lists was spelled as Jean Rührschneck, Ruhrschneck, Rierschneck, Riehrschneck and Ruhrschnech. His name as recorded in early Virginia records over the years has been spelled Reversnuck, Rosenake, Raresnake, Rearsnake, Raresnick, Raversnuck and Reversnuk. And 230 years later, the spellings our family uses today are Rasnick, Rasnake and Rasnic. Because the newly emerging country was a hodgepodge of varying languages, dialects and levels of literacy, many foreign names were spelled as each individual heard it, and in as many different ways as the people who transcribed it. The English heard it one way, the Scotch-Irish another, the French and Germans, still another. So while most of the Hessian soldiers might have been able to write their name, maybe that's one of the reasons why so many signed documents by their mark. Just a thought. In any event, it's a miracle that any of us can tract down our Hessians with problems like these! Marie Rasnick Fetzer -----Original Message----- From: Suzanne Pryse Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 5:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AMREV-HESSIANS] Trying to understand the Hessians I haven't figured out why my Brunswicker changed his name from Scherzberg to Shotzberger, but we have proof that it was changed within his lifetime. I personally don't think Shotzberger particularly sounds more English. He settled in a part of Pennsylvania that already had "Germans" living there and married the daughter of an immigrant from another part of Germany and wondered if that was why he changed it. I've talked to modern Germans who can't figure out either. I can tell you that in studying my Welsh ancestors, I've discovered that they spelled names phonetically on census records and spelled their own childrens' names differently every ten years going back to 1740 census and they could read and write. Suzanne From: Wayne Simmons <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 2:37 PM Subject: [AMREV-HESSIANS] Trying to understand the Hessians Nelda Percival, I like your summary story about the Hessians in America! Do you any information about the number (if any) of the Hessians that stayed in American and married into the Native American Indian tribes? Could there have been any number Hessians that either resided in or moved into the Sand Lake, New York area? Also, was it a common practice for some Hessians that stayed in America to change their surname and if they changed their surname was there some common method to establish the new surname? Thanks for any help with these questions!! Regards, Wayne Simmons http://simmonsgenealogy.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nelda Percival Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 1:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AMREV-HESSIANS] Searching for Daniel Howard Chris, If you haven't found his military records how do you know " He originated from Hesse, Kasel, Germany." Hesse Kasel was a principaloty Please be aware Germany was NOT a country untill after 1900. COPIED FROM THE WEBSITE - http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/why.htm In early 1776, King George III of England hired units from the various houses or states of Germany to assist with bringing the the colonist's rebellion to order. The hiring of foreign troops to supplement a country's army was a normal procedure during this time of history. Several of the German rulers, needing hard currency and being "between wars", were only too happy to oblige. They were Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (a principality in northern Hesse) King George III's brother in law, his son William, count of Hesse-Hanau and nephew to King George III; Charles I, Duke of Brunswick; Frederick, Prince of Waldeck; Charles Alexander, Margrave of Anspach-Bayreuth; and Frederick Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. About 18,000 Hessian troops arrived in North America in 1776, with more coming in later, of this about 3/4 of them were from Hesse-Kassel. Thus the colonist's newspapers referred to all of them as Hessians and the name stuck. In addition to firepower, American rebels used propaganda against Hessians. They enticed Hessians to desert to join the German-American population. In April 1778, one letter promised 50 acres (0.2 km²) of land to every deserter. Benjamin Franklin wrote an article that claimed that a Hessian commander wanted more of his soldiers dead so that he could be better compensated. After the war ended in 1783, 17,313 Hessians returned to their homelands. Of the 12,526 who did not, about 7,700 died - around 1,200 were killed in action and 6,354 died from illness or accidents. Approximately 5,000 Hessians settled in North America, both in the United States and Canada - some because their commanders refused to take them back to Germany because they were criminals or physically unfit. Most of them married and settled amongst the population of the newly formed United States. Many of them became farmers or craftsmen. The number of their direct descendants living in the U.S. and Canada today is still being debated. Paraphrased or copied for verbatim from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessians There have been many emails sent to the archives discussing the reason that the units from these different Germanic States were called Hessians instead of by their own area's name.....~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ALSO: http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/germany.h tm The Germanic States in 1775 History of the Germanic StatesNice map and full history Nelda L. Percival, Administrator of Y-DNA surname projects Gilpin, Cupp, Bonstein and Gillock My Genealogy - http://freepages.folklore.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/index.htm GeneticGenealogy - http://www.geneticsand.us Blog - http://aircastles-lets-talk.blogspot.com/ GilpinGenetics: http://www.gilpingenetics.us/ Web Mistress for LCRG - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~molcgdrg > From: [email protected] > Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:16:41 -0500 > To: [email protected] > Subject: [AMREV-HESSIANS] Searching for Daniel Howard > > Hello - > > I am hoping someone can help me in my search. > > What I DO know is that my hessian ancestors name was Daniel Howard. After capture he was working farms in Greenwich, Ct before marrying an American. Im having trouble in finding out where Daniel was captured. He originated from Hesse, Kasel, Germany. I am assuming that the last name HOWARD might have been changed from a more German last name. If anyone can provide help I would appreciate it. > > Thank you > > Chris Howard > > > PLEASE CHECK ALL OF YOUR SUBJECTS! > ~~~~~~~~~ > FOUNDER: John H. Merz 1924-2006 Created 1998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ > http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~bonsteinandgilpin > ~~~~~~~~~~~~ > ADMINISTRATOR<Kerri> [email protected] > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message PLEASE CHECK ALL OF YOUR SUBJECTS! ~~~~~~~~~ FOUNDER: John H. Merz 1924-2006 Created 1998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~bonsteinandgilpin ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADMINISTRATOR<Kerri> [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message PLEASE CHECK ALL OF YOUR SUBJECTS! ~~~~~~~~~ FOUNDER: John H. Merz 1924-2006 Created 1998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~bonsteinandgilpin ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADMINISTRATOR<Kerri> [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message PLEASE CHECK ALL OF YOUR SUBJECTS! ~~~~~~~~~ FOUNDER: John H. Merz 1924-2006 Created 1998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~bonsteinandgilpin ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADMINISTRATOR<Kerri> [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message