Carolina Hallmans - Part 5 (Final) Some future Carolina Hallman or Holman may be able to trace back to one of the above his pioneer ancestor. Mr. Gandee has our thanks for this contribution to the origin of the surname Heilman. It is universally the tradition among all branches of Heilman Hallman-Holmans that the original settlers spoke German. It is overwhelmingly the belief among recent generations that they came from Germany, though a few state that Alsace was the original European home. Yet, whenever a study has been undertaken, the conclusion has been reached that Switzerland was the native land. Ezra Eby, in his History of Waterloo Township, Ontario, Canada, some of whose pioneer settlers were Hallmans, descendants of Pennsylvania Anthony Hallman, stated on page 751 of this 1895 publication: "Anthony Hallman, ancestor of the numerous family of that name in Pennsylvania and other part. of the United States, and Canada, was born in Switzerland." Thomas Andrew Hallman, a descendant of John Wendel Hallman, in 1932 handed down to his children an outline of their family origin in which he wrote; "Father came from Switzerland about 1750 or 1760. Settled in Newberry County, S. C." Rev. Samuel Thomas Hallman, descendant of John Wendel Hallman, also years earlier, was reporting that the Hallmans were Swiss. It may be considered, too, that at the time the earliest South Carolina Hallmans reached this country the settlers of their general group were predominantly Swiss. However, the only known European records place Anthony Hallman in Germany. As earlier stated, records of Anthony Hallman locate him in Kleinniedesheim, Germany, in 1710 and in 1718. In an original note of Dr. R. L. Meriwether, Head of the Department of History at the University of South Carolina before his death, the note given to the writer, Dr. Meriwether states that Conrad Holman said that he came from Switzerland. These two origins are not necessarily contradictory; hundreds of Swiss migrated to or through Rhineland, Germany. Their path led down the Rhine and through the Dutch port of Rotterdam to America. Those who came to America may have lingered in Germany for a long or a short period. Because of the upsetting nature and struggles of the wars they experienced and because there was migration away from the home centers, family knowledge of the first two Hallman-Holman generations seems to have been almost completely lost. Years of research - some 35 - have restored to the family the names of most of the early members of this clan, but with much difficulty in assigning them to specific families. One can only make such groupings as will conform to all known data, realizing that in those cases where circumstantial evidence was the predominant factor errors may have crept in. The data found could not be complete, for deaths, marriages, and movements to other states blotted out the names of some. >From such records as have been unearthed we can give the names of most male Hallman-Holmans of South Carolina who were living between 1749 and 1800. Names of girls are largely lacking. In the period during which the Heilmans entered South Carolina, the Royal Period, a settler obtained a grant of land by appearing before the Colonial Council. The colony was governed by a Governor, an Upper and a Lower House of Assembly. The Council constituted the Upper House when in a legislative capacity, as Council when in administrative capacities. Under the Crown of England the sole right to grant land was vested in this Council. Sometimes a descendant of a grantee of the Pre-Revolutionary Royal period proudly boasts that his pioneer ancestor in South Carolina was granted land by King George himself. This is amusing. The Council did all the granting, with the king utterly unaware of the individuals involved. Grants were printed forms, with blank spaces to be filled in with dates, the names of the grantees, and a description of the land given. When the grant had been approved by the Council, a warrant or precept was issued to the Surveyor General, who designated a deputy surveyor to make the actual survey. The surveyor, when he had done so, certified the resulting plat The grant was made on the basis of this plat. As. during this period the settler was given 50 acres of land for each man, woman, and child in his household, the number of acres granted reveals the size of the family. The files of precepts, plats. and grants are not complete, many lost or misplaced. During these years, only four men appear in South Carolina records with the surname recorded as Hallman. Besides the above Andrew, we find a man listed in the Council Minutes of November 29, 1750, as John Henry Hallman. There was also a John Wendel Hallman who reached Grimm's Creek between 1750 and 1760, though he had come into South Carolina years earlier. In Volume IV, Statutes of South Carolina, pages 198 and following, there is a list of men due money for service in connection with Indian affairs. In this list is the name of a Conrad Hallman, the name so spelled. Traditions and such factual information as are available would indicate that Andrew, John Wendel, and Conrad were brothers, John Henry a son of John Wendel Hallman. They will be so accepted. This will be a history of Andrew, John Wendel, and Conrad Hallman or Holman and their descendants. * * * *