If someone had asked me about my ancestry a few years ago, I would have told them that I am Dutch-German... because that is what my father told me. He said this (I think) because the Germans who immigrated to Pennsylvania from Deutschland became known as "Dutch Germans." However, they actually came from the Palatinate region of Germany. Indeed, Frederick Schittenhelm (the immigrant) came to America from Aach, Germany, which is less than 9 miles northwest of the Swiss border. and in earlier generations, our family lived in the region of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).
Thus, the members of our family who bear the surname of Shedenhelm (and any of its many variants) are German... and I have proudly traced our ancestors back to Haincz Schuttenhelm, who lived in the middle of the 14th century. We have been blessed with an impressive family in Germany, and the record shows that our distant relatives and direct ancestors were Judges, Mayors, City Council members, skilled craftsmen, and successful farmers. They lived in times of war and political and religious upheaval... and they were among those who made their country stronger.
I am proud of my ancestors, and I look forward to walking where they once walked some day. However... my DNA results show that I am 99.8 percent European, which includes 6.7 percent French and German, and a little less that 2 percent Scandinavian. My genetic group reaches its zenith in Alpine Germany and Switzerland. Its ID is R1b1b2a1a2d, which indicates that I am part of a large group of people who settled around the Alps by 2300 B.C., and who had moved into Great Britain by 2100 B.C. Thus, if you asked me today about my ancestry, I would say that I am the product of at least four distinct genetic branches- 1) one of which reaches back into medieval Germany and settled in America as farmers from 1750 on; 2) one of which is rooted in Scotland and includes many distinguished families in that country, 3) one of which is rooted in England and played a predominant role in the earliest settlements in Masachussetts and Rhode Island; and 4) one of which settled in Maryland and represents its most influential families.
Even though our "Shedenhelm" line is unbroken for 17 generations... our heritage is much broader than our surname alone. In the first place, I had a grandmother as well as a grandfather, and therefore, Mervin Simmons and Mary Agnew joined Joshua Shedenhelm and Elizabeth Johnson as my great-grandparents... and they also had four great-parents, who all had four great-grandparents themselves. Ir would be hard to overstate the impact that the Simmons family (who linked us with the Howard's and other prestigious European families), the Agnews (which also have an unbroken line over 17 generations), and the Johnsons, who lead us to many of the families who settled our first colonies... had on our family. Moreover, as the Shedenhelms themselves married families like the Schalls and the Blues, our family branched out in very important ways.
In short, our family tree includes scores of surnames that I will list below, with direct ancestors identified in BOLD type.. If you follow the SHEDENHELM LINE AND THE BRANCHES STEMMING FROM IT, you will encounter these surnames: ADAMS, BARTHOLOMEW, BEAUCLERC, BECK, BLUE (BLAUW), Bricker, BROWNING, Carlson, CLARKE, CLEMSON, Coulter, Eckhart, Egger, Ekleberry, Farver, FIELD, Fisher, FitzAlan, Freet, Freeze (Friecz), Freyhoffen, Goushill, Green(e), Haeniger, Hammond, Harms, Harrison, HARTZFELDT, HATZFELDT, Hinschberger, HOLBROOK, Holden, Howerton, Huber, HUMMEL, HUTCHINSON, Jans, Johnson, Kolb, Lavely, LEASE, LIEBERSTEIN(Livingston), Limones, MOSES, MOWBRAY, Myers, Nace, Nichols, OLNEY, RAUSCHER, Rhys (RICE), Rosenberger, Rounceville, Rumple, Ruse, Sayles, Schafbuch, SCHALL (in all its variations) Schuhmacher, Scudder, Shaffer, SHEDENHELM (in its many variants), Sheldon, Sheridan, SKELTON, Slaymaker, Sortore, Starkey, Steinbrenner, Stodgill, Tanner, Tressler, Tucker, Van Leeuwen, Von Bavaria, Von Diez, Von Effertzhausen, VON FURSTENBERG, Von Isenberg, Von Saffenberg, Von Sayn, Von Sponheim, Von Veldenz, Waterman, Welton, Whipple, Wic(k), WINSOR, WILLIAMS, WHITTINGTON
If, on the other hand, you follow the SIMMONS BRANCH AND THE BRANCHES STEMMING FROM IT, you will encounter these surnames, among others: AGNEW, BAKER, Barlow, BJORNSSON, Brasseur (BRASHEARS), BROOKE, BRUCE, Carrick, CHENEY, DENT, DOUGLAS, DRUMMOND, Dunbar, DUVALL, Erskine, Fitzhugh, FitzRobert, FLOWERDEW, FORD, GORSUCH, HALL, Harris, HOWARD, Hyland, JARBOE, Knollys, Lancaster, Le Strange, Lindsay, Mainwaring, Mathews, MEARS, Miller, MONTGOMERIE, O'CARROLL, PHILLIPS, PLANTAGENET, PRICE, SCARBOROUGH, SHERMAN, SIMMONS, Spencer, Stogdon, TATTERSHALL, Webb, WEST, WILKINSON, YEARDLEY.
It is well beyond the scope of my work to present a detailed account of our entire family, but I will highlight some of our family members by surname in future blogs.
