HETRINA is a six volume index of Hessian troops who fought for the British in the American Revolution. The full name of the work is Hessische Truppen im Amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitskreig (I love unabhängigkeitskreig, it's such a sprawling octopus of a word).
Volume 3 of HETRINA lists two Dirlams, Konrad and Wigand, both from Ottrau. Ottrau is a little farm community in the former Hesse-Kassel. Were these Dirlams brothers? Cousins to our ancestor?
Konrad and Wigand served as Privates in Company 3 of the Fusilier Regiment von Knyphausen. Fusiliers were specialized infantry troops, lightly equipped so they could move quickly, and usually used either to harass enemy troops or to protect the main body of their own troops from similar attacks by the enemy.
The Regiment von Knyphausen, commanded by General Werner von Mirbach, was garrisoned at Ziegenhain, just 18 miles north of the Dirlam home town, Ottrau. They got on a ship in April 1776, and arrived 4 months later in New York. They fought at Long Island and White Plains before General Mirbach suffered a stroke. He was replaced by Colonel Johann Gottlieb Rall, and on October 28 they fought again at Fort Washington. These battles resulted in capture of New York City by the British, and flight into New Jersey by the Continental Army.
Konrad Dirlam, who was born 1753/54, has just one HETRINA entry - his death in November 1776.
Wigand (also spelled Weigand) Dirlam, born 1758/1759, survived to fight at Trenton in December 1776, before being listed as a Prisoner of War in February 1777. According to the Journal of The Johannes Schwalm Historical Assocation, Inc. volume 3, number 1, he appears on a list made by the Germans on 27 February 1777 of prisoners taken as a result of the battle at Trenton: he was sent 100 miles west as a prisoner to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was parolled in July 1783 after preliminaries to the Treaty of Paris ended the war. He was still in the army in 1785, 2 years later.
So, these two Dirlams helped drive Washington's army from Manhattan. Unfortunately, HETRINA's first 5 volumes do not list John O Dirlam, and my local geneology library doesn't have Volume 6.
Update: I've since had a chance to review Volume 6 in San Diego, and there are no Dirlams listed. None. But a John Dirlam does appear on a less well known list. See my post on the von Scheither Recruits.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Sylvanus Snow
Sylvanus Snow was the father of John O Dirlam's first wife, Sarah. Sarah's grandfather moved to Ashford in Windham County, Connecticut in 1725 and played an active role in village life. Five more children were born there, including Sylvanus, born on March 17, 1732. By 1775 Ashford had 2231 inhabitants including 13 slaves, one of whom belonged to Sylvanus' brother, Samuel Snow. And Sylvanus had served repeatedly in the Militia during the French and Indian War:
During the struggle over taxes in the run-up to the Revolutionary War, Boston was a center of protest, and 4000 British troops were in occupation. There was a great deal of public sympathy, both generally in Connecticut, and specifically in Ashford, and in 1769 the legislature passed the Non-importation Agreement. An Ashford town meeting appointed brother Samuel Snow and two other men to a committee, "To see that no merchants, shop-keepers, nor peddlers import, put off, or traffick in Ashford, any goods, wares, or merchanize that are imported contrary to the Non-importation Agreement."
A few days after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, near Boston, in April of 1775, the Connecticut Assembly called for a 6000 man militia, and Sylvanus Snow enlisted again. Aged 43, he served May 1 to September 11 in General Putnam's Third Regiment, recruited in Windham County (specifically Captain Knowlton's Fifth Company recruited in Ashford). Two 1000-man regiments raised in the northeast, and therefore closest, raced to Boston to try to keep the British garrison there from traveling out into the countryside again. Thomas Knowlton, elected Captain, led 200 of his neighbors, mostly farmers armed with shotguns. June 17, they fought along the fence at Breed's Hill, and Knowlton was promoted to Major by Congress. Our ancestor, Private Sylvanus Snow, was mentioned in an officer's report as having lost his gun in the fight. **
These enlistments were for the "fighting season" only, because in the 18th Century it was too difficult to fight during the winter months when average temperatures were below freezing, and too expensive to support men in camps.
When did Sylvanus Snow move his wife and 8 surviving children to Becket, Berkshire County, Massachusetts? Perhaps after 1775, the date of his final enlistment, and before 1781, when his oldest daughter married John O Dirlam in Becket?
Update: Sylvanus Snow first bought land in Becket in 1788. His son Levi, brother Timothy, and nephews all bought first, starting in 1782.
He lived out the rest of his life in Becket, where he appears on the rolls of the first three census. He doesn't appear on the 1820 census, but he and his wife may included with the men and women over 45 listed with their son Levi. Sylvanus died January 19, 1828, two years after his wife, and they are buried together at the old Congregational Church graveyard in Becket. ***
Sources:
- 1758 - Sylvanus Snow, age 26, served 10 April to 5 November in Colonel Eleazer Fitch's Third Regiment (Captain Jedediah Fay's Tenth Company recruited in Ashford) *
- 1759 - Savanus Snow, age 27, served in General Phineas Lyman's First Regiment, based in Sheffield (Major John Slapp's Third Company recruited in Mansfield)
- 1762 - Silvanus Snow, age 30, served 18 March to 3 December in General Phineas Lyman's First Regiment, based in Sheffield (Captain Hugh Ledlie's Tenth Company)
During the struggle over taxes in the run-up to the Revolutionary War, Boston was a center of protest, and 4000 British troops were in occupation. There was a great deal of public sympathy, both generally in Connecticut, and specifically in Ashford, and in 1769 the legislature passed the Non-importation Agreement. An Ashford town meeting appointed brother Samuel Snow and two other men to a committee, "To see that no merchants, shop-keepers, nor peddlers import, put off, or traffick in Ashford, any goods, wares, or merchanize that are imported contrary to the Non-importation Agreement."
A few days after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, near Boston, in April of 1775, the Connecticut Assembly called for a 6000 man militia, and Sylvanus Snow enlisted again. Aged 43, he served May 1 to September 11 in General Putnam's Third Regiment, recruited in Windham County (specifically Captain Knowlton's Fifth Company recruited in Ashford). Two 1000-man regiments raised in the northeast, and therefore closest, raced to Boston to try to keep the British garrison there from traveling out into the countryside again. Thomas Knowlton, elected Captain, led 200 of his neighbors, mostly farmers armed with shotguns. June 17, they fought along the fence at Breed's Hill, and Knowlton was promoted to Major by Congress. Our ancestor, Private Sylvanus Snow, was mentioned in an officer's report as having lost his gun in the fight. **
These enlistments were for the "fighting season" only, because in the 18th Century it was too difficult to fight during the winter months when average temperatures were below freezing, and too expensive to support men in camps.
When did Sylvanus Snow move his wife and 8 surviving children to Becket, Berkshire County, Massachusetts? Perhaps after 1775, the date of his final enlistment, and before 1781, when his oldest daughter married John O Dirlam in Becket?
Update: Sylvanus Snow first bought land in Becket in 1788. His son Levi, brother Timothy, and nephews all bought first, starting in 1782.
He lived out the rest of his life in Becket, where he appears on the rolls of the first three census. He doesn't appear on the 1820 census, but he and his wife may included with the men and women over 45 listed with their son Levi. Sylvanus died January 19, 1828, two years after his wife, and they are buried together at the old Congregational Church graveyard in Becket. ***
Sources:
- Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian War, 1755-1762, edited by Albert C. Bates, 1903
- Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution, compiled by authority of the General Assembly, Hartford, 1889
- Personal visit April 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
German telephone listings
Does an online search point to John O Dirlam's birthplace in Germany? Does the family name continues in Hesse today.
Spelling can be an issue with old American records of German names. My mother's family spelled the name Dirlam, but descendants of John O Dirlam and his second wife spelled it Durlam. All the Berkshire and Hampden County records spell it Durlam. Census workers spelled it Derling, Derlam, and Durlham. To American ears some German sounds are confusing, like 'ü' or 'oe' and 'D' or 'T.' So how is it spelled in the old country? I searched for lots of spelling variants and Dirlam is by far most common, with Dierlam a distant second. No other variants have phone listings in Hesse.
The German language genealogy website www.verwandt.de shows 69 telephone listings for Dirlam in:
Brunswick was in the Duchy (Herzogtum in German) of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Most of the districts supplying troops were Hessian, but Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel is actually closer to Hannover. In fact, besides being King of Great Britain and Ireland, George III was also Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince-Elector of Hannover. In the pre-unification mess of Germany, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was subsidiary to Brunswick-Lüneburg, which explains why Duke Charles William Ferdinand (ruled 1773 to 1806) hired 5,723 troops to his brother-in-law George III.
Since the Hessian duchies supplied 2/3 of the troops it's not accurate to call them Hessians. So why do it? Of course it's much easier than listing Anspach-Bayreuth, Anhalt Zerbst, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Waldeck. But more important, at the time, was lack of strong German national identity.
Hesse runs roughly from Kassel in the north to Darmstadt in the south. The two cities are about 140 miles apart and Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, with its 16 Dirlam telephones, is a rural district about halfway between them. Schwalm-Eder-Kreis is a modern political division located in the former Landgraviate (Landgrafschaft in German) of Hesse-Kassel. Landgrave Frederick II (who ruled from 1760 to 1785) rented 16,992 troops to King George III of the United Kingdom. The Hannovers (George's family) were related by blood or marriage to every Protestant noble family in Europe, especially the Hessians. George's niece Mary became Frederick's first wife. When Frederick converted to Catholicism, abandoned his Protestant wife, and threatened to take Hesse-Hanau out of the Protestant alignment, Frederick's father and George III forced him to create a separate Hesse-Hanau Landgraviate for Mary and their son William IX.
Main-Kinzig-Kreis, with its 4 listings, was in that new Landgraviate of Hesse-Hanau. And Landgrave William IX (who ruled 1763 to 1806), hired 2,422 troops to his uncle, George III.
Wetteraukreis, Giessen and Vogelsbergkreis, totalling 9 listings, were all in the former Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, ruled by Landgrave Louis IX from 1768 to 1790, and not involved in the War of Independence.
But two Dirlam families actually emigrated here from Vogelsbergkreis. Fortunately they came in the 19th Century when better records were kept. One of these, the George Dierlam family, settled in Seadrift, Texas in 1848. Another, the Jacob Dirlam family came to Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1854. Both these families were from Vadenrod, a little farming village in Vogelsbergkreis with just a few hundred residents. Curiously, there are two phone listings in Geissen for the spelling variant Dierlam, as well as the 5 spelled Dirlam. We don't know if there is any blood relationship to either family. If you take a moment to look at a map, you'll find another village, just 3-1/2 miles south, called Dirlammen - so there's a locational version of the family name.
SUMMARY:
The 16 telephones in Hesse-Kassel are in Neukirchen, Schrecksbach, and Schwalmstadt, just 5 miles away from Ottrau, the birthplace of Konrad and Wigand Dirlam. And Vadenrod, the Hesse-Darmstadt town the Jacob and George Dirlam families left when they emigrated to America in the 1840s and 1850s, is just 14 miles further south. So we know this area has been Dirlam-active for a long time.
And the 4 telephones in Hesse-Hanau are in Linsengericht, 70 miles south of Ottrau. The 2 phones in Brunswick are in Söllingen and Braunschweig proper.
CONCLUSION:
Modern telephone records suggest possible origins of our ancestor John O Dirlam without proving anything. And Dirlams are still living in the most populous old Hessian principalities.
Spelling can be an issue with old American records of German names. My mother's family spelled the name Dirlam, but descendants of John O Dirlam and his second wife spelled it Durlam. All the Berkshire and Hampden County records spell it Durlam. Census workers spelled it Derling, Derlam, and Durlham. To American ears some German sounds are confusing, like 'ü' or 'oe' and 'D' or 'T.' So how is it spelled in the old country? I searched for lots of spelling variants and Dirlam is by far most common, with Dierlam a distant second. No other variants have phone listings in Hesse.
The German language genealogy website www.verwandt.de shows 69 telephone listings for Dirlam in:
- Schwalm-Eder-Kreis=16 numbers
- Geissen=5
- Main-Kinzig-Kreis=4
- Vogelsbergkreis=2
- Wetteraukreis=2
- Brunswick=1
Brunswick was in the Duchy (Herzogtum in German) of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Most of the districts supplying troops were Hessian, but Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel is actually closer to Hannover. In fact, besides being King of Great Britain and Ireland, George III was also Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince-Elector of Hannover. In the pre-unification mess of Germany, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was subsidiary to Brunswick-Lüneburg, which explains why Duke Charles William Ferdinand (ruled 1773 to 1806) hired 5,723 troops to his brother-in-law George III.
Since the Hessian duchies supplied 2/3 of the troops it's not accurate to call them Hessians. So why do it? Of course it's much easier than listing Anspach-Bayreuth, Anhalt Zerbst, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Waldeck. But more important, at the time, was lack of strong German national identity.
Hesse runs roughly from Kassel in the north to Darmstadt in the south. The two cities are about 140 miles apart and Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, with its 16 Dirlam telephones, is a rural district about halfway between them. Schwalm-Eder-Kreis is a modern political division located in the former Landgraviate (Landgrafschaft in German) of Hesse-Kassel. Landgrave Frederick II (who ruled from 1760 to 1785) rented 16,992 troops to King George III of the United Kingdom. The Hannovers (George's family) were related by blood or marriage to every Protestant noble family in Europe, especially the Hessians. George's niece Mary became Frederick's first wife. When Frederick converted to Catholicism, abandoned his Protestant wife, and threatened to take Hesse-Hanau out of the Protestant alignment, Frederick's father and George III forced him to create a separate Hesse-Hanau Landgraviate for Mary and their son William IX.
Main-Kinzig-Kreis, with its 4 listings, was in that new Landgraviate of Hesse-Hanau. And Landgrave William IX (who ruled 1763 to 1806), hired 2,422 troops to his uncle, George III.
Wetteraukreis, Giessen and Vogelsbergkreis, totalling 9 listings, were all in the former Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, ruled by Landgrave Louis IX from 1768 to 1790, and not involved in the War of Independence.
But two Dirlam families actually emigrated here from Vogelsbergkreis. Fortunately they came in the 19th Century when better records were kept. One of these, the George Dierlam family, settled in Seadrift, Texas in 1848. Another, the Jacob Dirlam family came to Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1854. Both these families were from Vadenrod, a little farming village in Vogelsbergkreis with just a few hundred residents. Curiously, there are two phone listings in Geissen for the spelling variant Dierlam, as well as the 5 spelled Dirlam. We don't know if there is any blood relationship to either family. If you take a moment to look at a map, you'll find another village, just 3-1/2 miles south, called Dirlammen - so there's a locational version of the family name.
SUMMARY:
Place Troops sent Phone numbers in HETRINA Hesse-Kassel 16,992 16 III Hesse-Hannau 2,422 4 VI Brunswick 5,723 2 No Anspach-Bayreuth 2,553 0 No Anhalt Zerbst 1,152 0 No Waldeck 1,225 0 V Total 30,067 22 18,217
The 16 telephones in Hesse-Kassel are in Neukirchen, Schrecksbach, and Schwalmstadt, just 5 miles away from Ottrau, the birthplace of Konrad and Wigand Dirlam. And Vadenrod, the Hesse-Darmstadt town the Jacob and George Dirlam families left when they emigrated to America in the 1840s and 1850s, is just 14 miles further south. So we know this area has been Dirlam-active for a long time.
And the 4 telephones in Hesse-Hanau are in Linsengericht, 70 miles south of Ottrau. The 2 phones in Brunswick are in Söllingen and Braunschweig proper.
CONCLUSION:
Modern telephone records suggest possible origins of our ancestor John O Dirlam without proving anything. And Dirlams are still living in the most populous old Hessian principalities.
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