We're French...or German...or maybe both? Last night, I was writing up the following (somewhat long) recap of one of my maternal line's to send to a cousin, and thought I'd share it here in case anyone else is interested...
Until recently, my knowledge of the Lorraine region of France was pretty much limited to the quiche of the same name. As it turns out, though, Lorraine is the ancestral home of one branch of my family, so I figured it wouldn't do to have that be all I knew about the region. Over the centuries, Lorraine has passed back and forth between French and German control several times, and historically, the majority of the region's inhabitants, at least from what I've read, have been German. So although we have roots in France, our actual lineage may be more German than French.
Johann Jacob Dispionit was born in Lorraine at some point around the year 1715. (Side note: the family name changes drastically over the years, appearing in records as everything from 'Dispionit' to 'Dispanet,' 'Dispenney,' and 'Dispennet.') In 1739, Johann arrived in Philadelphia aboard the 'London,' a small merchant vessel. Although very little is known about Johann's wife, several stories circulate among descendant families of an ancestor by the name of Jacob Dispennet who fell in love with a fellow immigrant girl aboard his ship and married her shortly after their arrival. Given that Johann's first child was born at some point around 1740, this would certainly make sense, although it is unlikely that it can ever be verified completely.
Johann settled in Frederick County, where he and his wife built a farm and had six children together. In approximately 1756, the family's farm was the target of an Indian raid. Tragically, in the ensuing massacre, Johann, his wife, and three of their children were killed. The older three sons, none older than fifteen or sixteen at the time, reportedly hid in barrels of grain in the family barn to survive.
These three surviving Dispennett children - Christopher, John and Joseph - all remained in Virginia after the deaths of their parents and siblings. The exact dates of birth for the three sons are unknown, but all were born in the early 1740s. Christopher and his wife, Mary Ann, settled in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and John remained in Frederick County. Although I believe both had children, I have not yet found records of them. Joseph Dispennett settled in Rockingham County, Virginia, where he had at least three sons and four daughters with an unknown first wife (given the eight year gap between the youngest and next youngest known children, it is likely that there were one or more children who died in infancy or early childhood). At this point, I don't yet know the name or any history on this first wife. In 1791, Joseph married a woman by the name of Margaret Rust, who he remained married to until his death in 1797.
It is believed, based on stories passed among older generations of Joseph's descendants, that he fought in the American Revolution (on the side of the Americans, of course). Unfortunately, locating documentation to back this story up may prove difficult, as the vast majority of pre-Civil War records for Rockingham County were destroyed in fires set by the Union Army during the Civil War (damn Yankees!).
Joseph's fourth child, a son by the name of Adam, was born in approximately 1770 in Rockingham County. In 1796, he married Eve Hester in nearby Hardy County - then a part of Virginia, but today part of West Virginia. The couple lived in Rockingham County, where Adam had acquired quite a bit of farm land. In 1799, Eve died after giving birth to their first and only child, a daughter, Catherine.
In 1801, 31 year old Adam married 20 year old Mary Magdalene May, the third of fourteen children of George and Martha May, also of Rockingham County, Virginia. Adam and Mary settled after their marriage on Adam's land in Rockingham County, where they had three children - John (b. 1802), Jacob (b. 1804) and Elizabeth (b. 1806). In 1807, for reasons unknown, Adam and Mary moved their growing family west, settling in what was then Fairfield County, Ohio (this area later became part of Licking County).
In Ohio, Adam's family continued to expand, and he and Mary had nine more children - Sarah (b. 1808), Joseph (b. 1809), Margaret (b. 1811), David (b. 1813), Mary Polly (b. 1815), Abraham (b. 1817), Rachel (b. 1819), Noah (b. 1823) and George (b. 1827). Adam and Mary purchased a large track of land bordering Hog Run Creek, just north of the town of Linnville, on which they farmed and raised their family. Adam, who died in 1835, and Mary, who died in 1846, are both buried on this family farm.
Sarah Dispennett, the first of Adam and Mary's children to be born in Ohio, married a Licking County farmer by the name of William Burnside (b. 1808), in the late 1820s or very early 1830s. William and Sarah had eight children - Joseph (b. 1831), Mary (b. 1832), Susannah (b. 1836), Margaret (b. 1837) William (b. 1838), Rachel (b. 1841), Hanna (b. 1842) and Abram (b. 1846). The majority of the family remained in Licking County, many living on neighboring farms. William Burnside died in 1876, and Sarah Dispennett Burnside in 1883. Both are buried at Pataskala Cemetery in Pataskala, Ohio.
Joseph Burnside, the eldest child of William and Sarah, became a retail druggist (what we would today call a pharmacist, but which in the 1800s warranted the designation of 'Dr.') in Pataskala. In the mid-1850s Joseph married another Licking County native, Elizabeth M. Drake. The couple had seven children, although only four lived to adulthood. For one daughter, Mary Susannah Burnside, I have only a photograph of a gravestone, with no dates inscribed on it, as proof of her existence. Gravestones without dates, usually located next to the parents' stones, almost always indicate a child that was stillborn or died very early in infancy. A son, William S Burnside (b. 1856), lived less than a year, and another daughter, Eva (b. 1859), died at some point in the 1860s. Joseph Burnside died in 1881, and his wife Elizabeth died in 1922. Both are buried in Pataskala Cemetery.
The four surviving children of Joseph and Elizabeth Burnside were: Charles Fremont (b. 1858), Minnie Florence (b. 1866), Lulu Dell (b. 1868) and Margaret Elizabeth (b. 1874). Charles Fremont Burnside married Leah MacIvor in Shoshone, Idaho, in 1885, and the couple had two children - Donald Drake (b. 1886) and Bessie Mae (b. 1889). Charles died in Philadelphia in 1928 and is buried in Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.
Minnie Florence Burnside married George Michael Schwartz (marriage date unknown), and this couple had five children - Alvinia Marie (b. 1889), George Burnside (b. 1893), Robert Michael (b. 1894), and twins Fred Henry and Frank Rankin (b. 1897). Minnie died in Columbus, Ohio in 1919, and is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery
Lulu Dell Burnside married Samuel Cox Buckingham in 1891. I have found no record of any children from this couple. Lulu died in Columbus in 1931 and is buried in Union Cemetery.
Margaret "Maggie" Elizabeth Burnside married Roy Hildebrand in 1901, and this couple had one child - a daughter, Margaret Elizabeth (b. 1904). Maggie Hildebrand died in 1944 in Columbus, and is buried in the same plot as her brother, Charles, in Union Cemetery.
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Did you follow that? I know, it's long. That's what happens when everyone has eight or nine or more children!
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