JOHANNES SCHWALM HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, INC.
JSHA Policy for Advising and Assisting Inquirers Searching for Hessian Ancestors.
Looking for a Hessian ancestor?
If you seek information about a Hessian or any German Auxiliary soldier who fought for the King
of England in the Revolutionary War and remained in North America, you have found a website
that could prove helpful to you. While we do not guarantee success in any case, we will do
all we can to assist you in your quest. The JSHA collects, studies, and preserves copies
of records of German Auxiliary troops who remained in America and may have information about your
ancestor in our collection.
Here are basic conditions for our assistance.
First, if you are not a current member of the JSHA, we invite you to join. Membership
information is included on the website. If you do not care to join, we must decline to
assist you as our volunteer researchers are usually stretched to the limit.
Second, if you are a member, or send in a new membership, and you have a positive identification
of a Hessian who remained in America, we will give you all the help we can at no charge to you
other than incurred expenses. Being a not for profit organization, we welcome any additional
donation to help us run the association and to acquire copies of original Revolutionary War records.
What is positive identification?
Many inquirers have heard of a family tradition that they have a Hessian in their background.
Often, even if that is true, spelling of the name may have been changed over the years. Making
educated guesses to find a possible candidate for your ancestor among the thousands of Hessians who
remained in America can be a time consuming and fruitless task. We, frankly, cannot
participate in that endeavor. You must be able to provide a clear, straight-line genealogy
from you back to your Hessian and to provide evidence on how he wrote or spelled his name on a
court or other official record.
There will be instances where the Hessian's name is known but additional research is requested to
acquire more information than is currently in our files. If that is asked of us, we require
$30 per hour for our assistance, with a minimum of $45 provided in advance. Your check should
be made out to the JSHA and sent to JSHA INC. P.O. Box 416 State Line, PA 17263-0416.
Is there a shortcut?
You will find two listings of German Auxiliary soldiers in the Registry on our website. One
contains brief biographies of soldiers who remained in America and become the progenitors of an
American family. The second list is of men who are believed to have remained in America but
who have not yet been researched fully. You might find your ancestor in either list. If
so, please mention that list when you forward your membership and inquiry. Please note that
both lists are incomplete and our volunteers will be adding names to them in the future.
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