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European Origins:
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and Shenandoah County, Virginia Hite Family

Valentin “Veltin” Heyd, probably born in the vicinity of the town of Kusel, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany in the 1610s or early 1620s. His first wife, Catharina, was buried 20 March 1673. They had at least four children. Veltin remarried 9 March 1675 in Kusel to Margaretha Müller, widow of Hanß Müller of the town of Trier. They are not known to have had any children. Veltin Heyd was a forester for the Lichtenberg Castle, located just a few kilometers northwest of Kusel. He apparently lived primarily in the village of Blaubach, just west of Kusel, but he attended church in Kusel – Blaubach may not have had a church in that era. Veltin died sometime after 1675.  His children were born in the 1640s or perhaps, in some cases, the early 1650s. 

 

Son - Arndt (Arendt, Arnold) Heyd, born ca. 1647, probably in the village of Blaubach, located just west of Kusel. Married 10 March 1674 to Maria Elisabetha Plind. They had eleven children. Arndt was a hunter. He died 17 November 1707 in Blaubach. Maria Elisabetha died there 18 December 1709. 

 

Their son - Hanß Conrad Heyd, born 24 March 1690, probably Blaubach, baptized 31 March in Kusel.  Married 12 May 1711, Kusel, to Anna Catharina (Hess) Scholler (born 1677), daughter of Abraham Hess and widow of Balthasar Scholler of the neighboring village of Diedelkopf.  

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Protestant Church, Kusel.  This building was apparently constructed after the older building burned in a major fire in 1794.  Conrad Heyd (1690-1762), the elder Abraham Heyd (born 1711) and the younger Abraham Heyd (1734-1799) were all baptized in the previous church and the elder two married there.

They had four children –

  • Johann Abraham Heyd

    • born 14 September 1711, probably Diedelkopf, baptized 20 September, Kusel.

  • Johann Andreas Heyd

    • born 30 November 1713, probably Blaubach, baptized 6 December, Kusel.

  • Johann Peter Heyd

    • born 14 June 1715, probably Blaubach, baptized 21 June, Kusel.

  • Johann Jacob Heyd 

    • born 14 July 1718, probably Blaubach, baptized 19 July, died 5 August 1718.

 

Conrad, Abraham, and Peter left the area for the American colonies in 1738, arriving in Philadelphia 11 September 1738 on the ship Robert & Alice. Anna Catharina was undoubtedly with them if she was still alive at the time, and Abraham’s wife and four-year-old son accompanied them. Conrad eventually returned to Germany and was buried in Kusel 10 April 1762.  

 

Son - 

  • Johann Abraham Heyd

    • born 14 September 1711, probably Diedelkopf. 

    • He married 10 June 1734, Kusel, to Anna Magdalena Keiss (or Keiser), daughter of Friedrich Keiss (or Keiser), of Sterschweiler. The marriage record notes that they married after a premature cohabitation. They had one son born Blaubach less than a month after their marriage. They accompanied Abraham’s father and brother (Conrad and Peter) on the voyage to America in 1738.  

 

Their son - 

  • Johann Abraham Heyd, 

    • born 8 July 1734, probably Blaubach, baptized in Kusel.  Went with his parents, grandfather, and uncle to the American colonies in 1738.  He married 24 April 1758 in present-day Lebanon County, Pennsylvania to Elisabeth Sieg. By 1773 they were living in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania where they spent the rest of their lives.  They had eleven children. Abraham died in 1799 and Elisabeth in 1808. 

 

Their sons -

  • Michael Hide/Hite

    • died 1821, Shenandoah County, Virginia

  • Abraham Hite

    • married 1805, Shenandoah County, Virginia, died 1823, Licking County, Ohio.


The paper trail linking Michael and Abraham Hite to their great-grandparents, Conrad and Anna Catharina Heyd, is solid. It is, however, noteworthy, that their lineage includes two instances of children born far less than nine months after the marriage of their parents. Their father, Johann Abraham Heyd, was born 8 July 1734, less than a month after the marriage of his parents. Their grandfather, also named Johann Abraham Heyd, was born only four months after the marriage of his parents.  This does not prove an illegitimacy, but it opens the door to that possibility.  Because there is another family with strong circumstantial evidence for a tie to the Heyd family of Kusel, that possibility must be considered.  That other family is the “Page County Hite Family” and their Y-chromosome test results do not match those of the descendants of Michael and Abraham Hite.

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