icon links to the associated page.
Updates to individual pages were uploaded. I am slowly working my way through cross references to FindaGrave.com. In the process I've been filling in some blanks and updating individual records,
I just uploaded a revision to the website. Most of the new data is for descendants of Abner Bitting (1832-1895) with the information coming from the FindaGrave.com website. This continues to be my current main source of new information. I am not near finished going through this resource.
I recently got a copy of Ruth Bitting Hamm’s book Henrich (H-3) Bitting and his Descendants 1672-2005. It’s a great work although I already see a few points of disagreement.
Also this past year I got a copy of Friedrichstown Kinder-Anstalt (1745-1750) by Arthur J. Lawton. This book details the history of a Moravian school in Frederick Township, Montgomery County Pennsylvania. This school used the Antes house which is located adjacent to land owned by Jost Bitting (1713-1801). This land is (I believe) the original plantation of the Bitting family.
Next year, 2023, will mark that tri-centennial of the arrival of the Bitting family in America. I’m looking for ways to commemorate this event.
Still catching up, but making progress. I've found the web site FindAGrave.com to be very helpful. I have started making
references to it on pages where I've found a match. Hopefully this will remain a free and acessable resource. Clicking on the icon links to the associated page.
I've also started updating and expanding on the biography section of at least the first few generations.
My how time flies. While I have made a few updates since the last official posting, this is the first major revision in a long time. I've been debating major format changes, but opted for now to just update the data. This will take some time as I have a lot of backlog.
The biggest change is the move to a private domain BittingFamily.org.
I'll add a note when I've caught up.
It has been a while since I last updated the site. Too many other things have been going on. Nevertheless, people have been sending me information and I have been working on getting it into my database as time allows. This is a long overdue update, and I need to go back and make sure that I have gotten everything.
Where has the year gone!? I had fully intended to keep things up to date as new information arrived, but somehow it got away from me. It's been a very busy year work-wise, so I guess that is my excuse. I've updated the pages, but I still need to go back through the year's correspondence to make sure that I haven't forgotten anything. I've heard from several new contributors this year and there has been a lot of new information added with the hope that it will lead to further developments for several lines. Thanks to everyone who sent in information.
I've updated the web site a couple of times in the past ten months, but most of the changes have been minor. One of the significant finds I had this year was to finally re-discover the 1882 article from The Schwenksville Item that contained the text of Henrich Bitting's 1723 passport. I had been looking for this for over a year and couldn't find a copy. Nothing new was found, but I wanted to get the German text, which I had neglected to copy the first time I found it. By the way, if anyone knows what happened to the original, or where it might be, please let me know.
I've just finished adding a number of wonderful photographs sent to me by Mary Evans Hall. They are of John and Mary Bitting's family. Many thanks to Mary for the pictures and information.
I added newly found information on Samuel BITTING (1853-1900). He lived in the vicinity of Chimney Rock, Nebraska and is buried there.
Also updated is information on the family of George Lewis BITTING (1875-1949).
The work I did last month on the letter by Eugenia Kelly Bitting got me started looking at some of the missing links I had from the NC Bittings. Based on census records (mostly), I think that I have established that there was a previously undocumented branch connected to Anthony BITTING, Jr. (1788-1876). There are still some missing details, but I am convinced that his son John Wilkerson BITTING was the father of four boys, one of whom, William Leppaux BITTING married his second cousin Eugenia Hampton BITTING. It appears that most of the boys left North Carolina for other parts of the South and West.
Thanks to Stephanie for the photograph of her father Fred.
I also filled in some information regarding Adam BITTING(1732-1781). He had quite a record of service in the Revolutionary War and met a tragic fate during the infamous mutiny of the Pennsylvania troops in 1781. Accounts of this tragic event can be found here. Adams's brothers and a nephew also served in various capacities in the Revolution.
The biggest addition to the web site is the transcript of a letter written by Eugenia Kelly Bitting in 1928 to her niece in which she describes her experiences in the Civil War. I got this letter some time ago from the University of Mississippi, but just got around to scanning and correcting it. It's a remarkable bit of history and well worth reading for the picture it gives of life in those times. At first I thought that I needed to comment on some of the things she says, but on further reflection I decided to let her words stand on their own. I wish I had more documents like this to fill in the blanks on peoples' lives. You can read the letter by following this link.
I've listed a new email address on all of the pages (Rich@BittingFamily.com). This forwards to my old email address, so both will work. This address is connected to a domain name that I hope eventually to use for Bitting Family related material. Suggestions welcome.
When I first started this site I believed that the Bitting name was unique to the descendants of Henrich and Ann Catharina Bitting in the US. Since then I have found that in addition to Bittings still living in Germany, there is a Bitting family in England and that there is are a number of African-American Bittings. I have added a new section on the home page with some links to discuss these Bitting families.
One of the things I haven't done so well with this site is to keep track of changes that have been made. I am continually updating my database as new information comes in, then regenerate the indices and individual pages when I feel there is enough to warrant it. Unfortunately, all of the pages get a new date when I do this, and there is no easy way to just look at the ones when information has been changed or added. I added this News Page so that I can at least give people a clue as to where the changes are, and also to let people know what others and I are working on.
One new feature I added to the menu frame is a site search capability. This is a service provided by FreeFind. I would appreciate any feedback as to how well this works.
Something new that I added lately is a page with audio. Check out the song Does Your Heart Ever Long To Return Nell? It's nice, but kind of sad. If anyone knows anything about the author, Hervey S. Bitting, please let me know. There are a few other new items on the Images page. Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff.
In the past few months I've had a lot of activity with Bittings who lived in Iowa. It turns out that several families moved there in the mid-1800s. Some stayed in Iowa, but branches moved out from here to Nebraska, Arizona, Florida, and California. I'm still trying to sort it all out, so if anyone has an interest in, or information about this group, please let me know. Some of the people that I've looked at are: Lewis BITTING (1825 - about 1895), Samuel BITTING (1853 - ?), and Jacob BITTING (1814 - 1898).
There is an on-going debate as to whether the name Bitting is the original spelling, or if it started out as Böttig and was changed when the family came to America. My theory is that the Bitting spelling predates the arrival in America (see Origins). This idea got a small boost earlier in the year when I received transcripts of some documents from Freinsheim, Germany, sent to me by Dr. Hans-Helmut Görtz. These documents deal with land transactions by Henrich Bitting. In at least some of these the Bitting spelling is used. I also found a web site (http://www.ense-press.de/seite11.htm) that deals with the development of the Bitting name in Westphalia. I’m hoping that eventually some of this will shed some light on the European roots of the Bitting family.
Regards,
Rich Bitting