The origins of the Bitting name are obscure. In the earliest known records,
at the Reformed Church at Freinsheim, the name is spelled Böttig
and Pettig. In 1728, Henrich and his son Martin signed their names
to a petition to the Governor of Pennsylvania spelling their names
Bitting. Since they were literate, and they were living in a largely
German community, it would seem that there would be no reason for them to
have changed the spelling of the name.
Plenty of variations on the name are found in early Pennsylvania records -
Buedding, Bidding, Biding, Bütting, Bettin, Pitting, and others.
These variations are all most likely due to the lax rules of spelling on
the part of the record keepers, rather than the family members themselves. In
fact, in all examples of autographs, the spelling is always the same -
Bitting. It is possible then that the present form of the name goes
back earlier than the time of Henrich Bitting.
There are several theories on the source of German family names. Bitting
may refer to the home town of some distant ancestor. The root of the word
probably derives from the old German name Bodo, which has a meaning of "messenger". This name was probably given to a city or town when combined with the
-ing ending which denotes a type of belonging. For example, there is a small
town called Piding in southern Bavaria, near the Austrian border. There is also a town called Büdingen near Frankfurt am Main. Both of these place
names may have a common origin and could mean "the place of Bodo's people". Often a
final -er was added to the name as in the name Bittinger. So far as
is known, the name Bitting has always been spelled this way, without any
other endings.
It is not known if Henrich Bitting was a native of Freinsheim, or only lived
there in the years after he married Ann Catherina. Since all local records
were destroyed when the French burned the town in 1689, it is not possible
to trace further back in time. However, since there are no other Bitting
names in the church records which were reestablished in 1698, and since
the town was nearly deserted after its destruction, it is possible that
Henrich came to Freinsheim from some other town or region of Germany.
Since Anna Catherina's family name was Schaeffer, the same as
the local Reformed Minister, perhaps Henrich came to Freinsheim as part
of that family, or else met and married Anna Catharina after he arrived
there. There are some sources that state that the Bittings came originally from
Alsace (now in France) or from Switzerland. To date there is no proof of either
of these places of origin.
Henrich may have had some contacts in Pennsylvania before making his decision
to move there. A fellow citizen of Freinsheim, Frederick Antes, had taken
his family to Pennsylvania in 1721. Henrich also apparently knew Clement
Ludwig Boehm, who was a schoolmaster in Freinsheim. Boehm's brother Rev. John
Philip Boehm had emmigrated to Pennsylvania in 1720. Both Boehm and Antes
settled in the area known as Falkner's Swamp, the same area to which
Henrich brought his family in 1723. Henrich's son Ludwig later married
Rev. Boehm's daughter Sevina.
Very little is known about Henrich and Anna Catharine. But we do know that they
brought their family to America, and through them the name has survived to this day.
Comments to:
Rich Bitting (Rich@BittingFamily.org)
Copyright © 1998, 1999 Richard A. Bitting