The Hasselbachers of America.

Where we came from.

If your name or that of a relative is Hasselbacher, or Haselbacher, or Hazelbaker (or something similar), the chances are good that we are all related. All the American Hasselbacher lines I have been able to find so far came from a relatively small area of Franconia in what is now northern Bavaria. In my retirement I have started to fill in gaps of family history that I thought were lost to me forever.  I have been successful beyond my dreams.  I was able to accumulate several hundred source documents in Germany that permitted me to reconstruct more than 400 years of my Hasselbacher family history: from Gresten, Austria; through Diespeck Germany; Nuremberg; and Bloomfield New Jersey.   I found relatives (and now friends) that I did not know I had.   Help me connect more of the dots.  Here are the origins of the Hasselbacher immigrants I have been able to find.

Conrad Hasselbacher was born in Nurnberg in 1893 but his father Johann was from Diespeck.  Conrad was my grandfather.  He came with his family to Bloomfield, New Jersey in 1924.  There are a dozen or so descendants all well known to me. 

John Peter Hasselbacher immigrated to Peoria County Illinois in 1857 with his wife Eva Maria Gundaker.  John Peter was born in Herzogaurach, Bavaria in 1828.  There are lots of their descendants still in Illinois and elsewhere. A relative in Germany, Fritz Hasselbacher, had an interest in genealogy and did extensive research in Germany and Austria.  This line is well documented back to the late 1500s.  I eventually was able to make a personal connection to this branch of the family.  My 8x Great-Grandfather Paulus Hasselbacher is our common ancestor.

Johann Hasselbacher, born 1848 in Diespeck immigrated to Red Cloud, Nebraska in 1871.  He started a sizable family and there are records. Unfortunately I have not had contact with any descendant.  One individual, Vernon, had an interest in family history but died several years ago.  Johann is the Great Uncle of my Grandfather Conrad.

Peter Hasselbacher (Hazelbaker) was born March 22, 1759 in Münchsteinach Germany.  He was conscripted to fight for the English in 1778  as a Hessian soldier in the Revolutionary War. He stayed and settled in Pennsylvania.  There are many of his descendants around with good documentation.  Peter has a wonderful story.  Until just this month, I was unable to connect this family line with mine. However, I recently obtained documents (presented elsewhere on this site) that clearly link his family with mine. Our common ancestor is Wolf Hasselbacher, my 9G Grandfather who was born in Austria.

Family Lines (or possible related families) that are lost to me.

Andreas Freidrich Hasselbacher, a barrel-maker and son of a barrel-maker, was born in Diespeck Germany in 1830.  My 5x Great Grandparents Johann George and Anna Maria Wohr were the Grandparents of Andreas Freidrich.   Andreas is one of several individuals of the Diespeck Hasselbachers to come to America. He and his family arrive in Cincinnati in 1872.  His wife is Katharina Popp from Adelsdorf, and their children are: Anna Katharina, Johann Konrad, Maria Katharina, Johann Georg, Anna Margareta, and Kunigunda (Ida): all born in Diespeck.  Although they settled in and the children had families of their own, I have not yet identified a single member of this line. There has to be some of you out there! This family line is related to me. [I have found some family records.]

Margareta Barbara Hasselbacher, (born Diespeck in 1832) a single mother, and her infant son Johann Konrad Hasselbacher, b 1854, arrives in Baltimore in 1855.  Margareta is sister to Andreas Friedrich above.  I have no knowledge of where she settled down or what happened to her.

Elisabetha Hasselbacher, sister to Andreas Freidrich and Margaretha Barbara above, appears to immigrate in 1856 according to documetns in Neustadt am Aisch in Germany.  Details of the putative passage and subsequent life are unknown.

Elisabeth Hasselbacher. The Bark Bessel sailed from Bremen, Germany to New York City, landing April 18, 1851. One of the passengers was 31-year-old Elizabeth Hasselbacher, a steerage passenger from Diedelsheim. I have absolutely no idea what became of this Elizabeth. There is a modern town of Diedelsheim in Germany a little south of Heidelberg and about 150 km west of Dinkelsbühl. Of course, these old records being what they are, there could have been an error of alliteration

Johann Andreas Hasselbacher (later spelled Haselbacher) was born in Dinkelsbühl. In 1884 he immigrated with his family and settled in Oakland California where he was a brushmaker. There were several children and the family seemed well established but I have not yet identified a living descendant. I cannot confirm that this line is related to the others. Hasselbachers were appearing inDinkelsbühl as early as 1650. There wee a lot of them.

Family Hasselbach of Berndroth, Germany. I found a book on Ancestry.com about this family of which 4 siblings came to Sandusky, Ohio or its environs in the early 1800's.  Their names were Johann Peter, Johan Phillip, Regina Elizabeth, and Elizabeth Margaret.  The town of Berndroth is about 74 km by road to the east of Frankfort.  The family there populated small villages in that area. (Of interest is that there is a village named Hasselbach-Tanus only 88 km away.)  I am doubtful of any easy connection with my branch of the family, but who knows!  I attach a few pages from the text.

Places in Franconia the Hasselbachers came from:
Puschendorf             Herzogaurach                 
Diespeck                  Neustadt
Gunzendorf              Munchsteinach
Furth                        Emskirchen

The vast majority of the German and American Hasselbacher lineages described on these pages so far appear to begin with the sons or relatives of Steffan Hasselbacher, religious refugees from Gresten, Austria to Oberrossbach and surrounding hamlets in Germany in the mid 1600s.  These ancestral villages lie in Middle Franconia in the valley of the River Aisch.  The Hasselbachers I found in that area today think all the Hasselbachers in Germany are related through this line. I think they are right. Nonetheless, as I have learned more, there are some Hasselbachers from other places, and even more from places yet unknown.  If you have any information about the family Hasselbacher (in all its variant spellings) please contact us through the link on our Home Page.

These pages are a work in progress.  I resisted (with difficulty) the temptation to wait until I got everything done and organized.  On the philosophy that I do not want the “Perfect to be the Enemy of the Good,” I will now begin to post my material.  I dedicate these pages to the Hasselbacher Family of the World,  I have high hopes that you will respond and give me both advice and information to make these pages more informative and useful to us all.