Lehman, Layman, Lemon Genealogy,

DNA Enhanced

It is widely known that the name "Lehman" in German came into being with the advent of the surname system. Often people took on their occupation as their surname. Ours is generally considered to have meant "vassal", or one who works the land. It was a term applied to one who had become bound to a section of real estate as a "fief" with no ownership. Moreover, he could not quit and go to work for another landowner but was attached for life to a particular parcel of real property and its owner. He was pretty low on the socio-economic totem pole.

In German-speaking Switzerland, the name is reputed to have an entirely different derivation. Another frequent surname source was the location where one lived. Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 313 tells us that Lehman is a Mennonite family name originating in the Emmental, meaning the valley of the Emme River in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. The name, according to Mennonite Encyclopedia, means “a person living on a gentle slope.” Near Langnau, there is a farm named Lehn, because of its topography. For centuries it has been, and still is, the home of a Lehman family. The most common spellings of the surname in Switzerland were “Lehman,” “Leeman”and “Lehmann” but there were also quite a few others.

It may be said that the influx of German-speaking immigrants to the Colonies in general and through the port of Philadelphia in particular in the first half of the 18th Century resulted, either directly or indirectly, from two causes. Underlying the entire scenario was the effects of religious armed conflicts in Europe, primarily the Thirty Years War. The second, and probably the most direct cause, was religious persecution in several European countries including particularly persecution of Anabaptists in Switzerland.

Generally, at the time of immigration in the first half of the 18th Century, the German-speaking immigrants were referred to as "Palatinians." This is not entirely accurate, but neither is their having been referred to since as “Pennsylvania Dutch” accurate either. The misnomer came about as a result of many refugees from religious persecution in Switzerland and France having sought temporary refuge in the Palatinate. It is located primarily on the west side of the middle Rhine River and is known today as the Rhineland Pfalz or simply as the Pfalz. The Dutch in "Pennsylvania Dutch is a corruption of "deutsch" which in the German language means "German."

The forced emigration from Canton Bern probably reached its peak in the years between 1660-1675. Gratz, at p. 36, cites several sources for the fact that about 700 Anabaptists departed Canton Bern for the Palatinate and Alsace in 1671. Names of families that participated in this mass exodus, according to Gratz, included Lehman, Shenk, Bachman, Stauffer, Whitmer and others. Almost invariably, these names appear in Chester, later to be Lancaster Co., PA on tax lists in 1718. Simple arithmetic tells us that the 1717 immigrants would have been the second generation of the 1671 refugees. Unfortunately, there exists a dearth of records of births, marriages or anything else of these families over this period of roughly half a century. Sometimes we don't even know where they were for half a century.

In 1691 another wave of persecution commenced when it was decreed that all those who did not swear allegiance nor carry arms should no longer be tolerated. The exodus began anew and continued through the first two decades of the Eighteenth Century. Queen Ann of England took advantage of this opportunity to recruit people to send to the frontiers of the North American Colonies. Books and papers were dispersed in the Palatinate in 1708 and 1709, with Queen Ann's picture on the front. The letters on the title page were gold so the book became known as The Golden Book. It’s purpose was to encourage the Palatines to come to England in order to be sent to settle in America.

DNA testing for genealogical purposes is not always easy to understand. At times it can be confusing. As we do more and more 37 and 67-marker tests in the Lehman project, however, the confusion arising from the 61 original ten-marker tests diminishes. See further explanation on the "About DNA Testing" page. The researcher is urged to click on that link at the heels of this page and read that page through before then proceeding to ascertain what knowledge DNA tests have brought forth about his or her individual family. It may be quite revealing.

The data which follows is extracted, in part, from Lehman, Layman Genealogy Handbook, sometimes hereinafter referred to as LLGH, which was made available for distribution in 2006. It is a comprehensive summary of all known early Lehman families by all spellings. Included are known European origins with descendants enumerated to at or about the advent of the 20th Century. The book is six by nine inches, hard bound in dark red cloth with gold lettering. It is 280 pages including indexes. Families are grouped with help from the results of 70 y-chromosome DNA tests completed as of the date that this book went to the publisher. Index contains more than 1,200 people named Lehman by numerous spellings, mostly born before 1850 with, to avoid confusion, the actual or an estimated birth date of each. A total of more than 2,000 names and 400 locations are indexed.

If you have reached a “sticking place,” having traced your family to the late 1700s or early 1800s and can make no further progress, this book will probably help you get unstuck. You have, from the onset, been working backward in time from the present. In the beginning, that was all that you could do. This book starts with the pre-1760 immigrant and outlines his known descendants to the fourth or fifth generation. That generally comes down to folks born up to about the mid 19th Century. You may know from DNA tests which early families match your DNA. If you have not found a Lehman male relative to do a test, however, that is not fatal to further progress. You will, with the aid provided by this book, be working foreword in time as well as backward in time. The object, of course, is to connect the two. If you have traced your Lehman ancestors to one born about 1820 or before, he will probably connect with contemporary Lehmans in this book.

Lehman, Layman Genealogy Handbook, 2011 Supplement, hereafter called The Supplement, is now available for distribution. It is 85 pages including index and is in paperback . It will bring the information in LLGH to a state of the art status as of early 2011. For those folks who have the 2006 book, the cost of the Supplement is $8. Price of both Lehman, Layman Genealogy Handbook and the 2011 Supplement is $28 and, either way, your compiler will pay the postage. To obtain your book or books by return mail, send your check and your U. S. mail address to the compiler at the address below.

If your name is Lehman, by any one of a plethora of spellings, not all of which appear with the coat of arms adjoining this text, and your immigrant ancestor arrived no later than the mid 1700s, Lehman, Layman Genealogy Handbook and the 2011 Supplement represents the "cutting edge of knowledge," including 130 DNA tests, as of early 2011. They probably contains data relating to your ancestors. Some effort may be required, however, in order to make the connection and these books are designed to help the Lehman researcher do just that.
An after-added page to this web site has been for the purpose of making available information that will henceforth be contained in the 2011 Supplement. Going foreword, The Supplement page of this web site is converted to a sort of "Supplement to the Supplement" to provide information about descendants of the various early Lehman immigrants not known or not available when Lehman, Layman Genealogy Handbook, 2011 Supplement went to the publisher in mid 2011. Click here to access the Supplement page.
In the interest of furthering and enhancing knowledge of the various Lehman, by all spellings, families, permission is freely given to disseminate, distribute or publish any factual information included herein. It is only expected that the courtesy be extended of crediting this web site and its compiler.

Information was compiled and edited by Earl R. Layman, laymanearl@yahoo.com, 2525 Lakefront Ln., Knoxville, TN 37922. Revised 07 May 2012. Dave Koester is Technical Advisor.