Sometimes similar items show up together and this is one of those cases. I have been trying to reconcile some of the information on Cory’s family tree and shortly after finding the information for a Hugenot on my family, I find these two. Both Dewald and Andrew tie into the same family line for Cory. We start with his grandmother Mildred Seibert, her father, Harry Seibert, his father George Seibert and then Cory’s 3X Great Grandfather Jonas Seibert is the son of William Seibert and Sarah Ankeny. Sarah goes back to both Hugenots mentioned. Both Andrew and Dewald are Cory’s 7X Great Grandfathers.
What is a Hugenot? The Hugenot Society of America has some good information, but in short, the Hugenots were French Protestants who suffered persecution for their religious beliefs and were regularly at odds with the Catholic church. The Hugenot Society points out that the Hugenots were well learned people who were merchants, nobility and professionals, so their departure to the American Colonies was a real asset to the colonies. History.com has some additional good information on the Hugenots.
For both of these families research gathered from others points to both families originating in France, migrating to Germany, and then to the American colonies. It looks like both of these families came to America in the late 1740’s or early 1750’s.
As I work my way through the biographies of our different generations I’ll get some of the gathered notes put together for these two for more details.
Cory and Nicole Family History 