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The Habing name for many families in the United States traces back to the Gerdhabing farm in Tenstedt near Cappeln, in Lower Saxony, Germany. While the farm name goes back to at least 1498, the Habings whose families settled near Teutopolis, Illinois in the 1840s only trace a connection to the farm (and its name) to around 1700. The 1703 church census for St. Peter and Paul in Cappeln lists the farm's residents as the widow Talcke (c1653-?) and her children Hempe Elisabeth (1679-c1725), Jasper (c 1682-1757), Talcke (c1692-?), and Anna Chatarina (1691-?).
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The records provide no evidence that this family was connected to the Gerdhabing farm much before then. In particular, there is nothing linking them to the Roleff Nordenbrock and Catharina Habinges married in Cappeln in 1672. Instead, they match with the Talcke Sommer and her husband Jasper Schierholt (c. 1635 - 1701) who lived in nearby Bokel until at least their daughter Anna Chatarina's birth in 1691. The Schierholt family apparently took over the vacated Habing/Gerdhabing farm around that time, and their name in official documents over the next decade alternates between Schierholt and Habing/Gerdhabing before settling down to the farm name for good.
The records going forward from the early 1700s are much easier to trace, and the Habing families in Effingham County, Illinois are descended from the widow Talcke's great-great-grandson Georg Henrich Gerdhabing (1764-1824) and his wife Anna Maria Niemann (1765-c1839).
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The first of these Habings arrived in the US in 1845. Georg and Anna's oldest son Georg Heinrich Gerdhabing (1797-1844) passed away leaving the four surviving children he had with his first wife Maria Adelheid Waschefort (1802-1843) - Joseph (1825-1869), Elizabeth (1828-1878), George (1833-1885), and Henry (1837-1898) - and his pregnant second wife Maria Elisabeth Menke (1805-1861).
Joseph, Elisabeth, George, and Henry were brought to the United States by their grandparents Casper Heinrich Hoppe (1778-1858) and Catharina Adelheid Waschefort (1777-1849). Casper and Catharina's son John F. Waschefort had emigrated in 1832 and was heavily involved in the founding of Teutopolis, Illinois. Casper and Catharina were in Teutopolis by her death in 1849. George and Henry were there by 1857.
Joseph spent many years in Evansville, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio before moving to Teutopolis around 1869 and passing away later that year. Elizabeth married John Bernard Ahlering in Ohio in 1848 and settled in Evansville. Georg Henrich's second wife Maria Elisabeth Menke (1805-1861) and their daughter Anna Maria (1844-?) stayed in possession of the Gerdhabing farm in Tenstedt. It later became the Klinker farm after Anna Maria's husband and eventually went defunct and was sold off in pieces in the early 1900s.
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The second group of Habings arrived in 1847. Georg and Anna's third child (and thus the uncle of Joseph, Elizabeth, George, and Henry) Johann Gerhard Heinrich Gerdhabing (1803-1865) and his wife Maria Angela Rohe (1811-1885) came over with their children Johann Heinrich (1836-1910), Bernard (1842-1920), and Frederick Francis George (1844-1896). Another child, Casparus (1838-1845) passed away before they emigrated, and three daughters were born after their arrival, Elizabeth (1848-1898), Mary (1850-1871), and Catherine (1853-1895). They settled in or near Teutopolis shortly after arriving.
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While the name Gerdhabing occurs in some of the early records after their arrival in the US, the Gerdhabings took Habing as the surname, with the men often using G as a middle initial. The use of the shorter last name was also seen on-and-off in some of the records from the previous generations in Germany.
It was common practice in northwest Germany to use the current farm name as the family surname until the early 1800s. Because of this the name would follow the wife if she had inherited the farm (such as with Casper and Catharina Waschefort). Georg Henrich Gerdhabing (1764-1824) seems to be in the first generation of Gerdhabings to have the name pass patronymically. No records are available concerning the survival of his brother Georgius Antonius who was born 1769, but his brother Gerd Henrich (1776-1847) had a number of children who carried on the Gerdhabing surname. Other families with the Habing or Gerdhabing name may be able to trace it back to those inhabiting the Gerdhabing farm in Tenstedt before the Schierholt's arrival around 1700 or to other sources independent of Tenstedt.
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Contact Brian Habing at bth @ habing.com for information.
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