Heimbach

Heimbach Coat of Arms

Heimbach was my maternal grandmother’s maiden name. It is one of the many obviously German surnames found in Southeastern Pennsylvania still to this day.

Profiles of Heimbach Family Members & Spouses:

Origins of the Heimbach Surname:

Do the Heimbach’s of today know that their name comes from the town of Heimbach? It is the smallest town in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia on the western border of Germany. The town even has a castle dating to the 11th century, and continues to use its original lion-emblazoned crest.

Previous Heimbach Family Research:

When I first began researching the Heimbach line, I plugged the information I knew about my great grandfather (William Frank Heimbach) into ancestry.com and allowed the database to do the rest. The result was thrilling: a complete line back to an immigrant from Germany named Matthias Heimbach, as well as his ancestors in the village of Heimbach, Germany, dating all the way back to the 12th century!

However, this was a case in which the plethora of information on the internet only appeared to be in my favor. As it turns out, William Frank’s father was not the only William Heimbach in the same area of Pennsylvania. Records became crossed , and the two Williams became confused among the many public family trees on Ancestry. It was years later that I realized the individuals I listed as William’s ancestors were, in fact, the ancestors of a different William. But these were still real people, likely related somehow, and so here are the other William’s father (Joseph) through fourth-great-grandfather (Matthias, German immigrant):