This is a transcript of Rich Bitting's letter.
April 24, 1998
Dear Fellow Bitting,
I am writing to you in the hope that you are interested in family history, and will help in an effort to commemorate the 275th anniversary of the arrival of the Bittings in America.
On the 24th of April, 1723, Henrich Bitting appeared before the chief authorities of the town of Freinsheim, in the Rhenish Palatinate. He requested and received from them a document stating that he "... is discharged and released from his duties as a citizen and that he is at liberty to remove his family wither he pleases...." Armed with this document and a copy of his children's baptismal records, Henrich and his wife, Anna Catharine, left Germany and settled in what is now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. As far as I know, from this couple and three of their sons, Martin, Ludwig and Jost, all of the Bittings in America are descended. There are currently about 500 American households with this name, in 37 states.
I first became interested in the history of the Bitting family about twenty five years ago. Recently I published a summary of my information on the Internet. It can be found at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bitting. In conjunction with this effort, I have found others who have also been studying the history of the Bitting family. Some of these people have been working on this longer than I have, and have greater sources of information. Many have kindly provided me with corrections and additional bits of information. As time permits, I plan to update my Web pages to reflect additional information.
This mailing is an attempt to find others who may wish to learn more about their Bitting roots, or who have information that they are willing to share with others. My search for information deals only with family history. I am not selling anything or looking to set up any sort of commercial venture. For the sake of personal privacy, I am not looking for detailed information on any living person.
Those of you who have information that they wish to share, even if it is only about your immediate family, parents or grandparents, please send it to:
Richard Bitting
270 Redwood Shores Pkwy., #141
Redwood City, CA 94065
Email: r.bitting@home.com
The documents that our ancestors brought with them in 1723 were still in the possession of family members as recently as 1900. If anyone has any information about these documents, I would be very interested in hearing about it.
If anyone is interested in organizing a family association or organizing a reunion, please let me know. If there is enough interest, I will be happy to help coordinate.