Habersack Family History

On my father side, the name Habersack is of German origin, meaning a type of sack mostly used by cavalry, or horse rider, to hold oats or other items for the horse or the rider themselves.  It also refers to a type of knapsack, a 'haversack', that many soldiers once carried, usually carried over the shoulder.

The Habersack family line originated in several towns near to each other, including Fulda, Bermbach, Hünfeld, Lieblos, and Stetten in southern Germany which are located near the large city of Frankfurt.   There are several references to Habersacks in various literature from the 14th Century onwards, including one Habersack who was a state secretary to the Austrian Emperor.  

It is only in the 1700's that the family lines of the Habersacks become clear for that is the time when church records were kept with any consistency and the birth, marriage, and deaths of individuals were recorded. From these records, six different lines of Habersacks that exist today can be traced. If the church records went back even further, say to the 1600's, we could no doubt tie all living Habersacks back to a common ancestor, but we were unable to do this.

My oldest direct ancestor that can be traced back is Johann Kasper Habersack born in  Bermbach Germany on August 2, 1798.  He had five children with his wife, Anna Schneider.  Through Anna, he inherited a string factory in Hünfeld and so he moved there. One of his sons, August Habersack, went on to have 10 (!) children over the next 21 years.  In 1888, a large city fire destroyed his house as well as two of his brother's homes as well.  His sixth child, Joseph Adam Habersack, born in 1879, left Germany and went to the United States.  He left on August 17, 1907 on the aptly named ship "Amerika" out of Hamburg, Germany arriving at Ellis Island in New York.  He settled down with his wife, Martha Bens, in the industrial town of Erie, Pennsylvania where many other Germans had already immigrated to.  Whether he married Martha in Germany or in Erie is unknown, but they did not have any children until three years after he arrived. His younger brother, Hermann, also immigrated to Erie, but in 1924.

Joseph and Martha had five children, two boys and and three girls.  His second child, William, born in 1912 in Erie, is my grandfather. He was, from accounts, a handsome man but shy due to his struggling English.  Though born in Erie, he grew up speaking German from his parents.  When he was 17 or 18 he met and fell in love with my grandmother, Catherine McLaughlin, who was second generation Irish.  They soon married, but against the protest of Catherine's mother, so she had to live with William's parents for a time.

William became a millwright at the Erie Forge and Steel Company were he worked for 35 years.  In that time he and Catherine had four children.  My father, Bill, was the oldest and was born in 1940.  He was a star football athlete for the Erie Catholic Prep high school, where he appeared in the local Erie paper numerous times.   He was also a golden gloves mid-weight boxer.  After high school he attended the Columbus School of Art and Design, but ultimately became a carpenter.  He married my mom, Gay Erne, and had two sons, my brother Chris and myself.

I received much information from Ralph Habersack who lives in Germany. He did an incredible job of pulling together the Habersack history and putting it into all into the single document below.  His research was effort were invaluable!  Click on the link for much more detail on the all the Habersack family lines:

Origin and Story of the Habersack Family

Below is my family tree in Excel format:

Family Tree

If you have any more information and would like to share feel free to contact me at my new email address.

Here are links to other Habersack genealogy homepages:

Ralph Habersack's Family Homepage (German)

Mike Habersack's (of Maryland, not me!) Genealogy Webpage