Tim McGraw and his Palatine ancestor Jost Hite

After seeing the show Who Do You Think You Are? last Friday night, I realized I wanted to know more about the German Palatine ancestry of Tim McGraw.  Having Palatine ancestry myself, I feel a connection to his story.  I like to find out how a family’s history fits into the history of our country.  I like to find out why families do what they do which I guess is a reason I am drawn to genealogy.

You can read a transcribed story of the History of the Palatine Immigration.   It begins with the earliest Palatine immigration and where they settled in the United States.  It also tells about the “Golden Book”, mentioned on Who Do You Think You Are?, which encouraged the Palatine people to leave their homes in the Rhine country for London to eventually settle in the Carolinas, or other of Her Majesty's colonies. It also tells of the tremendous hardships the Palatines found as they settled, and how they were cheated in New York.

Books
I did find the story of Hans Josh Heydt, or Yost Hite, as his name is sometimes written, in a digitized book at Ancestry.com called Virginia Prominent Families, originally published in 1907 by Louise Pecquet du Bellet.

Chapter XIII Hite, Madison, Fontaine and Maury Families.
The Hite Family in America begins:

“In 1710, Hans Josh Heydt, or Yost Hite, as his name is spelled in English documents dated at the time of his emigration, a native of Alsace, Germany, came from Strasburg to New York, with his wife, Anna Marie, née du Bois, and their little girl, Mary. He came in his own ships, Brigantine Swift and Schooner Friendship, bringing with him sixteen (some say more) Dutch and German families, as tenants for lands he expected to settle.

Hite remained in Kingston, New York, until 1715, when he came south to Germantown, Penn. In 1717, we find him on the Schuylkill River, where he bought lands, and in 1720 built a mill at the mouth of Perkiomen Creek, and a dwelling house, which is at present (1907) the country home of Gov. Samuel Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania, and became a thrifty, enterprising farmer and manufacturer. The mills are now called Pennypacker's Mills.

At this time the Indians, maddened by the encroachments of the whites, took revenge by making raids upon the colonists in both Pennsylvania and Maryland, ruthlessly murdering settlers and destroying property.”

More about Yost Hite and his move to Virginia…

The book continues telling the story of Jost/Yost Hite and their children. It states that Yost Hite could not get the Governor of PA to help protect the settlers from the Indians, so he left for Virginia. 

Magdelene Hite, Jost’s daughter, and Jacob Chrismann , her husband, were the ancestors of Tim McGraw.

Magdelene Hite, third daughter of Yost Hite, like her two older sisters, married before she came to Virginia. Her husband, Jacob Chrismann, was a German and came to America from Swabia. They also settled near Yost Hite and their home became known as Chrismann Spring, where they died, leaving a large family of children.

Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants,  digitized by Google Books, also tells the story of “Joist Hite”.

I enjoy reading the stories of the pioneer families, but I found the story of Tim McGraw’s ancestors sadly ironic.  Jost Hite left New York to settle in Pennsylvania.  Because of the Indian raids there, he left Pennsylvania in 1730 to go to the Shenandoah Valley where years later (according to the historian on Who Do You Think You are?), Jost Hite’s grandson (and Tim McGraw’s ancestor), Isaac Chrismann, was killed along with two of his sons in an Indian raid.


Hans Jost Hite can be also be found in the family trees at Ancestry.com. This family tree which includes Hans Jost Hite is well-sourced with a source citation for almost every entry. In addition to the family tree which includes his parents and descendants, there are written stories and photos of documents, houses, and monuments including one of the Historical Marker for Jost Hite.


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