As mentioned previously, the DERRIE surname originated as DüRRENBERGER in Europe. Extensive information about the Dürrenberger families in both Europe and later in the United States has been gathered by Brian Anton and other researchers, and Brian maintains an impressive website appropriately called “The Dürrenberger Family“  (freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fams/durrenberger).  From his website and others, I have assembled a very quick summary of the origins of the Dürrenberger name.

The earliest Dürrenbergers of record lived in the Basel-Landschaft region near Basel, Switzerland, which is located where the borders of Germany, France and Switzerland come together. People in that part of Switzerland speak German and the name is Germanic in origin referring to someone who comes from a Dürrenberg or dry and barren mountain. The Dürrenbergers were thought to be Calvinists (Protestants) after the Catholic Reformation in the 16th century, and some of them migrated to the Alsace region to the north of Switzerland.

Alsace is a region between the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains, with portions in eastern France and western Germany. During the 17th century, the region’s association with Germany which had lasted for hundreds of years was terminated in 1648. This marked the conclusion of the Thirty Years War, when Alsace became a part of France.

The Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) had its roots in the ongoing religious struggle between the Protestants and Catholics. It was mainly fought in Germany, but spilled over into many other countries as well. A major impact of the war was the extensive destruction of entire regions, ravaged by the foraging armies. Then episodes of famine and disease significantly decreased the population of some regions including Alsace. With many towns nearly empty, the local feudal lords encouraged repopulation of Alsace by the Swiss. As a result, many Swiss people migrated northward to Alsace seeking land and economic opportunity. Several Dürrenbergers were among them, coming from Basel-Landschaft and settling in both northern and southern Alsace.  Mertzwiller was one of the towns in the North to which our ancestors relocated probably sometime after 1650. Their new homeland in France was roughly 100 miles from their previous homeland in Switzerland, not far by today’s standards, but greater back then.

Under their new political masters in Alsace, the Swiss people continued to speak German and follow German customs. But the changes were especially hard on the German and Swiss Protestants, or “Palatines”, as they came to be known.  The hardships were  associated with the persecution of Protestants everywhere at that time in central Europe by the Catholic majority. In addition to the Germans, Swiss and French Protestants (Hugenots) were also subject to harassment and persecution.

As Alsace’s population grew, people again sought economic and religious opportunity elsewhere. By the early 1700’s, a mass migration of these people ensued which took thousands from their ancestral lands down the Rhine River to Holland and then to England on their way to a new life in America, with the Pennsylvania and Carolina colonies as primary destinations.  Some Alsatian Dürrenbergers arrived in the American Colonies as early as 1738, and it appears our Dürrenberger ancestors were among this first group.