Data from Eastern European countries has proved hard to acquire. Most information has related to Jewish Hillmans and is described in that section. It may well be that the name in Eastern Europe was entirely related to the Jewish community. Numbers were significantly reduced through emigration in the late 19th C, especially to the USA.
Those few records that have been identified are described here on a present-day country basis, but without knowing whether they were Jewish or not. Boundaries have changed and therefore data from the past may not relate to the present-day boundaries.
3.5.1 Poland
Ten immigrants from Poland to the USA passing through the Castle Gardens immigration centre between 1881-1892 bore the name Hillman – four Hillman, four Hillmann and two Hilman, with occupations recorded as labourers or students[1].
The record for Mordechai Hillman born in the Ukraine, who died at Auschwitz in Poland in 1944 is discussed in the Jewish Hillman section later.
3.5.2 Czech Republic
The Czech genealogy mapping site[2] lists one Hillman record at Náchod in 1962; eight Hillmann records at Náchod, Praha (Prague) and Čáslav between 1924 and 2007; and one Illman record at Praha in 1952. There are in addition a further eight records for Illmann – two in Prague, two in Havličŭkuv Brod, two in Kolin, and one each in Litovel and Šumperk. Clearly the name exists in one form or another but at a very low frequency and may well be of Jewish origin.
3.5.3 Hungary
Very little information has been obtained for Hungary, with a single record for Hillmann in Baranya[3].
Hungary was supplied as birthplace by a few Ellis Island immigrants – two Hillmann in 1859 and 1890[4]. The 1890 record was a female “gentleman’s servant”.
Family Search[5] provides information on another 104 names, from 36 baptisms, but all of these bar one are from the period 1781 to 1910, i.e. prior to the First World War. Only one marriage and three deaths are included, these last three all being in 1945, i.e. during the Second World War. It is possible that the majority of these records could refer to families of Jewish origin, and that emigration removed most from the country by the late 1800s.
Variants recorded include Hillman
(10), Hillmann (17), Illman (47), Illmann (14), Ilman (5) and Ilmán (1). It is
of great interest that 67 of the records, or 64% are variants of Illman – the form
that is also dominant in Finland, which two countries and languages have a significant
common origin.
3.5.4 Russia
The occurrence of the name in modern “Russia” has not been verifiable. However, it is evident from past records that the name occurred there, probably amongst Jewish people. Significant numbers of people arriving at Ellis Island and other immigration centres in the USA gave their source of origin as Russia and other East European countries.
Russia was recorded as the birthplace of 73 out of over 700 Ellis Island Hillman arrivals (10%) between 1823 and 1967 – mainly in the 1850 to 1890 period. The majority of these recorded the double “n” Hillmann form, followed by single “n” forms. Occupations were recorded as labourer or farmer, with one tailor and one servant among them. It is not possible from the data available to know whether they were Jewish1,[6],[7] (Castle Garden, Hamburg Passenger Lists, Immigrant Ship Lists, Family Search).
3.5.5 Lithuania
Lithuania was in the past considered to be a part of the Russian federation. It was recorded as the birthplace of Sidney Hillman, prominent USA labour union activist who was also Jewish (see the Sidney Hillman section).
Sources
[1] Castle Garden. Immigrants to the USA at the New York Battery between 1830-1912. http://www.castlegarden.org/about.html
[3] LocateMyName website.
[4] Family Search (IGI). 2018. Ellis Island Immigrants.
[5] Family Search, Hungary, Jul 2019 https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?surname=Ilman&surname_exact=on&record_country=Hungary&count=100&offset=0
[6] Hamburg Passenger Lists 1872. Passengers from Hamburg, Germany to the USA (1890-94). http://www.hamburg.de/ltyr/Ergebnisliste/en/1,3817,,00.html
[7] Immigrant Ship Lists Transcription Group (ISTG). 1635-1903 Immigrant Ship Lists.