The Family Name Hillman occurs across the USA, as well as in Canada. As a result there are many sources of information on the name, due to the increasing interest in genealogy in those countries. It is not easy to investigate these nationwide due to the varying nature of dependability of the information, and availability for all parts of the country. In addition, many people assume the name comes from the UK immigrants, but many of todays Hillmans in the US at least, originate from the name Hillmann from Germany, and if Jewish from Eastern Europe origins.
The information presented here has come from a number of sources and is used to present a general picture of the origins and distribution of the name in the USA:
- State population data and lists of Hillman name occurrence (chiefly lists in “The World Book of Hillmans”[1], Burke’s Peerage, 1996);
- Records from Ellis Island of Immigrant Registrations[2] there;
- Data from the Ship Lists Transcription Guild[3] of people carried to the USA;
- Various other sources.
- Tuomas Salste[4] records at least 15,738 people in the USA in 2010 with the surname Hillman, making this the most populous Hillman area in the world (absolute numbers)! Illman on the other hand only registered at 117 people.
3.6.1 The name Hillman in the USA
3.6.1.1 The origins of the name Hillman in the USA
The significant proportion of arrivals from Britain, Germany and Russia is very evident from the collated date of arrivals (Table 1) at Ellis Island in the years 1823-1967[5]. These have been separated into the main variant forms to illustrate the likely origins of each. Hillmann has a clear German and East European origin, while Hillman originates mainly from the UK as well as Germany.
Table 1 Ellis Island arrivals – countries of origin of main Hillman variants
The differences in origin between Hillman and Hillmann is strikingly evident when illustrated graphically (Figure 1).
| Figure 1 Countries of origin for Hillman (upper) and Hillmann (lower) at Ellis Island |
Death Certificates from Washington State, USA, list three people with the surname Hillman, born in Finland in the 1870s, who emigrated to the USA and died there. Clearly there were many earlier immigrants, not recorded at Ellis Island, who add to the overall picture.
3.6.1.2 Distribution of the name Hillman in the USA
Simply extracting the numbers of Hillmans from lists and plotting them on a state by state basis gives a skewed indication of distribution, given that Hillmans may have arrived at a number of different places and not others (east vs. west coast for example) and that the overall population size and area of each state will vary. Numbers were therefore collated from the Burke’s lists1 on a state by state basis, and then expressed on a households/1,000 of the population for each state, as well as being expressed as a person-density value (per km2) for each state. The overall population figures for each state were obtained from Glover[6] while state areas were obtained from Encarta[7].
The results are indicated in the accompanying two figures – Figure 2, and Figure 3 Hillman density.
| Figure 2 Hillman households/1,000 population by state (1996) |
From Figure 2 it is evident that with the exception of the three states – Maine, Idaho and Mississippi with between 11-20 Hillman households per thousand population in the state – that there is a swathe of mid-western states with a medium household number of between 6-10 per thousand, together with Florida and Michigan, and that most of the eastern and western seaboard states have a low Hillman household density of only 1-5. Lowest Hillman household number per thousand of population is in the state of West Virginia. If Hillman distribution was random through the population then one would expect an even ratio across all states. It would seem then that Hillmans settled more in the mid-Western states, Michigan (which even has a town called Hillman – see later) and Florida, as well as in the three very high but disparate states of Maine, Idaho and Mississippi.
| Figure 3 Hillmans/10,000km2 area by state |
In terms of Hillmans per unit area in Figure 3 a slightly different situation pertains. Highest density (2,599 Hillmans per 10,000km², or 0.26/km²) is to be found in the city of Washington DC, for which separate figures exist. Next highest density is in the state of New Jersey (149 Hillmans per 10,000km²). The next band comprises the New England states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Maryland with densities of between 50-99. The eastern seaboard together with California, but excluding most of New England, has relatively low Hillman density, and lowest is the entire mid-west, Alaska and Hawaii, reflecting the overall population density there.
It is possible that because the eastern seaboard was the initial entrance point for immigrant ships and that for various reasons, Hillmans who were mainly occupied by menial employment, did not then move very far from the developing east coast population centres and more productive agricultural areas to be found there?
No definitive reasons can be seen for these apparent differences in distribution and further research and more expert opinion is required.
3.6.1.3 A Place called “Hillman”
Another way in the US to study the name is to locate all the places that have been called “Hillman”, presumably because they had some association with a person or family of the name which settled in that area at an early stage of settlement.
Querying of geographical Websites has produced a list of eight townships or settlements that bear the name “Hillman” (Table 1). Their distribution is noted on the map below (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Settlements in the USA named “Hillman”
The distribution of these townships repeats the earlier distribution of higher Hillman density in the eastern third of the USA with the exception of the state of Montana.
Table 2 Details of settlements called “Hillman” in the USA
3.6.1.4 Hillman Immigrants from Ship Passenger Manifests
The name Hillman is not a native American one, and therefore stems, as do most US surnames, from immigration over the past four to five hundred years.
An examination of available transcribed ship passenger lists on the ISTG Website3 provided details of 67 immigrants with the name Hillman, or one of its variants, on 34 voyages between the years of 1635 and 1903.
Places of origin, giving a broad idea of the catchment areas from whence these immigrants were drawn, were surprisingly few in number – England, Germany and Russia. The contribution of each “area” (national boundaries were very different then to our understanding today of the countries of these same names) has been summarised in the diagram below (Figure 5).
The results suggest that the present day area of Germany and nearby areas (“Prussia”) were the major origin for the name Hillman in the USA today. However, it could also be argued that ships with German immigrants were better recorded, or that these lists have been transcribed more for ships from German ports than from those in other countries. Examination of the data shows that of the 34 voyages, 39.7% originated at an English, Scottish or Irish port, 54.4% from a German and 5.8% from a French port, although no French immigrants were carried. Germany, therefore, was an entrepôt for immigrants to the USA, particularly for Russian émigrés.
Figure 5 Country of origin of Hillman immigrants Ships 1635-1903
These premises can be examined in more detail together with the Ellis Island records of Hillman immigrants – see earlier.
3.6.1.5 Hillman Immigrants Registered at Ellis Island
The Ellis Island Foundation Website[8] yielded data in 2019 from 3,188 people registered on arrival at Ellis Island with the name Hillman or one of its possible variants. This was over a period of 130 years (1827-1957).
Table 3 Spellings of the name Hillman registered on arrival at Ellis Island
The frequency of countries of origin for all spellings of the name is indicated in the pie chart (Figure 6).
The great majority of the origins are from Western Europe (84% including Scandinavia), with only 11% from Eastern Europe. The three major country sources of immigrant Hillmans were the UK (including all Ireland) 31%, Germany 43% and Russia 5%. Six percent were recorded from all Scandinavian countries combined. The proportions are somewhat different to those recorded from the ship passenger manifests earlier. This may be the effect of better records and/or a very different time period.
Figure 6 Country of Origin for Hillman immigrants arriving at Ellis Island 1892-1924
A strange variety of countries of origin include South American nations, China, Korea and South Africa. It is likely that all these records result from “USA-nationality” Hillmans working in those countries being re-recorded on their return (secondary origins). They are not locations where Hillman could be considered an “original” surname.
It is of interest at this stage to analyse the variety of spellings of the name and their origins to see whether they are just random human choice or have any cultural or geographical origins. The table below indicates the variants found in the Ellis Island2 Registrations, some of which, of course, may well have been introduced at the time of registration there.
Table 4 Summary of surname country of origin from Ellis Island arrivals
There is a clear dominance of Hillman and Hillmann, with Illman and Illmann comprising a relatively small proportion. It is possible that some of the less frequent variants were introduced at this registration time?
Approximately half of the recorded Hillman and variants record no country of origin. However, it is clear that the name ending in double “n” is of Germanic and East European origin, while Hillman with the single “n” is predominantly English in origin but appears scattered from across the mainland European continent as well. There is no clear indication of the name Illman being specific to any clear origin at all, suggesting it may just be an early spelling form that has become fixed with time.
Table 5 Summary of Ellis Island Wall of Honor Hillman occurrences
The 32 instances of the name on the “Ellis Island Wall of Honor”2 are too few to give any meaningful indication of origins of the name in the USA (Table 3).
The timing of Hillman arrivals at Ellis Island is also of interest (Figure 7). There was a steady flow of less than 30 Hillmans a year recorded between 1893 and 1904. Numbers then rose to almost double prior to the First World War, fell for a few years, and then rose again during the War. There was a sharp reduction after the War, then a steep rise to almost a 100 in the year 1923, followed by a fall until these records end in 1925.
| Figure 7 Hillman arrivals at Ellis Island over time |
It is clear from this and other records, that many early Hillman immigrants were probably from the UK, followed at a later date by those from mainland Europe, with a concentration from Russia and Eastern Europe in the later 19th and early 20th centuries owing to historical perturbations in those places.
3.6.1.6 US Census Data
Detailed analysis of US Census Hillman data has yet to be carried out. Making use of the total results from Family Search, then comparisons can be made between years and some variants (Figure 8). Overall totals were very low until 1840, after which the numbers of Hillman have increased rapidly, doubling in about 50 years. This can be attributed to both immigration and reproduction.
It is of interest that these records tell a different story to those garnered from other sources – the Germanic variant Hillmann barely figures against the spelling Hillman (in 1941 there were 285 Hillmann as against 9,241 Hillman – or only just over 3%). Either the data was collected in very different ways, or the enumerators “corrected” Hillmann to Hillman? The variant Illman was similarly not very numerous (in 1941 only 159 records).
A useful compilation was posted by Bonita Hillmer[9] (another possible variant of the spelling), and this has been analysed. She has recorded 217 instances of Hillmer and variants (in which she includes Hillman, Hillmann, etc.). The raw data has been plotted as number of records by state to produce the map below (Figure 9).
The same east coast concentration noted earlier is repeated with the main centres being the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, as well as Illinois and Texas.
| Figure 9 Hillman & variants in US Census 1790-1882 (Bonita Hillmer data) |
Her list includes 33 variants of the name, of which Hillman is the most numerous, followed by Hilmer, and then a long way behind by Hilman, Hillmer and Heilman.
It would be an interesting exercise in due course to record and analyse the name Hillman from US Census data over the years on a state by state basis, to try to determine its relative frequency, its origins, and how it spread with time across the US.
3.6.1.7 Notable US Hillman Family Trees
Web fora indicate that there are many people with an interest in the name. This is not a new thing – an excellent little publication exists by Harry W. Hillman[10] published in 1905 on Hillmans of the Schenectady, NY area, covering the period 1550-1905. Their origins are traced to Cornwall in the UK, still a major area for the name Hillman today. The publication provides an important source of information on the dispersal of the name Hillman, from this and other branches in the early part of the history of the USA.
I cannot resist quoting from his preface – an ideal for all Hillmans to strive for!
“It will be noted that the Hillmans are characterised for their earnestness and integrity. They have exhibited a high degree of intelligence by the professional positions attained. In the religious work of this country they have been prominent, and in the medical profession have furnished many graduates. Lawyers, bankers and commercial men of recognised ability, are recorded among the Hillmans mentioned in these pages.”
In a similar vein, a major three-volume work by Charles Banks[11] on the history of Martha’s Vineyard includes details on the Hillman family that was so significant in the whaling industry. It is evident that he gleaned much of his information on the whaling Hillmans from H.W. Hillman’s earlier work10. This is further explored in the section later on Hillman and the whaling industry worldwide. Banks also quotes the traditional origin of the earliest John Hillman from England having been shanghaied from a fishing boat in the Thames and taken to North America as an indentured servant – a possible origin that is quoted elsewhere in the Hillman annals.
Tracy DeVault[12] has traced his Hillman ancestors over almost three centuries from a probable Dutch origin. There are 390 individuals in his account, of which 218 carry the surname Hillman.
Records quoted suggest that the family name was Dutch in origin – possibly Helman – and that a Dutch ancestor – Richard Helman – went to England in the service of William III in 1689. Jan Helman is then said to have travelled to North America from England between his birth in ca. 1715 and his marriage in North America in 1734.
Table 6 DeVault Hillman records by State and time
After an initial landing at an early Dutch settlement in what later became New York State, the family moved south into Pennsylvania, then west to a family core farming area for many decades centred on Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma (Fig.10). There was also significant early movement westwards to California and Oregon. Later generations dispersed to further locations in Minnesota, Idaho, Wyoming, Texas, Iowa, Alaska, and Colorado. One of these USA Hillmans later settled in Australia.
Figure 10 DeVault Hillman records by Birth State
3.6.1.8 Hillman US Web Fora
Web Fora provide some insights into who is researching a name and some surprising indications as to where to look and who to contact. The US Hillman fora on the web give an indication of the disparate origins of the name in that country and leads one to realise how significant the Scandinavia links were as well as the UK, German and East European origins. It also indicates the great variance in basic genealogical knowledge of participants, from early starters who assume all Hillmans are of UK origin, to those with considerably wider knowledge.
3.6.1.9 Conclusions – Hillman in the USA
The United States of America comprises a rich admixture of cultures and families in its peoples drawn from all over the world, which make the country what it is. Examination of a single family name within that reflects a similar admixture of origins for the name Hillman drawn from a large area of Europe over the past 4-500 years since non-native people started to move to the North American continent and settle there. Hillman in the USA demonstrates probably the widest range of origins of the name anywhere in the world now, and requires, therefore, careful research to ascertain the true origins for anyone holding the name now.
3.6.2 Hillman in Canada
Canada – like the neighbouring USA – has been the recipient of many immigrants from a variety of origins across Europe.
The Canadian Census records[13] indicate low numbers from 1825, but as in neighbouring USA, numbers increasing rapidly after 1842, but then stagnating possibly at the last available census in 1921, just after World War I (Figure 11).
Variant numbers (not shown) were also very low with only 9 Hillmann, and 27 Illman, as against over 600 Hillman in 1921.
LocateMyName[14] records 2,796 occurrences of the name Hillman in Canada. While the name is recorded in every state, the majority occur in Ontario in the east, with other concentrations in Alberta and British Columbia.
Ron Hillman (pers. comm.) relates this his family went to Canada from Wiltshire in 1831. They were non-conformists, their children being baptised at the Upper Meeting House (or Congregational Chapel) in Westbury, Wiltshire, which gives the clue as to why they immigrated – Quakers being seen as a threat to the established religion in England at that time. They had seventeen children between them. Some of the family later moved to settle in nearby Michigan, USA.
The Owen Sound Sunday Times recorded in 2018 the death of Rhonda Lee Illman, wife of Derek Illman, mother of Drew and Tori – indicating that the name Illman persists in Canada to this day.
The late Gordon Payen Hillman (pers. comm.), of Sarnia, Ontario, has carried out detailed research on his own ancestry, which originated with Thomas Illman, born ca. 1698 in West Sussex – who is also in my own ancestral origin. This makes Gordon my fifth cousin. Gordon’s family listing includes 225 Hillman names, of whom 143 were born in Canada.
Gordon’s ancestor, Ellis Hillman emigrated to Canada in 1834 from Wiston in West Sussex via the Petworth Scheme[14] – this was a response to critical unemployment in southern England counties in the 1830s, by the Earl of Egremont with estates at Petworth in Sussex, and the Rector of Petworth – Thomas Sockett. Eight shiploads of emigrants were sent between the years 1832-1837, carrying a total of over 1,800 emigrants. Ellis Hillman travelled on the ship “British Tar” in 1834, and started life in Canada as a seaman on the Great Lakes, later becoming a farmer and renowned preacher. He had 14 children, and when he died aged 92 he left over 60 grandchildren and 31 great-great-grandchildren. The location in Mersea Township, Essex, Ontario, where he settled finally became known as the “Hillman Settlement”. His story has bene extensively reported on and he occurs in the Gordon Payen Hillman genealogy. Ellis Hillman was my 3rd Cousin four times removed.
An additional Hillman family travelled on the ship “Heber” under the Petworth Scheme two years later in 1836.
3.6.3 Hillman in South American countries
A number of records exist for the occurrence of the name Hillman in some South American countries. These are few and far between and seem to comprise periodic immigrations of people for commercial reasons, some of whom remain.
3.6.3.1 Brazil
The Locate My Name13 website gives 16 records for the name, the great majority in the Sao Paulo area, where there is a Hillman Chemical company.
In addition, in the same city there is a Hillman Bistro.
It is not evident in either case where the name originated or why the name was selected for the facility, but presumably may be related to families with the name Hillman.
3.6.3.2 Argentina
There are six entries for Hillman families arriving in Argentina over the period 1918 to 1942. Their places of birth were recorded as – Brighton in the UK, Gothenburg in Sweden, and Kolomyja in western Ukraine. All were thought to be of Jewish origin perhaps avoiding conflict situations in Europe[15].
The Locate My Name website records 14 instances of the name mostly in the north east coastal area – Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires[16].
3.6.3.3 Ecuador
Ecuador too boasts its Hillman eatery – a Chinese restaurant in the city of Cuenca known as “Chifa Hillman”.
3.6.3.4 Chile
Charles Fletcher Hillman emigrated from Albany, NY to Santiago in Chile by 1862 to work on the southern railway. He married a local woman Carolina Manuela Haviland and they had seven children, one of whom emigrated again to England where he married and died. Charles Hillman died in 1902 in Santiago[17].
The same thread records that a man named Hillman was a Deputy for the IX region in the 1950s (Sergio Donoso).
A different thread on the GenForum[18] also in 2000 is from Eugenio Hillman, a third generation Argentinian, whose great grandfather was Peruvian, and whose father was of American (presumably he meant USA?) origin, an engineer called Charles Hillman in the late 19th century. This could easily be a descendant of the same Charles Hillman in Chile and indicates there are still Hillman descendants in South American countries.
It appears from the original Charles Hillman informant above, that his great grandfather Charles Fletcher Hillman emigrated to Chile in 1857 to work on the railways, and on a tramway project in Santiago.
Sources
[1] Burke’s Peerage. 1996. The World Book of Hillmans. Halbert’s Family Heritage, USA. 156pp
[2] Ellis Island Immigrants http://www.ellisisland.org
[3] ISTG – Immigrant Ships Transcription Guild – www.istg.rootsweb.com
[4] Tuomas Salste. 2018. https://www.tuomas.salste.net/suku/nimi/index-en.html
[5] Family Search. 2018. https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1368704?collectionNameFilter=true
[6] Glover T.J. 1992. Pocket Ref. Sequoia Publishing Inc., Morrison, Colorado, USA
[7] EnCarta Encyclopaedia, Microsoft Inc. 1991-2002.
[8] Ellis Island Foundation. 2019. Passenger Search. https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger?gclid=CjwKCAjw8e7mBRBsEiwAPVxxiGi65fWPyEYG59NYylCmkXn4J3maUcrFKiqRtSbrelbgpZAj9sTSfhoC9VYQAvD_BwE
[9] Hillmer, Bonita www.genforum.genealogy.com/hillman/messages
[10] Hillman, H.W. 1905. Ancestral Chronological Record of the Hillman Family, 1550-1905. The Walsh Press, Schenectady, NY. 203pp (Higginson Book Co., Salem, Mass., Reprint, 1999).
[11] Banks, Dr Charles (compiler) c. 1925, with added comments by C. Baer in 1999. Martha’s Vineyard Hillmans – www.history.vineyard.net/hillmanb.htm
[12] DeVault, Tracy. 2002. From Whence we came – The Family and Descendants of John Hillman, Sr. http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~jeffresmccracken/family/Hillman%20Report.pdf
[13] Library & Archives, Canada, Government site https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/census.aspx
[14] Locate My Name. 2016. http://www.locatemyname.com/canada/Hillman
[15] The Petworth Scheme http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/petworth.shtml
[16] https://www.hebrewsurnames.com/HILLMAN 2019
[17] http://www.locatemyname.com/argentina/Hillman 2019
[18] Charles Hillman, Ancestry Message Boards in 2000
[19] US Genealogy Forum – www.genforum.com/Hillman