The Derryberry Family
The Derryberry family in America is descended from Johann
Michael DŸrrenberger, one of three brothers who
immigrated to the American Colonies in 1738, and who settled in Burke Co., NC
in the 1760Õs. It is the largest
branch of the DŸrrenberger family in America today.
Because
of the scarcity of records of this family before 1800, and a lack of DNA
evidence prior to 2005, many misconceptions have arisen about its early
history, and there are many erroneous family trees now published on
Ancestry.com and other places. In
order to separate fact from fiction, I have written two articles on the
familyÕs early history for the Burke County Genealogical
Society (BCGS) Journal, and these articles are reprinted in links below.
Anyone
interested in researching the family is also encouraged to contact the BCGS via
the link above. Here are links to
PDF files of the articles:
The Derryberrys of
Burke County: Origins of an Alsatian-American Family (BCGS Journal, vol. XXXII no. 3, August 2014). This article deals with the origins of
the Derryberry family in Europe, immigration to
America, arrival in Burke County, NC, and the relationships of the earliest Derryberrys to one another.
The Derryberrys of
Burke County: The First Generation (BCGS
Journal, vol. XXXII no. 4, November 2014). This article discusses what we know of
the lives of the seven founders of the Derryberry
family mentioned in early records, who I take to be brothers of one another and
sons of the immigrant, Johann Michael DŸrrenberger.
To
anyone belonging to this family, this website has a tree of all the Derryberrys born roughly 1920 and earlier, and their
spouses, so if you can identify a Derryberry ancestor
born in that range, you should be able to find them in this
list (or similar lists for spelling variants like Derreberry,
Derebery, Dayberry, DeBerry, etc.) and trace them back from there. Alternatively, because there so many
people of that name, it might be easier to find the maiden name of a female
ancestor who married into the family from the complete
surname list. Note that I only
include people of the name Derryberry and their
spouses, so unfortunately in most cases I have not traced the children of Derryberry women, since they have different surnames. (It just becomes too overwhelming to
trace everyone.)
For
each individual, try clicking the ÒNOTESÓ link, where you can find a biography
(if written), source information, my research notes, etc.