The earliest known authentic information of the Blickensderfer (or Blickensdörfer) family in America is contained in the land titles in the government archives of the city of Speyer, the capital of the Palatinate or Rheinish province of the kingdom of Bavaria, in Germany. These records state that on August 20, 1711, the Elector John William sold and conveyed a certain "Kohlacher Estate on the Rehehuette," situated in the Schifferstadt sub-division of the Electorate of Speyer, containing about 60 morgen (each morgen is about 1-1/8 acres) of grain land and 6 morgen of meadow, to a certain John Hey, his wife and heirs, in consideration of 150 florins paid in hand, and of a rental of 29 malter (a malter is about 19 bushels) of rye and 10 malter of oats, to be paid annually on St. Martin's Day (11th November).

April 27, 1713, this estate was transferred to a certain Ulrich Schneider, who, on February 12, 1716, received permission of the Electoral Palatinate Court to convey the same to the "Anabaptist" Blickensderfer, or Pleickensdoerffer, as the name is there written.

This estate remained in the possession of descendants of Hans Jakob, and as of 1897 was owned and occupied by members of the family.

Of Hans Jakob little is known except what appears in the Speyer archives, and of his family it is only know that he had six sons, of whom four emigrated to America and one remained on the Kohlacher estate, in Germany, but who was his wife, and whether there were other children, is unknown; nor is there any record of his birth or death. If we assume he was at least 24 years old when he purchased the Kohlacher estate from Schneider in 1716, it follows that he was born not later than 1692, and it is probable his birth was a few years prior to that date. While there is no record of his death, certain known facts seem to show that he died in 1767, and that at his death he conveyed the Kohlacher estate to the widow of his son, in trust for his grandsonv, John George, the son, apparently, having died in 1761-1762, before the death of Hans Jakob.

Tradition says the Blickensderfers originally came from Switzerland, being disciples of Menno Simons, and were expelled from that country on account of their religious tenets. There is an old place in Switzerland, near the city of Zug, called Blickensdorf, but it is now only a small hamlet. However, the fact of the existence of this old dorf of this name and the fact that many Blickensderfers still reside in this vicinity lends credence to the tradition.

The order of the birth of the six sons shown below is not known further than that Jost is known to have been the youngest and Christian was probably the oldest.

For more about Hans and the early Blickensdoerfers, see http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B5607.html

For more about the Kohlhof region, see http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/kohlhof_rheinland_pfalz_germany