Who were Conrad and Catherine Hillegas?

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This page contains info on Conrad and Catherine Hillegas. I believe Catherine was the sister of the oldest Thomas Hilyard, and hope to convince you of that after reading this page. If you have any additions or corrections, please let me know!

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I first got interested in the Hillegas name (MANY spelling variants) through the baptismal records of Thomas and Mary Hilyard's children, our oldest known ancestors. Little David Hilyard's sponsors were Conrad and Catherine Hilegas. Trying to track down some leads from this, I found a marriage record for Conrad Hillegas to Catherine Hilgert on 1 Jul 1767 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You will recall that Hilgert is one of the variations of Hilyard we have seen for Thomas.

The book in which I found the marriage record is "Lancaster County, PA Church Records of the 18th Century", vol. 2, by F. Edward Wright. The records we are concerned with were from the First Reformed Congregation in Lancaster. There were several entries pertaining to Conrad and Catherine, which are listed below. Page numbers refer to the above book:

• p. 163: Conrad Hillegas m. Catharine Hilgert on 1 Jul 1767
• p. 64: Conrad, son of Nicholas and Susanna Strubel, b. 3 Mar 1767, bapt. 1 Jul 1767 (same day of Conrad and Catherine's marriage); sponsors were Conrad and Catherine Hillegas.
• p. 66: Christine, daughter of Conrad and Catharine Hillegas, b. 4 May 1768, bapt. 21 May 1768; sponsor was Christine Barbara Danner.**
• p. 203: (name not given), daughter of Conrad Hillegas, bur. 5 Aug 1769, age 1y/3m. This is the child Christine listed above, according to the age.
• p. 71: John Conrad, son of Conrad and Catharine Hillegas, b. 1 Oct 1770, bapt. 31 Oct 1770; sponsor not listed.
• p. 83: Catharine, daughter of Conrad and Catharine Hillegas, b. 15 Jan 1775, bapt. 12 Mar 1775; sponsors were the parents.
• p. 86: Catharine, daughter of Conrad and Catharine Hillegas, b. 15 Feb 1777, bapt. 6 Apr 1777; sponsors were the parents. (First child Catharine must have died.)

**From the same book, b. 160, Christine Barbara Hillegas m. John Danner on 2 Jan 1759. Was she Conrad's sister?

**Also from the same book were these miscellaneous entries:

• p. 203: Peter Hilgert, bur. 30 Mar 1771, age 44 years.
• p. 208: Magdalene Hilger, widow, bur. 31 Mar 1783, age 48y/11m.
• p. 173: Frederick Schreiber m. Susanna Hillier, Lancaster, on 7 Apr 1782.

• Family Group Sheet

Census Records

• 1800 German Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania; Conrad HILLEGAS 00111-11001-00