Blinn Family Genealogy

From Peter, James, William, James, Theophilus, James, Edmund, Edmund, Elmore, James, Benjamin, Rebecca to Elizabeth, this site is for all those to come, that they may link the past to their present. Elizabeth Messick, right, a member of the 13th generation of the Blinn Family in America

Blin, Blen, Blyn, Blinn, Blenn, Blynn

BLINN HISTORY The Blinn Family in America is considered small and relatively unknown, yet still it is one of the founding families of America.  With perhaps thousands of descendants from the few original immigrants, it has spread widely.  Originally the family most likely was French Huguenot and after leaving France in the 15th or 16th century settled in Germany and England, probably in the Huguenot colony in London, before coming to the New World. The New World Book of Blinns says that the name appears to be patronymical in origin, stating that it most likely means 'the descendant of Blin'.  A more plausible, although not very different, origin is stated by Rev Richard Blinn in his manuscript, found here. SPELLING OF THE NAME   Various spellings of the name have been used over the years: Blin, Blen, Blyn, Blinn, Blenn and Blynn.  For the sake of simplicity, the spelling BLINN is only used in this site for several reasons.  Peter, the first in America with the name, used Blin, the French spelling, while the Maine branch of the family most commonly used Blen or Blenn and sometimes Blynn.  Many records give several spellings for the same persons making it uncertain as to how they themselves spelled their name.  Many times our ancestors were illiterate.  Other times careless townclerks and census takers wrote the name as they thought they heard it.  These also could possibly have lead to variant spellings.  The BLINN spelling is now the most common thus most recognizable.  By using only one spelling, continuity and relationships are more easily defined. NEW WORLD IMMIGRATION   Only a handful of immigrants carried the name Blinn to America.  The first was Peter Blinn who arrived in New England about 1670, and settled in Connecticut. Independently of Peter, two Blinn brothers from France served under Lafayette and immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada following the American Revolution.  In the mid 1800s, two German Blinn families from the Palatinate in Germany arrived in Akron OH and Ghent NY.  Finally in the early years of the twentieth century, a Jewish Blinn family settled in Grand Rapids MI.  These represent almost the entire American presence of the name in the New World. (from Blinn - A Study of the Name and Family by Rev Richard J. Blinn)   Currently, this site deals mostly with my own line of descent from Peter.  It is being expanded to more lines from that first Blinn, and hopefully in time can be expanded to include all those who carry the name.  All of these branches are most likely related if we can trace them back far enough.  Please be patient as the work of transcribing into this site does take time.  Come back every once in a while to see how it is progressing.    A note to researchers: much of the information on this site came from all around the internet and various books so in many cases is not documented by me.  If you are tracing a line not in a direct descent to me, it is possible that it is undocumented.  I am trying very hard for accuracy so if you find any errors or omissions, please contact me so they can be corrected.  My purpose is to give help to researchers and point them in the right direction if they run into walls, not to be a source in my own right.  I will try to help as much as I can if there is anything I can do. I would love to hear from anyone researching our family.  The Blinn name is in many cases difficult to find, together we can get all the pieces into the big puzzle. Thank you and I hope you enjoy the site, Jef

Getting started on your visit

For a brief description of the various pages found on this site, as well as short cuts to the areas of the site not mentioned here; go to the table of contents . There are now over 70 pages on this site.

To access the search engine for this site, click the picosearch button at the top left-hand corner of the page Search engine last updated 21 Jul 2001

Current Projects:

Biggest, is I am trying to solve the email problem by ditching aol and going to yahoo.  The new email is kasblinn @ yahoo.com (no spaces).  I have been getting so much spam that many messages have been lost and/or deleted accidentally.  If this happened to you, I apologize.  I have limited time and get many messages, sometimes the genealogy message boards can be of greater service if you are looking for more info than what I have posted here  although I do welcome questions, quite often they have been lost before I could answer them.  Hopefully, this won't happen anymore.  (written Sep 04) Please tell me what you think the site needs most so I can prioritize, if you would like to add any information at all, email and let me know what you would like to add, see, contribute, etc., and I'll get to it asap. Input for improvements, checking for typos, adding information or sources and more always welcome. thanks for your patience. Jef

Home - Table of Contents - Resources - Links - Email

constantly under construction, much more to come, please visit often to see changes

last updated Mar 2005