Return to
first page
Brief History Of The Eisan Family
Of Ship Harbor Nova Scotia
The family name is unique and has been documented in publications
and researches that
have identified the origin of the name Eisan and the
direct descendents. It
stated with the birth of Michael Hyson in Germany
in 1730. He along with
a number of other German immigrants became
stranded in England
after the person they had paid to take them to the
New World absconded
with their money. The British Crown intervened and
paid for their passage
to America and granted them tracts of land
in district 96 in what
was then called the Carolinas.
Thanks to a researcher by the name of Penny Chisholm we have
received
some very interesting
and logicaly sounding information as a source of
Michael's German name.
We have never been able to identify the name of
Hyson on the ships
passenger lists of that time. Ms Chisholm did discover
a Michael Greisen a
single man of 32 years of age listed on a ship called
the
"Dragon". This ship arrived on Dec.14,1764 with Captain
Hammett and
140 seriously ill
Palatines on board. Due to the gutteral sound of German
letters "GR"
it would sound like Hyson to an Englishman. According to
Penny Chisholm there
were no other persons on board that had the first
name of Michael and
could meet the other conditions.
The group arrived at Charleston South Carolina in December of
1764.
Michael started
farming on the land granted to him in district 96 along
the banks of the
Savannah river. It was shortly thereafter that he met
and married his first
wife Elizabeth Ann. At the outbreak of the
revolutionary war he
joined Stevensons Creek Militia, a loyalist group
under the command of
Capt. Henry Rudolph. When the British evacuated the
area in the fall of
1782 he turned his holdings over to the Goolsby
family. According to
records found by the Goolsby family who I met,
confirmed this
transaction. Michael was using the name of Eisan at that
time but the land
title grant was in the name of Hyson dated 1764. It
was noted in their
records that he was of German decent.
He and his wife and two children, a boy named Michael born in
1781
and an older girl
named Janet, arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada in
November of 1782 along
with a group of loyalist from Charleston S.C. He
lived in Dartmouth
from July 15,1783 until March 25, 1784. Another girl
was born in 1784 named
Elizabeth. He petitioned the King and was granted
100 acres of land in
East Jeddore for his previous military service. The
land he was granted
was near the sea and not suitable for farming so he
obtained another grant
of 800 acres of land at East Ship Harbor in 1813.
At some point after
the birth of his third child his first wife died. He
than married a woman
named Nancy or Annie from East Ship Harbor. He had
six more children, 2
girls and four boys.
An old family bible shows the following entry. "He married
for the
third time at age 101
and died of his excesses at 103 on Dec.8, 1833."
The death was carried
in two papers at the time and listed his name as
both Hyson and Eisan.
It was an inaccurate obituary printed in the Nova
Scotian of Dec.19,1833
that gave rise to the belief that Michael had been
born in Pennsylvania.
The obituary contained other incorrect facts as
well. I also have a
document showing a correction to the PA reference as
coming from the
obituary and his place of birth given as Germany.
One son John Michael born July 15,1785 married a Sophia Charlotte
Siteman a daughter of
Henry and Barbara Siteman of Jeddore. He went on to
become a ships Captain
and master of the schooner Waterloo. They had 12
children 3 girls and 9
boys. Three of his sons along with a nephew, John
Michael Eisan were
fishing off the coast of Newfoundland. When the
three sons went to
return to Ship Harbor, John Michael chose to stay in
Newfoundland having
met his bride to be. On the return trip home to Ship
Harbor the three boys,
Jacob, George and Henry ran into a storm at sea
and were drowned. John
Michael Eisan the son of Frederick Eisan formed a
branch of the family
tree based in Newfoundland that still exists today.
A descendent of this
branch, Derek Eisan, is a co-author of this web site.
He currently lives in
England with his family near Newcastle.
A number of branches of the family continued with various
seafaring
operations into the
late 1800's. They were reported to have been involved
in efforts to run the
Union blockade of the south during the War Between
the States. If your
name is Eisan and unless it was changed from some
other spelling, like
Eisen, than we are related. Branches of the Eisan
family can be found
today in England, Labrador, Newfoundland, New
England, Indiana,
California, Nevada, Texas, British Columbia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Ontario
and many still in Nova Scotia Canada. I'm sure we
will find other
relatives in other locations as well.
Don Eisan