An article was written about the Heinrich family of Montgomery County in the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine (a publication which only publishes well documented and authoritative information). It says that Adam Henrich married Anna Maria Hollebusch at Old Gosenhoppen in 1776. She was the daughter of Peter and Maria Dorothea Finckler Hollebusch. It says that in 1779 and 1780 Adam and his mother-in-law Dorothea were taxed in Frederick Township (where our Adam and Peter are listed in the 1800 Census).

There is a very old diary of a local citizen of Montgomery County recording his and his friend’s activities and there is an entry that said “on 25 March 1790, old Mrs. Hollebush was buried in Marlborough Township”.

I am certain this was a reference to Dorothea. She was not our ancestor, as she was Peter’s second wife, but this information fits quite nicely with the version of events I have come to believe as opposed the Mother Hollowbush legend. Dorothea was the matriarch of the family who came from the old country. Someone else must later have seen that diary entry and assumed the reference was to Peter’s (and Christian’s) mother, not Peter’s wife.

I believe six of Peter’s nine surviving children were by second wife Dorothea. They were sons: Henry, Yost and Peter and daughters: Magdalena born about 1755 married John Hartenstine, Anna Maria (about 1755-1823) married Adam Henry and Catharina born about 1760 married Abraham Kern.

From Burgert: “Johann Peter Hulpusch son of Johann Henrich Hulpusch, baptized 1 May 1710, confirmed at Wied in 1725.”

IMMIGRANT. Peter Hollenbush arrived Philadelphia in 1749 on board the ship Two Brothers with his brother Christian. It appears from a citation we found in a book by Henry Z Jones that Peter’s wife, Maria Dorothea, came later. It also says in that citation that Peter was “kicked out of the country”. So, though the family tradition is that he came to America after the beheading of his father for religious reasons, the truth may well be that it was Peter himself who was being persecuted for his religious beliefs (though not beheaded).

He died long before any Census was taken.

From Burgert: Peter Hulpusch married Maria Christina Stroder -- she died in childbed and was buried 22 May 1744. Peter then married second Maria Dorothea Finkler 15 Sep 1744. He emigrated on Ship Two Brothers in 1749. He died as Peter Hollenbusch and was buried14 Apr 1768, age 59 years.

Phila Co, Will book O, pages 231-232. Will of Peter Hulbusch written 12 Apr 1768 proved 17 May 1768. Peter is very sick. He grants full right and power over his estate to his wife Dorothy until the children are all 18 years of age. He gives his son Adam one shilling sterling beforehand and the remainder of his estate to be divided equally among all of his ten children.

Phila Co Orphan's Court. In 1789, there is an Orphan's Court filing on behalf of the younger children because Dorothy is no longer able to handle her duties as Executor. On 9 Mar 1789, distributions are approved and 9 children are named: Adam, Christian, Henry, Yost, Peter, wife of John Hartenstine, wife of Adam Henry, wife of Abraham Kern and Christiana.

Henry Z Jones, Burgert's co-author of “Westerwald”, in a related book "More Palatine Families", said that Christian and Peter Hulpusch from Wiedt were released to move away in 1749 and that Peter Koch's widow paid Peter's daughter for their paternal estate and said daughter also obtained money from her mother who remained. Then, in 1750 it was noted that Peter's daughter had gone with him to America when he was kicked out of the country, the remaining mother paid the fee.”

After his arrival in America, Peter settled in Montgomery County where he was a founder of and mentioned in the records of the Old Goshenhoppen Church. Peter was listed as 1 of the 14 earliest members of the congregation of Old Goshenhoppen. A record dated 14 Apr 1768 says Peter Hollenbusch was buried; aged 59 years.

In 2006, I began an email discussion with our fifth cousin Alicia Hilbish Blackman of Lexington, KY about the Hilbish family. I shared with her the Burgert work and she agreed it totally debunks almost all of the well known family tradition. She then did additional primary research using the German church records that Burgert pointed us to and has studied additional descendants of this family beyond my interest and we have pretty well thoroughly documented this family. In 2008, a German ninth cousin of ours, Dieter Hülpüsch, found her web site and he has been helpful to us in finding some additional otherwise elusive German records for even more information on our German ancestors.

One interesting conclusion we came to about Peter Hollenbush (Hulpush) is that he was the progenitor, most likely, of every living person in the United States today named either Hilbish, Hollenbush or any other variant spellings. We reasoned as follows:

✧ It is not an especially common name, in any form.
✧ Message board inquiries (there isn’t a lot of such activity) devoted to persons of this name seem in all cases to lead back to the Montgomery County family.
✧ We know of no other immigrants of this surname (any spelling) than Peter and Christian. Christian had no sons that survived.
✧ Peter had several including Yost, Peter and, of course, Adam.
✧ The name was changed to Hilbish apparently by Adam and his son Peter about the time they moved from Montgomery County to Freeburg.
✧ The name appears to have remained Hollenbush for the branch of the family that stayed in Montgomery County when other branches moved on.
✧ And one branch appears to have adopted the spelling Hilbush Some of them moved to the Mahanoy area of Northumberland County (now called Red Cross) and a few ended up in Schuylkill County.
So we think we can account for all the key persons of this name who lived in Montgomery County and we know all the members of the second, third and fourth generations who moved to other places in Pennsylvania. Everyone we have ever found tracing this family leads invariably to one of these people. So, all are descendants of Peter, the immigrant. (Many descendants, though, still are under the mistaken impression they descend from Christian, but that just simply can’t be true).