The Altizer Family
Who we are.
It is generally accepted that Emera Von Althausen was born in the Hesse province of Germany, that he emigrated to America at a young age, that he lived with, and worked for, a family by the name of Pitzer in Pennsylvania and married one of the Pitzer daughters. The dates of his birth, emigration and marriage are not well documented and, in fact, it is not known if he had one wife or two. Some family researchers believe that he was married first to Anna Marie Pitzer and then to Mary Miller, whereas others are convinced that Marie Pitzer was his only spouse. In any case, Emera was father to eight children (six boys and two girls) and those of us who bear the name Altizer or have an Altizer in our ancestral line, all descend from this one man who lived through the last half of the 18th century.
Emera moved from Lancaster Co. PA to Montgomery Co. VA shortly after his marriage and lived there until his death in 1819. He is buried in the Altizer Cemetery on Chestnut Ridge in Montgomery Co.
The children of Emera Altizer were John, Emera Jr., Nancy, Elias, David Riley, William Alexander, Elizabeth and Jonas. Each of these children had rather large families and Emera became grandfather to approximately 70 grandchildren. Of the Altizer male children: John, Emery Jr. and Jonas lived their lives in the Montgomery Co and Floyd Co area (Jonas inherited the Altizer homeplace on condition that he care for his mother until her death); Elias, David, and William left Montgomery Co. and moved west. David Riley settled in Tazewell Co, at what is now Cedar Bluff, reportedly because one of his children got sick, while the other two young men went on to settle in the southwest corner of Indiana. As for the two Altizer girls, Nancy married Adam Akers and Elizabeth married George Reed, and they both stayed in the Montgomery Co. area and raised their families there.
The largest concentration of the Altizer clan is in and around the Tazewell Co., VA area, and most of these members are descended from David Riley, and of those the majority seem to be descended from David Riley’s son Billy. The children of Elias and William Alexander apparently had the same wander gene as their fathers and they created branches of the family in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, Texas, California and other areas. Of course, in the post WWII automotive age, every branch of the family has become mobile and scattered all over the country.
Emera Von Althausen assumed the name of
Altizer sometime around 1750, and we are today recording ten generations of his
descendents. From telephone records and other sources I have seen, I estimate
there are some 4000 people living who bear the name and, if my grasp of math
and genetic traits is correct, there could be over 1 million other descendents
of Emera Altizer. There are other variations of the Althausen name and only a
few of those can be traced to Emera, but everyone I've met who spells the name
"Altizer" or “Alltizer” can trace their lineage directly to Emera.
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*The above information was put together in
1999.
Later research suggests that Emera Altizer
was born Emmerich Althauser in Dutchess Co., NY; that his parents were Johann
Peter Althauser and Elizabeth Catherine Laucks. This information can be found in the book THE PALATINE FAMILIES OF NEW YORK & NEW
JERSEY by Henry Z. Jones and on the Joyce-Payne website (http://babbage.clarku.edu/~djoyce/gen/report/)
as well as other places on the internet.
I have revised my files to reflect some of
this more recent concept.
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