A correspondent writes that she is researching the name Fishback and has often been told that she should look at the Germanna Record Five, "Nassau-Siegen Immigrants," as it is said that the 1714 Fishbacks are the ancestors of all of the Fishbacks in the US. This same correspondent goes on to disprove this statement by citing several Fishbacks who were in the immigration of 1709/1710.
Does anyone know whether a statement is made somewhere to this effect, i.e., the 1714 immigrant Philip Fischbach is the patriarch of the Fishback clan in the US?
Besides the 1709/1710 Fishbacks, there was a Jacob Fishback who came to Virginia, through Philadelphia, in 1734 and settled in the Little Fork. I understand the name, Fischbach, means fish brook. Just as the name Fischer would seem to be a common name, I would speculate that Fischbach is not at all an unusual name. It would be very likely that it has origins in many parts of Germany.
Emil Flender, who is the individual who did the most to get the Germanna Foundation off the ground, says that Fischbach is a place-name which was commonly called Fischpe or Fispe. The earliest ancestor of Phillip Fishback, the immigrant, is Tyl van Fispe who was paying rent (real estate taxes?) in 1444 on an iron-works. The name Tyl seems to a nickname for Tillman. A grandson of Tyl seems to be first with the surname of Fischbach.
Though the name Fischbach, or Fishback, seems simple enough, it is sometimes butchered in the records. John Fishbey had a land patent in the Little Fork area, which he received on 28 Sep 1730. His son, Frederick, incorporated this patent into a grant.
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