Alma and Eddie Dehning Line

Dehning Family Tree ‑ Dehnings in the USA

As early as in the twenties of the last century the founder and first chairman of our family association Gustav Dehning (1882-1970) got in touch with Dehnings in the USA. They were very interested in genealogy and sent a lot of information to Gustav Dehning and Heinrich Dehning (1903-1979), his successor, and later to Hans Jurgen Dehning (*1924), the present chairman and writer of these Lines.

In the entire Dehning family tree there are 3 Lineages; two very large Lineages and one comparatively small Lineage (the numbers refer to the German roots). The 3 Lineages are: the (I) Beckedorfer Lineage with 8 Lines, the (II) Dehnernbockeler Lineage with 22 Lines, and the (III) Bergener Lineage with only 1 Line.

We know of four Dehning Lines in the USA belonging to the (II) Dehnernbockeler Lineage. In 2007 we got news from an American Dehning, Kevin Dehning, Austin, TX, whose Dehning ancestor did not emigrate to the USA but to South Africa. And his line doesn’t belong to the (II) Dehnernbockeler Lineage, as all the other Dehnings in the USA do, but to the (I) Beckedorfer Lineage. In June 2007 we got a letter from Mrs. Diana M. Smith, Cambridge, New Zealand. Her maternal grandmother, Johanna Dehning (1884 – 1960) was a “white Dutch-German South African” and she had 10 siblings. She was born in Wynberg, South Africa. “She married in 1902 at the age of 18 years in South Africa to Fred Johnston, who was a full-blood Irishman, born in Dublin in 1867. They sailed to New Zealand in 1908. … Grandfather Fred Johnston disappeared in the mid 1930’s and was never heard of again.” This is all covered in Line 5, the South Africa/America/New Zealand Line.

You will find my family in the Alma and Eddie Dehning line here, we are part of the first large line: (4a) Wietzendorf-America-Line.

(II) Dehnernbockeler Lines:

1. (large) Line: (II/4a) Wietzendorf-America-Line
   (Informants: Orval Dehning (*1930), George Dehning (1921-1997), Ramona (Eden) Chapman (*1945)
2. (large) Line: (II/10a) Wieckhorst-Christoph-America-Line with 6 branches.
   (Informants: Carl J. Burgwald (1927-?) (2. and 4. Branch), Jean Glass (3. Branch), Ida Dehning (1899-1984), Jerry Olson (*1941) and LeAnna Sutherland (*1941), (5. Branch), Hillard Dehning (1928- 2001) (6. Branch).
3. (small) Line: (II/14a) Bockheber-America-Line
   (Informant: Robert (*1930) and Charlotte Dehning)
4. (small) Line: (II/22a) Diersbüttel-America-Line
   (Informants: Arthur Schulz (1908-1991), Lloyd Dehning (*1925), Vicki (Dehning) Froslee (*1969), Reuben Burmester (1911-1999))

(I) Beckedorfer Line

5. The South Africa/America/New Zealand Dehnings
   Informants: South Africa - America: Kevin Dehning, TX, and South Africa – New Zealand: Diana Smith, Cambridge, Waikato 3434, New Zealand

If you are a Dehning living in America then you are part of one of the lineages above, but we all share the same crest. Click on the crest below to go to the Dehning Family Association home page.

If you have information about these lines, please send your updates to bdehning@chapman.edu.