There has been a recent interest in uncovering the German roots and preserving the German heritage of the state of Indiana. A German renaissance is occurring in Indiana, particularly due to the tricentennial of German immigration to thie country: 1683 - 1983. The area around Batesville has an important contribtion to make to that revival of interest.
What has been sketched in the preceding chapters about the history and culture of northern Germany can also be written in a different way about the history of other areas from which immigrants came. The immigrant past is unique and varied for each family. There is a significant Swiss settlement in this area with names like Abplanalp and Abegglen with a different story to tell. The Bigney family came to this area after several generations in Nova Scotia, having originally left Montbeliard near the Swiss border in France.
Alsatian families like the Bickas of Woerth, the Wolljungs of Geisweiler, and the Menchhofers of Kirchweiler spoke German, but were under French rule from 1681 until they immigrated to America. The Neufarth family came from Hohersulzen near Woerms in Hesse Darmstadt with a family tradition that they were ethnically Jewish although they appeared in the Lutheran church books in Hohensulzen beginning in 1749.
The Hillenbrand family came from Frankenthal in the Palatenate or Rhein Pfalz. They listed their homeland as Bavaria because the Palatinate was ruled by Bavaria after 1777. The Huber and Baas families emigrated from Obersimten and Wirzein near Pirmasens in the southern part of the Palatinate. The Palatinate was the source of much immigration to America through the years.