Several conjectures about possible parentage are circulating, but none of these have yet been proven. I will mention a few here.
Perhaps the most promising theory is that he may have been the son of Bernhardt Christman (b. c1682, son of Georg) and Elizabeth Meyer (dau. of Hans Meyer) of the Sandhausen and Leiden area, on the south end of Heidelburg.
Another theory often seen circulating is that four currently unsolved Christman immigrants were all brothers: Christopher of Zweibruecken, Daniel, Heinrich of Quirnbach, and Jacob of Wuertemberg. The theory will often identity their father as George Christman b. c1680 in Zweibrucken. An obvious problem with this theory is that Quirnbach, Zweibrucken and Wuertenberg are quite a ways apart from each other. I have never seen any hard evidence connecting these immigrants, and suspect someone may have simply conjectured their were brothers after simply seeing the four immigrants in the colonies with the same last name.
The identity of his wife is unknown.
In 1993, I proposed a theory to usenet groups and other researchers that the "Elisabeth Margretha Kristlerin" that appears as a sponsor on the baptism of Elisabeth Margretha Haas on 14 Apr 1745 [Augustus Lutheran Church Archives, Trappe, Pa., in Pa. Germ. Soc. Proc, Vol. 4, page 185] was the wife of Daniel. After an in-depth study of known Chrismans and other individuals in the Montgomery Co. area, I was able to find only four possible matches to the sponsor in the record, and the other three appear extremely unlikely. Regardless of this record, we know from a record at New Hanover that Daniel's wife was living on 31 Oct 1745, and that she was deceased before 1760 (her actual date of death was probably soon after 1745). Since I circulated this theory, several people have independently told me that their family histories list his wife as "Margaret". None of these have documented their sources.
| ©1999-2007, Lonnie Chrisman San Jose, CA |
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