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The Heritage, Life, and Legacy of Daniel Hiestand/Haston

The 2022-2027 Hiestand/Haston Family History Books Project

The Story That Led to This Project

I began researching my Haston family in the fall of 1999. It started as a simple attempt to satisfy my curiosity, but it soon became a hobby, sometimes an obsessive one.  I started to collect and organize pertinent documents.  Then, I began ordering and reading books broadly related to the historical trail I was discovering, which gradually became an extensive library.  

Having had professional experience as a website developer, it seemed appropriate to put my findings online to share what I discovered with Hastons who were interested.  I created a simple website for that purpose, which grew into a vast resource for public access.  Later, it was supplemented by a more contemporary blog site.

At some point, I thought, “You ought to write a book to preserve what you have learned for your own children, grandchildren, future descendants, and other relatives.” When I retired in 2017, I began writing, thinking it might result in a book of a few hundred pages.

But after a few years of writing, I realized that I had written about 1,300 pages!  A good friend with a lot of experience in publishing told me, “Wayne, nobody is going to purchase a book of 1,300 pages!”  He commented further, “You need to condense that down into a smaller book, then flesh the rest of your work out into a series of books.”  So, that’s what I’ve done and am doing. 

When completed, we should have more than 2,000 pages of recorded and published history of our Haston family. I urge you to collect the complete set and then pass it down to future generations of your family.

Published 2022

The Story of the Daniel (Hiestand) Haston Family

The Condensed Version of the Story

This was a difficult book to write because I was forced to leave out so much valuable historical information about our (Hiestand) Haston  family.  It’s what I call my “Reader’s Digest” version of the FULL story because it is condensed, containing about 25% of what the following four books combined will contain. 

But there is a reason it is a condensed version of our family’s history.  It is written and designed to give you a good and fairly succinct overview of our Haston family, from the mountain slopes along the south shore of Lake Zürich to the Rhineland of Southwest Germany, to Pennsylvania in the USA, then down into northern Virginia, and on to Tennessee, and eventually all across the United States to where YOU probably live.

Every Haston and Haston-related family should have this book.  It’s an excellent gift for children, grandchildren, cousins, and other relatives.

Published 2024

The Swiss-German Hiestand Roots

Book 1 of the Four-Book Series – The Heritage

The 2022 book was difficult to write because it was a condensation of a much bigger account of the Daniel Haston family story.  But this volume was very challenging for another reason–most of it is the European (Switzerland and Germany) part of our story (based on old German language documents)–our European roots that were undiscovered until after 2008.   It expands the content of Chapters 1-8 of the 2022 book by four times.

 

With the assistance of some highly regarded European historians and translators, I was able to craft the story of precisely where our family came from along the shore and mountain south of Lake Zürich, Switzerland – when the family name first appeared – why they were forced to leave Switzerland – where they settled along the Rhine Rivers of Southwest Germany – when our earliest immigrant ancestor (Henrich Hiestand) came to America – where he initially settled and later moved to – how many children he had – and where our ancestor, Daniel Hiestand/Haston fit into the family.

 

Please note: There is more Swiss and Rhineland Germany historical information about the Hiestand family (and consequently our Haston family) in this book than is in any book, anywhere.  It is was a very expensive project and is an extremely valuable resource.

If, by God’s grace, He allows me to live and be physically and mentally able, I plan (and hope) to publish one book each year in 2025, 2026, and 2027.

Projected for 2025 Publication

The Life of Daniel Hiestand/Haston: From the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the Frontier of Middle Tennessee

Projected for 2026 Publication

The Legacy of Daniel Hiestand/Haston, Part 1: David Haston, Montgomery Greenville Haston, Joseph Haston, Lucinda Haston Mitchell, Catherine Haston Austin, Isaac Haston (in Tennessee and Missouri)

Projected for 2027 Publication

The Legacy of Daniel Hiestand/Haston, Part 2: Isaac Haston (in California), Jesse Haston, Jeremiah Haston, Daniel Haston, Jr., Elizabeth Haston Roddy

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