The story of the Brossman Family Tree now spans back in time for over 350 years to Waldangelloch, Heidelberg, Baden, Germany with the birth of Nicholas Brossman and begins in this country with his son, Frantz, who appears to be the first Brossman immigrant to the New World, settling in Stouchburg, Pennsylvania in 1739.

Many of the early Brossmans continued to live and raise families in the area of Stouchburg, Robesonia, Wernersville and surrounding communities in Pennsylvania.  However, there have been some of the early families that had relocated to Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado and elsewhere.  The result of all this is, “We are not alone”.  We are probably related to most of the Brossmans in the country.  I have found a reference to a Josef Brossman who immigrated from Prussia (later became part of Germany) on the German steamship, “Weser”, which arrived in Galveston Texas in September 1885.  No further records can be found on this name and no suggestion is made of any relation to our family.  But this is over 100 years later and our Brossmans had sufficient time to establish themselves.

It should not be surprising that in this age of computers, a lot of genealogy information is now available on the Internet.  Quite a bit of information that appears on these pages also came from that source.  To be certain, much of all the information available on the Brossmans is basically due to the work of Schuyler Calvin Brossman, a genealogist, of Rehersburg, Pennsylvania who passed away early in 1998.  His writings appear in almost any reference to a Brossman including the Drummond Collection.

If you are a Brossman, you can take great pride, as you read these records, in the fact that our early Brossman ancestors helped to make Berks County and surrounding areas what they are today.  They were farmers, builders, coach makers; many held public offices and were respected members of the community.  Frantz Brossman settled in Stouchburg Pennsylvania in 1739, nine years before Reading was founded, 13 years before Berks County was founded and he helped establish the Christ Lutheran Church of Stouchburg in 1743.

Through the years and several states, the  Brossman name has become changed for some of us.  The ones we know about are the change to Bressman and Brosman.  Both of these changes seem to have occurred in Illinois between 1830 and 1850 with two brothers, Benjamin and Samuel Brossman and are probably a result of census taking or other factors.  You can find more about these two families by reading the Bressman Story. 

There are almost 1100 Brossmans, Brosmans and Bressmans listed on these pages.  In all, there are almost 3000 individuals in our database and as you will see, there are a lot of folks with no information.  Over twelve generations, that will add a lot more Brossmans.  We have populated many of the states, but in reality, most of that population is due in large part to just a few founding families.  Of course, most of the Pennsylvania Brossmans are descendants of the original Berks County families of Johannes, (John) Adam and Benjamin Brossman.   The Ohio, Indiana and Illinois Brossmans descend primarily from Jacob Brossman II 1805-1899, son of (John) Jacob Brossman and Samuel Brosman(Brossman), son of (John) Peter Brossman.  The Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington Brossmans descend primarily from Daniel David Brossman, great grandson of (John) Adam Brossman.  The Nebraska, Iowa and Oklahoma Bressmans are descendants of Benjamin Bressman(Brossman) also a son of (John) Peter Brossman.

I hope that all that read these records would enjoy and prosper from the knowledge that we could have a rather large family reunion if circumstances warranted.  For me, this has been a labor of love.