Posted on Facebook on 9 November 2015.

The next village Weißenborn that one encounters when traveling east lies near Sontra in the Werra region in Hesse-Kassel.

According to Wikipedia the name of this village was Wyzenborne in 1345 and Wissenborn in the middle of the 15th century. The name may well always have been pronounced as Weißenborn, the current name.

In 1639 the "Hessische Mannschafts Register" was compiled, in the middle of the 30 Years War (1618-1648), at the request of the new regent Amalie Elisabeth, who saw the desolation in the villages in Hessen, and requested to have an inventory of what was left of its population and its property. The transcription of the documents of virtually all towns and villages was done by Hilmar Milbradt in 1959. In Milbradt's book there is only one Weissenborn in all of Hessen: an unmarried Hans in Harnrode - 3 kilometers from the border with Thüringen - who owned a house and a horse. This would imply that at the time of the 30 Years War, the family name Weissenborn uncommon in Hessen, indicating that it didn't originate there.

In my database I have however a Johannes Weißenborn, born in Nentershausen south of Sontra according to the 1658 entry in the marriage register of Süß. His father Andreas should have appeared in the Hessische Mannschafts Register, but doesn't. A subject for further research.

Since the 30 Years War, many Weissenborns have lived and are living in Hesse-Kassel. As the Hessische Mannschafts Register mentions only one in this area, my working assumption is that - perhaps with the exception of the above Andreas - no Weissenborn families took their name from Weißenborn near Sontra, but that they have their roots closer to or in Thüringen.