So far our search for Heiden ancestors has taken us back to Friedrich Heiden who was born in 1755 in  the small village of Nienhagen in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany. He and his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were all born in rural towns in northern Germany.

From what we have discovered, only his great grandson, August Heiden (right) who was born in 1838 in nearby Gross Wokern, emigrated to America. He and his wife, Rika, and their first three children Heinrich, Ernst and Meta made the journey in 1873. Within a few weeks of their arrival, they were living in Monroe, Michigan.

We have developed lists of direct i.e. those who share DNA, ancestors and descendants of Friedrich's line through at least 11 generations. To date, the number of direct descendants of Friedrich Heiden is over 1000 people.

Generations 1 through 8 of the Heiden family are complete from data we collected in preparation for the 1995 Heiden Family book. However, Generations 9, 10, 11 and by now even 12, are very incomplete since we have not done a major update on births for thirty years.

That total list for Friedrich is primarily populated by the descendants of only one of his great grandchildren, August, the son of Friedrich's granddaughter, Maria Heiden. Of the total, over 95% are direct descendants of August alone. Friedrich had at least four other grandchildren and we have not yet determined how many more children were born to those branches. It is amazing to think that this one man, Friedrich Heiden, who was born over 270 years ago may be the direct ancestor of way over 1,000 people.

The parents of the website's author were Arthur and Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden (left). So, we have included families further back in their family trees as follows:

For Arthur Heiden: Heiden, Rambow, Milhan, Knaack, and Kanseyer Families.

For Mildred Roggerman: Roggerman, Getty, Oliver and Rehmann Families.

As of April, 2026, me (Ralph Heiden) and my siblings, Harold, Joyce, Ronald, Kay and Gail have 2,817 direct relatives i.e. share our DNA, listed in the descendants unit. We are the only ones related to everyone included in this website. Others of you will have different family combinations in your background, of course.

The graphics above and to the left, appear in several of the generation lists. Many obituaries include phrases such as "Survived by...13 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren..." or "Survived by grandchildren Bobby, Mary, Jane and Robert and great grandchildren Hubert, Daisy and Joan..." Since these are also direct descendants of the deceased, we have tried to represent these numbers in the totals for that family.

If you have names of individuals that should be shown on the lists in the more current generations, please provide the full name of the person, the decade of his or her birth and the parents' names. If they are still living their name alone will be added to the lists with no inclusion of other specific dates or personal data.

Please send an EMAIL if you have names to add to the list of descendants of any of these families. Thanks!

ND - These letters next to an individual's name indicates that they are not a direct descendant of the person listed. For more on this topic, Click Here.