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FACT: in old french, "flick" means "the one who can repair anything"?
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Flick History
German/Swiss spelling variations of this family name include: Flickinger, Flick, Flicker,
Fluecker, Flücker, Flicken, Fluekk, Flükk, Fluek, Flük, Fluekinger, Flükinger, Fluck,
Flucker and many more. Family tradition makes Switzerland the ancestral home of the Flicks.
The first of these variations is found in the duchy of Swabia around present day Switzerland.
Martin Fluekk was one of the earliest recorded bearers of the name, residing in the city
of Überlingen in 1294. Überlingen is located just to the north east of Zürich
View Map of Überlingen
The spelling "Flick" is believed to have come from the Old German "Flacco" or "Flecco".
Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Hans Fluckiger, who immigrated to
Pennsylvania in 1710; Johannes Fluckiger, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1729; as did Peter Flickinger in
1753; William Fluck, who settled in Marston's Wharf, New York, after being discharged from service in the
American Revolution.
John Jacob Fleck, age 26, crossed the Atlantic on the ship Lydia, in 1741. This is interesting, because
Philip Heinrich Flick, my direct ancestor crossed the Atlantic on a ship called the Lydia 44 years later in
1785.
Some of the first settlers with the surname of Flick to arrive in America were Gerlach Paul Flick and three kinsmen,
Johanes Petter Flick, Johann Merden Flick and Johan Filibus Flick, on September 23, 1751,
aboard the ship Neptune, which carried 154 passengers from Rotterdam via Cowes. The first three, Gerlach, Johan "Peter"
and Johan "Martin" took the required oath of allegiance at Philadelphia on the same day. These four flicks were probably
brothers or near relatives.
If they were brothers, they eventually returned to Germany, since church records there
indicate that Gerlach Paul's brothers died in Germany and not in the new world.
There have always been 2 main Flick lines in the US. Both so big that even though I suspected they were connected,
I had them in separate databases. Peter Jung, a distant cousin/researcher in Germany eventually found documentation
that linked the Gerlach Paul line to the Philip Heinrich line. This information took the two major Flick lines in
America (Philip Heinrich and and Gerlach Paul) and essentially created one giant family tree out of the two.
Check out my Philip Flick page here to read about
this amazing discovery.
Germany
The Flick line originates from areas in what was known as Germania. When my
ancestors left, Germany was not yet unified. They came mainly from what was formerly Prussia.
The region first became associated with the name Germany in the 1st century BC, when the
"conquest of Gaul" makes the Romans aware for the first time that there is an ethnic and linguistic
distinction between the Celts (or Gauls) and their aggressive neighbours, the Germans.
To view some interesting facts about the history of the German region
click here.
Some of the key surnames in my Flick tree are:
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