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Prouty & Heiken Genealogy

Apricot Season! - My grandmother and other neighborhood women cutting apricots during harvest circa 1920. Our family’s ranch was located on what is now the corner of Purissima and Robleda Road in Los Altos Hills, Santa Clara Co., California. It was purchased by my great-grandfather Jacob Weber in 1905 for $10.


Our Prouty and Heiken Genealogy

Exploring family history can help us understand where we came from and who we are. Learning how ordinary people left their homelands to come to America and raise their families through this nation’s past is humbling.

The Prouty ancestors takes one through the entire history of the United States. They came to America as early as 1621 and settled throughout the colonies. The majority came from England and settled in Massachusetts and in the Carolinas. A few families came from Holland and France, drawn to the Dutch settlements in New York. These ancestors became first settlers of many new colonial towns, participated in their local governments and fought in the revolution. Their descendants took part in America’s expansion and became early settlers of Maine, Kentucky, Ohio and Mississippi. Most worked on small farms, others were teachers and preachers. During the Civil War, fathers and sons fought on both sides of the conflict. The Prouty who connected the north and south branches was a Union soldier who at the wars end married a southern girl. The fathers of this couple were both at the siege of Vicksburg, but on opposite sides. It was the son of this marriage that reached the western shore of California after serving in WWI.

The Heiken ancestors were later additions to the United States, drawn by the promise of farmland and new opportunities during the mid 1800’s. Half came from the lowlands of Germany, Ostfriesland, and settled on farms in Jones County, Iowa. The other half came from Prussia, (now Belgium) France and Switzerland, finding work on the young nations railroads in Minnesota and Kansas. They too migrated west until settling in California during the early 1900’s. These two branches united when a young Iowan joined the navy and stayed in California after his service.

I heartily welcome any comments, corrections, or additions. I hope you will let me know if you have any connection or historical insights to the people in these pages!

Nancy Heiken Prouty