Early records give various spellings of the surname such as Criter, Crydor, Greider, Grider, Gryder, Grittor, Griter, Krider, Kriter, Kreiter, Kreutter, Kryder and Kreider. A logical explanation was expressed by the Rev. J.G. Francis:^1,2

"There is no profound reason for these different ways of spelling proper names of Germans in colonial Pennsylvania. The English scribe simply wrote the name the way it sounded to him as pronounced by the Germans themselves. Many of these Germans could not write their names, could not speak English, did not know the German alphabet, much less the English, and of course could not tell the Englishman how to spell the name. So the English scribe, no doubt very early, gave up all attempts to be exact. When the German did sign his name, he signed with German script, which was Greek to the Englishman. Often we find deeds with the names of Germans in the body of the deed spelled altogether differently from the way the German at the bottom signs in his own script."

Cryder is the most common spelling in the United States today.The name Kreider is derived from the German noun Kreid, meaning chalk. Hence, one who worked with Kreid, became know as a Kreider, a chalker. Families with this surname can be found in Switzerland and the Rhine provinces of Germany. In the 1700's, it is not unusual to find the Cryder named spelled several different ways when referring to the same individual. I have found three different spellings within the same document.. Making research even harder is the fact that German families frequently reused first names. Thus we find many Johns, Martins, Jacobs and so on. This is explained in 18th Century PA German Naming Customs.

It appears that the family originated in Ruenenberg, Canton of Bern, Switzerland. By 1715, the Cryder's, who later emigrated to America and those that stayed in Europe, moved to Ittlingen, Germany, probably as a result of Anabaptist (Mennonite) persecutions.

The Cryder's were of the Mennonite religion. They preferred a separate church and state. This movement was gathering followers throughout Europe and was the main cause of their desire to seek religious freedom and a better way of life - such as in America.

Between 1727 and 1776, there were upwards of thirty thousand German, Swiss, Dutch and French immigrants to America that settled in Pennsylvania. Our Cryder's show up in what is now Delaware, Lancaster and Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania from 1717 to 1736, and most remained in this area through the Revolutionary War. From reprints of ships logs, several Cryder family members were found with the ship's names and the ship's captains between 1727 and 1776, departing from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Cowes, England.

The Greiter/Kreider families were among the earliest German-speaking settlers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They were known traditionally as Swiss-German Mennonites, who fled, as did many of the early immigrants, from their homeland to escape religious persecution and to secure for themselves a better life. These ancestral families are well known in Lancaster County, and their descendants can be found nationwide.³

Even though their Mennonite faith did not approve of taking up arms, many did during the Revolutionary War, and others gave much needed supplies from their farms and mills. They gave money and went into debt, almost to a point of losing everything they had.

After their arrival in America, some of the Cryder's gave up their Mennonite religion and became Methodist's. Michael Cryder became a lay preacher. This first appears with his move to Hopetown, Ross County, Ohio in 1796.^4,5

At this time, I know of no family association on the Kreiders. There was once a "Kreider-Greider Genealogy Committee" chaired by an Amos K. Stauffer which published four informative reports that were a great help to many researching the history of the family. These reports are dated August 7, 1929, August 6, 1930, August 2, 1933, and August 1, 1934. Unfortunately, the committee made some assumptions with the earlier generations that were incorrect or unsupported. Much of the early information from the committee reports was later untangled in an article by John Marsh, Jr., published in the October 1985 issue of the Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, and is the best article I have read on the Kreider's as it made use of many of the previous Kreider studies and is well supported in its statements. Back issues are available from theLancaster Mennonite Historical Society for a small fee.