I have papers on the Diehl's of Philadelphia from "The Warren S. and Josephine I. Ely Memorial Collection" of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. They start out to say:

"The German family of Diehl, of which the Diehl family of Philadelphia and vicinity is a branch, is of record on the heraldric tables at Vienna amongst the nobility of Augsburg, in which locality they had their residence for many generations. The rank of the family as nobility is very ancient; the first known ancestor being one Julius who about A.D. 500 offered his services to Hlofwig or Clevis, King of the Franks, and attained such distinction in that monarch's wars against the remnant of the Roman power, as well as against the other Teutonic nations which at that time divided Gaul......."These papers go on to describe the family crests over the generations, leading up to them arriving in America.
Nicholas Diehl was the one to come to America. He arrived in Philadelphia at about 20 years of age in 1761, in the Snow Squirrel, from Rotterdam, via Portsmouth, England. My papers go on to list his descendants. Anyone interested in this line "The Philadelphia Diehls", just e-mail me. My papers are 9 pages long (typed on legal paper).

Misty