Welcome

This website site is dedicated to the history of the Knatz Family. The Knatz name is German in origin and is an uncommon name, even in Germany. I have traced my family lineage back to the early 1600’s in the town of Niedenstein, Germany, a small village near the city of Kassel in the state of Hesse.

I have extensive information from the church records in Niedenstein as well as archival records that I collected while doing research on the Knatz family in Germany. Along the way, I have collected information about the Knatz family in other locations and that information will be compiled in this website to make it available to other researchers. Although the Knatz family has had continuous residence in the town of Niedenstein for over 400 years, many left for other places. According to family letters, members of my family left Niedenstein and moved to the City of Kassel to find work. Knatz members left Niedenstein to emigrate to America. My Knatz ancestors emigrated to New York . Other Knatz’s left Germany to emigrate to Russia. Although my immigrant ancestors settled in New York, there were also Knatz’s who settled in the Ohio and Maryland and Washington State. A Knatz left Germany to open a brewery in Nambia, Africa, left a son there and so there are Knatz family members today in Africa. The earliest records of Knatz family members coming to the United States from Niedenstein are Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War. However, the majority of immigrants into the United States came in the later part of the 19th century. There were also a Knatz who was a confederate soldier in the Civil War.

This website was developed with a blog so that you can post information or inquiries about your family to this website. The information on the Knatz family that is part of the website has documentary evidence (vital records, church books, census, letters, etc. ).

The oldest known record of the Knatz family is found on the first page of the Niedenstein Church Book of marriage banns or Proclamations, the marriage of Paulus Knatz and Maria Oelwin, 1654. Note the faint red pencil line under the name Knatz in the second line of the first entry for 1654.

I welcome permanent additions to this website with appropriate documentation. If you would like to have information permanently added to this website on your Knatz family, please contact me. — Geraldine

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