My name is Geraldine Knatz. I began working on the Knatz family genealogy in the 1980’s. I have searched the Knatz family back to Germany about 400 years. Fortunately, the family has been found in the town of Niedenstein since the Bells of Meunster rang out for peace at the end of the 30 years war in 1648. In 1987, I traveled to Germany to visit the Knatz ancestral farm and to do further research. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, I immediately went to the former area of East Germany to seek records on family lines from that portion of Germany. I hope to add this information over time to the website.I will provide a history of the town of Niedenstein in a future update of this website.
This website is dedicated to the Knatz family everywhere but it is a work in process. I intend to add the family letters written from Germany to our immigrant ancestors, August and Conrad. I have photographs of the Knatz ancestral home and many family members here and from Germany. I also have documented the family tree along numerous lines and have done research in archives and churches in Germany.
I was born in Paterson, New Jersey and grew up in Wayne New Jersey. I went to Alps Road Elementary School and then James Fallon Elementary School. I went to Wayne Junior High and then Wayne Valley High School. While in High School, I was a member of the Flag Twirling Team. I worked in the public library, the A&P Grocery Store and Plains Pharmacy. I went to Rutgers New Jersey and received my Bachelor of Arts in Zoology. I lived at home and commuted to college, taking the bus until I was able to buy my first car, a Datsun 510. During my last year of college, I lived part of the time on Sandy Hook, in Building 22 which was an empty barracks building on the Ft. Hancock Military Base. I lived there because I was volunteering at the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Lab at Sandy Hook to earn college credit. Then I got a paying job at NOAA. I moved to California to go to graduate school at University of Southern California. I received a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences. I worked for a short time at Tetra Tech, a consulting firm in Pasadena during a time when they were conducting biological investigations in the Bering Sea. While finishing my Ph.D., I got a job working as an environmental scientist for the Port of Los Angeles. After 4 years, I took a promotion to head the Environmental section at the Port of Long Beach. I stayed at the Port of Long Beach for many years, advancing to Managing Director of Development. In January, 2006, I became the Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles, the largest port in the United States. I am retired from the Port and am currently a Professor of Practice at the University of Southern California with a joint appointment in the School of Engineering and the School of Public Policy. I am married to John C. Mulvey and have two children, John Rolfe Mulvey and Patrick Finnegan Mulvey. (P.S. The cute kids on the stoop in the home page are (l to r) my brother Charles Knatz, my cousins, Judy Menninger and Tommy Menninger, circa 1945.)