GUTEKUNST GENEALOGY
The Gutekunst Family spreads accross
the
German South and Beyond
As already said above, it is very likely that Oberschwandorf is the place of origin of the Gutekunst family. From there it seems to have spread in the 16th century to Beyhingen, Nagold, Haiterbach and Gündringen, and from the latter around 1600 to Schietingen.
By 1627 we find the family also in Bondorf, another closeby Black-Forest village. Over the following tree generations, especially in the second half of the 17th century, the Gutekunst family spreads rapidly over the administrative area then called "Schwarzwaldkreis" (Black-Forest Circle) (see map from 1848)
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By 1658 we find them in Pfalzgrafenweiler, by 1657 in Egenhausen, and by 1661 in Altnuifra. Many other villages follow: Unternuifra (1666), Nuifra (1675), Hochdorf and Waldorf (1678), Oberschwandorf (1683), Spielberg (1686). It was only after 1680 that members of this family left the Black-Forest area to settle in the neighboring districts. In 1684 we find a Katherine Gutekunst who married accross the "border" to Dagersheim in the Neckarkreis (Neckar Circle). In the first half of the 18th century this development continues. The family mostly spreads over the Black Forest area, so we find them now also in Effringen (1715) and Beihingen (1723). But more and more marriages take place with partners from the neighboring Neckar area and Gutekunst family members consequently settle there, such as in Grossingersheim (1715), Heimsheim, (1733), and Walheim (1747). By the second half of the 18th century the family is found outside of the Duchy of Württemberg. Members of the family mostly settled in the neighboring Duchy of Baden (starting 1765), and the Bavarian Palatinate (staring 1775), as well as in Kiszkowo, Posen (Prussia) after 1799. After 1750 we find Gutekunsts also outside of the German territories. From the 1750s onwards the family is settling in the British dominions of North America, namely in Pennsylvania. |
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Hochdorf where the Gutekunst appeared in 1678 |
In Emmingen the Gutekunst family appears in the early 1700s |
Emigration from Germany
Emigration from Germany started as early as the mid 1700s. As mentioned above we find Gutekunsts as early as 1750 in Pennsylvania.
Hans Georg Gutekunst arrives in America (Pennsylvania) on Sept. 29, 1750, having borded the ship "Osgood" in Rotterdam that sailed to the New World under Captain William Wilkie.
Michael Friederich Gutekunst, came to Pennsylvania abord the ship "Polly" under Captain Robert Porter on Oct. 18, 1766. He also had borded the ship in Rotterdam.
In 1764 we find Gutekunsts in Saint Dunstan, Stepney, London, England. By 1778 they are in the French Alsace region in Strasbourg, and by 1815/16 in Wittenberg, Bessarabia (today Romania).
In 1833 Gutekunsts appear in Warszawa (Poland) and in 1862 in Basel and 1868 in Mülhausen, both Switzerland.
By 1900 Gutekunsts live in Australia.
The bulk of the Gutekunst family members who left Germany mostly for the US, left however after 1845. The Württemberg Emigration Index lists 85 Gutekunst individuals that left the Duchy between 1833 and 1889. In the Emigration Index of the Duchy of Baden we find another founr individuals that headed for the US between 1872 and 1888. These indexes list name, birth date, birth place, application to leave Germany and the destination of their journey. Most went to the US, some to few to France, Switzerland, England and Prussia.
The Gutekunst Families in the US
28 Gutekunst familie are living in the US by the year 1880 (134 individuals) (US Federal Census 1880). This number had risen to 112 Families with 508 individuals by 1930.
Of the 28 families counted in 1880 in the US, 20 family heads are still born in Germany (16 in Württemberg, one in Baden and three do not specifly and simply give "Germany" as place of origin). Only 8 household heads were born in the US.
Before the 1830s we find Gutekunsts in the US only in Pennsylvania (and one family in Virginia). By the year 1836 Gutekunsts have made their way up to the Great Lakes (Michigan), an area which is to become a stronghold of Gutekunst settlement in the following decades. By 1857 Gutekunst live in New York State, by 1859 in Ohio.
In the year 1880 134 Gutekunsts live scattered over 8 US States. Besides a concentration in and around the big centers of the East Coast that had served as entry point to the US (New York State 26 individuals, Pennsylvanian 21) most family members have moved on to the area of the Great Lakes (Michigan 40, Ohio 17) and the Mid West (Iowa 12, Kansas 9, Missouri 4), the corn chamber of the counrty. At this time we find no Gutekunsts on the West Coast, yet. Four individuals (= 1 family) lived in the capital Washington, D.C.
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....................Where
do the Gutekunsts live today?
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when thinking that all these Gutekunst families descent from one single ancestor, then we can say that this family has taken the old Bible saying "love each other and multiply" to its heart. Well, my great-grandfather Karl Hermann Gutekunst was one of 15 children.
| Number of Telephone entries in 2003 | Gutekunst | Gutenkunst | Goodart* | Goodykoontz |
| Germany |
642
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72
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-
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-
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| Switzerland |
53
|
1
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-
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-
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| Austria |
8
|
1
|
-
|
-
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| USA |
271
|
45
|
90
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56
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| England |
0
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0
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0
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0
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| Australia ??? | ||||
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??? please contact me if you have any figures on other countries |
* maybe not all Goodarts are originally Gutekunst, it could be that this is also an English name. However, no Goodarts live in England today. This speaks against an English origin. However there is the French family name Godart, which could have been converted in some cases in the US into Goodart.
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