Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
Hello Kintz Folk!
I was born in Fort Wayne Indiana and moved to Florida in 1987. I work as a Psychiatric Social Worker here in Jacksonville. Our family is directly descended from great+7 grandpa Michael Kintz (b. 1732)who emigrated to Pennsyvania. My great grandfather was William Edward Kintz. He was born in Tiffin in 1854 and moved to Decatur IN where he died in 1938. Our forebears migrated from PA to Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and most certainly beyond. My cousin, Helen Buescher Pranger, lives in Adams County Indiana and has identified over 2000 names in a direct lineage from Michael to our own family in NE Indiana. If you do the math there are probably more than 65,000 of us Kintz cousins, but not all carry the Kintz name!
Write Helen at hbuesch@adamswells.com Be sure to give her as much info as you can, names of parents, grand & great grandparents etc with any places of birth including DOB's & DOD's.
You might be interested in a project I've been working on to locate Michael's birthplace in Alsace. I located "KINTZHEIM" in the lower or "north" part of Alsace ~20 Km NE of Colmar on the Eastern slopes of the Vosges mountains and world-famous for its fine wines. Also "KIENTZHEIM" is in the "upper" or south part. Several Catholic and Lutheran church records are accessable via the net and I am trying to trace Michael's family origins back to the 1500's. I doubt whether anyone can venture further than this as pre-Reformation church records are non-existant and our search may end in this era.
A little historical aside: Not all Kintzes came to America. There were several large EAST-ward migrations in the 1600-1700's of German-speaking settlers ("Donau-Swaben" or Danube Swabians)from Alsace and other provinces who re-Christianized large areas of Hungary, Rumania and Slavic lands formerly occupied by the Turks. Many of the original inhabitants were forcibly converted to Islam or were otherwise driven East to Russia or other Orthodox Christian lands.
Some time ago I heard from Marek Kintzi, a distant Mennonite cousin who lives in Poland. He may very well have been a descendent of this "resettler" group which reoccupied these Eastern European lands.
I would also be interested in locating any French-speaking Kintzes who emigrated to Quebec and other parts of French-speaking Canada. The Alsatians, though ethnic Germans, have long been proud of their French identity. Napoleon once remarked to one of his generals who questioned their loyalty, "What if they don't speak French? Their swords do!"
Write me at wkintz@juno.com anytime!
Posted 4/14/00
Bill Kintz
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/kintz/messages/69.html | ||
 |
Agreement of Use Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|