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| Notes for Gotthardt Kuntze | ||||||||||
| Coons/Koontz Family Page http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/8722/ Koontz History in Germany http://www.arctic-design.com/elizabeth/history.html The earliest known ancestor of the Kuntze, Coons, Coonces that settled in Virginia is Hechin Cuntze (abt.1500)*. He lived in Niederndorf of the Nassau-Siegen region of Germany in the early to mid 1500s. This was in the time of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic influence, a part of German history for centuries, vied with Lutherans and members of the Reformed Faith for support in government. The country was also constantly at war with peoples on all sides. This was a time of shifting borders and loyalties. Hechin's son Arnold Cuntze (abt. 1525) and his grandson Johann Cuntze (abt. 1570) remained in the region during the time of the Thirty Year War. It was a war brought on by religious differences and land hungry neighboring countries. At this time the Nassau-Siegen region fell under the control of Catholic King Ferdinand as well as Protestant influences. It fared better than other areas during the war however due to the fact that it was divided and ruled by two brothers, John Maurice and John the Younger, each on opposite sides of the conflict. Each claimed the entire region as their own and so neither ally attacked the area*. By the time the Peace of Wesphalia of 1648 brought the drawn out conflict to a close, Germany had lost about half of her people to the ravages of war and the accompanying plagues and famine. It was around this time that Gotthard Kuntze (abt. 1610), son of Johann, and his son Johannes Kuntze lived. The brief peace was a compromise of sorts that allowed the Southern and Western lands to remain Catholic while allowing Protestants to retain the land they had acquired and recognizing the Reformed faith. Weaver family tree on Southern Traveler website, http://www.hsv.tis.net/genealogy/gedhtml/huckaby/ | ||||||||||
| Last Modified 21 Mar 1998 | Created 11 Apr 2000 by EasyTree for Windows95 |