Our Geuder-Geuter-Geuther Family Circle

Geuther Lineages

All  GEUTHER lineages that we have researched till now originate from Coburg County, and neighboring South Thuringia. This was the center of the GEUTHER population 500 years ago and it is still true today. Of course, 500 years ago the spelling of the name was Geuder. Each Geuther lineage is named after the town in which the earliest forefather was found. The short descriptions below do not include detailed information for privacy reasons. If you become a member of our club you will have access to all details.

Currently, we have five distinct Geuther lineages.

  • The Malmerz Lineage
  • The Oberlind Lineage
  • The Hof a.d.Steinach Lineage
  • The Jagdshof Lineage
  • The Koeppelsdorfer Lineage

The Malmerz Lineage, begins 1441

Malmerz is a small village in Germany, close to Sonneberg, Neustadt and Coburg. For many centuries it belonged to a duchy with seat in Coburg. Tax records establish Hans Geuder as the first known name bearer in Malmerz. He bought one of the eight farms that comprised the village around 1450. No other town in the area shows any Geuder, except for Coburg. A Hans Geuder sold his property outside of the Spital Gate in 1435. He could very well be the same Hans Geuder that moved later to Malmerz. But we don’t know this for sure.
Handwritten tax books and muster records provide enough continuing documentation until 1590, when the church began to keep the vital information of the villagers. Malmerz was part of the parish Oberlind, a neighboring village with the evangelical Lutheran church in easy walking distance.
From 1618 to 1648, the 30-year war raged in Germany. And the county of Coburg became a thoroughfare for the constant troop movement of the warring parties, the Catholic emperor’s army against the Lutheran barons' reinforced by the troops of the Protestant king of Sweden. Many towns and villages were decimated or even completely wiped out, and their farmland destroyed. In our parish, the Geuder family survived and managed to hold on to their farm. But the church records show no Geuder entries for 28 years. It took the general population in Germany four generations or one hundred years to recover from this terrible time.
By 1700, the spelling of the name began to change in our area from Geuder to Geuter, and finally to Geuther. Our family in Malmerz continued to farm until Johann Nicolaus Geuther, one of seven siblings, a linen weaver, moved to the nearby city of Neustadt around 1730, while a sister inherited the family farm which had been in Geuder hands for almost 300 years.
In the following generation the Geuther line in Neustadt divides into two, with one son moving to Rottenbach, a village about 30 miles away. The other stayed in Neustadt. Several of our current club members in Germany can trace their connection to these two Geuther sons, including myself, through my father, Kurt Geuther.

Eckhard Geuther and Andreas Jahrow have been able to find the original Geuder farmhouse in Malmerz and documented its ownership into the present time.

Site of the original homestead in Malmerz, renovated and added on many times over the course of five centuries.
Below the first Geuther house in Neustadt b.Coburg. The property is located in the historical part of Neustadt and stayed in the family until it got recently sold to the city. The widow of Johann Nicolas Geuther inherited the home in 1758 and the following generations continued to live in the house. Later, the famous chemist Anton Geuther was born here.

The Oberlind Lineage, begins 1698

Oberlind graduated into a lineage in the fall of 2007, after my research in Germany. Sharon Lodge from Ohio, knew that her Geuther forefathers had come to the US in 1835 and 1839, from a town called Leutenberg, situated in the southern hills of the Thueringer Forest, about one hour drive northeast of Malmerz. 
The pastor of the evangelical Lutheran church in Leutenberg kindly assisted me in deciphering the handwritten records in the old church books. We found Sharon Lodges great-great-grandfather and with the accumulated data in our archives I was able to trace the family a few more generations back to Johann Geuter from Oberlind. His son, Johann Conrad, was baptized 1698 in Oberlind. Johann Conrad became a blacksmith, manufacturing nails, and started a tradition in this family. He was a difficult man though, and when he froze to death with 46, on the way home from a party, the church records expound on his many indiscretions, a rather unusual departure from the otherwise dry recordings of names and dates. His son, Johann Georg married in 1766 and moved away to Leutenberg, and established a business as nail smith. But life was not very kind to Johann Georg’s descendants in Leutenberg; many children succumbed to diseases, the town burned completely to the ground in 1800, and military engagements took their toll on the population.
This may have contributed to the decision of the last Geuther generation in Leutenberg to travel across the Atlantic to a new life. Three brothers, their wives and children immigrated to Pennsylvania and Ohio, leaving no other Geuther relative behind. Here their luck changed. They continue to thrive in the US today with some members under the changed name of Guider. See list of Geuther immigrants under "Immigration".

To our current knowledge, no known Geuther descendants from this lineage survive in Germany. But since Oberlind is only about a mile away from Malmerz, the place of origin of our older line, it is very likely, that the Geuder from Oberlind were closely related to the Malmerz group. A DNA test between the Malmerz Geuther and US Guider could surely confirm this.

 

Main square in Leutenberg, September 2007

Leutenberg castle, in use as dermatology clinic

Leutenberg train station

The Hof an der Steinach Lineage, begins 1678

Deanna Ziegler took the photograph you see below of the original Geuther house in Hof a.d.Steinach when we visited the place in 2009. It is house # 15, right next to the Bauersachs property. It was the only pub in the village and also had a dance hall. With the help of a local researcher, we traced the ownership back to 1811 to Henry and Adam's father, Christoph Geuther who died as a young man. His widow remarried, his sons emigrated to the United States and the property stayed in the hands of other descendants.

 

This lineage is named after a village about 20 miles south of Malmerz. It begins with Johann Geuder, born 1678, a butcher and innkeep, who had three children baptized around 1720 in the evangelical Lutheran church in Gestungshausen, the parish seat. At the time, he lived with his family in closeby Steinach a.d. Steinach. His family later moved just a mile down the road to Hof a.d.Steinach. There is no record of Johann’s birth or marriage in this church, which is an indication that he and his wife must have come from somewhere else. It is also worth mentioning that there are no records of other Geuder/Geuther living in this parish before 1721, even though the churches had already been keeping books for about 150 years. Johann’s grandson, Georg Stephan had 6 surviving sons and their proclivity multiplied the family rather quickly. They were enterprising butchers, bakers, basket makers, cloth weavers, barrelmakers and farmers that married into neighboring villages. Today, many Geuther around Coburg can trace their roots to this family from Hof a.d.Steinach.

In the US, the largest number of living Geuther descend from this vibrant family as well. Johann Nicolaus Geuder, an 18 year old basket weaver, was the first of the Hof a.d.Steinach lineage to immigrate to New York in 1844. His father, Johann Georg Geuther followed him to America in 1848 with his wife, two other sons and his mother-in-law. He found the perfect place south of Chicago, in Frankfort, Illinois. All this time he did not know where his first son, Nicolaus was, not even if he was alive or dead. Then, 26 years later, they were reunited by coincidence. A goodly number of their neighbors from the old country joined them in Illinois, and despite the harsh difficulties of these early years, they established typical German communities. Two cousins of Johann Georg's, Henry and Adam Geuther came to America as well and settled in Mendota, Illinois. The longevity of this line and its individual members is remarkable. And yes, several of their descendants still farm the land in Illinois which their forefathers had wrestled from the prairie. See "Visit to Illinois" under Reunions.

In 2007, I visited the main archives of the Ev. Lutheran church in Nuremberg. I searched in the  towns surrounding Hof a.d.Steinach for earlier records of any Geuder/Geuther families, for a possible origin of Johann Geuder, before he settled in Hof a.d.Steinach. The only other closeby town that showed Geuder/Geuther entries before 1720 was Redwitz a.d.Rodach, a few miles to the south from Hof a.d.Steinach. Caspar Geuder, an innkeeper, lived there from 1670 until his death at age 78, in 1718, after 58 years of marriage to two wives and fathering 21 children. He certainly fits the profile for a possible ancestor of the prolific Hof a.d.Steinach lineage. But assumptions do not count in proper genealogy research. Our recent DNA testing, on the other hand, has shown a clear biological connection between the Hof a.d.Steinach line and our older Malmerz line. Details are on the DNA Project page.

  • Henry Geuther and wife Barbara, abt. 1880 in Mendota, Illinois. Henry changed his last name to Guither.  

Hof a.d.Steinach decendants from 1890 Germany

Johann George Geuther, grave in Illinois

Adam Geuther, brother of Henry, with wife

John George Geuther's farm in Frankfort, IL

The Jagdshof Lineage, begins 1675

Jagdshof is a small village northeast of Sonneberg and Malmerz, about 5 miles away, situated on the rising hills of the Thuringowa Forest. The lineage begins with yet another Johann Geuder who bought a farm in Jagdshof in 1675. He was born 1628, but not in Jagdshof. He and his wife, Elisabeth baptized several sons in the following years, all confusingly named Johann or Hans. From later church entries, we can deduce that they already had two older sons not born in Jagdshof. The family might have come from Judenbach, a town close by. In the Tax and Lienbook from 1664 there is a Johann (Hans) Geuder in Judenbach that could fit the description. Farming was a real challenge in Jagdshof due to the rough climate on top of the mountain. The farm stayed in Geuder/Geuther hands until around 1850. Today, no Geuther lives in Jagdshof or Judenbach. Kurt Geuther, who's father moved to northern Germany, is the only known Geuther descendant from this lineage. The lineage still needs a lot of research. Unfortunately, crucial church books are missing.

Again, DNA testing could tell us if Kurt Geuther is biologically related to the Malmerz lineage.

The Koeppelsdorf Lineage, begins 1680

The village of Koeppelsdorf is part of Sonneberg today. The lineage begins with Johann Geuder, who was born 1680 in Malmerz and died 1753 in Koeppelsdorf. We don't have a documented connection to the Malmerz lineage but a relationship is very likely. A few generations a still sketchy and require more research. Today, Norbert Geuther from Apolda, and Herta Ludwig from Sonneberg belong to this family tree.

Where do the Geuther families live today?

To look up the distribution of Geuther families in Germany go to http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/en/Default.aspx, add surname "Geuther" and click search.

  To look up the distribution of Geuther families in the US go to                                                    

http://name.whitepages.com/last/geuther