Over the years, there have been many different spellings of the family name.  Besides the spellings used today, earlier variations included OTTNE, OTTENE, OTTINE, OTTINEY, OTTONI, OTTINI, and OATTNEY. However, the original spelling, found on German records and signatures on early land transactions in the United States, was OTTENI.  

The vowel ending of the original OTTENI name suggests that the origin is other than German.  As German family lore endorses, and the spelling indicates, the name and family most probably came from Italy.  From the German book "Heimatbuch der Germeinde Urloffen", the author writes that the Otteni family settled in Urloffen Germany about 1676, indicating a move to this area of Germany.

There are many families in Germany that still spell their name OTTENI.  However, there is one branch in Germany that spell their name OTTENY.  In the 1800's, some descendants of Ignaz Otteni used the OTTENY spelling.  Since this family moved from Urloffen, the variant spelling became the the formal spelling and the descendants of Franz Xavier Otteny kept the spelling.

The earliest record found shows that Johannes Otteni was born in Urloffen, Germany on 9 Apr 1681 and that his father was Hans Georg Otteni. In all probability, Hans Georg Otteni moved to Germany just fiveNußbach and Renchen, Germany.  

Three of Hans Georg Otteni's descendants are known to have immigrated to America during the 1800's.  They were:

Most of people living in the United States today that spell the name OATNEY, OTNEY, OTTNEY and OTTENI descend from Hans Georg Otteni in Urloffen, Germany.     

From the German church records available, there are many descendants of Hans Georg Otteni. Many of the descendants that did not go to America can be seen in a family chart called  "Early Generations of Otteni Families in Urloffen starting in 1676".

There is a branch of OTTENI's that descend from Rudolph Otteni (1844-1908). Rudolph came to America in 1880 from Germany.  He settled in Pennsylvania and moved to Delaware by 1891 where descendants still live. Although thought to be related, the exact connection has not yet been established. 

In addition, Francis X. Oteney (1807-1870) immigrated to America prior to 1843 from Germany.  He is the progenitor of the OTENEY families in the United States. Francis lived in Ohio and Indiana before settling in Eaton County, Michigan.  Connection to this line has not been documented but there are other OTTNEY families (descendants of Anton Otteni) living in Eaton County in the same time period.  Current theory is that the connection goes back to Germany.

Members of the Otteni family still living in Urloffen, Germany maintain that early family members migrated from northern Italy. Peter Otteni, using his grandfather Theodor Otteni's research, suggests that the Otteni family came from the Torino, Italy area.  Family lore in the United States suggests a similar origin in that the Otteni family migrated from the Lombardy region of Italy, which is approximately 200 miles south of Urloffen.

It is thought that the Otteni family migrated to Germany as master stone carvers during the 'construction boom' of cathedrals in southwestern Germany. From Theodor Otteni's research, the Otteni name is listed among the masters that participated in the construction of the cathedral at Freiburg, Germany.  

History also tells us that Europe entered a new age beginning about the year 1650.   The Thirty Years' War of Religion had ended and with the break up of the medieval church. The medieval view of life and of the world began fading away. As R. R. Palmer and Joel Colton described in their book "History of the Modern World,"

If the reader were to take a map of Europe, set one leg of a pair of dividers on the city of Paris, and the other leg describe a circle having a radius of five hundred miles, he would mark out a zone from which, since about the year 1650, a great deal of modern or "western" civilizations has radiated.

This five hundred mile radius includes the Lombardy portion of northern Italy as well as all of France and England, most of Germany and Switzerland. With this "western civilization" environment, it can be speculated that movement at this time within this radius meant a chance for better economic opportunities.   For whatever reasons, the Otteni family made the move and flourished, as confirmed by the number of descendants still living in Germany today.

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OATNEY CONNECTIONS

There are several family lines of ancestors (see chart below) with significant information.  These lines include: