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The purpose of this Web site is to share the results of the family history research with those who have a common interest or connection with the Otteni / Oatney / Otney / Ottney / Otteny families in the United States or Europe. If you find a
connection, please send
email or leave
note in the Guest Book
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Family Name
Background
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 Ignaz Otteny kept the
spelling. (View descendants on the
OTTENY page)
Early Otteni
Families in Germany
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
Urloffen was the main settlement area for the Otteni's in Germany,
however others lived in nearby
Nußbach, and Renchen, Germany.
Three of Hans Georg Otteni's descendants are
known to have immigrated to America during
the 1800's. They were: Benedict Otteni - Great, Great
Grandson Theodor Otteni - Great, Great,
Great, Great Grandson Anton Otteni - Great, Great
Grandson
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 and are the descendants of
Benedict, Theodor, and Anton Otteni.
Detailed information on each family branch
is available by clicking on the blue links below.
Benedict Otteni
(1793-1858), the progenitor of most
OATNEY
and
OTNEY
family members in the United States today, settled in Fairfield
County, Ohio in the early 1830s. He and his wife, Christina
Houser, raised 11 children.
Many descendants still live in the Ohio area.
Those family members using the alternate spelling of
OTNEY live mostly in the Kansas area of the U.S.
Some of the OTNEY families changed to the OATNEY spelling when
reconnected. In most cases, the pronunciation is the same
for either spelling.
On the
Benedict Otteni page, there are family sketches of his
children and a PDF Descendant Report that includes all his known
descendants. Some of the surnames included are:
Powers, Shugert, Pearce, Brandt, Miller,
Getz, Davis, Flemm, Bowes, Scheffler, Thimmes, Gundelfinger,
Stover, Campbell, Yates, & Poston.
Theodor Otteni
(1844-1911) is the progenitor of family members in the U.S.
spelling their name
OTTENI.
He and his wife Theresia Wörner (1846-1927) came to the United
States from Urloffen, Germany in 1872.
They settled in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania and
engaged in farming. He and his wife raised 12 children with many
descendants still living in the area.
Anton Otteni
(1786-1865) is the progenitor of the
OTTNEY
family members in the U.S. and Canada. Anton and his wife,
Barbara Schneider, came to the United States in 1832. The family
first settled in New York State but later moved to northwest
Ohio.
The following chart shows how the
descendants of Benedict Otteni, Theodor Otteni, and Anton Otteni are
related to Hans George Otteni.
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.
Peter Otteni, related the following in 1998:
Under the
rigid anti-Jewish reign of Third Reich, it has been very
popular to do some family research, especially for German
citizens with a non-German family name. That's also, what my
Grandfather, Theodor Otteni was doing.
It turned
up that the church's records mentioned the name Otteni for
the first time a little bit less than 500 years ago. Their
origin appears to be Lombardian (the area around Torino,
Italy) and that they have come to Germany as master stone
carvers, along with the 'construction boom' of cathedrals at
that times in southwestern Germany.
If you dig
deep enough, you'll find the name Otteni also among the
masters that have participated in the construction of the
cathedral at Freiburg, Germany, among other sites. The main
settlement area for the Otteni's has been the towns of
Renchen, Urloffen, Nussbach and Ulm (a nearby town, not the
city of Ulm east of Stuttgart). My father,
the late Hermann Otteni, was born on Jan. 20, 1926 in
Renchen, Germany, which is located only about 10 miles away
from Urloffen.
The Lombardy region of Italy is
approximately 200 miles south of Urloffen.
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,"
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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAMILY CONNECTIONS There are several family lines of ancestors (see chart below) with significant information. Detailed information on each family branch is available by clicking on the links below.
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