During the Thirty Years' War, the armies of Sweden were involved in the conflict. For a period of time they were in control of the Siegen area. This period has acquired a name in history called the " Schwedenzeit ", or the time of the Swedish presence (ended in 1635). During the Schwedenzeit , Christoph Jung of Siegen was the Reformed pastor at Gundersheim, about eighty miles to the south of Siegen. Usually, to be identified as "of" meant to be born there. Descendants of Christoph married Jacob Bouton. How Christoph is involved in the Jung family of the Siegen area is not entirely clear. The research that has been done on the Jung family has overlooked this branch, but the appearance of a member of the Jung (Young) family, known to be from the Siegen area, and a member of the Button family in Virginia suggests there may have been a relationship between the two.
The spelling of the Cuntze family name in both Germany and America has been varied. The earliest records indicate a spelling as Cuntze which became Kuntze . In Virginia, the use of both the "C" and the "K" was common. Spellings of the name here gravitated toward Coons, while some branches of the family spelled the name as Koontz or Kuntz. Uncertainties remain as to how closely the different branches are related.
The Grimm family name became Crim in Virginia. Some branches, perhaps unrelated, used the names of Krim or Grim.
The Heimbachs were represented in the 1714 Colony by the maiden name of two of the wives. Philip Fischbach had married Elizabeth Heimbach, and Harmon Utterbach had married another Elizabeth Heimbach. Later, Jacob Heimbach settled in the Little Fork region and the name became Hanback.
The Hitt family in Virginia has been one of the most difficult families to trace in Germany. The most common belief is that Peter Hitt should be identified as Peter Heite. The Heite name is to be found in Siegen area today.
The Hoffman or Huffman name in Virginia is represented by several members. The 1714 immigrant is John Hoffman. His younger brother, Henry (Johannes Henrich), came in 1743 and both of these individuals lived among the Second Colony. They also had another brother, Johann Wilhelm, who emigrated to Pennsylvania. Yet another Henry Hoffman lived among the Little Fork group, but he appears to have no relationship to the other Hoffmans. This Little Fork Hoffman had a brother who was a Moravian in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As a consequence of the multiple Hoffmans and the many sons, sorting out the Hoffmans has not been easy.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.