Where did our Schmidts originate?
DNA evidence suggests that our particular branch of Schmidts originated in Scotland and Ireland. Something brought one of our ancestors down to Germany, perhaps in the Middle Ages. Reliable documents begin in the 1600s, with our earliest known ancestor, Hans Schmidt (1594-1680), a shepherd in the Werra Valley of Hessen-Kassel. He lived in the village of Nentershausen, and later Blankenbach, although many of his offspring populated Machtlos.
Where are our Schmidts today?
In the 1800s, some of our Schmidts migrated from Hessen-Kassel to the Ruhr Valley, seeking work in larger cities like Essen, Bochum, and Dortmund. Many of our Schmidt ancestors immigrated to America, settling everywhere from Iowa, to Kansas, to Pennsylvania, to Texas, to Washington, DC. Today some of the American descendants of Hans Schmidt also have surnames like Lindemann, Guenther, Kertzel, Raub, Koenig, Hagelgans, Schafer, Krug, Jergens, Schwenker, Bohn, and Anliker.
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