Prince/Printz Family History

I just heard the news earlier this month that the patriarch of our remaining German cousins in Duhren, Germany passed away. I had the absolute pleasure to meet Hermann Wolfhard both times during my visits to the Prince/Printz/Brentz home village in Duhren, Germany. He lived quite a full life and will be missed. His family still lives in the area and we have built a cross-Atlantic relationship...

Manfred Wolfhard is publishing a book about the Wolfhard Family history and having an event on July 22, 2018 in Duhren Germany. I am going, as well as others from my family. If you are a descendent of of Johann Philip Brentz, then you are connected to this Wolfhard family in Germany, which goes back to the 1300s. Contact me if you are interested in joining us in Duhren for the event.

One of our distant cousins from Germany is biking across the USA this summer. Yannick Wolfhard is from the Wolfhards who are in Germany. We are related to via a marriage between Hans Melchior Brentz and Anna Dorothea Wolfhard in the 1600s in Germany. Hans Melchior Brentz was one of the earliest documented ancestors in the Brentz line that became Printz and Prince after emigrating from Germany to Am...

Manfred Wolfhard is the historian of the Wolfhard family, the German family line that married with our Brentz family line in the 1600s before our ancestors came over to America. (See earlier blog posts to see the link.) I have been in contact with Manfred since we met each other in November 2014 in Duhren. He has built a wonderful website on the Wolfhard family, complete with many illustrations and photos. His website is in German and is at www.wolfhard.info. If you want to see the website tr...

The Geni.com website has a family tree that shows where the Brentz family and the Wolfhard family got connected by marriage. It is available here. Clicking around on the names of our ancestors can provide some interesting information. For example, here is information on Georg Johann Wolfhard, one of our direct ancestors.

"About Georg Johann Wolfhardt - Pastor in Euchtersheim in 1626 in Neydenstein in...

I just visited Duhren, Germany for the second time in two years. Duhren is the small village near Heidelberg that the Brentz family emigrated from in 1751 to start the Printz/Prince family in America. In my first visit, I went to a Sunday service in the church in Duhren and met up with members of the Wolfhard family, who are direct ancestors of the Brentz's. We met up with them again this year and had a wonderful visit with them, including visits to their homes and a very nice luncheon. A hig...

I just came across a new resource that gives interesting information about emigrants from the German state (Baden Wurtenberg) where our ancestors came from. It is in the Stuttgart Archive library at this link - http://www.auswanderer-bw.de/auswanderer/index.php?sprache=en&suche=1

In the next few months, I will be going on my second trip to the village in Germany where the Brentz/Printz/Prince family lived before coming to American in the 1700s. I am planning on going to a couple of the other villages nearby where our Wolfhard ancestors were mayors, religious leaders, etc.. Stay tuned for more pictures.

-- Victor

During our trip to Duehren in 2012, we met some members of the Wolfhardt family who are our distant relatives.  They shared a bunch of documents with me on the family tree and history.  Here is the family tree that documents ancestors all the way back to 1375. To put the year 1375 in perspective - this was the last part of Middle Ages and the eve of the Renaissance. Black Death just wiped out 1/3 of Europe’s population 25 years earlier. Edward III is King of England in 1...

Distant cousin Susan Halen shared the following discovery from her visit to Germany last year:

"Hello Victor, I thought you might enjoy having some documents written by Alexander Wolfhardt in the 1500s. These are stored in the Stuttgart Archives, which we visited on our tour. We actually we permitted to handle them and touch the sealing wax, which was still affixed to the envelope!"

(Note: Alexander Wolffhardt was the Great Great Grandfatherof Johann Heinrich Brentz, who was the ...

Our Visit to Duehren—Taking a Step back in Time

By Sue Halen

Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013

When I first saw the beautiful choir room in Duehren where our ancestors were married, I had the desire to attend a church service there someday. Today that became a reality! We first had breakfast at our nice hotel Wincent. The weather was quite pleasant, so we decided to walk the short distance to the Lutheran Church. When we arrived, two ladies g...

I finally made the trip to Duhren, Germany -- the Prince/Printz/Brentz home village in Germany - this Thanksgiving 2012.  My parents and brother and his wife joined me.  I had wanted to do this trip ever since I first found out about it from meeting Charles Printz and reading his book on our family.  To say it lived up to my wildest dreams would be an understatement.  I will give the blow by blow below, but I will...

(Note: Ralph Prince submitted stories and a link to pictures of his 2008 trip to Duehren, the Brentz/Printz/Prince Hometown in Germany.  I am reposting this story on this blog as I am doing some updating and housecleaning on this website.  The pictures still show up in the old format of this site. - Victor)

These pictures are of a recent trip to Germany during which I (Ralph) had the ...