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INTRODUCTIONThis website is an attempt to share what has been discovered and recorded by me and others over many years, which for me began with an innocent email from my cousin’s husband Geoff, who wrote, “I'm doing Jane’s genealogy. Do you know who Miles Zentmyer’s father was?” Miles Zentmyer was my great grandfather, and while I did not know the answer to Geoff's question, I promised to get back to him. What I couldn't anticipate was that finding the answer would lead to repeatedly driving around Pennsylvania and Virginia, visiting what Google Maps identifies as Zentmyer, Pennsylvania, traveling repeatedly to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, learning the German language, and getting to know a wonderful assortment of distant relatives, researchers, academics and scores of people on two continents who just like to help folks discover their ancestors. The First Hundred Years is the focus of this web site for several reasons. This is the period for which both a dearth of information and an excess of confusion exist in the record regarding these families. In the late spring of 1752, Johann Bernhard Zentmeyer was struggling to get his family down the Rhine River to Rotterdam in order to book passage to America. A century later, for the first time, the U.S. Census listed every member of every household by name, age and gender, so as to make genealogy much easier to do thereafter; thus this website addresses the 'uncertain time.' Here is a 'Family Tree' view of the first four generations of the family here in America. I am currently (Winter 2012) spending research time and energy pursuing earlier generations of the family in Upper Bavaria and Austria, and I will add more data concerning individuals both before and after the First Hundred Years as time allows. This Map shows the modern-day distribution of Zentmeyer derivitive surnames in Germany and Austria, as recorded in telephone directories. (For more on derivitive surnames, see the Surname Page) The information contained herein is a synthesis of many often conflicting sources, and we have tried to present what we believe to be the best choice for a given name, date, or location. Where there is conflicting but equally credible data, we try to present both alternatives. If you have conflicting data which you feel is well sourced, please email me. The information on this website is ©2009-2012 Gary A. Zentmyer. It is available for the free use of those engaged in non-commercial genealogical research. Any commercial use is strictly prohibited, including contribution to fee-based websites. Please credit this website when citing data or images contained herein. Gary A. Zentmyer |