Since then many of their decendents have spread out across this great land such that we are in most of, if not all, 50 states, and abroad. Some of us still are bilingual, however many of us who are living today were not taught the language that our granparents knew and spoke all the way back to Germany or Switzerland, called Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch also known as the Pennsylvania Dutch language.
Along with many of us not having our ancestral language passed down to us, so have we also not learned about what our people, the Kutzes, were like, who they were, what they did, and who they became.
Some of us never were even told where we came from in Europe, or that some of our first ancestors founded a town called Kutztown, in Pennsylvania.
Many of us have never been to a Kutz Family Reunion. Many have never been to the Kutztown Folk Festival. Some of us have been told things about our distant relatives, but some of us know nothing of what it means to "be a Kutz."
Since I learned where and when my ancestors originally settled in America, and since I learned that many people of the first generations of Kutzes, and their families, are buried in a historic family graveyard in a farm field about 30 yards from a country road outside of Kutztown, Pennsylvania, I have wanted to find a way to bring more of us together so that we may share our knowledge and give us a place to celebrate our family pride.
Some people love history, and many of us begin to really find a passion for history once we can see how it relates directly to us. Only then can we pry ourselves away from our busy distracted day to day lives to think about these kinds of questions: Where did we really come from? Who were those people who lived here 200-some years ago? What things have my ancestors accomplished? Why did we leave Kutztown? Why did many of us stop farming? Are there things that we Kutzes have in common, are we unique in some ways that were passed down from our common ancestors? And lastly, why oh why is it so hard to teach people from out of the area how to pronounce our last name!
A family association is a non-profit organization that can help members of a shared family name to learn about who we are and share information that may not have been spread to the rest of us. We may find that we have some common goals, such as to learn how we are all related, to find a way we can share memorabelia and make sure it is preserved for future generations. We also might unite around a desire to preserve and memorialize our historic family graveyard, which still stands on part of the original 500 acres our first ancestor in this country, Johann Nicholas Kutz I, (1690-1749) farmed in Maxatawny Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Some information:
Kutz Family Association is currently in the progress of being formed. Please contact us if you have an interest in being a part of this effort.
On forming an official family association:
http://www.familyhistoryquickstart.com/family-history-association/
Kutz Family Graveyard information:
Graveyard located near 122-224 Hottenstein Road, Kutztown, PA 19530
Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)
GNIS info below found
at below link is:
Coordinates from this
link are stated as:
Longitude(DEC): 40.5429527
Latitude(DMS): -75.7473347
Longitude(DMS): 403235N
Feature Detail Report
for Kutz Family Graveyard:
ID: 2776254
Name: Kutz Family Graveyard
Also called Kutz Burial Ground
Class: Cemetery
Other information can be found at Find A Grave:
General information on the Kutz Burial Ground:
Find A Grave's information including names of all people according to their sources who are supposed to be buried there:
Though information on who is buried in this historic family burial ground and where in the graveyard they are buried is sparse. Many headstones are missing and have not been seen since before 1940. Perhaps many of those first buried there never had more than an uncarved fieldstone to mark their final resting place. Headstone carvers were few and far between in that area of Berks County in the mid 1700's.
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