I have some ancestors who lived in Düsseldorf and Neuwied, Germany in the late 1500s and early 1600s. My ancestral relatives moved from Düsseldorf to Neuwied in the early 1600s. As they moved south on the Rhein, their surname also changed, from Gartner to Graat to Gradt. They were farmers who remained connected to the Catholic Church until my direct ancestors moved to New Amsterdam (modern New York). I am curious about two things:
* What might have caused them to move.
* What kinds of political, cultural, religious, and/or linguistic impacts might have caused them to change the spelling of their surname.
#genealogy
#Germany
#Dusseldorf
#Gartner
#Gradt
#Graat
#Rhine
#Prussia
#Westphalia
#FamilyHistory
#Neuwied
