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ZellTree is an ongoing research website
for Zellhöfer's of all spellings, including primarily Zellhoefer, Zelhofer,
Zellhofer and Zilhaver, and including the many other variations which one
finds, particularly in ship's passenger lists and old census records.
Our research also includes the surnames
Wellhoefer and Felhofer, each with their own variations, of course.
Those surnames are found in common with Zellhofer in locations within Austria,
Bavaria, and finally, all three are found later, all together in sparsely
populated Door County, Wisconsin, U.S.A. While not yet proven, it
appears that all have common origins, and we seem to be getting closer to
finding those connections.
The earliest known with the surname Zellhofer or Zellhöfer
lived on farms near in Gresten, Scheibbs, Niederoesterreich, Austria in
the 1500's, They were farmers, perhaps some also worked at mining in the
Gresten area, and one was minister at their Evangelist church in Gresten.
Their religious convictions were very strong, which has much to do with
the family history.
In the early 1600's apparently the rulers of Austria
were in cahoots with the Pope of Rome, and return to Catholicism became
the order of the day. The edicts were sudden and severe - those who
refused to abide were subject to prosecution, jail, torture and even death.
Therefore from 1636-1671 several of those families, refusing to renounce
their Evangelishe/Lutheran beliefs, were forced from their homeland,
called "Exulanten". In the great haste and urgency, they abandoned
farms and property, departing virtually overnight. The Exulanten escaped
to Mittelfranken, settling on farms around Deitenhofen which had been decimated
by the "30 Years War" of 1618-1648. Over time, their homesteads gradually
spread to many places within the kreis' Ansbach and Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad
Windsheim in Bavaria.
Sometime afterward the exulanten to Bavaria, we
must note that Zellhöfer's are also found in the Austrian districts Hollabrun,
Zwettl and scattered elsewhere. Again not proven as yet, but it appears
that these also left Gresten sometime before, and are almost certainly related.
Beginning about 1838, we find Bavarian Zellhöfer
descendants migrating to the USA, settling first in Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
and Wisconsin. The descendants of Johann Jacob Zellhöfer in Crawford
County Pennsylvania came to spell the surname ZILHAVER. The descendants
of his brother Johann Fredrick in New Jersey use the spelling ZELLHOFER,
and the several who settled in Jefferson County Wisconsin use the spelling
ZELLHOEFER.
About the last decade of the 800's
we find several family migrations from kreis Zwettl, Austria to the USA.
The first of those appears around Pittsburgh & Allegheny County Pennsylvania,
where several deaths soon occurred in mining accidents in the coal mines.
Not long afterward we find settlement
in Door County Wisconsin (that's the peninsula extending into Lake Michigan).
It appears some had migrated there directly from Zwettl and were joined
by others who had settled first around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
That branch uses the spelling ZELHOFER. Another re-settlement appears
in Kane County Illinois, these also use the spelling ZELLHOFER, tracking
back to Austria.
Of course our research is not limited
to these surnames. This research would be impossible without also
researching the many surnames in our tree which joined our tree through
marriage. For my own branch, the early surnames of old Pommern/Pomerania
include MUELLER, PETZKE, KLIPSTEIN, FENSKE and ZICK. From Switzerland
came KLOTZ and LUETSCHER. From England came STARKWEATHER and AMES,
joining then with GORSKE from Germany.
Comments, corrections and additions
are always most welcome and hugely appreciated. The research continues,
altho I'm about worn out with all this and would like to pass all this on
to ?you?
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