Chapter 1

                    WHENCE CAME OUR ANCESTORS?

          America is a land of many races, our people have come
     from Asia, Europe, Australia and the islands of the seas,
     yea, from the utmost parts of the earth.  The most of them
     to better themselves in life, to try to drive poverty from
     their doors, or to seek religious freedom.
          The Lantz family is now well established in practically
     every state in the Union, you find them from coast to coast
     and from the Great Lakes on the north to the Gulf of
     Mexico in the sunny Southland.  Many of them are farmers
     and merchants, but I presume the most of them are trades-
     men.
          Our people came to America, we know by authentic his-
     tory, as early as 1710, and settled in the state of New York.
          The Lantz family is of German stock but they came
     from the city of Speyer in Bavaria on the Rhine River.
     They came because they had been murdered, severely
     scourged and robbed by the armies of Louis XIV of France.
     They spake the German tongue and quite a few of the fami-
     lies have the German accent to this day.
          They swore allegiance to the crown of Great Britain
     and were loyal to their oath so that when the Revolutionary
     War came on it made it a little awkward for some, however,
     we find that they stood with the colonies and fought for
     liberty.
          From the year 1710 to 1769, there came from Bavaria
     on the Rhine, the following persons, Johannes, Jacob, John,
     Jacob, Niclous, Johannes, Andres, Philip, Martin, Hans,
     Balam and Aspah Lantz.
          History makes it very plain as to where we came from.
     Hart in his Source Books, Volume 2, says that all Palatan-
     ates came from Pfalz and Pfalz is the king's palace at
     Speyer, which city is the capitol of the Rhinish Bavaria,
     fourteen miles south of Heidelburg, and is one of the oldest
     cities of Germany.
          Now the next problem is to discover the origin of our
     name and you must remember that family names did not
     originate until about the thirteenth century.

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