Johann Adam Hutsteiner was born in Neuhäusel, former part of the Austrian empire, Hungarian kingdom, nowadays Novo Zamky in Slovakia.
Neuhäusel was conquered by the Osmans in 1663/1664 and was liberated in 1685. The city and its surroundings suffered greatly under Ottoman rule.
During this occupation time Johann Adam was born – likely in 1671 – but records do not exist anymore. Also, the Hutsteiner family left Neuhäusel around 1670, likely during or because of the kuruc uprisings in 1670/1671 and went to the Rheingau, where his brother Andreas was born in 1672.
This is not so easy to define as it seems on a first view.
The protestant parish book of Laufenselden from 1692-1742 mentions Philipp Jacobus Hutstein to be born into the shepherd’s family of Johann Adam Hutstein and his wife Catharina Elisabeth in 1717 in Rettert.
Baptism record of 1717 in Laufenselden church book
But it does not necessarily mean that he had been a protestant. In fact the catholic and protestant inhabitants of this region lived door by door and often used the same church for their messes during their first centuries. The same applies for his father Johann Adam Hutstein: his marriage record is included in protestant church records of Dörsdorf in Hesse-Nassau, while some of his children occur in catholic records of this region. Sometimes the confession of persons can be estimated due to the corresponding marriage records only.
Additionally, many baptisms and funerals of catholic ones had been recorded in protestant church records. Sometimes they had been marked acc. their religion, often nothing else was written down.
This custom of using other religion’s church books can be observed in other regions of the Holy Roman Empire, too. E.g. children of Heinrich Christian Huthsteiner had been recorded in protestant church book of Meissen around the 1790s, beside they had been of catholic religion. It was law in Saxony that all births had to be recorded in the local main religion church book independent of their own faith. Similar happened in Bavaria, e.g. also a jewish child was recorded in a catholic church records book around 1630.
Finally, Johann Heinrich’s son Phillip Peter Hutstein became shepherd, too. So, four generations of catholic shepherds roamed with their herds the southern part of Hesse-Nassau, the Rheingau.
The larger part of the Westphalian-Hesse family originated in Dillenburg. First known member was Michael Hutsteiner, born 1709. It is important to note that before 1734, the year his first baptised child was recorded, obviously no Hutsteiner had been in Dillenburg. Also important is his profession: something like a doctor (‘Bader’), with some relationships to the local palace there.
Michael Hutsteiner had been an immigrant to Dillenburg from Hartmannsdorf, Saxony, born in September 1709. The calculated age and corresponding dates in Dillenburg records are completely in line, too. Noteworthy to say that Saxonian aristocrats had several direct relations to the court of Dillenburg at that time, especially the duke of Nassau-Dillenburg, who was married to Saxonian duchess.
Michael came along with his uncle George Hutsteiner who married in Wetzlar, a city in the vicinity of Dillenburg and probably was a supporter of the saxonian delegates at the Imperial Chamber Court.
saxon migration to Hesse-Nassau
Several families from Hessen-Nassau emigrated to the USA where a lot of their descendants still live. In Germany this family is going to disappear in the mid-term future as the Saxonian families did about 100 years ago.
As already supposed the Saxonian Hutsteiner family members originated in a small village called Hartmannsdorf near Kirchberg, Zwickau. Michael Hutsteiner obviously was an immigrant there. Likely he was an exulant coming from Bavaria/Austria.
His great-grandson, also named Michael Hutsteiner, then moved to Hesse-Nassau.
In 1734 Michael Hutsteiner, a doctor with some relations to the military, popped up in Dillenburg, Hessen-Nassau county. As with his great-grandfather in Hartmannsdorf it seems that he was an immigrant there, as no earlier records mention any Hutsteiner in Dillenburg. He became the forefather of all known Lutheran Huthsteiner family members in the whole region until present. He died in 1795 in Dillenburg aged 85. His recorded age fits perfectly to Michael Hutsteiner born 1709 in Hartmannsdorf.
His uncle George Hutsteiner, a doctor, married 1714 in the neighbouring city Wetzlar. Probably he was a supporter of the saxonian delegates at the Imperial Chamber Court and taught Michael his profession.
marriage record of Georg Hutsteiner 1714
Michael Hutsteiner from Hartmannsdorf was alive but did not attend a court session there when his father’s last will and contract was announced in Kirchberg/Zwickau on 3rd of July 1745, likely because of the long distance to Dillenburg.
Also, the Hutsteiners had quite a good relation to the Saxonian court in Dresden as his uncle Christian was part of the government and working for the duke as a writer. It seems that most family members had quite a good standing in Saxony if we just look to their occupations:
grandfather Georg – mayor in Hartmannsdorf
uncle Georg – doctor in Wetzlar, likely for the saxonian delegates
uncle Christian – working for the duke in Dresden directly
brother David – a judge in Hartmannsdorf
brother Christian – a head of Saxonian army corps in Poland.
and finally Michael: a doctor working at the court of Dillenburg ?
The Hutsteiner family in Saxony had quite good connections to the court of Dresden and the duke of Saxony and these connections helped in Hesse-Nassau.
