I.1 Once upon a time

I.1 Once upon a time

At the location Hutstein two dominions, Rannariedl and Falkenstein, had given away a fief. It is important to know that both Rannariedl and Falkenstein originally belonged to one single aristocrat family, the counts of Falkenstein. Therefore, both, Rannariedl and Falkenstein, had fiefs in the same villages and locations as the territory was equally divided when the Falkensteiner had to pledge Rannariedl in 1301 for the first time. 

castle Rannariedl
castle Falkenstein

That’s the primary reason why Rannariedl as well Falkenstein had both a fief at Hutstein.

Acc. to the Urbar of Rannariedl and Falkenstein these two fiefs had same size. Therefore we can assume the location of both fiefs on a cadastre map of 1860:

both farms seen on a cadastre map of approx. 1850

As the road to these fiefs directly leads to the southern one it is likely that this one was the first granted at Hutstein and belonged to the Rannariedl dominion. 

Rannariedl’s Hutstein fief

While in the Urbar of Rannariedl of 1488 no place ‘Huestain’ or similar was recorded or could be identified,  in 1509 there was Tameln (Thomas) in Huestain (Hutstein) acc. to the available second Urbar of the dominion Rannariedl. It seems that between 1488 and 1509 the forest was cleared at this location and a fief was erected. 

the very first Hutstein record (right page, middle entry: Huestain)

Thomas Hutsteiner is mentioned in another tax document of the dominion of Rannariedl from 1509, too:

Thamel (Hutsteiner) donated imperial tax 1509

In 1613 the fief was still mentioned in church balance records of Pfarrkirchen i.M.  as “Themel”, i.e. Themel=Thomas. The given name of the very first inhabitant of this farm was used as the farm name.

Themel at the Hutstein 1613 – from church balance sheet: “Dem Themel ak Huedstain… 200 (Gulden)”

Shortly after Thomas followed Anderl (=Andreas) on the Rannariedl’s Hutstein fief.   

from Urbar beginning 16th century: “Huetstain  Andel dass ein Lehen dint … Air Käß Hennen”

Andreas then was followed by Jörg (=Georg).

from Urbar mid 16th century: “Huetstain Jörg saselbst dient  … Käs  Air Henn”

Unfortunately  for both urbars there is no exact date of recording mentioned. Therefore it is  necessary to estimate their emergence. As the first one seems more advanced than the Urbar of 1509  but has most of the time same inhabitants as in 1509, it likely was set up shortly after 1509, i.e. Andre followed Tameln at the Hutstein fief. 

And as the next one obviously was based on the template of the urbar before likely Jörg (Georg) followed Andre by mid of the 16th century.

Then, in 1570 Steffan Hutsteiner was registered on the Rannariedl fief at Hutstein within the parish of Pfarrkirchen im Mühlviertel.

Steffan Hutsteiner 1570

In 1581 in dominion Rannariedl Steffan Hutsteiner was registered at the Hutstein again:

Steffan Hutsteiner 1581 in the Urbar of dominion Rannariedl

Steffan is again mentioned in a tax document from Rannariedl of 1581:

Steffan Hutsteiner tax document 1581

A Steffan Hutsteiner, born around 1536, was later mentioned again in court records of 1606 in the dominion Altenhof (=parts of Rannariedl + Falkenstein): Probably he is identical to the Steffan mentioned above, but moved away from Hutstein.

Altenhof court record of 13.2.1606 mentioning Steffan Hutsteiner in Höfl

Another tax document from 1581 mentions Hans who paid tax at the Hutstein:

tax document of Rannariedl 1581

Rannariedl’s fief at Hutstein probably changed its owner around the 1580s as Hanns Aumülner was recorded to pay tax there on 18th January 1591. Likely he is identical with the above mentioned Hanns, i.e. no “original” Hutsteiner anymore at least since 1581.

1581 Hans Aumueller paid tax from the Theml Hutsteiner farm

It is interesting that a Hans Aumuellner occured in Altenhof court records a clerk (Amtmann) of the dominion Hochhaus from 1606 on.

Meanwhile, Michael Hutsteiner occurred in a document of dominion Rannariedl 1590, but his location was not given:

Rambrecht 1590
description of parts of Rannariedl’s dominion 1590 

In 1600 Wolfgang Stölzl (Hutsteiner) from Hutstein paid for candles at the church of Pfarrkirchen and later he was mentioned in a tax document of 1623 and 1626 in court records of Altenhof. As Wolfgang died before 1627 probably  his son Wolfgang followed him as owner of the farm, may be longer time before.

Wolf-Hutsteiner-Urbar-1623-Einlag-Altenhof
court record of Wolfgang Stoelzl

After Wolfgang Stölzl, who was in extreme depths in 1629, Paul Grubauer obviously bought and took over the fief followed by his son and grand son.

Falkenstein’s Hutstein fief

The second urbar of Rannariedl dated to the beginning of the 16th century mentions that the community of Kafring, a village nearby, may hunt at the Hutstein on half of the clearing. I.e. the second Hutstein fief belonging to the Falkenstein dominion was already existing at that time, too.   

part of the Rannariedl urbar beginning 16th century

In 1537 the Urbar of dominion Falkenstein mentioned Hans Hutsteiner at the Hutstein (Huetterstain)

Falkenstein Urbar 1537

In 1562 the farm at Hutstein was inhabited by Hannsl (Johann) Hutsteiner, perhaps the Hannsl above. The location was noted as Huetstain.

Hutstein: Urbar Falkenstein 1562

In 1570 the Hutstein-farm was owned by Bangraz (Pankratz) Hutsteiner, but it is not known, whether he was a son of Johann above. The location was recorded as Huettenstain.

 
Hutstein: Urbar Falkenstein 1570

Pankratz (Pongratz) was again recorded in 1607. The Urbar mentions Pongratz (Pankratz) Hutsteiner as farmer there. 

Hutstein: Urbar Falkenstein 1607

An additional tax documents shows us that Pankratz paid his tax from 1607 until 1612 there:

Hutstein: Urbar Falkenstein 1607

Pangratz Hutsteiner was followed by Zacharias Hutsteiner.

Around 1600 the dominion Rannariedl and the dominion Falkenstein were re-united under the reign of count Heinrich Salburger.

While surnames established during the 16th century and most of the underlings in 1581’s Urbar were named by their surname, it is necessary to mention that the surname Hutsteiner (Huetstainer) popped up within the dominion of Rannariedl and Falkenstein, the Hutsteiner origin, very rarely before 1600. This emphasizes that the location and its name and family name was established only short time before, i.e. approximately around 1509.

Lienhard Hutsteiner who erected the Hutsteiner mill in 1543 was the first documented person with the surname Hutsteiner. Probably he was a direct descendant of Tameln or Hannsl at Hutstein. 

So, we had two family lines at Hutstein: the first one started with Tameln (Thomas) Hutsteiner around 1509 in Rannariedl dominion and ended around 1581 with Steffan Hutsteiner, the second one started with Hannsl (Johann) Hutsteiner around 1537 in Falkenstein dominion and probably ended around 1670 with Zacharias Hutsteiner. 

Whether Hannsl was a descendant of Tameln or from another family probably never will be clarified, but as the second fief was within another dominion likely it was another family. Also it is not defined whether succeeding farmers on the two different fiefs had been descendants of the former farmer, i.e. it is not clear whether e.g. Pongratz was a son of Bangratz and so on.

follow up of inhabitants

 

Anyhow, it seems that the survival of the surname Hutsteiner was not guaranteed for at least a century and should be regarded as a lucky coincidence.

 

 

I.2 One single place of origin

I.2 One single place of origin

 

Actual research is pinpointing to a single origin of all Hutsteiner/Hutstein families. This origin is located at Hutstein, a small hamlet located in Upper Austria close to the bavarian town of Wegscheid and the austrian hamlet of Vatersreith.

It does not imply that all Hutsteiner/Hutstein are members of one single family. In fact, it is likely that they are descendants of at least two different families with the same surname and a single origin location. And it is also observed that children of other families owning a fifth at Hutstein, e.g. family Stölzl or Aumüllner, were named Hutsteiner later on.

cadastre map of 1860

This hamlet of Hutstein, about 750 m above sea level, had two fiefs, the first of which was under the rule of Rannariedl from 1509, the second to the rule of Falkenstein, which was documented from 1537 on. Both fiefdoms were of the same size.

The very first fiefdom was probably not divided as both were subject to different lords, but a second one was cleared shortly after 1509. Therefore we can assume that two different families sat on these two fiefs, whose descendants later received the surname Hutsteiner, but possibly no direct family relationship existed.

queue of fiefdom holders at Hutstein

 

As the road from next village, Vatersreith,  ends at the southern fief first it can be identified as the Rannariedl’s fief mentioned in the 1509 Urbar. This can be verified by using old church records from Oberkappel which states house numbers compared with an actual map. 

I.3 Hutstein, Huthsteiner, Huetstainer…

I.3 Hutstein, Huthsteiner, Huetstainer…

It is interesting to see, that within the hessian and Saxonian families the name Hutstein resp. Hutsteiner was obviously used without taking to much care of the ending -er (or any -h- in between). For the same person mentioned in the records it is possible to find all different spellings used in parallel, sometimes written down by the same author.

I recognized in the records that in Bavaria and Austria the name is usually not used with an -h- and around the year 1800 one family lost the ending -er. Therefore, all ‘Hutstein’ family members of the austro-bavarian family lines have a single ancestor – Johann Hutstein – born in 1800 in Künzing.

During certain time in history this -er was left out on purpose to hide a possible peasant origin, but likely not in this case.

One special thing to say about Huetsteiner: this -ue- is due to Bavarian pronunciation of ‘Hut’, i.e. ‘Huet-‘ is equivalent to ‘Hut’.

In very old church records it is often seen, that Hutsteiner is written as ‘Hutstainer’. In German language -ei- is equivalent to -ai-, pronounced in English as ‘i’.

During my research in Hessen and Westphalia I recognized that for the catholic family mainly the name ‚Huthstein‘ without an ending -er was recorded, while the lutheran ones most of the time were known as ‚Huthsteiner‘.

In Saxony I found occurrence of ‘Huttsteiner’ with double ‘t’ in records before 1750 as well as ‘Huttenstainer’ before 1650.

I.4 Hutstein 1509

I.4 Hutstein 1509

In 1509 the name Hutstein was first mentioned as ‘Huestain’ or ‘Am Huestain’ (=at the Huestain) in an old tax and a cadastre document (Urbar) of the dominion Rannariedl. An ‘Urbar’ is a description or list of all properties of a certain dominion or county. Often it was set up when a county changed its landlord i.e. when it was sold.

In the 1537 Urbar it is known as “Hüetterstain”- or “Huetstain”, a location within the Falkenstein dominion.

Castle Falkenstein in 1674 – nowadays only some ruins exist

 

Map: Rannariedl and Falkenstein

This ‘Urbar’ is stored in the Hofkammerarchiv in Vienna, Austria (State Archive Vienna). Hutstein is mentioned on pages ff. 23, 37.

In 1570 it is again part of a new ‘Urbar’ of dominion Falkenstein pages ff. 9, 52. Hutstein was called Huet- or Huettenstain there.

Castle Rannariedl in 1674

Huetstain was also mentioned in 1581 in an ‘Urbar’ of the neighbouring county of Rannariedl, which was owned by Falkensteiner counts, too.