THE SPELLING OF UMHOLTZ

The spelling of Umholtz has taken on several variations in the last 400 years. If the family tree that I have from Switzerland is accurate then the original spelling was indeed UNHOLTZ as in Peter Unholtz, circa 1588. This spelling held until the sons of Hans Conrad Unholtz (b. 1707) changed it to UNHOLZ. In the Swiss family tree,the spelling has remained UNHOLZ until this day. The earliest records that we have of UMHOLTZ in America are the church records of The Swatara Reformed Lutheran Church of Jonestown, PA which has records. supposedly in Henry's handwriting for the baptisms of several of his children . These records are from the mid 1760's. The census records from 1770and 1771 show the spelling as Umholtz and the handwritten notes in Henry Umholtzes bible also show the name as UMHOLTZ.

In the History of Dauphin County (Eggle) -1896 the following is written:

"In the early assessment lists of 1779, we found in Upper District, Wiconisco, the name of one Henry UMHOLTZ. We are not entirely satisfied as to the orthography of this surname. many of the old records have it Imholtz, some Omholt and others Umholtz. We are of the opinion that the former is the correct orthography. As the present members of the family adhere to the latter, it is this orthography we shall also employ"

I can't prove it(yet) but I believe Eggle was wrong. The Imholtzes are a different surname. Of course anything is possible and since we have never been able to get back past Henry we really won't have the answer until we do.

So just how many ways are there to spell UMHOLTZ? Here are the ones I've found so far.

UMHOLTZ UMHOLZ UMHOLTS UMHOLZ UMHOTTS UMHOTTY OMHOLTZ ONHOLT ONHOLTZ UNHOLTZ UNHOLZ UNHOLTS UNHOULTS UNHOLZ UNHOLST UNHOLT UNHOLTHY

If you are wondering just how this could be, try paying close attention to how your surname is spelled in the mail you receive over the next couple of weeks. I think you'll be surprised.