Thank You!
To all that have responded to my last post! It is very wonderful to get a response and good help!
I would like to know a few more things and hope that the information is not to much!
But I seek some Ideas, guidance and some familiarity with this "new" area I am at now.
I do go to Frankenmuth, Michigan about once a year or so, I am a little familiar with the Bavarians and the Frankens......
Well at least with the Fried Chicken! And I came from a good German family! But I have not been to Germany and I cannot speak it. But will use Babelfish if it will work.
With your help and that of the Bavarian list, I have compiled this, though I have not ruled out the other Ideas you gave me...........and I am still looking at Mittelfranken!
Speculation and questions concerning the Amends from Bavaria and Baden and the River Main.
I don't know how many originators of the name there are. As Wim AMENT once said concerning the definition of the AMENT name "allot of people lived at the end of something". To my knowledge The oldest name we could find was Peter Amende born in 1405 in Freiberg. Also About 1550 Mattessen Amende has lived in Monroth ?, Unterfranken in the Duchy of Bavaria. And I have my family in Reicholzheim, Baden at about 1545.
Now in the Area of Wertheim people didn't really start using last names till about 1350.
But there was a large family of Amends that lived near Dresden Sachen (Freiberg) in About the year 1400. Over the course of the years they seemed to have trickled down towards Franconia heading South West. (See the LDS FHC Search site 3000 records of Amende / Amendt / Ament etc.)
We have the Mattessen Amende in WILDNESEE who was from Monroth, but no one has found Monroth? I think it is misspelled I would like to suggest it is Mainroth on the River Main. Postal code for Mainroth 96224.
It looks like to me, Mattessen could likely be one of the Amend descendants that came down from the Dresden area. (From Dresden to Mainroth to Wertheim its almost a straight line) It could have been a big family and they decided to venture down the Main River to Wuerzberg and then on to the area near Wertheim.
Today, ships run between Bamberg to Wertheim (and onward via the Rhine). Back in around the 1500's, there were probably some rapids along the way. The Main was quite shallow around Volkach and you could probably wade through it at Schweinfurt and Hassfurt. There were quite a few fords (which means "-furt" in German). So could they have taken a boat to Wertheim? Of course, but it would all depend on what sort of boat you had. Today From Bamberg on the river is wide and suitable even for today's larger ships.
Close to Mainroth is the point where the Red Main river and the White Main river unite to form the Main. Each of them is very small and not suitable for shipping. And both have their offspring in Upper Frankonia. Between Mainroth and Dresden it's about 100 to 150 miles.
The Main river runs by Mainroth and Bamberg and I know that It was already mentioned in an official collection of estates (Reichsg�terverzeichnis) from the year 800. It was first mentioned as a Catholic parish in 1430 and in 1548 it received the permission to brew beer. Mainroth has always been derived from the river Main. It was sometimes written Maynroth or Meynroth It was part of Franconia and from 1552 to 1620 the village was protestant before it returned to its catholic belief. The spire of St Michael was built in 1680, the interior of the church was renewed from about 1770 to 1780. In the summer of 1901 a big part of the village burnt down.
I also understand that the parish's archive burned down some time in the 1950s.
The Mainroth parish is part of the Archdiocese / Bistum (in German: Erzdiozese with an o-Umlaut) Bamberg. http://www.eo-bamberg.de/eob/dcms/sites/bistum/erzbistum/bistum_allgemein/karte.html
And today it has about 600 inhabitants.
In 1977 all the villages belonging to our community, i.e. Rothwind, Fassoldshof, Eichberg and Schwarzholz, were given to another administrative area. Today Mainroth has got about 600 inhabitants.
Literature:
1. Johann Baptist M�ller, Zur Geschichte des ehemaligen Bamberger Domprobsteihofes zu Mainroth, in: Geschichte am Obermain 7, 1971/72, S. 77-100 (in German)
2. 125 Jahre Freiwillige Feuerwehr Mainroth, Festschrift, Mainroth 1998 (in German)
3. Gemeinsames Jubil�umsfest 100 Jahre Radfahrverein Concordia Mainroth e.V. / 75 Jahre Gesangverein Freundschaftsbund Mainroth e.V., Festschrift, Mainroth 2002 (in German)
What I would like to know where the old records for the AREA of MAINROTH are kept? The family could have been close by. By 1901 or 1950 the records should have been transcribed and sent to the Archives in Bamberg correct, so they would not have burned? What records do they have and who has the Land /real estate records? Was Mainroth owned by the Church or a Duke? in the 1500's? If it was owned by a duke then where is his records? Websites? other researchers in the area?
At this point detractors to the theory is that no AMEND really lives in or very near Mainroth today.
I have only found ( I find a Erhard AMEND in 1606 associated with the Rosenberg War possibly associated with Windheim and Kronach ? near Mainroth?)
also
Am-Ende
96317 Kronach
lives about 11,5 km from Mainroth
And
Amend
96242 Sonnefeld
lives about 12,4 km from Mainroth
But 16 hits within 25 km of Mainroth. Amend's live in mostly live in Coburg (13),
also 1 in Wilhelmsthal and 1 in Ebersdorf
Rosenberg War whats that About ?
Best regards
Kurt