Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Gutknecht Goodknight Goodnight


About the Project (work in progress)
The Gutknecht Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Gutknecht name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Gutknecht name.
As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Gutknecht's), by time period (18th Century Gutknecht's), or by topic (Gutknecht DNA, Gutknecht Occupations, Gutknecht Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.
Also see the related surnames and surname variants.
Origin of the Name Gutknecht (Goodknight, Goodnight)
The surname "Gutknecht" is a family name that goes back to a character trait of the first bearer(s) of the name. It is therefore a kind of byname (originally: Guotkneht), the first part of which goes back to Middle High German "guot" and Middle Low German "gūt" or "gōt", meaning: good, capable or able, of high or noble birth; and the second part of which goes back to Middle High German "kneht" and Middle Low German "knecht", meaning: a boy or young man in a serving and learning position, for example a high-born "knave" or an able, good "squire" of a nobleman. [1] In fact, the Middle High German "kneht" later evolved into both the Anglo-Saxon/English "knight" and the German "Knecht", only the meaning became slightly different, as the English "knight" was valorized and focused more on the aspect of the noble squire, whereas the German "Knecht" underwent a devaluation and emphasized more the aspect of the serving boy. [2] Therefore, the word has a somewhat negative touch in German today, being used mainly for low-born peasant boys who herd the pigs.
Related Surnames and Surname Variants
- the original German name:
- Gutknecht; and its variants: Guthknecht; Guttknecht; Gudeknecht; Gudknecht;
- Godknecht (mostly in northern Germany); and its variants: Godeknecht; Gottknecht; Gothknecht; Godtknecht; Goodknecht
- emigrants to America and the British parts of the world sometimes used the Anglification, mostly to make the pronounciation easier. It results in:
- Gudknecht sometimes Goodknecht; = softened version
- Goodknight; = correct transformation by etymology
- Goodnight and (seldom) Godnite; = transformation by pronunciation
- some families ended up in France, eighter by moving or by beeing occupied (Alsace region). Names can change there into:
- Goutknecht
- The German settlers in Poland went sometimes with the Polish naming conventions by adding the endings:
- Gutknechtow (male) and Gutknechtowa (fenale)
- Settlers on Russian soil (Bessarabia, Wolga territories); or inhabitants of Congress Poland after being occupied and integrated into the Russian Empire ended up having their names written in Cyrilic script:
- Гуткнехтъ
What is going on right now
- Starting in August 2024 the main goal for now is to catalog and sort the profiles of this surname group that are already on Wikitree. This will take a while, as there are well over 1000 of them. The bulk of them are American profiles with the largest group of the name "Goodnight", over 800 name bearers. They all seem to be descended from the first immigrants in the mid-1700s with the name "Gutknecht". Some offshoots changed the name further into "Goodknight", but this variation is not always stable. Later immigrants, on the other hand, seem to have kept the original name "Gutknecht". The cataloging is done family line by family line. At the start of this task there were about 280 "loose ends", i.e. profiles of the name group that have no known person (usually father) as the starting point of their own line from whom they "inherited" the name. All these loose ends are recorded (using the One-Name-Tree tool, provided here on Wikitree), then checked and, if possible, their lineage extended upwards if this can be done without major research effort. As a by-product of this procedure, individual lines will be joined, possible duplicates will be discovered and important migrants will be recorded. This reduces the number of "loose ends", which can then be examined in more detail in the next step.
Regional ongoing work
(Grand) Duchy / (Groß-) Herzogtum Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Starting in August 2024 systematical evaluation of the Census of 1819 for the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin takes place.
- Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a Duchy formed first in 1621 (and reformed 1701) through a division of the Duchy of Mecklenburg. In 1815, it became a Grand Duchy. The area is now part of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. By a decree dated June 18th, 1819, the first general census of the population of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was conducted in August of the same year. The first census of this region to have survived extensively, it was conducted by the German Confederation in order to accurately calculate the military quotas of its individual territories.
The 1819 census included everyone in Mecklenburg-Schwerin “who was living on the day of the census, as young or as old as they may be, of every gender, religion, occupation, or status.” Unlike later censuses, the 1819 census provides each person’s place of birth, land ownership information, and the length of residence. These details make the census of 1819 particularly interesting for the family history researcher. A further difference from later censuses is the list format, rather than documentation on separate enumeration forms. By decree, the local authorities recorded the inhabitants using a consistent form.
- Specific tasks involve:
- compiling a list of all found name variants of "Gutknecht" families on the census (Ancestry-Index)
- starting a Free Space Page providing this list and if necessary its corrected transcriptions
- creating Wikitree profiles for all found name bearers of all variations (if not already on Wikitree), and linking them to the list
- As a followup project it is planed to search the given birth places for all the family members for their ancestors as far back as possible, to eventually link the different lines and find migration patterns and all so called "Heads of line", i.e. the earliest name bearer possible to identify. Therefore, the following has to be done:
- Identify the birthplaces in the census data and group them according to the specific parish they belong to.
- Systematically check the surviving churchbooks of these parishes for details of the persons in the census and their ancestry. Provide translations to the Wikitree profiles.
- Extend the line of descendants to a least 1870
as a preparation for the next big task: the systematical evaluation of the 1867 census of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Starting in August 2024 the churchbooks of the following parishes are checked systematically for members of the family group.
- Damshagen, St. Thomas church - books start 1648 (earlier books lost in 30-years-War), including the villages Damshagen, Reppenhagen, Gutow, Hofe, Kussow, Kühlenstein, Moor, Nedderhagen, Parin, Pohnsdorf, Rolofshagen, Stellshagen and Welzin.
- the name is first written as Gudeknecht (1648-1702). The spelling changes with a new scribe in 1703 almost instantly into Godeknecht and was shortened soon after into Godknecht. This change affected all family lines. In 1717 a new scribe took over and the name changed into "Gutknecht". More changes for the same reason happened several times between 1725 and 1753, i.e. back and forth into "Godknecht", "Godeknecht", "Gottknecht", "Guttknecht", "Guthknecht", so that no "true" spelling can be established for that timeframe. Starting 1754, again with a new scribe, the spelling consolidates into "Gothknecht".
- the following "Heads of Line" could be identified. All known name bearers are descended from these people:
- Heinrich "Hinrich" Gudeknecht (abt.1620-) in Reppenhagen.
- Joachim "Jochen" Gudeknecht (abt.1624-1684) in Damshagen.
How to Join
To join the Gutknecht Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!
If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Danny Gutknecht for assistance.
Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:
Research Pages
Here are some of the current research pages included in the study.
Germany, Categories and Research
- Rheydt: Descendants of Gustav Gutknecht (1901-????), from Pawłowa, Poland
Poland, Categories and Research
- Koło County, Greater Poland Voivodeship - region around Dąbie (Dombie)
- Baranowiec: Descendants of Andreas Gutknecht (1748-1818), from ???
and his assumed son Andreas Gutknecht (1769-xxxx), from ????
- Baranowiec: Descendants of Andreas Gutknecht (1748-1818), from ???
- Bełchatów County, Łódź Voivodeship - region around Zelów
- Pawłowa: Descendants of Andreas Gutknecht (1787-1841), from an unknown place in the "Duchy of Posen"
and his brother Daniel Gutknecht (1797-1849), assumably also from there
- Pawłowa: Descendants of Andreas Gutknecht (1787-1841), from an unknown place in the "Duchy of Posen"
United States, Categories and Research
- Harrison County, Indiana
- Madison: Descendants of Rudolph Gutknecht (1823-1891), from Switzerland
- Tripton County, Indiana
- Jefferson: Descendants of David Goodknight (1818 - 1887), from Virginia
- Black Hawk County, Iowa
- Hudson: Descendants of Herman Gutknecht (1842-1918), from Podewils (now Podwilcze, Poland)
- Sibley County, Minnesota
- Green Isle: Descendants of August Gutknecht (1838-1888), from Schönwalde (now Szynwałd, Poland)
- New York City: Descendants of Carl (Charles) Gutknecht (1836 - 1893), from Württemberg, Germany
- Iowa County, Wisconsin
- Pulaski: Descendants of Gustav Gutknecht (1816-1903), from Wester Prussia
- Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
- Oak Creek: Descendants of Gottlieb Gutknecht (1811-1897), from Labes, Pomerania (now Łobez, Poland)
- Racine County, Wisconsin
- Caledonia: Descendants of Carl "Charles" Gutknecht (1840-1918), from Oak Creek, Wisconsin
- Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
- Mosel: Descendants of Christian Gutknecht (1821-1893), from Reckow (now Rekowo, Poland)
Membership
Sources
- ↑ Heuser, Rita: Gutknecht; in: Digitales Familiennamenwörterbuch Deutschlands (online).
- ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer et al. „Knecht“, in: Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (1993), digitalisierte und von Wolfgang Pfeifer überarbeitete Version im Digitalen Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache.
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