♂Felix Kuntz

Felix Kuntz (died 1737) was a Lutheran of the Palatinate^W who lived at Edenkoben and then at the neighbouring village of Gleisweiler, where he was buried in February 1737. He was the fifth great-grandfather of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Johann Heinrich Kuntz (1718–1795).

Family

He and his wife Anna Maria had their children baptized in the Lutheran churches of two villages at the foot of the Haardt hills: Anna Barbara on 27 February 1700, Anna Margaretha in December 1710 and Philipp Jacob on 1 March 1713, all at Edenkoben; then Johann Jacob on 9 August 1716 and Johann Heinrich on 17 September 1718 at Gleisweiler, a short walk away. The ten-year gap between the first two baptisms found suggests that other children were born in those years, perhaps elsewhere.

Death

Felix Kuntz was buried at Gleisweiler on 24 February 1737. The index of the burial gives no age and does not name his wife. The family record gave his son Johann Heinrich a wedding to Anna Elisabetha Catharina at Earl Town, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on 25 June 1738, but that wedding is most likely another man’s, and no record of Johann Heinrich’s marriage has been found. The records do not say where the son lived after his baptism, or whether he was still in the Palatinate when his father was buried.

Lines of descent

Both of his lines of descent to Ora Emogene Walrath run through his son Johann Heinrich Kuntz, Johann Heinrich’s son Lorentz Kuntz (1752–1838) and Lorentz’s son John Kunz (1786–1865), and divide in the generation after that, between John’s sons Samuel Kunz (1825–1904) and Jacob John Kunz (1814–1866). That Johann Heinrich was Lorentz’s father is a link the records have not settled. John Kunz’s own will, made in 1864, names Jacob among “three of my sons” appointed his executors. The lines meet again when Thomas Koons married Magdalena M. Koons on 24 December 1876 in Henry County, Indiana, both then being descendants of Felix Kuntz. Their daughter Mary Magdalene Koons (1885–1977) was Ora Emogene Walrath’s mother.

Notes

His parents and his own baptism have not been found. The baptisms and the burial are known from published indexes of the Palatinate church books; the registers themselves have not been seen. A Felix Cuntz, son of Caspar, who married at Haßloch in 1730 was a different man.