REINHART GENEALOGY
The first written record in Niedernberg of the Reinhart and Hartlaub names both occur in 1532 with Hans Reihardt and Peter Hartleyb. The Turkish tax register of 1551 lists the name and tax placed upon each of 126 individuals rich enough to pay taxes. This tax was reintroduced in 1530 to help fight off the Turks who menaced the area for about 200 years after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The assessment was .25% of the value of the owner's house, vineyards, fields and animals. The currency at the time was the gluden. 1 Gluden = 4 Ort = 27 Albus = 216 Pfennige. A gluden today is about 50-80 Deutsche Marks. Jost Reinhardt's tax was 23 albus & 5 pfennige or a net worth of 350 gluden making him the 6th richest man in this ancient village which was established in 1095AD. Heinrich Reinhardt was taxed 7 albus & 5 pfennige (113 gluden valuation), Adam Reinhardt 6 albus & 1 pfennige (91.75 gluden valuation), Peter Reinhart 1 ort (100 gluden valuation), another Adam Reinhardt 5½ albus (81.5 gluden valuation) and Hanns Reinhardt 1 ort (100 gluden valuation). Adam Hartlub (Hartlaub) paid 1 ort in tax and had a net worth of 100 gluden. It would seem that with six Reinhardts having been as prosperous as this, that the Reinhardt name was well established even before this tax register was recorded in 1551. Records first show the names of Clement (Klement) appearing in 1312, Vicher (Fecher) in 1363, Gerlach in 1532 and Hass in 1551. In examining the family tree these old and respected surnames occur in marriages of the Reinhart and Harlaub lines. Unfortunately, it will be more than a difficult task to show how the branches join in the family tree. An old Hartlaub genealogy by Gustav F. Hartlaub, former director the Mannheim museum, notes that it is difficult to trace the Hartlaub origins in Niedernberg. There were many families in the same generation and they had very large families with many of them having the same first name. He begins his family tree with Johan Hartlaub in Hammelburg who was born in the late 1400's. He notes that his Hartlaub line originally came from Niedernberg prior to 1500 and refers to them as the "farmer clan" (Bauerngefchlecht). From Niedernberg the Hartlaubs spread out all over the region. Those who went to Hammelburg became quite prominent with Ambrosius becoming the mayor sometime before 1624. His sons Johan and Herman were able to petition for and receive a coat of arms on behalf of their father in 1641. Since the rights and privleges pass on through only the male descendants of those granted a coat-of-arms, Johan and Herman in effect were granted a coat-of-arms.
Two of Peter's sons, Martin and Thomas, left in 1851 via sailing ship around the tip of South America for gold fields of California and returned in January 1856. On their return trip two accounts exist. One is that they walked across the Isthmus of Panama then took passage to New York and from there proceeded on to Ohio. The other account is that they used wagons as prairie schooners in their trek back across the country to Ohio. Since they left with two other local boys, Simon and Martin Wherling, it is possible that both stories are true. One story for Wherlings the other for the Reinharts. As 49ers they were reported to have gone to Hangtown (modern day Placerville, CA) and Sutter's Mill. Going to the gold rush in the 1850's was considered to be an adventure of a lifetime. Those who never quite made it all the way to the gold fields referred to experience as "seeing the tail of the elephant". (An elephant, at that time, was a very exotic animal.) Martin and Thomas saw the whole elephant. Martin on his deathbed told a neighbor where his gold was buried in the garden. Evidently this neighbor acted as an impartial executor of his gold for each of his children received shares of the gold to help them to purchase their farms. Some of the gold nuggets still exist and have been handed down to present day family members.
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