The purpose of this Web site is to share the results of the family history research with those who have a common interest or connection with the Otteni / Oatney / Otney / Ottney / Otteny families in the United States or Europe.

The earliest German record found shows that Johannes Otteni was born in Urloffen, Germany on 9 Apr 1681 and that his father was Hans Georg Otteni. In all probability, Hans Georg Otteni moved to Urloffen, Germany just five years before Johannes birth.

Urloffen was the main settlement area for the Otteni's in Germany, however others lived in nearby Nußbach, and Renchen, Germany.

Four of Hans Georg Otteni's descendants are known to have immigrated to America during the 1800's. They are:

1. Benedict Otteni - 2 Great Grandson of Hans Georg Otteni
2. Theodor Otteni - 4 Great Grandson of Hans Georg Otteni
3. Anton Otteni - 2 Great Grandson of Hans Georg
4. Rudolph Otteni - 4 Great Grandson of Hans Georg Otteni

From the German church records available, there are many descendants of Hans Georg Otteni. Many of the descendants that did not go to America can be seen in a family chart called "Early Generations of Otteni Families in Urloffen starting in 1676".

Most descendants of Hans Georg Otteni that live in the United States today spell the name OATNEY, OTNEY, OTTNEY and OTTENI.  They are the descendants of Benedict, Rudolph, Theodor, and Anton Otteni. 

Benedict Otteni (1793-1858), the progenitor of most OATNEY and OTNEY family members in the United States today, settled in Fairfield County, Ohio in the early 1830s. He and his wife, Christina Houser, raised 11 children.

Most of Benedict's children stayed in Ohio with the exception of sons Joseph and Andreas. Joseph settled in Kansas after serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. Based on the 1850 U.S. Census, it is believed that Andreas went to find his fortune gold hunting in California. 

Many descendants of Benedict still live in the Ohio area. Those family members using the alternate spelling of OTNEY live mostly in the Kansas area of the U.S. Some of the OTNEY families in Kansas changed their name to the OATNEY spelling when reconnected to the Ohio family. In most cases, the pronunciation is the same for either spelling.

The following are links to sketches of Benedict Otteni and his family as to how they lived and flourished. Each sketch is a collection of information found in public records.

Detailed information on each family branch is available by clicking on the blue links below

Benedict Otteni (1793-1858) - an in-depth review of the life of Benedict Otteni

Children of Benedict Otteni & Christina

Maria Elizabeth Otteni Walt  (1815 - ?)

Franziska "Frances" Otteni Welker  (1816 - ?)

Maria Magdalena Otteni Stortz  (1819 - ?)

Theresia Otteni Flemm  (1820 - 1895) - PDF Descendant report included

Crescentia "Nancy" Otteni Wald (1822 - 1864)  - PDF Descendant report included

Joseph Oatney  (1825 - 1897) - PDF Descendant report included

Andreas "Andrew" Otteni  (1827 - 1850)

Moritz Otteni (1829 - 1831)

Emily Oatney Schefler (1831 - 1912) - PDF Descendant report included

John Oatney (1833 - 1897) - PDF Descendant report included

Louisa Oatney Thimmes (1836 - 1911) - PDF Descendant report included

Click on the following link to view information on all known descendants of Benedict Otteni to the present.  Some of the surnames included are: Powers, Shugert, Pearce, Brandt, Miller, Getz, Davis, Flemm, Bowes, Scheffler, Thimmes, Gundelfinger, Stover, Campbell, Yates, & Poston.

Descendants of Benedict Otteni (1793-1858) - a privatized (dates & places of living people omitted) 9 Generation Descendant Book (PDF), starting with Benedict Otteni - 201 pages plus index. (Large file may take extra time to download depending on your internet speed)

Theodor Otteni (1844-1911) is the progenitor of family members in the U.S. spelling their name OTTENI. He and his wife Theresia Wörner (1846-1927) came to the United States from Urloffen, Germany in 1868. They settled in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania and engaged in farming. He and his wife raised 12 children with many descendants still living in the area. Theodor is a 2nd cousin (twice removed) of Benedict Otteni. Theodor and Benedict's common ancestors are Mathias and Maria Eva Schmidt Otteni.  (The link for Theodor Otteni includes a PDF Descendant report)

Otteni Migration to Germany

From the German book "Heimatbuch der Gemeinde Urloffen" (Home book of the community Urloffen), the author writes that the Otteni family settled in Urloffen Germany about 1676, indicating a move to this area of Germany. The OTTENI name spelling suggests that the origin is other than German.

In a 1985 interview with members of the Otteni family still living in Urloffen, Germany, family members believe that early Otteni ancestors migrated from northern Italy.  Peter Otteni, born in Germany, related the following in an email in March 1998 regarding the Otteni migration:

Under the rigid anti-Jewish reign of Third Reich, it has been very popular to do some family research, especially for German citizens with a non-German family name. That's also, what my Grandfather, Theodor Otteni was doing. It turned up that the church's records mentioned the name Otteni for the first time a little bit less than 500 years ago. Their origin appears to be Lombardian (the area around Torino, Italy) and that they have come to Germany as master stone carvers, along with the 'construction boom' of cathedrals at that times in southwestern Germany. If you dig deep enough, you'll find the name Otteni also among the masters that have participated in the construction of the cathedral at Freiburg, Germany, among other sites. The main settlement area for the Otteni's has been the towns of Renchen, Urloffen, Nussbach and Ulm (a nearby town, not the city of Ulm east of Stuttgart). My father, the late Hermann Otteni, was born on Jan. 20, 1926 in Renchen, Germany, which is located only about 10 miles away from Urloffen.

However, Werner Otteny (descendant of Hans Georg Otteni and Ignaz Otteny) stated in 2019 that his research shows the Otteni name originated in the town of Autigny, a town near Bern, Switzerland. In the Swiss town of Autigny, the French language is spoken. If you translate the French word Autigny into German phonetically (as it was done 400 years ago), you get the name Otteni. When surnames became common, many times the town a family resided in became their surname.

History also tells us that Europe entered a new age beginning about the year 1650. The Thirty Years War of Religion had ended and with the break up of the medieval church. The medieval view of life and of the world began fading away. As R. R. Palmer and Joel Colton described in their book "History of the Modern World."

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