I am interested in uniting all descendents of the Ungs and Uns clans. Currently, the oldest direct ancestor that I can properly document is the Jacob Uns+Madeleine Besch family from Hollenfels, Luxembourg. Jacob Uns was born about 1761.
The word "Uns" means "we" or "us" in German. It has always bothered me that a grammatical pronoun would be chosen as a surname by our German/Luxembourg ancestors (most of our American descendents spoke Low German). As you may know, the son of Jacob Uns, called Pierre Uns, changed his name from Uns to Ungs in 1812 when he married Anna Catherine Bausch in Bastendorf, Luxembourg. When Pierre and Catherine immigrated to the United States in 1849, they had already changed their surnames to Ungs. Pierre died at sea but his sons and daughters helped start the founding of Luxemburg, Iowa.
However, the origin of our ancestors before 1761 remains uncertain, even though I have discovered several older Uns references. One of these is the Peter Uns+Aaltje Voogt family from Edam, Netherlands. Their son, Johannes Jan Uns was born in 1737. The oldest reference I have found is the Nicol Uns+Agnes Wilson family from Inveresk with Musselburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, which is near the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Nicol Uns family had three children: Issobell, Janet, and Geillies Uns; the oldest being born Jun 20, 1647. It is interesting to note that there is a continuous line of Uns references that starts in Scotland, jumps to Holland, and finally arrives in Luxembourg. I have been able to obtain official records of all these family units but I have not yet been able to prove that these families are related in any way, except by name, to the Ungs clan.
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