Our earliest known Jundt ancestor is Hans Jundt born about 1580 in La Wantzenau, Alsace. Our Jundt ancestors lived in La Wantzenau until the mid-1600s when they moved to the village of Gambsheim, Alsace.
During the period that our ancestors lived in Alsace, they resided in the greater La Wantzenau and Gambsheim areas. After arriving in Russia in 1832, they primarily resided in the Kutschurgan village of Selz.
While living in the villages of La Wantzenau and Gambsheim, our ancestors were engaged in various occupations such as barrel making and viticulture. Upon arriving in Russia, the first generation was primarily engaged in farming and the later generations were engaged in various occupations.
Joseph Jundt, our ancestor who immigrated to Russia in 1832, was said to be a tailor.
The name Jundt is a very common old surname with German roots and dates back to the early thirteenth century. It is used in several European countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France. It appears that the root of the name has a “Matronymic” base. This would imply that the name might have originated from the biblical term of “Junten” (i. e. son of Junta)” or the female personal name “Junta” (i. e. son of Judinta/Judith).
I was able to identify three separate Jundt clans in the 1500’s. They were located in La Wantzenau, Alsace, Ottrott, Baden, Germany and Basel, Switzerland. While it appears that there is some connection between these clans, I have not been able to locate any documents which would confirm this theory.
Our Jundt ancestors immigrated to Russia to escape from the tumultuous times in Europe where the near continuous wars appeared to be endless. Unfortunately, this was not meant to be for the Jundt family, as during the 1919 massacre in Selz, Russia several of the young Jundt men were slaughtered by the Bolshevik (Red) Army.
The “J” in German has a “Y” sound and it is for this reason that when the name was used in an English speaking community or maybe when phonetic spelling was applied, that we find some variant spellings of the name as Yundt and Yount.