Lutgen

Lutgen - The surname Lutgen is of Germanic origin. It is generally considered to be a diminutive of the Lower German name Leuther (or possibly other, rarer Germanic names with liut as a first element), meaning people or tribe.[1]

Although a Walraven Lutgen, the earliest known person with that surname, emigrated to the United States in 1661[2] people with the name Lutgen have remained somewhat rare in this country. However, in the latter half of the nineteenth century immigrants with the surname Lutgen, Luttgen and Lutgens did increase. This was due more to the vast influx of immigrants in general from the central regions of Europe than anything in particular to these families.

Lutgen (Luttgen, Lutgens, etc.) immigrants came primarily from Luxembourg, Germany, and Belgium, a region in the central heart of Europe whose currently accepted national boundaries were not officially set until the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

It appears from United States census records that the majority of immigrant Lutgen's originally settled in the northern Midwest states, particularly Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota or North and South Dakota. It may be of interest to note there was an early Lutgen family in Luxembourg Township, Stearns county Minnesota in 1880.

There never were many Lutgens who emigrated to the United States. In fact although Lutgen families could be found in at least twenty seven different states at the end of the twentieth century the total number of Lutgen families still only amounted to less than two hundred and fifty.[3]

Nicolas Lutgen is the earliest known direct Lutgen immigrant ancestor, to those Lutgen families' listed here. He arrived here at age eighteen from Luxembourg. His brother Mathew also emigrated to America, but not until 1903. Mathew first joined Nicolas in Illinois then followed him in 1913 to South Dakota. Given the rarity of the name and the relatively small size of the area from where they emigrated, it would be safe to assume some relationship with other known Lutgen's in America. In particular Nicolas and Mathew were undoubtedly somehow connected with other Lutgen families in the Evanston, Illinois area, where they first settled and certainly those of Aberdeen, South Dakota where they later settled. By and large these relationships are not known nor were they pursued. The primary emphasis of this genealogy is that of Nicolas Lutgen and his descendants.