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hello all
my surname is Breitbach-Coleman
I was born and raised in Germany in a very small village named Burg-an-der-Mosel. My father comes from a large family of Breitbach living in an even smaller village named Bermel which is near the town of Mayen. They are all born Roman Catholic which is mentioned on their legal birth records. Some Breitbach names, however, are not associated with either Catholic or Lutheran affiliation. Catholic birth records latinize the names. Johann Georg is now Johannes Georgius Breitbach.
Current German privacy laws make searching genealogical records difficult, if not impossible.
There are only some 360 families with the Breitbach surname in Germany. About 2700 persons in all.
Earliest records mention Johannes Georgius Breitbach in the town of Koblenz, which is near Mayen. Mayen-Koblenz landkreis [county Mayen] has the highest density of the Breitbach surname.
That area had a large population of German Mennonites who perhaps came from south in Switzerland. I'm not sure.
Curiously, the Eifel-Hunsruek area and the Moselle river valley was given to Bavaria after the Westphalian peace treaty in 1648. that was an important event in German history. I cannot find ANY ancestors at all. Were they German Mennonites?
A large Mennonite community existed in Enkenbach [Hunsrueck area] and Monschau [Eifel]. Most of them became emigrants. There are also Russian Mennonites named Breitbach.