Johannes OTTERBACH

                   REFN5392 Johann Otterbach of Eiserfeld in the southern part of Nassau-Siegen seems to have been the ea rliest ancestor of all the American Utterbacks (Otterbachs) and their kinsmen. He was probabl y born about 1550-1560, and died at Eiserfeld prior to 1599. Johann Otterbach's wife, Demuth , who survived him, was living at Trupbach apparently in 1625, when she was godmother of a po sthumous child of her son, Johann Otterbach of Trupbach.  The Otterbach (i.e. otter brook)fa mily seems to have taken its name originally from a farm "in der Otterbach"in the township o f Niederfishbach in the county of Sayn, just south of Nassau-Siegen, which is mentioned a num ber of times in early records.  The origin ofthe family in the County of Sayn fits in, as we ll, with the first appearanceof the name in Eiserfeld, which was close to the border betwee n Sayn and Nassau-Siegen.  There were Otterbachs in Sayn in the 17th century, too, for on 2 0 March 1670, the court records show that Ludwig Otterbach of Herdorf in the County of Sayn , his daughter's husband, Sebastian Hoeber of Winderstein in the township of Burbach, and hi s two unmarried sons, Johannes and Johann Philipp Otterbach, acknowledged to their respectiv e wives, mother-in-law and mother (name not given) that they had sold inherited property at S eelbach in Nassau-Siegen to Johannes Ludwig Otterbach with the Nassau-Siegen family can be sh own, it isobvious that he married a woman from Seelbach, perhaps a member of the Spielmann f amily, for it is stated later on in the document that "Johannes Spielmann of Seelbach is als o selling his rights to a house in Trupbach."