Following is information arrived (1/3/97) from Franz Reitmeier. Many Thanks. We will put more up here and put it in a logical order as time allows.

(this was the letter that came with the info...do you have anthing to add??)

December 1996

Dear John,
my brother has read your family page in the internet, so I am enclosing some brief information about the history of the Reitmeier family. The documents and data that were needed to compile this summary were made available by:
Dipl.-Ing. Franz Reitmeier
Hamburg, DE.
In more than 50 years of intensive genealogical research, Mr. Reitmeier has located, sorted and evaluated a large amount of data and numerous different documents. Now Mr. Reitmeier from Hamburg is 82 years old and he has give me all the documents to continue his work. At this moment I collect all the information's I get, and it is now more than 60 pages and includes all the typical writing off the "Reitmeiers"

Unfortunately its impossible for me, to translate this all in the English language. Perhaps you can speak German, so you can read it.
More I can send later.
Yours sincerely,
(signed)
Franz Reitmeier

(thanks Franz. Slowly, over time we will get all the documents into English, but will leave the deutch versions up also - any volunteers?)

The first half of the name of the "Reitmeier" family has a geographical background and comes from the German word "Reute", one of the ways of spelling the old German word "Ruiti", meaning "cultivation of land", with it's variants "riet" and "rod".

The second half ("meier") = the administrator of ecclesiastical or ducal estates.

Some of the different ways the name is spelled in various dialects:

Spelling		Date	Place when first mentioned

Rawtmair (w=Y)	1345	Citizen of Landshut
Rewtmayr	1435	Zeydloren
Reytmayr		1443	(name spelled in different ways
Reydmayr	1443	in the same document!)
Reutmair		1448	Utzmannstorf, Nuremberg
Reitmair		1454	Deuthofen
Reytmair		1462	Stollenried
Reidmair		1462	Stolenried !
Reitmeier		1487	Reyth, Tierberg
Reitmair		1495	Fürlprumn, Deuthofen
Rewtmair		1497	in REYD
Reitmor		1552	Deutenhofen
Reitmaier		1530	Augsburg, Regensburg
Reittmayr		1540	Kehlheim
Reitmayr		1555	Regensburg
Reimaier		1627	Arnschwang
Reimayr		1646	Krottenhof
Reithmayer	1646	Krottenhof
Reymayr		1675	Neukirch
Reithmayer	1689	Straubing
Reitmayer	1697	Vilshofen
Reithmeier	1825	Heidenkofen

Since Most of these names rarely appear in general lists of names, it can be assumed that they have the same origin.

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