We are pleased that you look at our homepage and that you want to learn something about our family association.
It was founded by Dr. Gustav Dehning (1882-1970) in 1923. In August 2003 we had a family reunion celebrating the 100th anniversary of our Dehning Family Association. Almost a hundred Dehnings joined this get-together.
The founder and first chairman of our family association, Gustav Dehning, Bremen, and his successor Heinrich Dehning (1903-1979), Barmbostel, Lüneburger Heide, investigated all Dehning ancestors up to Cord Dehning (1616-1697) from the village Beckedorf, near Hermannsburg, Lüneburger Heide, the first of the «Beckedorfer Stamm» (lineage), and to Hans Dehning (1605-1667) from the village Dehnernbockel near Soltau, Lüneburger Heide, the first of the «Dehnernbockeler Stamm» (lineage). (See below). It was Peter Jahnke, married to Waltraud Dehning, who recently found out that there is a third lineage, called«Bergener Stamm» (lineage), the first of which is Peter Denecke (1593- ? )
It’s highly probable that these three «first» Dehnings have a common forefather, but we can’t prove it because there are no documents.
Gustav and Heinrich Dehning restricted their research to the Dehnings. They wanted to find out where the Dehnings come from and where they moved to. Of course it’s unfair to the women, but otherwise their researches would have been endless.
Today nearly every Dehning can retrace his Dehning ancestors on the family tree. The «American Dehnings» can all be found in separate lines, that are all based within German lines: There are two very large and three comparatively small Lines. They are printed in the four English newsletters from June 2006 to December 2007.
Now our principal activity is to continue the family tree into the present. We ask all Dehnings for assistance by mailing us all news about births, weddings and deaths to rene@dehning.family.
Since 1923 a family newspaper has been mailed to many Dehnings. Since 1988 we have mailed an English version to our American relatives, about 80 Dehning families we know of, the newsletter, and we will continue doing that as long as it is possible. If you know of Dehnings who don’t get it and would like to have it, please let me know rene@dehning.family.