Person:Johann Faust (2)

The Faust name was sometimes spelled Fust, Fausten, Fause, and Faustus (Latin). Many anglicized it to Foust after arriving in America. The word faust means fist in German and the family crest was a clenched silver hand over crossed hooks on a shield.

    Johan Faust is the earliest known of the Faust ancestors to be firmly documented. He was born around 1585 in the state of Hesse, probably in the village of Lorbach, or possibly Rinderbugen. As an adult he lived in Wolferborn, where he remained until moving late in life to the village of Langenselbold, to join his son Hans. Both are a short distance northeast of Frankfurt. He died about 1640.
    Much of the information about the Fausts of this era comes from the archives of the Reformed Church, a congregation they embraced at the founding of Protestantism.
    Johan lived during a time of terrible upheaval and devastation in Germany. Plagues inflicted the area in 1606-1608, 1612, 1626, 1628 and 1648. Also the religious/political Thirty Years War raged over most of the country in 1618 thru 1648. Virtually every country in Europe became embroiled in the war and Hesse, due toit's strategic location as a crossroads in western Germany, suffered disproportionately. The contesting countries, as well as the factions within Germany itself, repeatedly fought across the region, plundering, burning and decimating the population as they went. Before the war, the population of Langenselbold was 1500; at the end, it was under 300.

From A Family History, Don Faust, 1997.

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).
2. ↑ Dr.Don Jones. From the family files of J.D. Jones, 1/03/2003.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Ancestry.com. One World Tree (sm). (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., n.d.).

   Online publication - Ancestry.com. OneWorldTree [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc.