So it all started, officially according to the Danish Nobility Yearbook, with Johan Rantzau married to Abel Breide.
He should have sired 10 sons, but only 7 are mentioned, and most of these are educated guesses. Of only 3 of his sons it is known they had offspring, viz. Cai, also named Gotskalk, and Volmer, also called Breide.
Most likely they were half brothers. Another son Otto had no grandsons.
However, Cai is most likely named after his grandfather, and hé was most likely married to a Christine named in 1326. If we follow this reasoning, the other Johan mentioned in 1226 must have been the great-grandfather of Cai.
Cai and Breide must then be the equivalents of the Schack (Cai) and Breide who are mentioned earlier, as only these two can cover all Rantzau's. This is visualized in the Adobe diagram, which begins with Cai and Christine.
Beside the branch which eventually leads to the present Danish Rantzaus, there were originally three German branches.
One split up early in the Dutch and the German I branch; the Schmoel branches. The Dutch one, after their departure from Indonesia, is now split into an American and a Dutch part.
The 2nd into German II and III.
The 3rd original branch only split up as shown in German IV.
These six branches are, with more detail, available as Adobe files. They are also given as text files, but only for the last 6/7 generations. These can be accessed from the previous page.
See the summary again at all Rantzau branches.
NB! Go back from the Adobe pages by way of the Toolbar!
Not all "von" Rantzau's belong to the same branch! Neither do the "zu" Rantzau's!
The diagrams of the different branches are at:
This one also contains explanations about colours used etc.
These were updated in August 2003, only the Americans are missing still!
I heard I am being referred to in the family as "the flying Dutchman" and appear to be accepted as the unofficial "chronologer" of the family. My diagrams formed the basis for a lecture at a family meeting in 2002, the first one after 90 years. I include one of them here.