As background we must understand that the area of Alsace was passed back and forth between Germany and France a number of times. However, most of the people who inhabit the area are of German descent. In 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 objections to the abuses in the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation began. As the protestant movement gained momentum, religious wars were constantly taking place.  The period between 1618 and 1648 was known as the Thirty Years War. It was actually a series of several wars in which a number of armies crossed and recrossed the Germanic areas. (Germany was not a consolidated nation at this time.) In the area of Alsace, there was much conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics. As you read accounts of the troubles in Northern Ireland today, you may have some idea of the kind of confusion which existed in the valley of the Rhine during the Thirty Years War.  This series of wars caused unbelievable destruction. The Germanic areas were left in shambles, with misery, poverty and starvation, and many towns in ruins. At the end of this period the French had taken over Alsace. Large numbers of church records, both Catholic and Protestant, were lost in this turmoil and record-keeping activities were interrupted. Therefore, it is Anton Wohlhüter who was the first ancestor of whom we have any record. (According to a cousin in Germany, the name Wohlhuter was supposed to have been Gerichieffer before the Thirty Years War. Why the change was made, we may never know.) Since Anton was born about 1645, no record of his birth is available. His wife, Maria Gilg, was born about 1650 and was referred to as "Niederlanderin" which means Dutch woman or woman from the Netherlands. Since the area just north of Alsace was Spanish Netherlands at the time, no doubt, that is where she came from.  Their son, Daniel Wohlhüter, was born in 1666 and by this time fairly accurate records were being kept. Because the Germanic areas were not unified, they were considered "ripe" for takeovers, and France by this time had become a stronger power and was anxious to expand. Since Alsace was in between France and the Germanic areas, it was constantly being caught in the middle of conflicts. (This situation still existed as late as the First and Second World Wars.) 

Daniel's son, Johann Georg Wohlhüter, was born in 1696 just after the time when the French were burning down towns in the Palatinate (just east of Alsace) and the people were fleeing (many of them to America). Andreas Wohlhüter, born in 1727; his son, .Johann Michael Wohlhüter, born in 1762; and George Wohlhüter (who died in White County) were all born while Alsace was a part of France. But two years before George's death here in America, the German Empire was created, Alsace and Lorraine became a part of Germany and Otto vonBismarck became its first chancellor. (Of course, at the end of World War I Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.) In 1846 there were crop failures in Germany and Holland and though it was not mentioned, I wonder if the same might have been true of the area of Alsace. It was in just a very short time that George and all of his cousins but one immigrated to the United States.