Ludwig Dontenville, the son of Jean Michael Dontenville and Margaret Labrux, was born in the village of St. Maurice, Alsace of August 22, 1812. As a young man, he spent fourteen years in military service. He returned to St. Maurice to become a wine merchant. Ludwig married Clara Brumt of Nueve Eglise in the late 1830's. Their first son Joseph  was born in 1840; five additional children: Wallace, 1842; Mary, 1843; Frances, 1845; Louis, 1847; and Daniel, 1849; were born in St. Maurice before the family migrated to the United States in 1850.

Ludwig and Clara with their six small children settled first south of Sandwich, Illinois in Northville Township where a seventh child Josephine was born in 1852. An eighth child, a daughter;s infant death was never recorded. The family name was anglicized to Dondanville. Ludwig eventually settled on a farm in Serena Township. Clara died on March 18, 1871 and Ludwig on March 18, 1878. Both are buried in St. John the Baptist Cemetery in Somonauk, Illinois.