Hannah Shantz was a white settler who, along with her husband and children, was the first of the Schantz Russell family members to make a home in what is today the Region of Waterloo. She was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on September 10, 1772 to Friedrich and Maria Sophia (nee Bauer) Paul. She married Christian Shantz, also of Montgomery County, in 1791 and together they had ten children: Catharine, Elizabeth, Magdalena, Jacob, David, Heinrich, Susannah, Hannah, Benjamin and Rebecca. In 1810 the family emigrated to Canada, settling at Freeport on the Grand River. Shantz died July 10, 1845 in what is now Kitchener, Ontario and was buried in the First Mennonite Cemetery.