By this permission to use a nobiliary particle, the family effectively became part of the German untitled lower nobility (Niederer Adel) of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Its most notable member is the family's current head (i.e. senior male-line descendant), King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

The family line traces back to one Jürgen Amtsberg (d. 1686), master blacksmith in the village of Schwichtenberg near Borrentin, then part of Swedish Pomerania.

A notable member was his son Philipp August von Amsberg (1788–1871), who initiated the establishment of the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway that was inaugurated in 1838.

The headship of the family since its recognition as noble in 1891 has some historical legal relevance prior to the formal abolition of the nobility's privileges in 1918.