Hi Listers, My g-grandfather was born in Bern in 1835. The next thing I have on him he gets married in America in 1856. In this timeframe what would be the likely port of departure for America. Oh, his name was Jacob Forrest Millheim. Thank You, Terry Millheim

I would like to contact Dr. Andreas Staehelin at the Staatarchiv des Kantons Basel-Staat. Does anyone know if the Archiv and/or Dr. Staehelin have an email address? If not, what is their postal mailing address? Thank you, Bob Pfennig in New Braunfels, TX wo das Leben schön ist!

I'm new that the list. I'm looking for info on John and Mary SUTTER from Canton Berne,Switz. What I do know is they had at least 3 children> son Otto and 2 daughters Lena(Miller), Mary(2) (KAMPFER). Mary(2) was born November 17,1872 in Canton Berne. She came to the states sometime between 1890-1930 via New York>Salem Ohio. Mary(2) married Stephen KAMPFER and they had (7) children: daughters, Emma m. Bryon Sanor Claria m. David Waithman Lillian m.Herbert Weingart * Ester m. Clarence Weingart * * brothers sons: John Frank Ernest m. Bertha Mae Price Mary(2) passed away on Oct 3,1951 in Salem, Ohio. Please any info on this family would be greatly appreciated. Thank You N. Harrigan (USA)

Anybody out there working on the name HOLLIGER(not Hollinger,please)? C. Preston

Looking for connections to Halter. If I haven't heard from you before, I'd like to compare notes. I am looking for info about the parents and siblings of my Ludwig/Louis Halter. Francine Conn Halter Descendants of Ludwig/Louis Halter 1 Ludwig/Louis Halter b: Bet. 1765 - 1775 in Schirrhein, Alsace, France (originally Switzerland?) d: Aft. 1850 in New Hamburg, Scott Co., MO (probably) +Madeline Royer b: Abt. 1769 in Germany/France/Switzerland m: March 12, 1796 in Schirrhofen, Alsace, France d: Aft. 1850 in probably New Hamburg, Scott Co., MO 2 Benedict Halter +Caroline S. Lawrence Bucher 2 Joseph Halter b: January 22, 1797 in Schirrhoffen, Alsace-Lorraine, France d: April 1855 in St. Mary's, Morges, Sandy Township, Stark Co., OH (buried) +Maria Anna Lang b: March 31, 1799 in Germany/France m: January 31, 1828 in Schirrhoffen, Alsace, France d: August 19, 1862 in Morges, Stark Co., OH (buried) 2 Elizabeth Halter b: 1798 in Alsace-Lorraine, France d: June 02, 1872 in Scott Co., MO +Joseph Stuppe b: 1806 m: December 18, 1835 in Stark Co., OH d: March 24, 1871 2 Marie Anne Magdalena Halter b: October 29, 1801 in Schirrhoffen, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France d: August 12, 1881 in St. Lawrence Cem., New Hamburg, Scott Co., MO +Wendolin Bucher b: October 02, 1792 in Scheithal, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France or Heiserburg, Germany m: September 10, 1822 in St. Nicolas Catholic Church, Schirrhein, Bas-Rhin, Alsace Lorraine, France d: May 06, 1861 in St. Lawrence Cem., New Hamburg, Scott Co., MO 2 Lawrence Halter b: 1803 in Alsace-Lorraine, France d: 1886 in St. Peter Cem., Canton, Stark Co., OH +Rosina Zircher 2 Christian Halter b: 1807 in Germany (per 1860 census) d: 1852 in St. Lawrence Cem., New Hamburg, Scott Co., MO +Mary "Nancy" Schott b: 1811 in Germany *2nd Wife of Christian Halter: +Margaret Kies 2 Mathias Halter b: January 15, 1807 in Germany (per 1850 census), France (per 1860 census) d: April 10, 1873 in St. Lawrence Cemetery, New Hamburg, Scott Co., MO (buried) +Theresa Mary Marz/Morz b: 1812 in Germany (1850), France (1860) m: in Alsace, France? Ohio? d: February 15, 1865 in New Hamburg, Scott Co., MO 2 Michael Halter b: 1810 2 Christopher Halter b: 1816 in Germany d: in Missouri (not MO) +Nancy Saylor b: 1813 in Pennsylvania m: 1848 in Scott Co., MO 2 Catharina Halter b: January 21, 1817 in Alsace-Lorraine, France +Anthony Fuchs

I have set up a free, English speaking Herz family name mailing list. The list is open to researchers looking for Herz family members of all denominations of any time and any place - also for Hertz family members if the spelling Herz was used at one time. To subscribe: post a subscribe message to Herz-subscribe@onelist.com The webpage for the list is on http://www.onelist.com/community/Herz Alice Josephs

Dear Swiss Listers, I am researching my Von Kaenel / Nicoud line. Around 1870 my ancestors left Switzerland, apparently for England. Only my g-grandfather returned to Switzerland, according to a family story. I have been unable to locate most of my ancestors in England. The family story states the following: "Edouard Von Kaenel was born in 1854, I think his parents were farmers in Val-de-Ruz. They had several children, brothers and sisters. The father of this family died early so the mother of these children had a heavy charge to raise up these children without the father. She had a servant named Rothen. She remarried to this Rothen and had a son with him. The children were shocked and all left to England. Edouard had found a place to work for Sydney of Coulon who possessed big estate in England with huge villa gardens and plantations. Grandpa Von Kaenel worked as gardener and man who did everything. Years passed, he had met a beautiful young swiss woman who also worked in England. Her family name was Nicolet (Nicoud, Nicous). They returned to Switzerland for marriage." Does any of this sound familiar and does anyone know who Sydney of Coulon was? Thanks for any hints or connections. Kathleen Devlin San Rafael CA USA

Dear Ginger, > ---------- > Von: GINGER[SMTP:ginrings@email.msn.com] > Gesendet: Montag, 18. Oktober 1999 22:02 > An: SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com > Betreff: [SWITZ] St Gallen, Switzerland > > Hello. > Can anyone tell me of the Benedictine Abbey. I'm also searching for > information on the movement from Switzerland to Germany, end of 1700s and > beginning of 1800s, to the areas of the BlackForest, Baden and Rottweil. > My GGGrandfather was born abt 1805. In the US Census his mother was Swiss. > She named him Benedict(k) ? We spell the surname SOHMER. (?) > Since there is no other information- yet - to start with Benedictine Abbey > in St Gallen makes sense. > > Thank You, > Ginger (Sohmer) Nehrings ginrings@msn.com > New Jersey USA > Benedict was a very popular given name in German speaking catholic areas at this time - this should not be considered as an indication for any connection to the abbey. Just FYI (if you can read German) - SwissGen has a page on the abbey archives : http://swiss.genealogy.net/kant/sgstia-d.htm (even if you can't read it - there are a few nice pictures at the bottom of the page). Back to your research problem : have you any indication that Benedict's father was also Swiss - or even coming from St.Gallen ? Sohmer is mentioned in "Familiennamenbuch" (http://swiss.genealogy.net/famnam-m.htm) - but only for immigrants (from Germany) in this century. So you may have to look in Germany (?). Good luck with your further research - Wolf ---------------------- Wolf W. Seelentag, PhD, e-mail : wolf@swissmail.com Reherstr. 19, CH - 9016 St. Gallen, Switzerland Tel (home) : +41-71-2885121 Fax : +49-89-2443-91987 Tel (work) : +41-71-4942233

Asking about the Prominent Family Names. Not sure but I thought I saw the name Rausher. I'm looking for the name Rauscher. Good there be a link? Thank you for your time Pamela

I'm excited about being on this list. My ggrandmother's name was Jeanne DuRussel (also spelled DuRussal). The only info I have about her is that she married my ggrandfather in England in 1870 and I estimate that she was born in 1848 or so (from the English censuses that gave her birthplace as "Switzerland"). From the marriage certificate, her father's name was "Francis" (I think perhaps that was anglicized and it may have been Francois). Apparently, the family name is from Vaud/Moudon but I have no idea of how to confirm this. Her first daughter was named Adele so, following naming custom, her mother's name might have been Adele as well. My "theory" is that she came from Switzerland to England to be a governess. I checked the 1861 census to see if she were listed in any residences around where she was married (Toxteth Park, Lancs) but I couldn't find her. And she would only have been 13 at the time so she probably emigrated between 1861 and 1870. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can find out about emigration patterns in Switzerland during that period? Or perhaps info about whether Swiss women regularly went abroad?? Valerie Ackroyd

----- Original Message ----- From: Nick Beathon <rnb@step.es> To: <SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 1999 11:50 AM Subject: [SWITZ] Prominent Family Names > Hello List, > I have been following with interest, the comments/references to the prominent family names, particularly from the Graubunden area. I am researching a "de Planta" line, which supposedly came from Chur. Have now been waiting almost 5 weeks for the LDS films which still have not arrived, & began to look at derivations of de Planta, particularly von Planta, which seems to me to be logical. I would like to raise a couple of points: > 1) Would there be any logical explanation for a von Planta from Chur to change his name to de Planta. [Mike] Easy explanation, von Planta in German, de Planta in French :-) My de Planta was born in Chur around 1826 & moved to Brittany in France to train as a Priest in the Protestant Church. He subsequently married a French speaking Swiss girl from Geneva and settled in Lucens in the canton de Vaud, after having apparently spent another spell in Brittany as a Priest. Both he & his wife are dead by the mid 1880s, having had about 12 children, of which the first 6/7 died. > 2) Is there any other logical way to trace this de Planta, through Church records ( supposedly being a Priest), apart from the LDS microfilms. [Mike] There is a book by Jakob R. Truog on Evangelical Reformed priests in Graubünden which was published at Chur about 1935 or so. It's on LDS microfilm and I can do a lookup for you, but I don't happen to see his given name listed in your post. Do you have an approximate date of birth for him? Typically Truog will have a biographical entry for a priest at the first location where he served, then entries at the other locations he served noting the dates and any particular details that are relevant (uncommon). The book is indexed :-) > 3) Going through the Ancestral files via Familyseach.org I came across two von Planta females, Judith & Magdalena, both allegedly born 1693 and both allegedly married to the same Eustach Albert von Salis. Can anyone offer any assistance or comments?? [Mike] Do you have a location for these families? I have generally found the Ancestral File to be a reasonable guide to suggest where to look, but it is all too easy for errors to appear in the data. You can't really tell if 10 people have submitted the correct data - you only see the scatter with different spellings, errors, guessed at dates, etc. I'm pretty sure there is a Planta genealogy in the FHL collection which I could check for you. Regards, Mike Hobart > > Many thanks > Nick Beaton. > Las Palmas, Spain. > > > ==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== > Support RootsWeb! Help provide FREE genealogical resources on the > Internet: http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html >

The city of Bern is in the canton of Bern. Most likely your ancestor was born in the canton. -----Original Message----- From: Terry Millheim <golfer1@thegrid.net> To: SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com <SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Thursday, October 21, 1999 12:57 PM Subject: [SWITZ] Millheim >My g-grandfather was born in Bern in 1835. I don't know the Canton. The >name as I know it is spelled Millheim. It could have been Mulheim or >Muhlheim. Can anybody help me on this. > Thank You, > Terry Millheim > > >==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== >Going on vacation? Gone longer than 4 days? >mail to Switzerland-L-request@rootsweb.com >subject line: unsubscribe >nothing in message >

In response to Peggy's earlier post: At Go.com the y have a excellent translator from Systran Software that allows you to type in the accented (umlauts) characters appropriate for the language you are translating. In the upper right corner of the box in which you type/paste your "article" it says accented characters, click on it and it gives simple instructions for Macintosh (me) and Windows programs. http://translator.go.com/ I stumbled across this a while back at think it's great! Jennifer Ann Bessire Harvey researching: BESSIRE of Pery, Bern, Switzerland Tufly of Klosters, Graubunden, Switzerland

My g-grandfather was born in Bern in 1835. I don't know the Canton. The name as I know it is spelled Millheim. It could have been Mulheim or Muhlheim. Can anybody help me on this. Thank You, Terry Millheim

Hello List, I have been following with interest, the comments/references to the prominent family names, particularly from the Graubunden area. I am researching a "de Planta" line, which supposedly came from Chur. Have now been waiting almost 5 weeks for the LDS films which still have not arrived, & began to look at derivations of de Planta, particularly von Planta, which seems to me to be logical. I would like to raise a couple of points: 1) Would there be any logical explanation for a von Planta from Chur to change his name to de Planta. My de Planta was born in Chur around 1826 & moved to Brittany in France to train as a Priest in the Protestant Church. He subsequently married a French speaking Swiss girl from Geneva and settled in Lucens in the canton de Vaud, after having apparently spent another spell in Brittany as a Priest. Both he & his wife are dead by the mid 1880s, having had about 12 children, of which the first 6/7 died. 2) Is there any other logical way to trace this de Planta, through Church records ( supposedly being a Priest), apart from the LDS microfilms. 3) Going through the Ancestral files via Familyseach.org I came across two von Planta females, Judith & Magdalena, both allegedly born 1693 and both allegedly married to the same Eustach Albert von Salis. Can anyone offer any assistance or comments?? Many thanks Nick Beaton. Las Palmas, Spain.

Greetings to you all from Indianapolis. I notice that there have been several emails concerning information received in another language. When my children were in high school, all of them took German. I had received some mail in German, and I asked the teacher if she would be willing to have the class translate it. She was thrilled to have the chance, as it was a great learning experience for the class. She sent me a translation in English, and the whole process took just a few days. I gave them a monetary donation for their class to use on a project they had. My suggestion is to have any of you contact your local high schools or colleges, and see if they would be willing to do something similar; I feel confident that they would. Probably German and French would be the most common letters all of us would receive, and they are taught in most foreign language departments. Good luck to all of you. Dennis Buerge

Hi list members, I recently wrote to the Staatsarchiv in Solothurn requesting any information on my ggg grandfather Joseph A. Thomann. Within 2 weeks I had a reply. I was very impressed with the promptness of these people. They sent me information that confirmed what I knew and hoped was correct but they also sent me the name of his mother and his grandfather which I didn't have. Needless to say I was very pleased. Now comes my problem. The letter came to me in German and I put it through a translation service in order to read it. Most of it I could figure out, but because I don't have the umlauts over the words in a couple places I know it changes the meaning of the word. I am enclosing the words below and would be grateful if someone could tell me exactly what it says. Sehr geehrte Frau Link Wir haben Anfrage vom 3.10.1999 erhalten. Gemass (Gemass has an umlaut over the a) dem katholischen Zivilsstandsregister der Stadt Solothurn 1836-1845 wurde Joseph Adolph Thomann 27.9.1843 um 22.30 Uhr geboren und am 8.10.1843 getauft. Seine Eltern waren Felix Thomann aus der Gemeinde Bettlach im Kanton Solothurn, von Beruf Schneider, und Euphros(ia) Ma(ria) Jos(epha) Bifang aus der Gemeinde Ettiswil im Kanton Luzern. Der Grossvater von Joseph Adolph Thomann hiess Johann Thomann. Als Taufpaten werden Joseph Schlafli (Schlafli has an umlaut over the a) aus der Gemeinde Bettlach und Antonia Thomann aus der Gemeinde Bettlach genannt. Weitergehende genealogische Nachforschungen wurden einen sehr grossen zeitlichen Aufwand bedeuten, der im Rahmen einer solchen Anfrage nicht vollbracht werden kann. Sie konnen (konnen has an umlaut over the o) aber jederzeit im Staatsarchiv Solothurn selber die entsprechenden Archivalien einsehen, oder, wenn Sie dies wunschen, (wunshen has an umlaut over the u) einen Berufsgenealogen mit dieser Arbeit betrauen. Eine diesbezugliche Kontaktadresse ware: (ware has an umlaut over the a) Schweizerische Gesellschaft fur Familien-forschung, Zentralstelle fur (fur has an umlaut over the u) genealogische Auskunfte, (auskunfte has an umlaut over the u) Postfach 54, CH-3808 Thun, Schweiz. Wir hoffen, Ihnen mit diesen Angaben weitergeholfen zu haben, und verbleiben. Mit freundlichen Grussen Wissenschaftlicher Assistant Thank you in advance for any help given Peggy

If you do happen to have a prominent family in your ancestry you may want to look further into historical accounts and civic records for details about your ancestors or (more likely) relations. [Though I should also add that all types of families show up in the civic records, not just prominent ones. It's just a matter of who shows up how often <g>.] The LDS Family History Library has microfilmed many civic records in Canton Graubünden. These are much more difficult to go through than the church books as the latter have a well-organized structure. But the civic records and documents contain a wealth of detail of a completely different sort. While they are difficult to go through by someone who is not fluent in the native language, one can usually pick out the surnames of interest without too much trouble. This at least identifies which documents deserve further study. As just a couple of examples of items which I have found are a document by an ancestor who had served as a local judge for many years in Jenins. He thanked the citizens of the town for their support and understanding during his many years as a judge and was making a bequest to the town of a large amount of money to help pay for tutoring or extra schooling for deserving young men of the village. In return all he asked was for the citizens to please consult the younger judges in the town instead of him! He realized he would be a judge for his remaining days, but he wanted some peace! Another document showed another ancestor taking care of disposing of some vineyard property belonging to someone who most likely was his brother-in-law or nephew based on the names (the church books which would show which were lost in a church and parsonage fire). This other person who was disposing of the property was then in the East Indies (in 1786)! I haven't checked the records to see if this other person eventually came back to Jenins or whether there is other mention of him later in the church book, but it illustrates how one can find some rather remarkable information in the civic documents. Regards, Mike Hobart

It may be of some interest to provide a bit more information about the prominent families in Graubünden in the 16th and 17th centuries as discussed by Head (p. 137). See the previous posts on the Salis family for full citation details on Head. Head is in part depending on more thorough analyses of the families of the 16th century (48 prominent) by Färber and the families of the 17th century (40 prominent) by Grimm. I don't have copies of either reference (listed below) so I can't provide lists of the families in the seperate groups or of the "inner core" families that these two authorities identified. Head does remark that the core families identified by each of these authors are included in the 26 families which were prominent in both centuries. None of these families had noble backgrounds and only about 1/3 of them had been prominent in the employ of the regional nobility, which had essentially disappeared by 1504 in Rhaetia (Graubünden). Bavier, Beeli, Brügger, Buol, Capaul, Castelberg, Enderlin, Florin, Gugelberg, Guler, Jecklin, Jenatsch, Juvalta, à Marca, deMont, Planta, Raschèr, Ruinelli, Salis, Scarpatetti, Schauenstein, Schmid, Schorsch, Sprecher, Travers, and Tscharner. As I said, I don't have a list of the dozen or so families of the "inner core" but they would obviously include the Planta and Salis families, given their widespread prominence in political and economic affairs. Sources from Head's bibliography: Färber, Silvio, 1983, "Der bündnerische Herrenstad im 17. Jahrhundert: Politische, soziale, und wirtschaftliche Aspekte seiner Vorherrscaft," Zürich: Zentralstelle der Studentenschaft. Grimm, Paul Eugen, 1981, "Die Anfänge der Bündner Aristokratie im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert," Zurich: Juris Verlang. Regards, Mike Hobart

Wow, what a responsive list! Just joined the list and posted my first query on October 19; today, Oct. 20, I am overjoyed to see the response. Thank you, Joe, for your valuable research suggestion, and thank you, Margaret and Brenda, for your kind offers to do look-ups. I am certainly going to take you up on your offers! Will e-mail you what additional info I have on the Schwabs and Nicklauses via private e-mail so as not to clutter up this list, but I did want to publicly thank all of you! Loraine AkLka@aol.com