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The AHSGR German Origins Project
If you have origin confirmation information and would like to share it with us, please do so through the Village Coordinator of the Russian village involved. If there is no Village Coordinator listed on the AHSGR site, please send your information to Dick Kraus at dickkraus1@yahoo.com. Please do share! What follow will be a few stellar Origins Success Stories: Success Story #1: Harold Wiest corresponded with Dr. Joseph Height who found Russian documents indicating that his ancestor Franz Wiest came from Erlenbach (also see Stumpp, p.486). Harold used LDS microfische of church records for places in the Erlenbach area ... many hours of reading old German script to no avail. He started telephoning Wiests listed in Southern California telephone books. One of these told him about a relative, Brian Barr Wiest who had written a book about the family. He purchased it but could find no mention of his branch in the book. Finally in the microfische he found his ancestor's birth, 30 December 1772 in Erlenbach. But could find nothing earlier regarding the family in those records. Brickwall! Then he began e-mailing with five other Wiests who were looking for ancestors. He found he was related to four of the five! Between them they soon found the parents and grandparents of the man born in 1772 in Erlenbach. With those names he was able to find the grandfather and the grandfather's ancestry in the Wiest book he had purchased so much earlier! The grandfather of the grandfather had migrated from Switzerland (Kuettingen in the center of the Aargau, 23 miles SE of Basel) to the Palatinate in 1657, settling in Steinweiler (1 mile W of Erlenbach). The five then hired a professional genealogist in Switzerland who so far has traced the family line back to 1598! Harold wrote a book on them: Rohrbach Wiests: From Kuettigen to the Rheinpfalz to South Russia. Success Story #2: Dr. Ruth
Schultz first found her GGGG Grandparents Jacob and Anna Maria
Weitzel on an early Pleve chart that she purchased from Doug Weitzel.
(Later Ruth commissioned an update of the Weitzel chart to 1905.) Then she
found them in Karl Stumpp's book on page 163 as being from Calbach.
She searched the Calbach church records which are combined with the
Buedingen records and found them to be the parents of two babies
baptized in Calbach, Buedingen Kreis, which then was in
Isenburg-Buedingen County. Not finding their marriage record in the
Calbach records she ultimately concluded that they had three
children together in Calbach prior to their marriage in
Boehnstadt; and they returned to Calbach prior to leaving for Russia.
Early on they were prevented from marriage because he was Lutheran and she
was Reformed – but after 3 children and their agreement to do penance,
they were allowed to marry. Then Ruth found the couple on Brent Mai's
Transport List as immigrants # 15 & 16 traveling with Christoph and
Gertruta Weitzel, immigrants # 17 & 18. The marriage of Christoph and
Gertruta is listed in the Buedingen ML (as published by
Mai&Marquardt) on 24 May 1766. Christoph is listed as being from
Boehnstadt, which is just west of Calbach, then in the
Solms-Braundfels Principality, later taken over by Hessen-Darmstadt,
now part of the Friedberg Kreis, Hessen. It was then
that Ruth decided to check the Boenstadt records. Also on 24 May
1766, Johann Wilhelm Stoerckel and Maria Catharina Juenger were
married, both listed in the Buedingen ML as being from
Boehnstadt. They too are found in the Norka First Settlers'
List. With the help of a professional researcher in Salt Lake City, Ruth
obtained the marriage and baptismal records of Jacob and Anna Maria and
learned that her maiden name was Feuerstein. With that information
and assistance, Ruth has been able to push her research back to a
Weitzell ancestor born about 1630 in Boehnstadt. Unfortunately,
her trail ends there because all earlier records were destroyed in the
Thirty Years War. Ruth then ordered microfilm FHL #1195346 (which
they refer to as Boenstadt (Kr. Friedberg, and as Germany,
Hessen, Boenstadt) and began researching the Feuerstein
and Stoerckel families in Boehnstadt. While doing this she
came across the Wigand (Weigandt) family who also went to
Norka. Anna Maria's brother, Johann Georg Feuerstein, was
married in Buedingen 12 June 1766 to Agnesa (Anna Elisabeth)
Lock and they are listed as immigrants #506 & 507 on the Transport
List translated and edited by Brent Mai. Traveling with them were
Johann Georg and Anna Maria Feuerstein's parents and younger
siblings. The parents and a younger brother died enroute. A younger
sister, Anna Barbara, may have married Georg Just (Jost?) of
Norka. 1ap r 09 rak
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