Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Danish Genealogy Research Today: How To Become The Family Detective, Kara Mckeever

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Johannes Bundgaard Schou's Travel Diary, 1912, Bert Schou

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Those Who Stayed Behind: Blacksmith Soren Nielsen's Family History In Denmark, Kai Aage Jensen

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Moster Marie: A Brief Essay About My Aunt, Marie Cockrell, Otto Brask

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Honorable Ancestors, Margot Ammann Durrer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The story of the Ammann family of Schaffhausen sketches a cross section of the history of that town from the middle of the 15th century into the end of the 20th. Likewise, the events of history as they played out in Schaffhausen during those times very much shaped the history of the Ammann family.

Kammerman List

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Having spent five years compiling our family genealogy, it was only natural for me to want to visit the villages, fields, and farms of Switzerland where my ancestors had lived. In September of 2000 my wife and I took our first vacation in years and went to Switzerland to explore the Kammermann and Hostettler family Heimats of Bowil and Guggisberg .

American Ships And Danish Immigrants In 1869, Harry R. Skallerup

The Bridge

During the period between the end of the Civil War and the heightening of hostilities of the Franco-Prussian War in late 1870, American-built wooden paddle-wheel steamships played a competitive role in the expansion of transatlantic passenger traffic. The war, however, along with the ascendancy of propeller-driven ships with larger iron hulls and more efficient engines, led to their demise in this trade. But within the hiatus of the wars, 1869 stands out as the year in which the first direct, scheduled steamer departures from Copenhagen to New York were made. This service was provided by passenger steamers of U.S. registry …

Swiss Families From The Toggenburg And Werdenberg At Home And Abroad: A Genealogical Sketch, Ernest W. Alther

Swiss American Historical Society Review

During past centuries the moving due to marriage of Toggenburg and Werdenberg families within the region or across borders to neighboring countries can often be observed. Lichtensteig, Wil, and the town of St. Gallen were drawing points for commerce and business for the people of the Toggenburg, and moving across the Swiss border is documented already in the sixteenth century from and to W erdenberg and Appenzell, as shown by moves of families such as Alther, Gantenbein, Giezendanner, and Steiner. They were leaving not only for other European countries but also for overseas, especially to regions that became part of …

Gertrude Hofmann Langer. The Story Of A Life, Edward G. Langer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

I was born on May 1, 1911 in Kttsnacht, Canton Zttrich, Switzerland. That day is a national holiday in Switzerland which is their equivalent of our Labor Day. It certainly was Labor Day for my mother, Marie Walder Hofmann. (December 22, 1890 - August 23, 1959). The name Kttsnacht means a kiss in the night. My name was a very common name in Switzerland at the time. I had no middle name. The Swiss spelling of my name is Gertrud.

Serge Louis Ballif: A Swiss-American, Jae R. Ballif

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Over a dozen years ago, a young man entered my office. He was a stranger to me. He placed his briefcase on my desk, opened it, and brought out several old books. He talked rapidly, giving me information faster than I could assimilate it. I soon learned that the books were from the shelves of the library at the University of Bern in Switzerland, and that they were written by my ancestors. I also learned that Gabriel Jacob Ballif, my fourth great-grandfather, was the author of one of the books. It is entitled Systematic Physics, and was published in …

Case Studies In Early Swiss Immigration To Utah: The Mathis And Bryner Families, Paul K. Savage

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Hans Ulrich could not see his own hand waving in front of his face--that is, ever since the accident. Hans Ulrich Bryner, Jr., was a talented and prosperous young man. His father's family had moved to Wiedikon, a small village just a stone's throw across the river Sihl from Zürich, and in 1839 they had purchased a large home near the Center of town. Hans Ulrich Bryner, Sr., was a farmer by day, and a shoemaker by night, and through thrift, industry, and piety, the family had gained the respect of their neighbors. In 1846, Hans Ulrich, Sr., was granted …

The Kunz Family: Over A Hundred Years In Mormonism, Phillip R. Kunz, Paul A. Nielson

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The focus of this paper is the Kunz Family, or the American descendants of Johannes Kunz and Rosina Katharina Klossner Kunz, our great-great-grandparents. Johannes was born on the 16th of September 1803 at Tschueppls in Zwischenflueh. in Diemtigen Canyon, Bern. Switzerland. Rosina was born on 9 December 1802 on the Blatten farm in Zwischenflueh. They were married in Diemtigen on the 9 February 1821. Johannes and one of his twin daughters were the first converts in the family to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Two other children followed them into the Church and eventually the Mormon …

"The Mundane And The Transcendent: Excerpts From Letters Of Johannes & Clorinda Schmutz, 1900-1902", Richard Schmutz

Swiss American Historical Society Review

It isn't often that a hoard of old letters comes unexpectedly into a family's possession, but it happened in my family a few years ago at the passing of an uncle. Unknown to other descendants he had in his keeping a collection of letters that his parents--my paternal grandparents--exchanged during a proselyting mission grandfather served in Switzerland for his church, 1900-1902. A short while after uncle's funeral, the letters were entrusted by his spouse to my sister and copies have since become available to family members and taken their rightful place of importance in the family legacy.

Mari Sandoz: Portrait Of A Swiss American Author, Laura Villiger

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Land of Promise, where the gold flows, where buffaloes roam in big herds attracting adventurous hunters, where Redskins are chased and defeated by cowboy heroes-these are some of the ideas people in the 19th century commonly held about the American West. Even today, the Old West is often associated with the same pictures. But we also know today that these pictures largely belonged to a myth--a myth propagated in Europe as well as in the so-called 'civilized' East of the American continent. It helped to take hold of the Western territory not only in people's minds, but also in reality.

A Return Visit To The Land Of My Youth Alberta, Canada, Ernest Albert Thurkauf

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In my old years, I often had the urge to revisit the scenes of my youthful days in Alberta, Canada. Florence, my beloved wife, and I had hoped to do it together, but because of her failing health and serious strokes, it was never to be. After her passing in 1985, I purchased a new auto with intentions of_ making a North-Western journey alone. But after numerous trips -- up to North Carolina and New York State -- in the two years after her death, I began to have serious misgivings about a long journey alone. My two sisters, as …

Entering The United States Excerpted From One Small Lifetime, Ernest Albert Thurkauf

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In the autumn of 1923, father left for the States. Mother and the four children remained on the farm. Father had to get himself established somewhere. I (age sixteen) was now the man of the house. Mother and I learned to butcher a cow; we sold some young stock and raised pigs and chickens. We somehow made enough to exist. Winter was now coming on, and about every two weeks ma and I had to go to town through the ice and snow -- and occasionally blizzards.

Recent Publications Of Genealogical Interest

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In 1971 Walter Lips, a specialist in agriculture, was invited by the US Department of Agriculture to visit some 20 farms in the United States. In that context he made numerous contacts with people of Swiss descent and became interested in their history. In 1990, Walter Lips published the article "Die thurgauische Auswanderung nach den USA," Thurgauer Beitrage zur Geschichte 127 (1990) which explored the 1855 to 1862 migration of Swiss of the Amriswil and Sommeri region who had converted to the Mormon faith. In his recent study he followed the trail of the Sprungers whom he found in …

History Of The Kieburtz/Kyburz Family, R. Bruce Kieburtz

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The origins of the Kieburtz family are found in Switzerland, Canton Aargau, in the town of Oberentfelden. According to the Familien-Namenbuch der Schweiz, a set of books that list family names who possessed rights in a Swiss community as of 1962, the Kieburtz family, historically spelled Kyburz, had citizenship rights prior to 1800 (that qualifies it as an old family) in the towns of Erlinsbach, Oberentfelden, Suhr, Unterkulm, and Niedererlinsbach. The name, and citizenship, has diffused therefrom to at least six other cantons and eleven towns in Switzerland, and the name has migrated to an unknown number of foreign …

A Swiss Family's Homecoming After Three Hundred Years, Frederick W. Vogler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In an earlier publication on my own family's European roots, I had occasion to write-~rather wistfully, it now seems--of how our modem family's ancestors had apparently renounced all ties with those they left behind in Switzerland and Germany, never looking back once they had chosen to emigrate to North America in 1742 and had then succeeded in establishing themselves initially in New England and North Carolina, then across the continent as far as Ontario and California. The completeness of this break with the past was all the more remarkable in that no evidence whatever has ever been found of any …

Of Roof-Rabbits, Rhubarb & Rutabaga, Walter Angst

Swiss American Historical Society Review

As most immigrants, we have readily adopted the main holidays celebrated in the United States. Thus, the family gets together at Thanksgiving for a festive meal. During our last Thanksgiving dinner, my youngest grandson, a first grader, animatedly explained how he participated in a class project. They vigorously shook cream, milk and sugar until they had butter, which was then used in the preparation of their Thanksgiving lunch. This provoked me to relate my experience as a kid about his age in using the "Ankemiili" (butter mill). When I had finished the story, my younger daughter exclaimed: "I never knew …

News Of Genealogy, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

A. In Search of Ancestors: Where to Begin

We all of us harbor a particular interest in ourselves that just naturally extends to curiosity about our forebears. This inquisitiveness, when combined with the proper research procedures, can culminate in a rewarding and stimulating study: Genealogical Research.