descendants%20of%20urs%20laeng

Transcription

GENEALOGY REPORT ON URS LAENG
This Genealogy Report contains details on ten generations of the descendants of
Urs Laeng, born about 1529 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
For those viewers interested only in Urs Laeng and his descendants it provides the
opportunity to view and print the information in a book format. For those seeking
more information on the Laengs and related families in Alsace, in Lorraine in
France and in the Saar in the Lower Palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire please
refer to the other sections listed to the left on the web site. Many of these files
provide the opportunity to search for members of the Laeng, Rhein and related
families, view descendant and ancestor trees, etc.
Genealogy Report............................................................. Page 1 to 140
Sources............................................................ ..................Pages 140 to 141
Index of Individuals.............................................................Pages 142 to 146
For those of you seeking information subsequent to the tenth generation please
write to me. I will be pleased to share with you the information that I have.
Joseph P. Rhein
Sarasota, Florida
United States of America
April 17, 2006
Updated as of May 16, 2015
Descendants of Urs Laeng
Generation 1
1.
URS1 LAENG was born about 1529 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss Confederation. He
married Margret Zeigler about 1550 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss Confederation.
Notes for Urs Laeng:
There is a reasonable degree of probability that Urs Laeng, born about 1529 is the forebear of
Dorsch Laeng (also known as Urs) christened October 10, 1647 in Utzenstorf,Canton of Bern, The
Swiss Confederation. I have elected to enter him and his immediate descendants in my line
pending further investigation. Also see Church of the later Day Saints File 537196.
In summary, Dorsch Laeng is the son of Hans Jacob Laeng and Anna Schuerch of Utzenstorf and
was Christened October 10, 1647 in Utzenstorf. Hans Jacob, Christened April 20, 1622, is the son
of Durs, Christened, September 24, 1570 in Utzenstorf, married to Verena Wyss. Durs is the son of
Urs Laeng born about 1529, married to Margret Zeigler about 1550 as set forth below.
Background
There are a number of Dorsch (Durs, Urs) Laengs born around 1650 in Utzenstorf, District of
Berne, The Swiss Confederation, as taken from the records of the Church of the Latter Day Saints
Family Search. References, file numbers, etc. pertain to Church of the Latter Day Saints.
The most probable candiates are two brothers; Durs Laeng, Christened Oct 24, 1644 (File #
537184, page # 30, Reference # 96445) and Urs Laeng, Christened October 10, 1647, both in
Utzenstorf. They are the sons of Hans Jacob Laeng and Anna Schuerch of Utzenstorf. Other
children are; Madieni, Christened 1641, Anna, christened June 25, 1643, Abraham, Christened
February 1, 1646, Hans Jakob, Christened February 1, 1646, Niclaus, Christened March 18, 1649,
Barbara, Christened November 3, 1650, Elsbeth, Christened July 17, 1653, Bendicht, Christened
December 6, 1657, Rudolf, Christened July 29, 1660, all in Utzenstorf.
Hans Jacob, Christened April 20, 1622, is the son of of Durs, Christened, September 24, 1570 in
Utzenstorf, married to Verena Wyss.
Durs is the son of Urs Laeng, born about 1529, married to Margret Zeigler about 1550.
Other probable candidates are:
Name/
File # - page
Date of
Christening/
Reference#
Durs Laeng
Sep 11, 1636
Father
Felix Laeng
Mother
Elsbeth Misteli 537325
Durs Laeng
Nov 19, 1643 Rudolf Laeng
96929
*married Anni Solberger, December 1685
Barbara Bunchser
537184
76579
43
Durs Laeng
Dec 17, 1643
27
96404
Peter Felix Laeng
Susanna Gugger
537184
Durs Laeng
Oct 14, 1638
Peter Felix Laeng
Susanna Gugger
537753
Uurs Laeng
May 2, 1645
Jacob Laeng
Durs Laeng
May 16, 1651
76941
Benedicht Laeng
1
Verena Kummer537184 112
Elisabeth Muelchi
96413
537325
Generation 1 (con't)
76941
*married Anna Mullchi, February 5, 1677
Urs Laeng
Jun 7, 1657
Urs Laeng
Elsbeth Marti
537184
Urs Laeng
Apr 24, 1659
Abraham Laeng
Ursula Danner 537325
134
96955
-
76952
Other Laengs who may be the forebears or related to the forebears of Dorsch Laeng
Durs Laeng
Feb 8, 1590
Jost Laeng
Madlena Christin
537184
96423
Urs Laeng
Sep 4, 1607
Bastian Laeng
*married Anna Wintz, June 12, 1631
Christiane Buchser
Durs Laeng
Aug 21, 1570 Rudolph Laeng
submitted after 1991 - no source reference
Luisa Schoeni
179
449513
The Swiss Confederation
The Swiss Confederation (precursor of modern-day Switzerland) was formed in 1291 by a loose
federation of largely independent small sates called cantons against the Habsburg dynasty. By the
mid-13th century the Habsburgs emerged as the dominant family in Switzerland. The expansion of
Habsburg influence and territory, facilitated by the royal dignity of Rudolf I (1273 to 1291), the first
German king of the Habsburg dynasty, eventually led to a confrontation with some small, relatively
autonomous communities within central Switzerland and ultimately to the establishment of the
Swiss Confederation, which was the result of a clash between two contrasting models for
establishing public peace (Landfriede): the territorial rule of the high nobility or a federation of rural
and urban communes. The Confoederatio Helvetica (or Swiss Confederation), existed from the
late 13th century until 1798, when it was invaded by the French Republic, who transformed it into
the short-lived Helvetic Republic. (Source - Extracts from Encyclopedia Britannic)
Urs Laeng and Margret Zeigler had the following children:
2.
i.
HANS2 LAENG was born in 1555 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
ii.
JOST LAENG was born in 1557 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
iii.
BASTIAN LAENG was born in 1559 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
iv.
ELISBETH LAENG was born in 1561 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
v.
HENRICH LAENG was born in 1563 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
vi.
MARGIN LAENG was born in 1564 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
vii.
MICHEL LAENG was born in 1568 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
viii. DURS LAENG was born in 1570 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, Ther Swiss
Confederation. He married VERENA WYSS.
Generation 2
2.
DURS2 LAENG (Urs1) was born in 1570 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, Ther Swiss Confederation.
He married VERENA WYSS.
Durs Laeng and Verena Wyss had the following child:
3.
i.
HANS JACOB3 LAENG was born in 1622 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation. He married ANNA /SCHUERCH SCHERTZLER. She was born about
2
Confederation. He married ANNA /SCHUERCH SCHERTZLER. She was born about
1620.
Generation 3
3.
HANS JACOB3 LAENG (Durs2, Urs1) was born in 1622 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation. He married ANNA /SCHUERCH SCHERTZLER. She was born about 1620.
Hans Jacob Laeng and Anna /Schuerch Schertzler had the following children:
4.
i.
MADIENI4 LAENG was born in 1641 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
ii.
ANNA LAENG was born in 1643 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
iii.
DURS LAENG was born in 1644 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
iv.
HANS JACOB LAENG was born in 1646 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
v.
ABRAHAM LAENG was born in 1646 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation.
vi.
DORSCH LAENG was born in 1647 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The Swiss
Confederation. He married (1) ANNA MARIA NONNER, daughter of Hans Georg
Nonner and Anna Maria Schertzler, on 22 Jan 1689 in Year 1689 - Commune de
Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France1. He married (2) ANNA BANZEN, daughter of
Endres Banzen, on 19 Feb 1673 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France. She died before 1689.
vii.
NICLAUS LAENG was born in 1649 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, Switzerland.
viii. BARBARA LAENG was born in 1650 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, Switzerland.
ix.
ELSBETH LAENG was born in 1653 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, Switzerland.
x.
BENDICHT LAENG was born in 1657 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, Switzerland.
xi.
RUDOLF LAENG was born in 1660 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, Switzerland.
Generation 4
4.
DORSCH4 LAENG (Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born in 1647 in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern, The
Swiss Confederation. He married (1) ANNA MARIA NONNER, daughter of Hans Georg Nonner and
Anna Maria Schertzler, on 22 Jan 1689 in Year 1689 - Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France1. He married (2) ANNA BANZEN, daughter of Endres Banzen, on 19 Feb 1673 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. She died before 1689.
Notes for Dorsch Laeng:
Dorsch Laeng married first Anna Banzen daughter of Endres Banzen of Herrlisheim. "1673 the
sunday after Esto Mihi was married after he had obtained authorization by decree from the
authority of this place: a swiss man, of the calvinist faith, named Dorsch Leng, living here for a time
for his work, native of Zuzischdorff, district of Bern, and Anna, daughter of Endres Banzen of this
place; both rather poor people will have difficulity to make a living". (Source - Examination of copy
of Marriage Record, St. Arbogast, Protestant Church, Herrlisheim. This Protestant parish turned
Catholic in 1681 and from that date all records are prepared by priests.)
Dorsch Laeng, widower, married second Anna Marie Nonner, on February 22, 1688, daughter of
Hans Georg Nonner and Anna Maria Schertzler of Gambsheim. Undersigned by witnesses, Hans
Jacob Wiher and Claus Guman. Joannes Volmar Wanslbe, Vicar. (Source - Examination of copy of
Marriage Record, St. Arbogast Catholic Church.)
Esto Mihi
"The period of fifty days before Easter begins with the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, called
3
"The period of fifty days before Easter begins with the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, called
Dominica in Quinquagestima or Esto Mihi from the beginning of the Introit of the Mass; it is a
Sunday of the second class, and the colour the Mass and Office is violet. The introit being: Esto
mihi in Deum protectorem, et in locum refugii, ut salvum me facias etc... For many early Christians
it was the beginning of the fast before Easter. In many places this Sunday after and the next two
days were used to prepare for Lent by a good confession." Source - The Catholic Enclopedia On
Line)
Michael Emmerich, a descendant of David Frauel who married Catharina Laeng on November 14,
1749 in Herrlisheim, advises that "According to the United States Naval Observatory Astronomical applications, Easter since antiquity 'falls on the first Sunday following the first
ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox'. Because Ash
Wednesday is 46 days prior to Easter, this website calculates Ash Wednesday 1673 to be
"February 15 and Easter Sunday is April 2. Assuming then that Alsace was using the Gregorian
calendar, which I am not sure of, one need only count up four days, making the date of the
marriage February 19, 1673. As Hanau-Lichtenberg was a Protestant County, it and most of
Alsace did not adopt the new calendar until it was imposed by King Louis in 1682. So, because the
Julian calendar was ten full days behind, the date of marriage would be more like February 8,
1673. Depending on how you want to look at it, applying the new clandar anachronistically or what
was used at the time, either could be correct."
Alsace adopted the Gregorian calendar in1648. I have entered the date of marriage as February
19, 1673. Also note that some accounts state that Alsace was converted to Catholism by force in
1682. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Zuzischdorf is Utzenstorf
Michael Emmerich advises further that "if the person writing the marriage record from 1673 that
mentioned Zuzischdorf wasn't using perfect grammar they may have used the preposition 'zu' (to)
rather than 'von' 'da' etc. It could be Zu Utzenstorf, which spelled phonetically with the 's' being
pronounced 'sch' could be z'utzenschdorf which could be further corrupted to Zuzischdorf. It's a
thought." "....I've been looking more into this Utzenstorf/Zuzischdorff and am more and more
convinced this is the right place. I am fairly certain that the "Zu" is a contraction of Zu Utz...' Even
though 'zu' means 'to' based on contemporary records in the neighboring Offendorf, this word was
used freely as a substitute for 'von'. The two f's at the end or 'torf' also seems to be a quirk of the
time. In looking through LDS microfilms from the 17th century Offendorf, I found it spelled
'Offendorff' very consistently. A cursory search on German orthography reveals that 'd' and 't' are
very much alike in pronunciaton, thus the 'torf' instead of the 'dorf'. I found the website of
gemeinde Utzenstorf and discovered that from the mid-14th century and on for a very long time
while the village was referenced as 'Utzistorf' which seems to be a more phonetic spelling, using
'is' rather than the 'ens'. Since 's' is pronounced 'sch' when it come before a 'p' or 't,' and 'tz' and 'z'
are synonomus in this contex, a very phonectic spelling would be 'Uzischdorf.' Thus "Zuzischdorff."
As there were a significant number of Laengs residing in Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern in the 16th
and 17th centuries I have elected to enter Dorsch Laeng's place of birth as Utzenstorf, pending
further verification and review of the record of his christening.
The Swiss Federation was formed in 1291 from territories in the Holy Roman Empire. Bern became
the eighth state in the Federation in 1353. Switzerland became an independent nation in 1648
following the end of the Thirty Years War.
Emmigration from Switzerland
"Alsace's predicament was much different in that the Thirty Year's War ravaged Alsace. It is said
that at the end of that War, which ended with the Treaty Of Westphalia in 1648, there was not a
farmhouse, which was standing. The Swedish army literally looted everyone and committed
atrocities. Records of that period attest to that. Alsace needed to be re-populated by the French.
It was decided that good Catholic farmers could be found in France. Lands would be given for
cultivation, and Mass. Very few Catholic Frenchmen came from inside France at the urging of the
4
Government. The King and his Prime Minister, Mazarin, set out to find French speaker farmers.
They turned to the Swiss French Catholics, but these were not very enthusiastic to go to that
hostile land. Finally after much hesitation, they asked French Protestants to come and emigrate.
Very few came. It was suggested that the Swiss German Kantons, mainly of the Reformed religion
might be interested.
"The Swiss-Germans did come. That is one reason why today, in Alsace, one finds many Families
of Swiss origin, whose families came from Aargau, from Bern, from Zurich, and other German
speaking Kantons.
"The Swiss spoke their diverse Swiss-German dialects and fitted very well into the countryside.
They were hard working; they were not too far from home either. And as usual, "Alsacien" or
"Elsasser deutsch" is so close to Swiss-German dialects that many Alsatians not only worked in
Switzerland but also felt at home in Germany where there are thousands of workers who work
across the Rhine.
"Alsace and Switzerland have over the hundreds of years maintained privileged relations, not only
in terms of friendliness, but also because of economic reasons. For hundreds of years, the
markets of Basel and other Swiss cities were prized by the Alsatians. They could sell their produce
at better prices. They could also speak the same languages, Alsacien and French and German
depending upon the time. They could be understood by everyone.
"For Alsace, there are the French; there are Germans, there are Alsatians Families from before
1648, but the re-population came mainly with the Swiss.
"Alsace and Lorraine were transit areas where religion was extremely important to consider as it
placed you in one category. Language was another. If you spoke French or German, you were
often considered to be in one of the camps of the French and German. If you spoke "Alsacien" or
"Elsasser deutsch", you were not well seen by either the French or the Germans who considered
you as traitors for speaking German for the French, and a broken German with French words by
the Germans. Antagonisms remain because of World War II where many men were forcibly
enrolled in the Waffen SS, and in the German Nazi Armies. " (Source - Jacques de Guise
CEG / CGR / EIG Cabinet d' l@tudes Genealogiques, Center for Genealogical Research, Estudio
de Investigaciones Genealegicas, Geneve / Geneva / Ginebra
Suisse / Switzerland / Suiza)
Methodolgy
The area of Alsace was returned to France following the Thirty Years War in 1648. From that date
to the end of the French Revolution, I have elected to enter all information as to the location of
Commune de Herrlisheim as Province of Alsace, France.
Following the end of the French Revolution (conventionally termed "Revolution of 1789" denoting
the end of the ancien regime in France) it was split into departments. From that date until the
Franco-Prussian War that ended in 1871, it is entered as Department of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin,
France.
From 1871 until 1890, the date my grandparents emigrated from Herrlisheim to Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, it is entered as Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. (Notes to File - JP
Rhein)
5
Dorsch Laeng and Anna Maria Nonner had the following children:
5.
i.
DORSCH5 LAENG was born on 29 Nov 1689 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France.
ii.
CASPARD LAENG was born on 03 Jan 1694 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France.
iii.
GEORGES LAENG was born about 1695 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France2. He married Anne Kientz, daughter of Bartholme Kientz and
Catherine Wolff, on 04 Nov 1717 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France3. She was born on 09 Feb 1690 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France4.
iv.
MICHEL LAENG was born on 19 Jan 1698 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. He died on 26 Apr 1699 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France.
Generation 5
5.
GEORGES5
(Dorsch4,
LAENG
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born about 1695 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France2. He married Anne Kientz, daughter of Bartholme Kientz
and Catherine Wolff, on 04 Nov 1717 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France3.
She was born on 09 Feb 1690 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4.
Georges Laeng and Anne Kientz had the following children:
i.
MARIE CATHERINE6 LAENG was born on 26 Sep 1718 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France. She died on 29 Apr 1720 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France.
ii.
JEAN GEORGES LAENG was born on 12 Jun 1720 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France5. He died on 26 Mar 1787 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France6. He married Maria Salome Gross, daughter of Marcel
Gross and Catherina Schmitt, on 24 Nov 1744 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France5. She was born on 02 Jan 1728 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France5. She died about 1785 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France.
iii.
JEAN MICHEL LAENG was born on 29 Aug 1722 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. He died on 09 Oct 1724 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France6.
7.
iv.
MARIE CATHERINE LAENG was born on 23 Oct 1724 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. She died before 1784. She married (1) DAVID FRAUEL
on 14 Nov 1749 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France7. He was
born in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. She married (2)
THEOBALD WOLFF on 07 Jan 1745 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France4.
8.
v.
CHRISTINE LAENG was born on 11 Nov 1726 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France. She married Jean Georges Herrmann on 02 May 1752 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France7. He was born on 13 Nov
1723 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France8.
6.
Generation 6
6
6.
GEORGES6
(Georges5,
JEAN
LAENG
Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 12 Jun 1720
in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France5. He died on 26 Mar 1787 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France6. He married Maria Salome Gross, daughter of Marcel
Gross and Catherina Schmitt, on 24 Nov 1744 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France5. She was born on 02 Jan 1728 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France5.
She died about 1785 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France.
Jean Georges Laeng and Maria Salome Gross had the following children:
9.
i.
MARIE SALOME7 LAENG was born on 28 Dec 1745 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France. She died. She married Jean Georges Heitz on 20 Jan
1769 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. He died on 17 Sep
1806 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
ii.
ELISABETH LAENG was born on 09 Sep 1748 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France.
10.
iii.
CASPARD LAENG was born on 15 Jan 1751 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. He died before 1836 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He married Elisabeth Alt on 14 Apr 1777 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France7. She was born in 1746. She died after 1836.
11.
iv.
PHILIPPE LAENG was born on 06 May 1753 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France4. He died after 1816 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He married Odile Zilliox, daughter of Andreas Zilliox and Maria Bonn, on 21
Jun 1779 in Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France7. She was born about 1759 in
Weyersheim, Province of Alsace, France9. She died on 20 Apr 1810 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France6.
v.
MARGUERITE LAENG was born on 21 Jun 1755 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France. She died on 19 Jun 1760 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
vi.
MELCHIOR LAENG was born on 04 Jan 1758 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France5. He died on 26 Jul 1841 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France10. He married Francesca Kientz, daughter of Joannes Kientz and Marie Eve
Guhmann, on 26 Nov 1781 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5. She
was born on 27 Feb 1761 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France5. She died on 12 Nov 1828 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5.
vii.
GERTRUDE LAENG was born on 17 Nov 1760 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France.
12.
13.
7.
viii. ANTOINE LAENG was born on 24 Mar 1763 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. He died on 04 May 1833 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11. He married Madeleine Sieffert, daughter of Joseph Sieffert and Anne
Marie Herrmann, on 15 Feb 1790 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhein, France12. She was born in 1763 in Gambsheim, Province of Alsace,
France.. She died on 07 Nov 1840 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
ix.
JEAN GEORGES LAENG was born on 24 Mar 1763 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. He died on 17 Apr 1763 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
x.
MARGUERITE LAENG was born on 22 Jun 1766 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
xi.
CATHERINE LAENG was born on 16 May 1769 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France4.
MARIE CATHERINE6 LAENG (Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 23 Oct
1724 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4. She died before 1784. She
married (1) DAVID FRAUEL on 14 Nov 1749 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France7. He was born in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. She married (2)
THEOBALD WOLFF on 07 Jan 1745 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4.
Notes for David Frauel:
7
Notes for David Frauel:
1836 CENSUS OF THE CANTONS OF BISCHWILLER AND HAGUENAU
Frauel Offendorf nine individuals
Xavier Frauel, age 49, widower, labourer, is residing at 137 Herrengass, with daughters; Therese,
age 21 and Josephine, age 17.
Antoine Frauel, age 26, single, domestique and employee, is residing at 87 Schnautzgass, with the
family of Michel Stein, age 53, aubergiste, his wife, Sophie Butta, age 52, and their adopted
daughter, Emile Nuss, age 3 (relationship-autre, other), Also residing at that location is Elisabeth
Hild, single, age 20, servante and employee.
Xavier Frauel, age 30, married, tonnilier, is residing at 182 Kirchgass with his wife, Louise Lauffer,
age 24. Also residing at that location are (1) Jean Michel Jacob, age 80, widower and (2) Andre
Jacob, age 45, widower, journalier, and his children; Marie Anne, age 15 and Xavier, age 13.
Francois Frauel, age 30, journalier, is residing at 113 Herrengass with his wife, Sophie Kittel, age
27, and children; Francois, age 5, Xavier, age 1. Also residing at location is Laurent Kittel, age 57,
labourer, and his wife Chretienne Knoch, age 50 and children; Xavier, age 32. Louise, age 14 and
Chretien, age 11.
Rosalie Frauel, age 23, married to Felix Herrmann, age 29, labourer, is residing at 132 Herrengass
with daughter Scholastique, age 2. Also residing with family at that location are Elisabeth Wertz,
age 17, servante and employee, and Louis Lauffer, age 15, valet and employee. Also residing at
that location is Jean Michel Herrmann, age 65, widower and labourer.
Frauel Herrlisheim 24 individuals. One listed below.
Jean Georges Frauel, age 60, journalier, is residing at 356 Gummergass, with his wife, Marie Anne
Thomas, age 46, and their children; Victoria, age 18, Marie Therese, age 13, Marie Anne, age 10
and Vincent, age 7. I believe this is the Jean Georges Frauel who was a captain in the 6th battalion
of the chasseurs, dosier 70527. He was awarded the St. Helena Medal, created in 1857 by
Napoleon III, and awarded to 405,000 soldiers still living in 1857 who had fought with Napoleon I
during the 1792-1815 wars.
Hild - Offendorf 18 individuals
Marie Anne Hild, age 50, is residing at 62 Kittelgass, with her husband, Louis Kittel, age 44,
journalier, and their children; Louis, age 22, soldier with the 42nd regiment of the line, Rosine, age
16, Francois, age 2 and Xavier, age 7.
Ignace Hild, age 40 taileur, is residing at 71 Kittelgass, with his wife, Barbe Konrad, age 36, and
son, Felix, age 11.
Ignace Hild, age 28, pecheur, is residing at 9 Gass am Wasser, with his wife, Catherine Riehl, age
22, and their daughter, Seraphine, age 6. Also brother, Seraphin Hild, age 20.
Catherine Wolfarth, age 40, widow, is residing at 3 Gass am Wasser, with her children; Xavier Hild,
age 20, Ignace Hild, age 17, Amande Hild, age 11, Louis Hild, age 8 and Francoise Hild, age 5.
Catherine Hild, age 44, servante and employee, is residing at 141 Herrengass, with Xavier Lauffer,
age 48, widower and journalier and his children; Xavier, age 22 and Joseph, age 2.
Catherine Hild, age 67, is residing at 174 Krichgass with her husband, Laurent Heberger, age 93,
journalier. Also residing at that address are Marie Anne Schnoering, age 46, and Jean Schnoering,
age 25 (relationship unknown).
8
Cecile Hild, age 24, widow, is residing at 9A Gass am Wasser, with her daughter, Therese
Baumgartner, age 2. Also residing at that location are; Pierre Lienhard, age 28, tailleur and Antoine
Bistorie, age 19, tailleur. (Relationship to Cecile is unknown.)
Francoise Hild, age 15, servante and employee, is residing at 178 Kuchgass with Antoine
Buckmiller, age 56, labourer, and his wife, Odile Schaffer, age 50.
Elisabeth Hild, age 20, servante. See Antoine Frauel above.
Xavier Hild, age 17, valet and employee, is residing at 133 Herrengass, with Xavier Hibou, age 31,
aubergiste, his wife, Francoise Herrmann, age 30, and their children; Marie Rosalie, age 2 and
Marie Louise, age 9 months.
Louise Hild, age 23, sevante and employee, is residing at 170 Kirchgass with Benoit Keiling, age
37, journalier, his wife Marie Anne Schwab, age 31 and their children; Xavier, age 10, Marie Anne,
age 8, Scholastique, age 7 and Louis, age 2.
Schnoering - Offendorf - 103 individuals
There are no Schnorrings. Listed below are two individuals with the first name of Francois.
Francois Joseph Schnoering, age 60, widower and labourer, is residing at 52 Bernardegass, with
his daughter, Elisabeth, age 25. Also residing at that location are Juliene Hardnagel, age 20 and
Beatrice Mattel, age 27, both servantes and employees.
Francois Schnoering, age 9, is residing at 115 Herrengass, with his parents, Louis Schnoering, age
44, talotier, and Catherine Denninger, age 35, and siblings; Marie Anne, age 16, Louis, age 15,
Catherine, age 11, Jean, age 6, Xavier, age 5, Joseph, age 3. Also residing with the family are
Joseph Denninger, age 67, widower and father of Catherine, Francois Bennighousaler, age 24,
valet and employee, and Catherine Gantzer, age 40, servante and employee.
Kittel 2 individuals in Herrlisheim and 47 in Offendorf none matching Catherine Kittle married to
Jean Michel Frauel in 1784. See Kittle/Frauel and Hild/Kittel above.
David Frauel and Marie Catherine Laeng had the following child:
14.
8.
i.
JEAN MICHEL7 FRAUEL was born about 1766 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France. He married Catherine Kittel in 1784.
CHRISTINE6 LAENG (Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 11 Nov 1726 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. She married Jean Georges Herrmann on
02 May 1752 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France7. He was born on 13 Nov
1723 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France8.
Jean Georges Herrmann and Christine Laeng had the following children:
15.
i.
JOSEPH7 HERRMANN was born in 1753 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France3.
ii.
JOSEPH HERRMANN was born in 1754 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France3.
iii.
AMBROSIUS HERRMANN was born in 1756 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France3.
iv.
ODILE HERRMANN was born in 1756 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France3.
v.
ROSINE HERRMANN was born on 18 Aug 1758 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France4. She died on 30 Jan 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France13. She married Arbogast Kistler, son of Johannes Kistler and
Catherine Klein, on 06 Jun 1785 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
9
Catherine Klein, on 06 Jun 1785 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France4. He was born in 1749 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France14. He died on 17 May 1811 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France6.
vi.
JEAN GEORGES HERRMANN was born in 1764 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France3.
vii.
MARIA HERRMANN was born in 1765 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France3.
viii. ANNA MARIE HERRMANN was born in 1766 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France3.
Generation 7
9.
MARIE SALOME7 LAENG (Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born
on 28 Dec 1745 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. She died. She married
Jean Georges Heitz on 20 Jan 1769 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. He
died on 17 Sep 1806 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Jean Georges Heitz and Marie Salome Laeng had the following child:
16.
10.
i.
JACQUES8 HEITZ was born in 1775 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace,
France. He married Catherine Lutz, daughter of Andre Lutz and Odile Faleck, on 14
Jan 1811 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She was born on 24 Nov
1784 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`. She died in Nov 1831 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
CASPARD7 LAENG (Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 15
Jan 1751 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. He died before 1836 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He married Elisabeth Alt on 14 Apr 1777 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France7. She was born in 1746. She died after
1836.
Caspard Laeng and Elisabeth Alt had the following child:
17.
11.
i.
MADELEINE8 LAENG was born in 1788. She married PHILIPPE JACQUES JUNG. He was
born in 1786.
PHILIPPE7 LAENG (Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 06
May 1753 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4. He died after 1816 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He married Odile Zilliox, daughter of Andreas Zilliox
and Maria Bonn, on 21 Jun 1779 in Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France7. She was born about
1759 in Weyersheim, Province of Alsace, France9. She died on 20 Apr 1810 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France6.
Notes for Philippe Laeng:
Philippe Laeng and Odile Zilliox had the following children:
i.
MARIA ANNA8 LAENG was born on 12 May 1780 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. She died before 1788 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
18.
ii.
PHILIPPE LAENG was born on 19 Oct 1781 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France15. He married Louise Voltzenlogel, daughter of Georg Voltzenlogel and
Gertrude Meder, on 20 Sep 1825 in Weyersheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She was born
on 07 Apr 1787 in Weyersheim, Bas-Rhin, France16.
19.
iii.
JEAN MICHEL LAENG was born on 06 Mar 1783 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. He died after 1847 in United States. He married
Madeleine Zinger, daughter of Jean Zinger and Catherine Alt, on 25 Oct 1816 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She was born on 23 Jan 1793 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 15 Mar 1844 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
10
20.
iv.
FRANCOIS JOSEPH LAENG was born on 17 Apr 1785 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. He died on 24 Apr 1785 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
v.
INFANT LAENG. Infant died on 13 Dec 1786 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France6.
vi.
MARIA ANNA LAENG was born on 21 Jan 1788 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France4. She died after 1836. She married Jean Michel Kistler, son of
Arbogast Kistler and Agnes Lutz, on 18 Nov 1811 in Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhin, France4. He was born on 18 Sep 1782 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. He died before 1836 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
vii.
FRANCOIS JOSEPH LAENG was born on 16 Mar 1789 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. He died on 17 Mar 1789 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
viii. INFANT LAENG. Infant died on 08 Mar 1791 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France6.
ix.
12.
INFANT LAENG. Infant died on 16 Apr 1792 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France6.
MELCHIOR7 LAENG (Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 04
Jan 1758 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France5. He died on 26 Jul 1841 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France10. He married Francesca Kientz, daughter of Joannes
Kientz and Marie Eve Guhmann, on 26 Nov 1781 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5.
She was born on 27 Feb 1761 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France5. She died
on 12 Nov 1828 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5.
Melchior Laeng and Francesca Kientz had the following children:
13.
21.
i.
ELIZABETH8 LAENG was born in 1786 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. She married Bartholome Schmitt on 09 Nov 1812 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died before 1836.
22.
ii.
MATHIEU LAENG was born on 28 Jan 1787 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France4. He died on 04 Sep 1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France17. He married Catherine Schmitt, daughter of Jean Michel Schmitt and
Marie Anne Schnoering, on 04 May 1812 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France5. She was born on 29 Aug 1786 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France5. She died on 09 May 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France5.
ANTOINE7 LAENG (Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 24
Mar 1763 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. He died on 04 May 1833 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. He married Madeleine Sieffert, daughter of Joseph
Sieffert and Anne Marie Herrmann, on 15 Feb 1790 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhein, France12. She was born in 1763 in Gambsheim, Province of Alsace, France.. She died
on 07 Nov 1840 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Notes for Antoine Laeng:
Valerie Wenger Kastner advises that Antoine Laeng married to Madeleine Sieffert and Mechior
Laeng married to Francesca Kientz, are brothers. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Notes for Madeleine Sieffert:
In 1836 Madeleine Siffert, age 62, widow, grandparent, is residing at 177 Ottergass, Herrlisheim,
with her son-in-law, Jean Georges Laeng, age 34, widower of Madeleine Clauss, laborer and his
children; Rafine, age 8, Rosalie, age 7, Madeliene, age 5 and Marie Anne, age 3. (Source - 1836
Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France)
Antoine Laeng and Madeleine Sieffert had the following children:
11
23.
24.
14.
i.
CATHERINE8
ii.
ANTOINE LAENG was born on 23 May 1792 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France12.
iii.
JEAN GEORGES LAENG was born on 23 May 1799 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France11. He died on 26 Jan 1882 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas Rhin, France. He married (1) MARIE ANNA SCHERER on 26 Oct 1837 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhein, France11. She was born on 22
Oct 1809 in Kurtzenhausen11. He married (2) MADELEINE CLAUSS in 1819. She was
born in 1789. She died between 1833-1835.
LAENG was born on 31 Jan 1791 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province
of Alsace, France12. She married (1) JACQUES GROSS on 25 Sep 1814 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He was born on 01 Jun 1783 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France..
JEAN MICHEL7 FRAUEL (Marie Catherine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3
Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born about 1766 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. He married Catherine Kittel in 1784.
Jean Michel Frauel and Catherine Kittel had the following child:
25.
15.
i.
FRANCOIS ANTOINE8 FRAUEL was born in 1810 in Offendorff, Bas-Rhin, France. He
married ELISABETH HILD. She was born in 1816 in Offendorff, Bas-Rhin, France.
ROSINE7 HERRMANN (Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng,
Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 18 Aug 1758 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France4. She died on 30 Jan 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France13. She
married Arbogast Kistler, son of Johannes Kistler and Catherine Klein, on 06 Jun 1785 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4. He was born in 1749 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France14. He died on 17 May 1811 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France6.
Arbogast Kistler and Rosine Herrmann had the following children:
26.
i.
DANIEL8 KISTLER was born on 01 Jul 1785 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France4. He died on 28 Apr 1852 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11. He married Catherine Klein, daughter of Mathieu Klein and Catherine
Christmann, on 04 Oct 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She
was born on 29 Nov 1790 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She
died on 06 Jan 1853 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
27.
ii.
ANDRE KISTLER was born on 28 Nov 1787 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. He died on 06 Jul 1844 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He married (1) MARIE ANNE PFAFF, daughter of Benoit Pfaff and Therese
Becker, on 09 Jan 1819 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhein,
France13. She was born on 21 Jan 1786 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. She died on 14 Aug 1828 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. He married (2) MARIE ANNE GRUN in 1830. She was born in 1801.
iii.
ANTOINE KISTLER was born in 1789 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4.
He died on 16 Jan 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He married
FRANCOISE PFISTER. She was born in 1792.
Notes for Antoine Kistler:
In 1836 Antoine Kistler, age 46, occupation laborer, is residing at 220 Grande route,
Herrlisheim, with his wife, Francoise Pfister, age 44 and Francoise Liess, widow,
age 89 (mother in law of Francoise. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of
Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France.)
28.
iv.
ROSINE KISTLER was born in 1790 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4.
v.
MARIE ANNE KISTLER was born on 03 Jan 1792 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 30 Jul 1863 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France11. She married Antoine Rhein, son of Francois Joseph Rhein and
Catherina Pfaadt, on 24 Sep 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4.
12
Catherina Pfaadt, on 24 Sep 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4.
He was born on 29 Jan 1789 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He
died on 13 Mar 1837 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
Generation 8
16.
JACQUES8 HEITZ (Marie Salome7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng,
Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born in 1775 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France. He married Catherine Lutz, daughter of Andre Lutz and Odile Faleck,
on 14 Jan 1811 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She was born on 24 Nov 1784 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`. She died in Nov 1831 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France`.
Jacques Heitz and Catherine Lutz had the following child:
29.
17.
i.
AMAND9 HEITZ was born on 06 Feb 1814 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France`. He died on 25 Feb 1875 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
He married Madeleine Pfaadt on 16 Jan 1836 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France`. She was born in 1812 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France`.
MADELEINE8 LAENG (Caspard7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was
born in 1788. She married PHILIPPE JACQUES JUNG. He was born in 1786.
Notes for Philippe Jacques Jung:
In 1836 Philippe Jacques Jung, age 50, occupation carpenter, was residing at 13 Steinstrasse,
Herrlisheim with his wife, Madeleine Laeng, age 48, and their children; Philippe, age 25,
occupation chaudronner, Madeleine, age 23, Odile, age 19, Louis, age 9, Marie Anne, age 5 and
grandparent, Elise Alt, widow, age 90, {mother of Madeleine}. (Source - 1836 Census of the
Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France.)
Philippe Jacques Jung and Madeleine Laeng had the following children:
18.
i.
PHIIPPE9 JUNG was born in 1811 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
ii.
MADELEINE JUNG was born in 1814 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
iii.
ODILIE JUNG was born on 26 Aug 1815 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iv.
LOUIS JUNG was born in 1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
v.
MARIE ANNE JUNG was born in 1831 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
PHILIPPE8
LAENG (Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was
born on 19 Oct 1781 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France15. He married Louise
Voltzenlogel, daughter of Georg Voltzenlogel and Gertrude Meder, on 20 Sep 1825 in
Weyersheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She was born on 07 Apr 1787 in Weyersheim, Bas-Rhin,
France16.
In 1836 Philippe Laeng, age 56, occupation laborer, is residing at 359 Gummergass, Herrlisheim
with his wife, Louise Voltzenlogel, age 49, and their children; Benjamin, age 15, Philippe, age 13,
and Josephine, age 8. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau,
Bas-Rhin, France.)
Philippe Laeng and Louise Voltzenlogel had the following children:
30.
i.
BENJAMIN9 LAENG was born in 1821 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
He married REINE SCHIFF.
ii.
PHILIPPE LAENG was born on 07 Mar 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He died on 14 Aug 1855 in Mobile Hospital of the Army of Orient, Crimea
(Was a second diver of the 3rd artillery regiment, 14th battery.18).
Killed during the Crimean War.
13
Encyclopædia Britannica
Crimean War, (October 1853-February 1856), war fought mainly on the Crimean
Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with
support, from January 1855, by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war arose from
the conflict of great powers in the Middle East and was more directly caused by
Russian demands to exercise protection over the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman
sultan. Another major factor was the dispute between Russia and France over the
privileges of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in the holy places
in Palestine.
Supported by Britain, the Turks took a firm stand against the Russians, who
occupied the Danubian principalities (modern Romania) on the Russo-Turkish
border in July 1853. The British fleet was ordered to Constantinople (Istanbul) on
September 23. On October 4 the Turks declared war on Russia and in the same
month opened an offensive against the Russians in the Danubian principalities.
After the Russian Black Sea fleet destroyed a Turkish squadron at Sinope, on the
Turkish side of the Black Sea, the British and French fleets entered the Black Sea
on Jan. 3, 1854, to protect Turkish transports. On March 28, Britain and France
declared war on Russia. To satisfy Austria and avoid having that country also enter
the war, Russia evacuated the Danubian principalities. Austria occupied them in
August 1854. In September 1854 the allies landed troops in Russian Crimea, on the
north shore of the Black Sea, and began a year-long siege of the Russian fortress
of Sevastopol. Major engagements were fought at the Alma River on September 20,
at Balaklava on October 25, and at Inkerman on November 5. On Jan. 26, 1855,
Sardinia-Piedmont entered the war and sent 10,000 troops. Finally, on Sept. 11,
1855, three days after a successful French assault on the Malakhov, a major
strongpoint in the Russian defenses, the Russians blew up the forts, sank the ships,
and evacuated Sevastopol. Secondary operations of the war were conducted in the
Caucasus and in the Baltic Sea.
After Austria threatened to join the allies, Russia accepted preliminary peace terms
on Feb. 1, 1856. The Congress of Paris worked out the final settlement from
February 25 to March 30. The resulting Treaty of Paris, signed on March 30, 1856,
guaranteed the integrity of Ottoman Turkey and obliged Russia to surrender
southern Bessarabia, at the mouth of the Danube. The Black Sea was neutralized,
and the Danube River was opened to the shipping of all nations. The Crimean War
was managed and commanded very poorly on both sides. Disease accounted for a
disproportionate number of the approximately 250,000 men lost by each side.
The war did not settle the relations of the powers in eastern Europe. It did awaken
the new Russian emperor Alexander II (who succeeded Nicholas I in March 1855)
to the need to overcome Russia's backwardness in order to compete successfully
with the other European powers. A further result of the war was that Austria, having
sided with Great Britain and France, lost the support of Russia in central European
affairs. Austria became dependent on Britain and France, which failed to support
that country, leading to the Austrian defeats in 1859 and 1866 that, in turn, led to
the unification of Italy and Germany.
iii.
19.
JOSEPHINE LAENG was born on 13 Jun 1828 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
JEAN MICHEL8 LAENG (Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1)
was born on 06 Mar 1783 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4. He died after
1847 in United States. He married Madeleine Zinger, daughter of Jean Zinger and Catherine Alt,
on 25 Oct 1816 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She was born on 23 Jan 1793 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 15 Mar 1844 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Notes for Jean Michel Laeng:
14
In 1836 Jean Michel Laeng, age 54, a laborer is residing with his wife Madeleine Zinger, age 44, at
141 Ottersgass, Herrlisheim with their children; Jean Michel, age 19, Alexandre, age 17, Regine,
age 16, Jean Baptiste, age 13, Maria Louise, age 9, Marc age 5, and Balbine, age 1. (Source 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France.) There is no mention
of Ferdinand, and Marie Louise.
HERRLISHEIM TO THE UNITED STATES
Jean Michel Laeng, born March 6, 1783 in Herrlisheim, arrived Port of New Orleans, Tuesday,
December 28, 1847, on the ship Aurelius, Crocker as the ship's Master, after a 46-day voyage from
Havre. His name is listed as Michel Laeng on the ship manifest, his age as 64. His family number
is 100310 and his passenger number is 124. Also on the ship manifest for that voyage, under
family number 100304, are the three youngest children of Jean Michel Laeng; Maria Louise Laeng,
age 19 (born Janary 24, 1828) passenger number 128, Marcus Laeng, age 16 (born April 25,
1831) passenger number 129, and Balbine Laeng, age 10 (born April 25, 1835) passenger number
130.
Listed as passenger number 125, immediately following Jean Michel Laeng is Louise Adam, age
21, family number 100302, as passenger number 126 is Salome Kistler, no family number, age 21.
(this is the youngest daughter of Joseph Kistler and Catherine Alt who was born April 24, 1827 in
Herrlisheim. Jean Georges Laeng appears as a witness on her Act of Birth) and, as passenger
number 127 is Michel Kistler, age 16, no family number, who is the brother of Salome.
In the remarks section for Jean Michel Laeng appears the notation "6 chests".
There were 157 passengers in steerage listed on the ship manifest, which manifest contained a
notation "None of the passengers died on the voyage". (Source - National Archives Series - LDS M259, roll 27 covering period June 16 to December 31, 1847 - FHL# 0200157.)
All seven individuals are listed as being born in Baviere (Bavaria), with place of settlement in the
United States as Mississippi. The occupation for each of the seven is listed as weaver. Jean Michel
Laeng's occupation in Herrlisheim was a weaver, which notation appeared on the Act of Birth for
each of his children.
I do not know why they are listed as being born in Bavaria. I suspect that Jean Michel Laeng, his
three younger children and the others left Herrlishem and went to Bavaria, where the older ones
may have worked as weavers. At that time, the area of the former Lower Paltinate was across the
Rhein River and was a part of Bavaria. I do not know the circumstances that brought them to the
United States with a final destination of Mississippi and when and how Marcus got to Pittsburgh.
The history of Europe shows that the largest immigration to the United States up to that time
occurred in the year 1847 and that the economic conditions in Europe were very poor.
I have been unable to find any information on Jean Michel Laeng following his arrival at the Port of
New Orleans. The earliest information on the others traveling with Jean Michel Laeng is as follows.
Salome Kistler first appears on the 1850 Federal Census for Pennsylvania as residing in Ward 4,
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County with the family of Paul Hugus, a Dry Goods Merchant.
Louise Laeng first appears in Pittsburgh on November 16, 1854 when she was a sponsor (listed as
Marie Louise Laing) at the baptism of Maria Louisa Hentgen, daughter of John Baptiste Hentgen
and Salome Kistler.
Marcus Laeng first appears in Pittsburgh on September 6, 1860 in the marriage records of Holy
Trinity Catholic Church, Lower Hill District when he married Philomena Margaret Centner.
Balbina Laeng first appears in the 1900 Federal Census as residing in Stonington, New London
County, Connecticut. She married Thomas Sweet, had four children, three living, son William
15
Sweet born in Maine in January 1878.
Also listed on the ship's manifest are the following individuals whose surname is common to
Herrlisheim.
Hans Jung, age 40 (number 84), Anna Marie Jung, age 36 (number 85), George Jung, age 10
(number 86), Josephine Jung, age 7 (number 87) and Frantz Jung, age 3 (number 88). Hans Jung
is listed from Bavaria, bound for Mississippi and his occupation is labourer.
Marguiere Zinger, age 22 (number 68), from Bavaria, bound for Mississippi and his occupation is
carpenter. He may be a brother-in-law or nephew of Jean Michel Laeng.
Johann Schmitt, age 40 (number 104), Catherine Schmitt, age 30, (number 105), Catherine
Schmitt, age 4 (number 106), Marie Schmitt, age 2 (number 107), Simon Schmitt, age 20 (number
108) and Charle Kistler, age 75 (number 109) The older males are listed as carpenters and all are
shown as being born in Bavaria with final destination of Mississippi.
The fact that all 157 passengers on the ship manifest were listed as being born in Bavaria, when in
fact some of them were born in Herrlisheim, France, leads me to believe that an individual or group
of individuals in Mississippi arranged for their passage in exchange for work to be performed in
Mississippi to pay of the debt for the passage. It may have been a group of cotton planters who
wanted to establish a factory in the area to weave the cotton in support of local trade. Others listed
as labourers and carpenters would also be needed to help with the building or expansion of the
factory. How long they stayed in Mississippi and how Marcus got to Pittsburgh and Balbina
eventually to Maine and Rhode Island remains to be determined.
A possible connection follows. "The Bankston textille mill, Choctaw County, is regarded as
Mississippi's first successful mechanically powered textile mill and became famous throughout the
Old Southwest as a model of industrial efficiency and profitability. Colonel James M. Wesson, its
founder, was associated with a textile firm in Colombus Georgia, the 'Lowell of the South', which in
1847 decided to build a cotton and woolen mill in the back country of northern Mississippi. In
January 1847, he together with David L. Booker, John P. Nance, Richard Ector and Thomas J.
Stanford, organized and chartered the Mississippi Manufacturing Company and, before the end of
the year, began moving machinery and equipment to the new site on the west side of McCurtain's
Creek, a tributary to the Big Black River in Choctaw County. A Semple steam engine,
manufactured in Rhode Island, was brought in to power the mill. It was transported from Rhode
Island to Greenwood by water and then drawn overland to the mill site by several oxen, a distance
of sixty-five miles, several miles of which were through the Yazoo swamp. The eighty-horsepower
engine actually provided more than sufficient power for the textile mill, and the enterprising Colonel
Wesson added a flour mill and a gristmill to the textile equipment to utilize the surplus power. The
Bankston textile mill began operations in December 1848 with twelve workers. It prospered and
quickly expanded to include a tannery, a shoe factory, a machine shop, along with other
enterprises. By June 1849, the textile mill operated 500 cotton spindles and spun 300 pounds of
cotton." (Source - A History of Mississippi Cotton Mills and Mill Villages by Narvell Strickland, 1965)
A search of the 1850 Federal Census for Choctaw County, Mississippi did not show a listing for a
Laeng, Lang, Kistler, Linger, Schmitt (Smith) or Young (Jung) in our line. I have noted it here for
future reference. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
"Aurelius, ship (America) 580 tons, 16 ft draft, built 1834, Captain George Crocker, Harve - New
Orleans, December 28 (45 days) 159 passengers". (Source - NAM, M272-4; NAM, M259-27-254;
Picayune, December 28, 1847, B. 3, Col. 2; Registre Veritas, Vol. 17, p107, no.1885)
The Archives and Records Center of the Diocese of Pittsburgh advises that there were no
marriage or death records for Jean Michel Laneg, Louise Adam or Jean Michel Kistler in the
parishes of St. Philomena, Holy Trinity, St. Mary (Allegheny City) and St, Michael (South Side).
16
(Notes to File - J.P. Rhein)
Jean Michel Laeng and Madeleine Zinger had the following children:
31.
i.
JEAN MICHEL9 LAENG was born on 14 Jul 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 04 Jan 1892 in New Washington, Cranberry
Township, Crawford County, Ohio. He married MARGARETHE HABLAWETZ. She was
born on 23 Sep 1826 in Germany19. She died on 27 Mar 1890 in New Washington,
Cranberry Township, Crawford County, Ohio.
32.
ii.
ALEXANDRE LAENG was born on 12 Jan 1819 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Strasbourg, Bas Rhin, France4. He died after May 1890 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France. He married Francoise Pfaadt, daughter of Jean
Michel Pfaadt and Catherine Zinger, on 16 Jun 1849 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. She was born on 02 Jan 1826 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 17 Mar 1900 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas
Rhin, France.
iii.
REGINE LAENG was born on 17 Feb 1820 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iv.
JEAN BAPTISTE LAENG was born on 14 Sep 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4.
Notes for Jean Baptiste Laeng:
A 'Jean Baptiste Laeng' arrived Port of New York, November 2, 1839, on the ship
Atalanta from Harve. His age is 16 and he is classified as a laborer from
Luxembourg. His final destination is Indiana. Jean Baptiste Laeng, born September
14, 1823 in Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France, son of Jean Michel Laeng,
born March 6, 1783, and Madeline Zinger, is the same age as the individual above.
I have been unable to find any marriage of Jean Baptiste Laeng in Herrlisheim and
it may be that he went to Luxembourg at an early age and then emigrated to the
United States.
Also on that voyage is a Catherine Laeng from Hanover. Her age is shown as two
and her final destination is Indiana. The only other Laengs listed on the ship
manifest are a Rosine Laeng, female, age 36, a musician from France and a
Josephine Laeng, female, age 9, from France, both with final destination Texas.
Details of the passenger manifest are contained on LDS - M237, roll 40 covering
period September 6 to December 31, 1839 - FHL # 0002283. A review of the index
17
with the Family History Center in Upper Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey
showed that this film was # 0002285. Searched both films and there is no manifest
listed for the ship Atalanta on November 2, 1839. (Note to File - J.P. Rhein
Captain Clapp, born in Scitiabe, Mass., in 1843 made various voyages around the
world. The ships he commanded were: Charmer, Atalanta, Jacoby Howe and
General Buster. (Source-Sea Captains of Whidby Island by Alice Kellogg Cahil,
published 1901)
v.
FERDINAND LAENG was born on 30 Jan 1825 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
vi.
LOUISE LAENG was born on 19 Jul 1826 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died on 25 Sep 1827 in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
vii.
MARIA LOUISE LAENG was born on 24 Jan 1828 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas
Rhin, France.
Notes for Maria Louise Laeng:
Jean Michel Laeng, born March 6, 1783 in Herrlisheim, arrived Port of New
Orleans, Tuesday, December 28, 1847, on the ship Aurelius, Crocker as the ship's
Master, after a 46-day voyage from Havre. His name is listed as Michel Laeng on
the ship manifest, his age as 64. His family number is 100310 and his passenger
number is 124. Also on the ship manifest for that voyage, under family number
100304, are the three youngest children of Jean Michel Laeng; Louise Laeng, age
21 (born July 19, 1826) passenger number 128, Marcus Laeng, age 16 (born April
25, 1831) passenger number 129, and Balbine Laeng, age 10 (born April 25, 1835)
passenger number 130.
Listed as passenger number 125, immediately following Jean Michel Laeng is
Louise Adam, age 21, family number 100302, as passenger number 126 is Salome
Kistler, no family number, age 21. (this is the youngest daughter of Joseph Kistler
and Catherine Alt who was born April 24, 1827 in Herrlisheim. Jean George Laeng
appears as a witness on her Act of Birth) and, as passenger number 127 is Michel
Kistler, age 16, no family number, (Jean Michel Kistler, born 1831, Herrlisheim)
brother of Salome. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
I have been unable to find any information on Jean Michel Laeng following his
arrival at the Port of New Orleans. The earliest information on the others traveling
with Jean Michel Laeng is as follows.
Salome Kistler first appears on the 1850 Federal Census for Pennsylvania as
residing in Ward 4, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County with the family of Paul Hugus, a
Dry Goods Merchant.
Maria Louise Laeng first appears in Pittsburgh on November 16, 1854 when she
was a sponsor (listed as Marie Louise Laing) at the baptism of Maria Louisa
Hentgen, daughter of John Baptiste Hentgen and Salome Kistler.
18
Marcus Laeng first appears in Pittsburgh on September 6, 1860 in the marriage
records of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Lower Hill District when he married
Philomena Margaret Centner.
Balbina Laeng first appears in the 1900 Federal Census as residing in Stonington,
New London County, Connecticut. She married Thomas Sweet, had four children,
three living, son William Sweet born in Maine in January 1878.
"A search was done for a marriage for Maria Louisa Laing (Laeng) in the records of
St. Philomena and St. Michael Chruch, South Side.
St Michael - South Side
17 February 1856
Benedict Miller - 24 years
Parents - Henrich Miller and Margaretha Scherth
To
Louisa Lang - 27 years, widow
Parents; not given
Witnesses: Adam Scherth and Joseph Hartman
No other information given
No baptisms were listed for this couple at St. Michael Church
Note that the spelling of Louisa's last name is problematic. Our researchers were
split as to whether the name was Lang or Sorg. I am afraid that based on the
information in the record, we have no way of knowing if this marriage is the person
you are looking for." (Source - Archives and Records Center, Diocese of Pittsburgh)
Although remote, I have listed the following information pending further follow-up.
The 1860 Federal Census for Pennsylvania, St. Clair Township, Allegheny County
lists a Benedict Miller, age 28, occupation Tailor, value of real estate $550 and
personal property $150, born Hessen residing with his wife L. Miller, age 30, and
daughters' AM, age 3 and C, age 6 months. Also residing with the family are
Benedict's parents, listed as H. Miller, age 64, occupation Cooper, and his wife, M.
Miller, age 65. There both were born in Hessen.
The 1870 Federal Census for Pennsylvania, Lower St. Clair Township, Buchanan
Post Office, Allegheny County lists a Benedict Miller, age 37, occupation Tailor,
value of real estate $2,700 residing with his wife Lucy, age 37 and children; Anna,
age 14, George, age 5, John, age 3 and Nicholas, age 1. Also residing with the
family is Benedict's father, H. Miller, age 76.
The 1880 Federal Census for Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, 27th Ward (Piusst Street),
Allegheny County list a Lucy Miller, age 52, widow, keeping house, born in Bavaria
as were her parents residng with her children; Anna, age 23, at home, George, age
14, works in glass (?), John, age 12, works in what appears to be a tea shop,
Nicholas, age 11. Also residing with the family is Henry Miller, age 86, father-in-law.
viii. BALBINE LAENG was born on 30 Mar 1829 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. She died before 1836 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
33.
ix.
MARCUS LAENG was born on 25 Apr 1831 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 24 Sep 1901 in Venice Township, Seneca County, Ohio20. He
married Philomena Margaret Centner, daughter of Joseph Centner and Margaretha
19
married Philomena Margaret Centner, daughter of Joseph Centner and Margaretha
Rectewald, on 06 Sep 1860 in Holy Trinity, Lower Hill District, Pittsburgh, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania21. She was born on 01 Jul 1842 in Pitt Township, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania21. She died on 18 Jan 1884 in Venice Township, Seneca
County, Ohio20.
34.
20.
x.
BALBINE LAENG was born on 25 Apr 1835 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died in 191422. She married Thomas C. Sweet, son of Thomas Sweet,
in 186623. He was born in 1828 in Rhode Island23. He died before 1900.
MARIA ANNA8 LAENG (Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1)
was born on 21 Jan 1788 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4. She died after
1836. She married Jean Michel Kistler, son of Arbogast Kistler and Agnes Lutz, on 18 Nov 1811 in
Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France4. He was born on 18 Sep 1782 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He died before 1836 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
Notes for Maria Anna Laeng:
In 1836 N. (Maria Anna) Laeng, age 58, widow, is residing at 43 Steinstrasse, Herrlisheim with her
children; Rosalie, age 23, Aloise, age 20 and Charles, age 18. (Source - 1836 Census of the
Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France.)
Jean Michel Kistler and Maria Anna Laeng had the following children:
35.
21.
i.
ROSALIE9 KISTLER was born on 13 Feb 1813 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
ii.
ALOISE KISTLER was born on 04 Apr 1816 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He married Catherine Sattler after 1836.
iii.
CHARLES KISTLER was born in 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iv.
JEAN MICHEL KISTLER was born on 24 Sep 1818 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4.
ELIZABETH8 LAENG (Melchior7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was
born in 1786 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. She married Bartholome
Schmitt on 09 Nov 1812 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died before 1836.
Notes for Elizabeth Laeng:
Elizabeth Laeng is residing at 106 Sandgass, Herrlisheim with her three children, Aloyse, age 21,
Felix, age 15, and Elizabeth, Age 13. She is a widow and her occupation is listed as daily laborer.
Her father, Melchior Laeng, age 79, is residing with the family and he is listed as a grandparent.
(Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France)
Bartholome Schmitt and Elizabeth Laeng had the following children:
22.
i.
ALOYSE9 SCHMITT was born in 1815 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhin-France4.
ii.
FELIX SCHMITT was born in 1821 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
iii.
ANTOINE SCHMITT was born on 28 Jan 1822 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iv.
MARIE ELIZABETH SCHMITT was born in 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
MATHIEU8 LAENG (Melchior7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was
born on 28 Jan 1787 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France4. He died on 04 Sep
1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France17. He married Catherine Schmitt, daughter of
Jean Michel Schmitt and Marie Anne Schnoering, on 04 May 1812 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France5. She was born on 29 Aug 1786 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France5. She died on 09 May 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5.
Notes for Mathieu Laeng:
In 1836 Mathieu Laeng, age 49, occupation barber, was residing at 29 Steinstrasse, Herrlisheim
20
In 1836 Mathieu Laeng, age 49, occupation barber, was residing at 29 Steinstrasse, Herrlisheim
with his wife, Catherine Schmitt, age 49, and their children; Felix, age 24,
Louise, age 18, Marie Anne, age 16, Louis, age 8, and Cecile, age 4. (Source - 1836 Census of the
Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau in Bas-Rhin, France.)
Mathieu Laeng and Catherine Schmitt had the following children:
36.
i.
FELIX9 LAENG was born in 1812 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
ii.
JEAN BAPTISTE LAENG was born in 1814. He died before 1822.
iii.
MARIE LOUISE LAENG was born on 24 Mar 1818 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 08 Oct 1896 in Quesnoy sur Deule, France. She
married Jacob Clamer, son of Johannes Michael Clamer and Catherine Gnmper, on
13 Aug 1839 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. He was born
on 11 Sep 1806 in Lembach, Bas-Rhin, France5. He died on 23 May 1864 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5.
iv.
MARIE ANNE LAENG was born on 13 Jan 1820 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4.
v.
JEAN BAPTISTE LAENG was born in Feb 1822 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
vi.
??? LAENG was born on 11 Jul 1825 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
vii.
LOUIS LAENG was born on 30 Jul 1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
viii. CECILE LAENG was born in 1832 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
23.
CATHERINE8 LAENG (Antoine7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was
born on 31 Jan 1791 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France12. She married (1)
JACQUES GROSS on 25 Sep 1814 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He was born on
01 Jun 1783 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France..
Notes for Catherine Laeng:
In 1836 Catherine Laeng, age 42 (born about 1791-1792) is resididng at 278 Grande route,
Herrlisheim, with her husband, Jacques Gross, age 52 (born about 1784-1785), laborer, with their
children; Marie Anne, age 20 and Rosalie, age 15. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of
Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France)
Notes for Jacques Gross:
In 1836 Jacques Gross, age 52, occupation laborer, is resididng at 278 Grande route, Herrlisheim
with his wife Catherine Laeng, age 42 and their children; Marie Anne, age 20, and Rosalie, age 15.
(Source - 1836 Census of Bischwiller and Haguenau Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau.)
Jacques Gross and Catherine Laeng had the following children:
37.
24.
i.
THERESA9 GROSS was born in 1815 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
ii.
MARIE ANNE GROSS was born on 18 Nov 1816 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. She married Joseph Pfaadt in 1836 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. He was born in 1807 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France`.
iii.
ROSALIE GROSS was born on 22 Sep 1822 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
JEAN GEORGES8 LAENG (Antoine7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1)
was born on 23 May 1799 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France11. He died on
26 Jan 1882 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France. He married (1) MARIE ANNA SCHERER
on 26 Oct 1837 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhein, France11. She was born on
22 Oct 1809 in Kurtzenhausen11. He married (2) MADELEINE CLAUSS in 1819. She was born in
1789. She died between 1833-1835.
Notes for Jean Georges Laeng:
21
Notes for Jean Georges Laeng:
In 1836 Jean Georges Laeng, age 34, widower, is residing at 177 Ottergass, Herrlisheim, with his
children; Rafine, age 8, Rosalie, age 7, Madeleine, age 5 and Marie Anne, age 3. Also residing
with the family is Madeleine Sieffert, age 62, widow of Antine Laeng and grandmother of the
children. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bishwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France.)
Jean Georges' date of birth 1802 appears to be in error as the date of his birth per his Act of Birth
is May 23, 1799. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Unless otherwise noted information on Jean Georges Laeng was furnished by Valerie Kastner.
(Note to File - JP Rhein)
Jean Georges Laeng and Marie Anna Scherer had the following children:
38.
i.
JOSEPH9 LAENG was born on 25 Feb 1839 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
ii.
JACQUES LAENG was born on 22 Jun 1842 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iii.
ODILE LAENG was born on 13 Dec 1843 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iv.
MATHIEU LAENG was born on 24 Feb 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France3. He died in 191511. He married Madeline Keith, daughter of Jean Keith and
Catherine Bur, on 05 May 1871 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhein, France11. She was born on 06 Jul 1845 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France11. She died on 05 Nov 1910 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas
Rhin, France11.
Jean Georges Laeng and Madeleine Clauss had the following children:
v.
MARIE ANNE LAENG was born on 20 Feb 1820 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4.
Notes for Marie Anne Laeng:
In 1836 a Marie Anne Laeng, age 16, servant, is residing at 339 Gummersgass,
Herrlisheim, with Georges Gross, age 35, laborer, and his wife Catherine Clauss,
age 31, and their children; Nicolas, age 6, Pierre, age 4, Michel, age 2 and Beatrice,
age 6 months. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau,
Bas-Rhin, France.)
As Jean Georges Laeng and his wife Madeleine Clauss had a daughter, Marie
Anne born February 2, 1834 before the death of Madeleine Clauss it may be that
Marie Anne born February 20, 1820 died prior to 1834. I have listed the information
here for future reference.
There is a fair degree of probability that Catherine Clauss is the sister of Madeleine
Clauss. Relationship, if any, to a Catherine Clauss, age 53, grandparent, residing at
26 Steinstrasse, Herrlisheim, with Francois Antoine Wendling, age 29, laborer, and
his wife Catherine Koehrer, age 28, is unknown. (Notes to File - JP Rhein)
vi.
MADELEINE LAENG was born on 06 Apr 1824 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
vii.
JOSEPHINE LAENG was born on 04 Aug 1825 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. She died on 04 Jan 1826.
viii. RAFINE LAENG was born on 19 Feb 1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
ix.
ROSALIE LAENG was born on 19 Sep 1830 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
x.
MADELEINE LAENG was born on 02 Apr 1832 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
22
xi.
25.
MARIE ANNE LAENG was born on 02 Feb 1834 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France.
FRANCOIS ANTOINE8 FRAUEL (Jean Michel7, Marie Catherine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4
Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born in 1810 in Offendorff, Bas-Rhin,
France. He married ELISABETH HILD. She was born in 1816 in Offendorff, Bas-Rhin, France.
Notes for Francois Antoine Frauel:
In 1836 Antoine Frauel, age 26, single, domestic employee, is residing at 87 Schnautzgass,
Offendorf, with the family of Michel Stein, age 53, landlord, his wife Sophie Butta, age 52 and their
adopted daughter, Emile Nuss, age 3 (relationship unknown). Also residing at that location is
Elisabeth Hild, age 20, single, servant and employee. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of
Bishchwiller and Haguenau)
Francois Antoine Frauel and Elisabeth Hild had the following child:
39.
26.
i.
AMELIA9 FRAUEL was born in 1838 in Offendorff, Bas-Rhin, France. She married
FREDERICK BRETIENWISCHER.
DANIEL8 KISTLER (Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans
Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 01 Jul 1785 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France4. He died on 28 Apr 1852 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11. He married Catherine Klein, daughter of Mathieu Klein and Catherine Christmann, on 04
Oct 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She was born on 29 Nov 1790 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 06 Jan 1853 in Commune de
Notes for Daniel Kistler:
In 1836 Daniel Kistler, age 48, occupation laborer, is residing at 240 Grande route, Herrlisheim
with his wife, Catherine Klein, age 45, and their children; Daniel, age 17, Anastasie, age 15,
Antoine, age 12, Regine, age 8, Suzanne, age 5, and Catherine, age 2. (Source - 1836 Census of
the Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France.)
Daniel Kistler and Catherine Klein had the following children:
40.
i.
DANIEL9 KISTLER was born on 08 Oct 1818 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 11 Oct 1840 in Algeria.
ii.
REINE KISTLER was born on 19 Jun 1820 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iii.
ANASTASIA KISTLER was born on 27 Sep 1821 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 01 Dec 1897 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France.
iv.
ANTOINE KISTLER was born on 17 Feb 1824 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He died on 09 Oct 1849 in Algeria.
v.
LOUIS KISTLER was born on 08 Nov 1825 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 19 Nov 1825 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
vi.
REGINE KISTLER was born on 28 Apr 1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died after 1880 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France. She
married Jacques Rhein, son of Antoine Rhein and Marie Anne Kistler, on 24 Jun
1850 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He was born on 28 Feb 1820
in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 06 Apr 1888 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France11.
vii.
ARBOGAST KISTLER was born on 28 Feb 1829 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. He died on 04 Mar 1829 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
viii. SUZANNE KISTLER was born in Jul 1830 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
ix.
CATHERINE KISTLER was born in 1834 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
23
27.
ANDRE8
(Rosine7
KISTLER
Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans
2
Laeng, Durs Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 28 Nov 1787 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Province of Alsace, France. He died on 06 Jul 1844 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He married (1) MARIE ANNE PFAFF, daughter of Benoit Pfaff and Therese Becker, on 09
Jan 1819 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhein, France13. She was born on 21 Jan
1786 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. She died on 14 Aug 1828 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of Alsace, France. He married (2) MARIE ANNE GRUN in 1830.
She was born in 1801.
Jacob3
Notes for Andre Kistler:
In 1836 Andre Kistler, age 48, laborer is residing at 79 Mutternsteg, Herrlisheim with his wife Marie
Anne Grun (second), age 35 and children; Joseph, age 13 born to his first wife, and Louis, age 5,
Louise, age 3 and Jacques, age 2. Also residing with the family is Elizabeth Rockenbrod, age 29,
servant. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and Hagenau, Bas-Rhin-France)
Unless otherwise noted, all information on Andree Kistler, his spouse and descendants was taken
from GeneaNet http://www.geneanet.org. File of Daniel Kistler. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Andre Kistler and Marie Anne Pfaff had the following child:
41.
i.
JOSEPH9 KISTLER was born on 20 Mar 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France13. He married Anastase Huck, daughter of Ursule Huck, on 19 Apr 1845 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France13. She was born on 06 Jan 1825 in
Andre Kistler and Marie Anne Grun had the following children:
28.
ii.
LOUIS KISTLER was born in 1831.
iii.
LOUISE KISTLER was born in 1833.
iv.
JACQUES KISTLER was born in 1834.
ANNE8
MARIE
KISTLER (Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng,
3
Hans Jacob Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 03 Jan 1792 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 30 Jul 1863 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11. She married Antoine Rhein, son of Francois Joseph Rhein and Catherina Pfaadt, on 24
Sep 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He was born on 29 Jan 1789 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 13 Mar 1837 in Commune de
Notes for Antoine Rhein:
In 1836 Antoine Rhein, age 47, laborer, is residing at 137 Ottersgass, Herrlisheim, with his wife,
Marie Anne Kistler, age 44, and their children; Jacques, age 16, Pierre, age 12, Paul, age 12,
Ambroise, age 5, and Luden, age 2. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and
Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, France.)
Antoine Rhein and Marie Anne Kistler had the following children:
42.
i.
JACQUES9 RHEIN was born on 28 Feb 1820 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 06 Apr 1888 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France11.
He married Regine Kistler, daughter of Daniel Kistler and Catherine Klein, on 24
Jun 1850 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She was born on 28 Apr
1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died after 1880 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France.
ii.
PAUL RHEIN was born on 11 Nov 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He died after 1836.
iii.
PIERRE RHEIN was born on 12 Nov 1823 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 24 Sep 1855 in Mobile Hospital of the Army of Orient, 1st
Division, Sebastopol, Crimea (2nd servant, 9th artillery regiment, 1st battery, 1st
Division.11, 24).
24
Notes for Pierre Rhein:
Killed during the Crimean War.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Crimean War, (October 1853-February 1856), war fought mainly on the Crimean
Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with
support, from January 1855, by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war arose from
the conflict of great powers in the Middle East and was more directly caused by
Russian demands to exercise protection over the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman
sultan. Another major factor was the dispute between Russia and France over the
privileges of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in the holy places
in Palestine.
Supported by Britain, the Turks took a firm stand against the Russians, who
occupied the Danubian principalities (modern Romania) on the Russo-Turkish
border in July 1853. The British fleet was ordered to Constantinople (Istanbul) on
September 23. On October 4 the Turks declared war on Russia and in the same
month opened an offensive against the Russians in the Danubian principalities.
After the Russian Black Sea fleet destroyed a Turkish squadron at Sinope, on the
Turkish side of the Black Sea, the British and French fleets entered the Black Sea
on Jan. 3, 1854, to protect Turkish transports. On March 28, Britain and France
declared war on Russia. To satisfy Austria and avoid having that country also enter
the war, Russia evacuated the Danubian principalities. Austria occupied them in
August 1854. In September 1854 the allies landed troops in Russian Crimea, on the
north shore of the Black Sea, and began a year-long siege of the Russian fortress
of Sevastopol. Major engagements were fought at the Alma River on September 20,
at Balaklava on October 25, and at Inkerman on November 5. On Jan. 26, 1855,
Sardinia-Piedmont entered the war and sent 10,000 troops. Finally, on Sept. 11,
1855, three days after a successful French assault on the Malakhov, a major
strongpoint in the Russian defenses, the Russians blew up the forts, sank the ships,
and evacuated Sevastopol. Secondary operations of the war were conducted in the
Caucasus and in the Baltic Sea.
After Austria threatened to join the allies, Russia accepted preliminary peace terms
on Feb. 1, 1856. The Congress of Paris worked out the final settlement from
February 25 to March 30. The resulting Treaty of Paris, signed on March 30, 1856,
guaranteed the integrity of Ottoman Turkey and obliged Russia to surrender
southern Bessarabia, at the mouth of the Danube. The Black Sea was neutralized,
and the Danube River was opened to the shipping of all nations. The Crimean War
was managed and commanded very poorly on both sides. Disease accounted for a
disproportionate number of the approximately 250,000 men lost by each side.
The war did not settle the relations of the powers in eastern Europe. It did awaken
the new Russian emperor Alexander II (who succeeded Nicholas I in March 1855)
to the need to overcome Russia's backwardness in order to compete successfully
with the other European powers. A further result of the war was that Austria, having
sided with Great Britain and France, lost the support of Russia in central European
affairs. Austria became dependent on Britain and France, which failed to support
that country, leading to the Austrian defeats in 1859 and 1866 that, in turn, led to
the unification of Italy and Germany.
iv.
JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 28 Mar 1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 22 Sep 1831 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
v.
AMBROISE RHEIN was born in 1828 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
25
v.
43.
AMBROISE RHEIN was born in 1828 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
He died on 25 May 1830 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
vi.
AMBROISE RHEIN was born on 31 Mar 1831 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11. He died on 06 Dec 191211. He married (1) CATHERINE KORMANN. He
married (2) ANASTASE NOE.
vii.
LUDEN RHEIN was born on 10 Feb 1834 in Commune de Herrlsiheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 30 Jul 186311.
viii. GEORGES RHEIN was born on 04 Mar 1837 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
ix.
ELIZABETH RHEIN was born on 22 Apr 1838 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
x.
CATHERINE RHEIN was born on 02 Jun 1841 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
Generation 9
29.
AMAND9 HEITZ (Jacques8, Marie Salome7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4
Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 06 Feb 1814 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`. He died on 25 Feb 1875 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France`. He married Madeleine Pfaadt on 16 Jan 1836 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France`. She was born in 1812 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
Amand Heitz and Madeleine Pfaadt had the following children:
44.
30.
i.
JEAN BAPTISTE10 HEITZ was born on 23 Jun 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France`. He married Rosalie Becker on 01 Sep 1869 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She was born on 24 Nov 1846 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
ii.
FELIX HEITZ was born on 09 Sep 1850 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. He married CAROLINE RHEIN. She was born on 07 Mar 1858 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
BENJAMIN9 LAENG (Philippe8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3, Durs2,
Urs1) was born in 1821 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He married REINE SCHIFF.
Benjamin Laeng and Reine Schiff had the following children:
31.
i.
JACQUES10 LAENG was born on 13 Sep 1845 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
ii.
FELIX LAENG was born on 16 Feb 1847 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iii.
MATHIEU LAENG was born on 27 Feb 1848 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iv.
JOSEPH LAENG was born on 17 Jul 1862 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
JEAN MICHEL9 LAENG (Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3,
Durs2, Urs1) was born on 14 Jul 1817 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on
04 Jan 1892 in New Washington, Cranberry Township, Crawford County, Ohio. He married
MARGARETHE HABLAWETZ. She was born on 23 Sep 1826 in Germany19. She died on 27 Mar 1890
in New Washington, Cranberry Township, Crawford County, Ohio.
Marcus Laeng had an older brother, Jean Michel Laeng, born July 14, 1817 in Herrlisheim. The
1870 Federal Census for Venice Township, Seneca County, Ohio enumerated on June 24, 1870
(Post
Office Bloomville) lists a Michael Lang (listed as Micheal Lang) farmer, age 53 born in France with
a value of real estate of $1,800 and personal property of $700. His wife's first name is Margaret,
age 49, and her place of birth is Hess-Darmstadt. The children are listed as Augustus, age 15,
26
age 49, and her place of birth is Hess-Darmstadt. The children are listed as Augustus, age 15,
Louisa, age 14, George, age 12, (all listed as being at home), Peter, age 8, attending school,
Ludwig, age 5, Joseph, age 3, and Michael, age 1. All the children were born in Ohio. Also listed as
residing with the family is Ann Haweswetzel, age 12, born in Ohio, relationship unknown. This
would place Michael in Ohio as early as 1855.
Ann Haweswetzel may be a relative of Margarethe Hablowetz.
The 1880 Federal Census for Ohio, enumerated June 7, 1880, lists a Michael Laeng, farmer, age
62 (would have been born in 1817 or 1818), with his wife, Margaret, both born in Germany. There
are five children. All the children were born in Ohio. The oldest child is son Peter, born 1861 and
the youngest child is daughter Mary, born 1873. John Dannemiller, age 69, born in Germany is
listed as residing in the next household. I have not been able to locate any other Laengs in Ohio at
that time other than a Christian Laeng, farmer, age 40, also residing in Venice Township, born in
Pennsylvania as were his parents. Michael and his wife do not appear on the 1890 or 1900 Federal
Census for Ohio, either individually or as a couple or with son Peter who is a farmer and is residing
in Groton Township, Erie County, Ohio in 1900. I presume they died sometime before 1900. As
both Marcus and Michael were residing in the same Enumeration Disrict 212 in the 1880 Census
and given the approximate date of Michael's birth, it is fairly certain that he is Jean Michael Laeng,
the brother of Marcus. I have often wondered what brought Marcus to Ohio from Pennsylvania and
it may have been as a result of his older brother. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Jean Michel Laeng and Margarethe Hablawetz had the following children:
45.
46.
i.
AUGUSTUS10 LAENG was born in Jul 1855 in Clinton Township, Seneca County,Ohio.
He died in 1919 in Clinton Township, Seneca County, Ohio. He married Anne nee
unknown about 1880. She was born in Oct 1858.
ii.
LOUISA LAENG was born in 1856 in Ohio.
iii.
GEORGE LAENG was born in 1858 in Ohio.
iv.
PETER LAENG25 was born on 04 Feb 1862 in New Washington, Ohio, USA25. He
died on 16 Aug 1949 in St. Route 47, Sherman Township (rural), Huron, Ohio25. He
married Anna Mary Frisch in 188726. She was born on 23 Apr 1872 in Bellevue,
Sherman Township, Huron, Ohio, USA25-26. She died on 18 Mar 1937 in Bellevue,
Groton Township, Erie, Ohio25.
v.
LUDWIG LAENG was born in 1865 in Ohio.
vi.
JOSEPH LAENG was born in 1867 in Ohio19. He died in 1930 in Ohio.
vii.
MICHAEL LAENG was born in 1869 in Ohio19.
viii. MARIA LAENG was born in 1872 in Ohio19.
32.
ALEXANDRE9 LAENG (Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3,
Durs2, Urs1) was born on 12 Jan 1819 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas Rhin,
France4. He died after May 1890 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France. He married
Francoise Pfaadt, daughter of Jean Michel Pfaadt and Catherine Zinger, on 16 Jun 1849 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She was born on 02 Jan 1826 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 17 Mar 1900 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin,
France.
Alexandre Laeng and Francoise Pfaadt had the following children:
47.
i.
MADELEINE10 LAENG was born on 27 Jun 1849 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She died before 12 Apr 1909. She married Joseph Scheiber,
son of Michel Scheiber and Josephine Jung, on 08 Jul 1878 in Gambsheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. He was born on 13 Mar 1840 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
ii.
THERESA LAENG was born on 27 Sep 1850 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
iii.
MARC LAENG was born on 31 Dec 1852 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
27
iv.
FELIX LAENG was born on 26 Mar 1854 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
v.
MICHEL LAENG was born on 21 Oct 1856 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
vi.
JACQUES LAENG was born on 18 Sep 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany3. He died on 05 Sep 1931 in
Saint Meinrad, St. Meinrad, Indiana27.
Notes for Jacques Laeng:
The Benedictine tradition came to the Midwest in the 1850s, when the Swiss Abbey
of Einsiedeln was approached by a priest from Indiana. Fr. Joseph Kundek sought
a monastery willing to begin a foundation in his area. When the monks of
Einsiedeln agreed to investigate this proposition, they had three goals in mind:
- They wanted to transplant their Benedictine heritage onto American soil.
- With the growing Catholic population settling in the area, they wanted to minister
to their pastoral needs.
- And to further their ability to pastorally assist the Catholic Church in America, they
wanted to start a school to prepare local men for the priesthood.
The three-room cabin these Benedictines used to established their priory in 1854
has since grown into Saint Meinrad Archabbey and School of Theology, St.
Meinrad, Indiana.
There were two obituaries published for Brother Ferdinand Laeng, one in English
and one in German. The first one following was in English and the second one
following was in German, which has been translated into English.
BROTHER FERDINAND LAENG
"Early in the evening of September 5 the Angel of Death came silently into our
monastic enclosure to take along with him the lamp of life which good Brother
Ferdinand had lighted and which he kept trimmed for the coming of the Bridegroom.
The deceased was born in Europe, on Sept. 18, 1858, in the little state of Alsace.
As a young man he went to America. At about the age of twenty-six he came to St.
Meinrad to consecrate his life to God as a simple lay brother. Consequently in
1885 he entered the novitiate to prepare for a life in religion. The day of
consecration approached and on May 30, 1886, he pronounced the vows that
bound him irrevocably to God.
Some of our readers will recall that in the nineties Brother Ferdinand was a tall,
strong, broad-shouldered man, capable of doing heavy work. But about thirty years
ago his health began to fail. During all these years he edified his fellow religious by
his simple faith and by his unostentatious but deep spirituality. A lover of spiritual
reading, he was deeply versed in spiritual lore and the science of the saints.
Moreover, he possessed an extensive, yet practical, knowledge of Holy Scripture,
such as only few of the laity attain to. In fine, he was a man of faith, a man of
prayer. The rosary was his constant companion.
Death came rather suddenly, but it did not surprise its victim. The good Brother
was a daily communicant for years. Less than two hours before the final summons
he received the holy sacrament of extreme unction. Shortly before seven o'clock in
the evening he asked to be assisted from one chair to another. Without a struggle,
and apparently without a pain, he dropped his head and breathed his last. All was
over. Those of the community who had assembled in the death chamber recited at
once the Vespers of the Office of the Dead.
28
The funeral was held from the Abbey Church on Sept. 7. First, the entire Office of
the Dead was chanted, then came the Solemn Requiem, which was celebrated by
Father Columban, who had been for some years the immediate superior of the
deceased and who knew how to appreciate the spirituality of his former subject.
The Mass and the absolution over, the funeral procession wended its way to the
little "God's Acre" on the hillside, where the mortal re-mains of good Brother
Ferdinand were laid to rest until the trumpet blast that shall awake even the dead.
R. I. P." (Source - Obituary from the Grail, Published by Saint Meinrad Archabbey,
St. Meinrad, Indiana, October 1931)
[TRANSLATION FROM GERMAN]
St. Meinrads' Raben
[The Raven's of St. Meinrad]
Supplement to "The Fruit's of Paradise"
"A brief little folly is more valuable than wisdom and honor." (Eccl. 10-1)
November 1931
No. 11
44th edition
St. Meinrad, Indiana
In Memorium.
Again, one of our dear brothers has undertaken that well-prepared long journey to
the eternal home. On September 5, at 7 o'clock in the evening, a mild death
released our dear honorable brother Ferdinand Laeng from decades of suffering,
endured with devotional patience, which the dear deceased himself called a 25-year
fight with death. In the morning of the mentioned day, brother Ferdinand came to
the writer of these lines in order to give his weekly confession, as was his custom.
After this was completed, he said: Reverend Father, this is the last time that I will
come to confession." It was a premonition of approaching death. In the course of
the afternoon, he had repeated chocking attacks, which tended to be more
numerous in the last years. At 6 o'clock, the reverend P. John gave him Holy
Communion as extreme unction, as well as holy anointment and dispensation.
When the bell rang seven, brother Ferdinand leaned back in his recliner with a sigh,
as if resting. It was the last sigh before a well-deserved eternal rest. Without any
sign of a death struggle, the good brother breathed out his soul, which had been
ennobled by patient suffering.
Brother Ferdinand Laeng was born on September 18, 1858 in Herrlisheim bei
Strasburg in Elsace. At his baptism he received the holy Apostle Jacob as a patron
saint. He came to America in about 1881. Here, he first worked at the railroad.
Around the year 1883 he moved to Cartagena, Ohio, where he worked for the
reverend Fathers of the precious blood.
In September of 1881 he came to St. Meinrad as a monastic candidate, and on
May 29, 1885 he was invested with a holy monastic garb. After having passed his
examination year on May 30, 1885, he took the holy monastic vows, whereby he
received the monastic name Ferdinand. His only goal from then on was to follow
Christ in faithful work, made holy by prayer and obedience according to the mild
rules of our most Holy Father Benedict.
Around the year 1890 he came to Gessen in Louisiana, where he provided valuable
services in the new founding of the priorate St. Joseph, which in the course of years
developed to the present fully blooming St. Joseph's Abbey. Called back home, he
29
returned to St. Meinard and worked as a stonemason during the construction of the
new abbey church. Some believe that it was during this work that the beginning of
his protracted illness started. In the year 1895 he was transferred to a place that
was less hazardous to his health by his superiors: work in a machine house, where
he remained until his progressing illness made any kind of physical work
impossible. The infirmity, which in the beginning was thought to be tuberculosis,
consisted of a complication of chronic "emphysema" of the lungs and inflammation
of the windpipe. In addition he suffered from arteriosclerosis.
He used the long years of suffering that now followed, to prepare himself for the,
so-called daily expectation of death, which now we hope will have taken him into
the fortunate land of the living, where God "dries all tears from the eyes of his
people, where there will be neither sadness, suffering nor pain, since the first
[death] has happened."
R.I.P.
SAINT CHARLES, CARTHAGENA, OHIO
MISSIONARIES OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, C.PP.S.
HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES
Why the name St. Charles? St. Charles Borroneo (1538-1584) is known for
organizing seminaries for training priests. The primary purpose of St. Charles was
to be a seminary for training priests. In the year 1844, Precious Blood Missionary
Father Francis DeSales Brunner brought with him from Switzerland 7 priests and 7
brothers to begin a mission for serving German speaking settlers living in Ohio.
Around the year 1835, Afro-Americans were given a tract of land and a boarding
school named Emlen Institute in the settlement named Carthagena (about eight
miles south of Celina) which received its name from Cartagena, Columbia, South
America, in turn after Carthage, Africa. After some years, the experiment failed and
the establishment was no longer in use. Emlen Institute and 200 acres of land were
purchased in 1861 by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood to become a training
center for Precious Blood priests and brothers.
This first building became known as Old Abbey. It was enlarged and served many
purposes. What was then called the "new" seminary was built in 1878 and replaced
some of the functions of the Old Abbey as both buildings continued to be used. The
number of students, staff and other residents continued to grow and what we call
the present main building was finished in 1922 and has replaced both the Old
Abbey and the "new" seminary building. The number of philosophy and theology
seminarians reached as high as 120. The theologate school closed in 1969.
Theology students now attend the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Presently
St. Charles is the home for retired priests and brothers. A cemetery lying south of
the main building was plotted in 1900 and serves as the burial grounds for priests
and brothers of the Society. (Source - St. Charles Missionaries of the Precious
Blood, C.PP.S. All rights reserved. Copyright 1999)
SAINT MEINRAD ARCHABBEY
1n 1860, Fr. Martin Marry, OSB, was sent to southern Indiana from the Abbey of
Einsiedeln, Switzerland, to close the foundation of Saint Meinrad. The six-year-old
priory was deep in debt and held little hope of survival. Four months after Fr.
Martin's arrival, the town of St. Meinrad was established. The town gave a revived
impetus to the foundation itself, and convinced Fr. Martin that, more than ever, the
Benedictine foundation of Saint Meinrad could be saved. In 1861, Fr. Martin wrote
to Abbot Henry of Einsiedeln:
30
"...it seems to me that if God did not intend to preserve and use Saint Meinrad, he
would long ago have had the occasion to drop it. So much good has been
accomplished, so much sacrifice made, so much work done, and so much hardship
endured that, after all, the blessing of God will surely come ...and make it into what
obedience should have made of it in its very beginning."
As time went on, it became evident that, with the careful and thoughtful leadership
of Fr. Martin Marty, the promise of permanency for Saint Meinrad would be realized.
The foundations seminary was begun and soon filled to capacity. A small printing
press was purchased. That printing operation has grown into today's Abbey Press.
Father Martin Marry, OSB, was just 26 years old when he arrived at the six-year-old
mission house of Saint Meinrad in southern Indiana. The young monk had been
sent to America by the Abbot of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, in 1860. He had been
instructed to close the young priory. However, after just a short time, Fr. Martin saw
the benefit Saint Meinrad could have for the Church in the United States. (Source Saint Menirad Archabbey, St. Meinrad, Indiana)
From the Saint Meinrad Newsletter, Winter 2003, Volume 42:1
Here's a look back at what was happening 150 years ago, as Saint Memrad
Archabbey prepares to celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2004.
November 19,1852: Abbot Henry convenes a meeting of his monks in
Emsiedeln (Switzerland) to propose starting a foundation in the United States. The
proposal is approved. Abbot Henry appoints Fr. Ulrich Christen to be the superior
"explorer" and Fr. Bede O'Connor as his companion. They become known as
"Joshua and Caleb," as they search for a promised land.
December 20, 1852: Fathers Ulrich and Bede leave for America after a
"send-off rally" led by students Aloys (later Martin) Marty and Johann (later Fintan)
Mundwiler, who later become the first two abbots of Saint Meinrad.
January 2,1853: Before boarding the ship to America, Fathers Ulrich and
Bede stay in a London hotel. That evening, fire breaks out in the hotel, leading Fr.
Bede to comment later that they went through fire and water (the ocean voyage) to
make the foundation.
January 5,1853: The exploring monks leave Southampton on the Hermann
steamship, but rough seas force the captain and crew to return to the harbor.
January 10, 1853: The Hermann again leaves for America, but the raging
waves once more force the captain to delay the voyage and cast anchor alongside
the Isle of Wight.
January 13,1853: Finally, the ship sets sail again. During the voyage, Fr.
Ulrich takes English lessons from Fr. Bede.
January 31,1853: The ship arrives in New York.
February 4, 1853: The two monks set out to visit a young Benedictine
community, St. Vincent in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
February 10,1853: They leave for Pittsburgh on the way to Cincinnati. From
Cincinnati, a steamer takes them to Madison, Indiana.
February 18, 1853: The monks meet with Bishop Maurice de la Palms, of
31
February 18, 1853: The monks meet with Bishop Maurice de la Palms, of
the Diocese of Vincennes, who welcomes them and assures them of his support in
their efforts to find land for a foundation.
48.
vii.
49.
viii. MARIE ANNE LAENG was born on 08 Jun 1862 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She married Ignace Rhein, son of Jacques Rhein and Therese
Schmitt, on 22 Nov 1886. He was born in 1862.
50.
ix.
JOSEPH LAENG was born on 30 Mar 1864 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died in 1939 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France.
51.
x.
LOUISE LAENG was born on 15 May 1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany3. She died on 11 Dec 1954 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6. She married Joseph Rhein, son of
Jacques Rhein and Regine Kistler, on 03 May 1890 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas Rhin, France4. He was born on 13 Apr 1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany4. He died on 19 Mar
1927 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6.
xi.
ANTOINE LAENG was born on 07 Jun 1868 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
xii.
CAROLINE LAENG was born on 07 Jun 1868 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France.
ALEXANDRE LAENG was born on 08 Aug 1860 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 07 Mar 1928 in Jefferson County, Kentucky. He
married Louise Metz, daughter of Frederic Metz and Louise Schiess, in 1888 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany4. She was born in
Sep 1863 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She died before 1910.
xiii. ROSALIE LAENG was born on 02 Jul 1870 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
33.
MARCUS9 LAENG (Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3,
Durs2, Urs1) was born on 25 Apr 1831 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on
24 Sep 1901 in Venice Township, Seneca County, Ohio20. He married Philomena Margaret
Centner, daughter of Joseph Centner and Margaretha Rectewald, on 06 Sep 1860 in Holy Trinity,
Lower Hill District, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania21. She was born on 01 Jul 1842 in
Pitt Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania21. She died on 18 Jan 1884 in Venice Township,
Seneca County, Ohio20.
Notes for Marcus Laeng:
HERRLISHEIM TO AMERICA
Marcus Laeng, age 16, passenger number 129, family number 100304, (born April 25, 1831 in
Herrlisheim) arrived Port of New Orleans, Tuesday, December 28, 1847, on the ship Aurelius,
Crocker as the ship's Master, after a 46-day voyage from Havre. His father, Jean Michel Laeng, is
listed as Michel Laeng on the ship manifest, his age as 64 (born March 6, 1783 in Herrlisheim). His
family number is 100310 and his passenger number is 124. Also on the ship manifest for that
voyage, under family number 100304, are two other children of Jean Michel Laeng; Louise Laeng,
age 21 (born July 19, 1826) passenger number 128 and Balbine Laeng, age 10 (born April 25,
1835) passenger number 130.
32
21, family number 100302. There is a high degree of probability that this is Louise Adam, born
1824, Herrlisheim, daughter of Joseph Adam and Sophie Tablo and sister of Rosalie, born 1823,
who married a John Bauer and who is residing on Mary Street, 4th Ward, Pittsburgh, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania in 1880.
Listed as passenger number 126 is Salome Kistler, no family number, age 21. This is the youngest
daughter of Joseph Kistler and Catherine Alt who was born April 24, 1827 in Herrlisheim. Jean
George Laeng appears as a witness on her Act of Birth. Salome Kistler is a sponsor on August 10,
1851 at the baptism of her niece, Salome Durrstein, (daughter of Beatrix Mary Kistler and Jacob
Durrstein) at St. Philomena Catholic Church in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Passenger number 127 is Michel Kistler, age 16, no family number. This is Jean Michel Kistler,
born 1831, Herrlisheim and the brother of Salome. In the 1850 Federal Census for Pennsylvania,
Sara (Salome) Kistler, born in Germany in 1826, is residing in Ward 4, Pittsburgh, Allegheny
County, with Paul Hugus and his family. There is no occupation listed for Sara and she is listed as
not literate. Paul Hugus' occupation is listed as Dry Goods Merchant. Sara may have been working
as a servant or housekeeper for the Hugus family. Sara married Joannes Baptiste Hentgen,
February 23, 1854 in St. Philomena Catholic Church in Pittsburgh.
In the remarks section for Jean Michel Laeng appears the following notation "6 chests".
may have worked as weavers. At that time, the area of the former Lower Palatinate was across the
Herrlisheim.
carpenter.
33
factory.
Many Alsatians also began to sail for America, where after 1807 slave importation had been
banned and new workers were needed for the cotton fields. The history of Alsace states that many
American recruiters worked for ship owners and made promises, sometimes grandiose and
fictitious, to the Alsatians. Once they agreed and left Alsace, sometimes, surreptitiously, they often
found themselves forced into indentured servitude. This was so abused in fact that in 1818 the
Louisiana general assembly enacted legislation protecting the rights of such immigrants, which
sometimes led to new tactics such as ship owners demanding exorbitant passage fees. How long
they stayed in Mississippi and how Marcus got to Pittsburgh and Balbina eventually to Maine and
Rhode Island remains to be determined.
A possible connection follows. "The Bankston textile mill, Choctaw County, is regarded as
Laeng, Lang, Kistler, Zinger, Schmitt (Smith) or Young (Jung) in our line. I have noted it here for
Thomas C. Sweet who married Balbina Laeng, the sister of Marcus, was born in 1828 and raised in
Rhode Island. His occupation in the 1880 Federal Census is listed as "works in lace mill". He would
have been 19 years of age in 1847 and it may be that he accompanied the group that brought the
Semple steam engine to Mississippi. He enlisted in the Union Army in Massachusetts in 1862 and
he and Balbina were married in 1866. It may be that he stayed in Mississippi for a period of time
subsequent to 1847. It may be that Balbina, and perhaps others, went north to New England prior
to the Civil War to work in the textile industry. The latter two comments, while speculative, are
plausible, and are listed here for future reference. The question remains, why did Balbina go to
New England. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Picayune, December 28, 1847, B. 3, Col. 2; Registre Veritas, Vol. 17, p107, no.1885)
"Until 1860 the crossing is done on sail boats and lasts about five weeks, the steam boats reduce
the duration to 12 days from Hambourg or the Harve, but all immigrants are still traveling in the
hold. The boats chartered by the immigration agents or recruiters are in fact only commercial ships
not equipped for passengers. Trips are organized as follows: cotton is transported to Europe by
huge American vessels, often obliged to sail back empty. So the cost of cotton is calculated to
cover the round trip, and when a captain found a cargo for the return trip he was able to charge a
low price. This explains why the fares were sometimes very low: one could go from a French
34
harbor to New York for 50 to 60 francs. Remember that in Lorraine for example, a day laborer
eared between .50 and one franc per day, an artisan between .30 and .50 francs for lunch and a
mason 2.25 francs per day. After that the big recruiting companies organized the trips by offering a
contract to the immigrant, which allowed him or her to go to New York for about 150 francs from
Strasbourg, including victuals and luggage." (Source-Alsatiens et Lorraines en Algerie, Fabienne
Fischer)
IN PENNSYLVANIA
The Archives and Records Center of the Diocese of Pittsburgh advised that "Marcus Lang,
widower; Elsass, Herbisheim; son of Michael Lang and Maria Obermaier was married to Philomena
Zentner, Birmingham, America; daughter of Jos. Zentner and Magda P. Recktewald on September
6, 1860 at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church. Witnesses: Jos. Leibert, Phil. Jacob, both of
Reisville." The name Lang has an umlaut over the letter "a".
In a subsequent letter they advised that "The mother's names for all the grooms on this particular
page were shifted by one space, making the mother's name for one groom appear to be the next
groom's partents. The corrected entry should read "son of Michael Lang and Magdalena Lenger".
They also stated that "His place of birth is clearly written as Herbisheim, based on a comparison of
the other l's and b's found in the adjacent entries. Incorrect spellings are extremely common in the
early record books". An examination of a photocopy of the Act of Birth for Magdalena (Madeleine)
shows clearly that her maiden name is Zinger as is the Act of Birth for her sister, Catherine, and
their father, Jean Michel Zinger, all born in Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. Also, her
marriage license clearly states her maiden name as Zinger, daughter of Jean Michel Zinger.
The reference to Herbisheim above is incorrect or it may be that the individual entering the initial
marriage information wrote Herlisheim and the fourth letter was mistaken for a 'b'. I wrote to Mairie
de Herbsheim (located about 30 miles south of Herrlisheim and 18.6 miles south of Strasbourg)
and requested a copy of the Act of Birth of Michel Laeng, Marie Obermaier, and Marcus Laeng in
the relative time period and received a reply stating that no record of an Act of Birth for any of
these individuals was found in the birth register of Herbsheim.
The weight of evidence clearly points to the fact that Marcus' mother is Madeleine nee Zinger and
is not nee Lenger and that he was born in Herrlisheim. I have elected not to pursue this further.
As to Marcus' first wife, the Archives and Records Center said there were no Laeng (1) deaths at
Holy Trinity prior to September, 1860, and (2) entries in the records of St. Philomena, Strip District
(closest parish to Holy Trinity) from 1850 to 1860.
Birmingham was an area now known as South Side, Pittsburgh. Philomena was 18 years of age
when she married in 1860. Her father died in 1857and her mother in 1858. She may have worked
as a servant. Reisville was in the lower Hill District of Pittsburgh.
Marcus' grave site marker at New Washington Cemetery, New Washington, Crawford County,
Ohio, reads "Here rests Markus Laeng, Died Sep 24, 1901, Aged 70y 5 m." This would place his
date of birth as April 24, 1831, which is one day different from the date of birth of April 25, 1831 on
The Act of Birth in Herrlisheim. I suspect that an error of one day may have been made when
calculating his date of birth for the grave site marker. Additionally, his name on the grave site
marker is shown as Markus whereas, his name is listed as Marcus on various other records
including church and census records. I have no explanation for this.
The baptismal record for (1) Maria Margaretha indicates that Marcus and Philomena and family
were residing in Oakland in May 1867 and (2) Josephus Franciscus indicates they were residing on
Gist Street in the 14th ward. The 1870 Federal Census for Pennsyvania, 14h Ward, Pittsburgh
enumerated on July 9, 1870 lists Marks Longe as residing at dwelling and house number 262-262.
His age is 38, born Hesse, occupation is roller of (?) forge. Philomena, age 38 , born Pennsylvania,
occupation, keeps house. Children are Mary, age 8, Theresa, age 7, Joseph, age 5, Maggie, age
35
occupation, keeps house. Children are Mary, age 8, Theresa, age 7, Joseph, age 5, Maggie, age
3, and Frank, age 8/12 Oct. Gist Street is in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The present day
area is close to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Gist Street is above the Monogahela
River and I suspect that Marcus as a roller worked in one of the mills along the river. He could
have easily walked to work. The listing of his place of birth as Hesse is interesting. Herrlisheim in
low Alsace prior to the end of the Thirty Year's War in 1648 was part of the County of
Hanau-Lichtenberg, House of Hesse Darmstart and was part of the Habsburg lands.
I have been unable to locate Marcus Laeng (Lang), Jos. Leibert, and Phil. Jacob, in any census
records for Pittsburgh or Allegheny County in 1850 and 1860.
The following information was extracted from the Archives of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Holy Trinity
Parish Baptismal Records. Christian names are in Latin which was the practice at that time.
Mar. Katharina, born 15 Jun 1861; baptized 23 Jun 1861; father: Marcus Laeng, Elsass;
mother: Philom. Zentner, Amerika; sponsors: Peter Zentner, M. Kath. Dollinger
Theresia, born 17 Nov 1862; baptized 23 Nov 1862; father: Marcus Laeng, Elsass; mother:
Philom. Centner, Amerika; sponsors: Georg and Theresia Fraas
Josephus Ignatius, born 1 Feb 1865; baptized 5 Feb 1865; residence: 8th ward; father:
Marcus Lang, Elsass; mother: Philomena Zentner, Pittsburg; sponsors: John Dietrich, 6th wd; Ann
Schnttenger, 6th wd
Maria Margareth, born 26 May 1867; baptized 2 Jun 1867; father: Markus Lang, Ellsas;
residence: Oakland; mother: Philomina Zentner, Birmingham; sponsors: A.M. Bauerhen,
Birmingham; Jos. Rectewald, Laurensville
Josephus Franciscus, born 3 Oct 1869; baptized 17 Oct 1869; father: Marcus Lang,
Alsatia; residence: Gist St., 14th wd; mother: Philomena Zentner, Pittsburgh; sponsors: Michael
Gala, Gettys Run, Sharpsburgh; Margaretha Zentner, 8th wd
Maria Josephina, born 14 Apr 1872; baptized 14 Apr 1872; father: Marcus Laeng, Gallia;
mother: Philomena Zentner; sponsors: Petrus Zentner, Maria Shneider (later married Joseph Peter
Centner).
Holy Trinity Death Records
Franciscus Ignatius Laeng; died 15 Jul 1871; buried 16 Jul 1871; age: 21 months; son of Marcus
and Philomena Laeng. This appears to be Joseph Franciscus baptized in 1869.
The several directories for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County as listed in the Digital Research
Library of the University of Pittsburgh Library System list Marcus Laeng's occupation/residence as
follows.
G.A. Thurston Directory, year 1874, occupation roller, address 26 Graff & Bennett's row, Millvale
Borough.
G.A. Thurston Directory, year 1875, occupation roller, address 9 River Ave, Millvale Borough.
The information for the year 1875 was the same information as listed in the directories for 1876,
1877 and 1878.
R.L Polk for the years 1889, 1899 and 1900 list a Marcus Laeng as a laborer residing at 5132
Butler Avenue. They do not indicate whether this is in Pittsburgh or elsewhere in Allegheny County.
I am unable to account for this Marcus Laeng as our Marcus Laeng was in Ohio at this time.
IN OHIO
36
Marcus Laeng and his family came to Venice Township in 1878. He is listed in the 1880 Federal
Census for Ohio and residing in Venice Township, Seneca County, Ohio. The 1900 Federal
Census for Ohio for Venice Township, Seneca County, enumerated on June 9, 1900, lists a
Marcus Laeng, born April 1829, age 70 at last birthday. The age is correct but the year of birth
does not agree (1) with the date on the Act of Birth and (2) the derived date of birth from the grave
site marker. I have no explanation for this other than the census enumerator may have asked for
his age and then may have miscalculated his year of birth which was not uncommon. Marcus is
listed as owning property, is retired and is a U.S. citizen. It states that he immigrated in 1840 (in
error, correct date is 1847) and has been in the United States for 60 years. On the line above the
entry for Marcus, the census enumerator lists a Rose Marshall, born in Germany, who immigrated
in 1847. Did the census enumerator make a transposition and enter the data on the incorrect line?
Many of the census enumerators took the information on separate sheets of paper and later
entered it on the 'somewhat large census listing sheets'. It may be that this is what happened here.
I do not know.
Also listed as residing at the same location as Marcus in the 1900 census are a son, Anthony, a
farmer, born August 1874 in Pennsylvania and a daughter, Philomena, born, September 1878 in
Ohio.
Seneca County is in North central Ohio. The county seat is Tiffin and is located about 60 miles
slightly Southeast of Toledo and about 180 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. In the late 19th century,
a line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran through Venice Township and may have been the
transportation taken by Marcus Laeng on the visits to Pittsburgh as described below.
The valuation and taxation of Venice Township in 1884-85 are as follows: Acres of land in
township, 24, 575, valued at $780,200, and personal property at $276, 910. The population of
Venice Township (including Attica 663), in 1880, was 2,231.
In the summer of 1913 or 1914, Joseph Peter Rhein, born March 16, 1895 spent the summer on
the farm on his cousins in Ohio. I believe this was the farm of James McCarthy (husband of Mary
Katharine Laeng his first cousin once removed) at New Washington Village, Crawford County,
Ohio located North of Columbus and about 20 miles Southwest of Tiffin, the county seat of Seneca
County. New Washington Village is about 150 miles Northwest of Pittsburgh. The Rhein family
album contains a number of wonderful pictures on what appears to be a Sunday afternoon picnic
on a beautiful, prosperous looking farm. The young women are all dressed in long white dresses
and the young men are wearing white shirts and ties, some with a vest. Also, there are other
pictures of my father and his cousins working on the farm. Unfortunately, there are no names or a
location given. In 1913 my father would have been 18 years of age. The children of James
McCarthy and their ages in 1913 are as follows: Francis 25, Edward 23, Aloysius 22, Clement 20,
Theresa Philomena 18 and Frederick 15.
Marcus Laeng had an older brother, Jean Michel Laeng, born July 17, 1817 in Herrlisheim. The
1870 Federal Census for Venice Township, Seneca County, Ohio enumerated on June 24, 1870
(Post Office Bloomsville) lists a Michael Lang (listed as Lang not Laeng) farmer, age 53 born in
France with a value of real estate of $1,800 and personal property of $700. His wife's first name is
Margaret, age 49, and her place of birth is Hess-Darmstadt. The children are listed as August, age
15, Louisa, age 14, George, age 12, (all listed as being at home), Peter, age 8, attending school,
Ludwich, age 5, Joseph, age 3, and Michael, age 1. All the children were born in Ohio. Also listed
as residing with the family is Ann Haweswetzel, age 12, born in Ohio, relationship unknown. This
would place Michael in Ohio as early as 1855. The 1880 Federal Census for Ohio, enumerated
June 7, 1880, lists a Michael Laeng, farmer, age 62 (would have been born in 1817 or 1818), with
his wife, Margaret, both born in Germany. There are five children. All the children were born in
Ohio. The oldest child is son Peter, born 1861 and the youngest child is daughter Mary, born 1873.
John Dannemiller, age 69, born in Germany is listed as residing in the next household. I have not
been able to locate any other Laengs in Ohio at that time other than a Christian Laeng, farmer, age
40, also residing in Venice Township, born in Pennsylvania as were his parents. Michael and his
wife do not appear on the 1890 or 1900 Federal Census for Ohio, either individually or as a couple
37
wife do not appear on the 1890 or 1900 Federal Census for Ohio, either individually or as a couple
or with son Peter who is a farmer and is residing in Groton Township, Erie County, Ohio in 1900.
Jean Michel Michael) died January 4, 1892 and Margarethe died in 1890. As both Marcus and
Michael were residing in the same Enumeration Disrict 212 in the 1880 Census and given the
approximate date of Michael's birth, there is a high degree of probability he is Jean Michael Laeng,
the brother of Marcus. I have often wondered what brought Marcus to Ohio from Pennsylvania and
it may have been as a result of his older brother. I have listed him as a brother of Marcus.
IN PENNSYLVANIA, AGAIN
Marcus Laeng was in Pittsburgh on May 17, 1891 and was a sponsor at the baptism of Rosa
Angela Rhein, daughter of Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng Rhein, at St. Augustine Church located
in the Lawrenceville section. Angela Mertzin was also a sponsor.
Marcus Laeng was in Pittsburgh again on February 1, 1900 and was a sponsor at the baptism of
Aloysius Ralph Rhein, son of Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng Rhein, at St. Augustine Church.
Margaretha Centner, his sister in law, was also a sponsor.
AT REST IN OHIO
From the Crawford County News, Friday October 4, 1901. "Markus Laeng, whose demise occurred
last Tuesday evening, September 24, was born April 25, at Herrlisheim, Alsace, France, now a
province of Germany. He came to America in 1847 and settled at Pittsburg, Pa., where he was
married to Philomena Centner, in September 1860. After living in Pittsburgh for a number of years,
he with his family came to Venice township, Seneca county, in 1879 and settled upon a farm. After
living here a few years, his wife was called away by death on January 25, 1894. To this union were
born eleven children, seven of whom are still living, one being in Pittsburg, two at Crestline and the
rest living in and about this community and one sister, Mrs. Balbina Sweet, at Westerly, Rhode
Island, and other relatives. The funeral occurred Friday afternoon at St. Bernard's Catholic Church
in New Washington, conducted by Rev. Fr. Kunert."
Last Will and Testament of Marcus Laeng
In the name of the benevolent Father of all, I, Marcus Laeng do make and disclose this my last Will
and Testament, revoking and making null and void all former Wills by me made.
Item one (1) :- It is my will that all my personal estate (Except Household Goods and Wearing
Apparel), be converted to money as soon after my decease as convenient and the proceeds
derived there from shall be first used to pay all my just debts, funeral expenses and monument,
then any executor hereinafter named is hereby authorized to sell real estate sufficient to pay such
balance.
Item two (2) :- It is my desire and will that my son Anthony Laeng, have first privilege to buy my
farm, consisting of one hundred acres in Venice township Seneca County, Ohio, on conditions as
follows, to wit - my said son Anthony, is to pay to each of his brothers and sisters or their heirs the
following sums of money. To my daughter Maggie Dannemiller $490 eleven years after my
decease, without interest, to my son Joseph Laeng, $490 twelve years after my decease, without
interest, to my daughter Josophena Laeng $490 thirteen years after my decease, without interest,
to my daughter Philomena Laeng $690 fourteen years after my decease, without interest, to my
daughter Terresa Laeng $200 fifteen years after my decease, without interest. In the event my son,
Anthony Laeng, does not want to take my said farm, on the conditions above recited, then I devise
and will that my said son Anthony Laeng, shall have the occupancy and use of said land rent free,
for then years after my decease, except such time and years that my daughters, Josophena and
Philomena shall remain on said premises, as housekeepers and helpers on the farm during such
time that they so help him, my said son shall give to each of my said daughters, Josophena and
Philomena, a one fourth part of the income of such farm. After ten years from the date of my
decease, I do desire and decree, that my said land shall be sold and proceeds divided as follows. It
is my will that my son Anthony Laeng and my daughters Josophena Laeng and Philomena Laeng
38
is my will that my son Anthony Laeng and my daughters Josophena Laeng and Philomena Laeng
each first receive out of the proceeds of such sale of my land the sum of $200. My daughter
Terresa Laeng is to have $200 this being her full devise and all that she is to receive out of my
Estate. The balance and remainder is to be equally divided, share for share among my following
children, Mary McCarthy, Maggie Dannemiller, Joseph Laeng, Josophena Laeng, Philomena
Laeng and Anthony Laeng.
Item three (3) :- I do nominate and appoint my son Anthony Laeng, Executor of this my Last Will
and Testament granting him power to sell and convey by deed real estate as directed to be sold
herein and to do all and singular the things required herein.
Item four (4) :- I do decree and will that in the event that any one or more of my said children do
resort to process of law to change or alter any of the conditions or provisions of this my Last Will
and Testatment, such child or children shall receive but five ($5) dollars each as his or her full
devise of my said estate.
Witness my hand this 29 day of July 1897. (signed) Markus Laeng
Subscribed by Marcus Laeng, in our presence and acknowledged by him to be his last will and
testament and subscribed by us in his presence, this 29 day of July 1897.
(signed) J. Michel Felder, Jr.
(signed) F. J. Miller
New Washington, Ohio
(Source - Copied from a photocopy of the handwritten will included with "Laeng, Bellow & Bouvier
Family Tree", Compiled by Caryl Ann Densley, December 2001)
It is clear from reading the document that Marcus Laeng signed his first name as 'Markus'. As the
name 'Markus' also appears on his gravesite marker, it may be that he Anglicized it in his later
years. (Note to File by JP Rhein)
EPILOGUE
Further work will need to be done to complete the interesting saga of Marcus Laeng who came to
the United States as a young boy. Where did the family reside after arriving at New Orleans? Who
did his father, the older daughter and others work for? When and how did Marcus get to
Pittsburgh? Who was his first wife and did they have any children? What motivated him to move to
Ohio and take up farming?
(Notes to File - J.P. Rhein)
Marcus Laeng and Philomena Margaret Centner had the following children:
52.
i.
MARY KATHARINE10 LAENG was born on 15 Jun 1861 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania. She died on 24 Aug 1924 in New Washington, Cranberry
Township, Crawford County, Ohio. She married James McCarthy between
1881-1887. He was born on 24 Jun 1846 in New Washington, Cranberry Township,
Crawford County, Ohio28. He died on 26 Jun 1930.
ii.
THERESA LAENG was born on 17 Nov 1862 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. She died on 07 Mar 1939 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
39
Pennsylvania. She died on 07 Mar 1939 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. She married W. H. SMITH.
Notes for Theresa Laeng:
Obituary from the New Washington, Ohio, newspaper August 24, 1924.
"Mrs. Mary (Laeng) McCarthy, wife of James McCarthy, died at her home Friday,
August 15, after an illness of several months duration.
She was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., June 15, 1861 and resided there until 1878, when
with her parents she came to New Washington where she spent the greater part of
her life.
On June 15, 1887 she was united in marriage to James McCarthy. To this union
were born ten children, 5 having preceded her departure, two dying in infancy and
three, Francis, Aloysius and Leo in early manhood.
She leaves to mourn her death, her bereaved husband, three sons, Edward of
Columbus, Clement of Galion and Fred of Mansfield: two daughters, Teresa of
Toledo and Cecelia at home. Also a grandson and a grand daughter.
Those in attendance from a distance were:
Mrs. W. H Smith (Theresa Laeng), Mrs. Henry Bracht (Margaret Philomena
Centner), Mrs. Mary Acherhart (should be Centner Oxanhart), Mrs. Jos. Rhein
(Louise Laeng), Mark and John Centner, Pittsburgh, Pa.; B. A. Laeng, Mrs. Ed
Weatt, Tiffin; Mr. and Mrs. J. I Laeng and family, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kaple, Mrs.
Tim McCarthy, son Clement and daughter Bertha, Crestline; Mr. and Mrs. F. C.
Dannenmiller (Maria Margaret Laeng), daughter Minnie, Mrs. John Ball and Mrs.
Roma Dentinger (Agnes Cecelia Dannenmiller), St. Stephen; Mr. and Mrs. and
Justin McCarthy, Shelby; Henry Rall and son George, Upper Sandusky.
Card of Thanks
We wish to thank the Reverend Pastor, the choir, and all neighbors, relatives and
friends who were ever ready to assist us in the sickness, death and burial of our
beloved wife and mother. James McCarthy and children."
53.
iii.
JOSEPH IGNATIUS LAENG was born on 01 Feb 1865 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. He died on 07 Dec 1931 in Crestline, Crawford County, Ohio. He
married (1) MARY ELIZABETH BOUVIER on 29 Oct 1901 in Antwerp, Pauding County,
Ohio22. She was born on 17 Jul 1878 in Antwerp, Paulding County, Ohio. She died
on 05 Sep 1946 in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio. He married (2) ANNA M. KREIM
about 1890. She was born on 22 Feb 1869. She died on 04 Apr 1894.
54.
iv.
MARIA MARGARET LAENG was born on 26 May 1867 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. She died on 10 Nov 1937 in Bloom Township, Seneca County, Ohio.
She married Frank C. Dannemiller, son of Jean Henri Dannemiller and Marie Gross,
in 1887 in New Washington, Crawford County, Ohio. He was born on 04 Dec 1862
in Stark County, Ohio. He died on 25 Feb 1950 in Seneca County, Ohio.
v.
JOSEPH FRANCIS LAENG was born on 03 Oct 1869 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. He died on 15 Jul 1871 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
vi.
MARIA JOSEPHINE LAENG was born on 14 Apr 1872 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. She married Frank J. Kaple, son of Andrew Kaple and Caroline nee
unknown, in 1900 in Ohio. He was born in 1868 in Crawford County, Ohio19.
Notes for Frank J. Kaple:
The Federal Census for 1910, Ohio, Crawford County, Jackson Township, Crestline
Village, enumerated on April 15, 1910 lists a Frank J. Kapel, age 42, married 10
years, born in Ohio, his father born in Germany and his mother born in Ohio,
residing at West Bucyrus Street with his wife Josephine M., age 38, married 10
years, no children. She was born in Pennsylvania as was her mother. Her father
40
was born in Germany. His occupation is Jacket Builder, Furnace.
The Federal Census for 1930, Ohio, Crawford County, Jackson Township, Crestline
Villiage, enumerated on April 4, 1930, lists a Frank J.Kaple, age 62, wife Josephine,
age 57, with a value of real estate of $5,050. His occupation is Molder, Stove
Factory. Residing three doors away is Joseph I. Laeng, brother-in-law and family.
vii.
BERNARD ANTHONY LAENG was born on 01 Aug 1874 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania. He died on 31 Oct 1944.
viii. PHILOMENA LAENG was born on 19 Sep 1879 in Venice Township, Seneca County,
Ohio. She died on 11 Jan 1911 in Venice Township, Seneca County, Ohio.
34.
BALBINE9 LAENG (Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3,
Durs2, Urs1) was born on 25 Apr 1835 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died in
191422. She married Thomas C. Sweet, son of Thomas Sweet, in 186623. He was born in 1828 in
Rhode Island23. He died before 1900.
Notes for Balbine Laeng:
Jean Michel Laeng, born March 6, 1783 in Herrlisheim, arrived Port of New Orleans, Tuesday,
December 28, 1847, on the ship Aurelius, Crocker as the ship's Master, after a 46-day voyage from
Havre. His name is listed as Michel Laeng on the ship manifest, his age as 64. His family number
is 100310 and his passenger number is 124. Also on the ship manifest for that voyage, under
family number 100304, are the three youngest children of Jean Michel Laeng; Louise Laeng, age
21 (born July 19, 1826) passenger number 128, Marcus Laeng, age 16 (born April 25, 1831)
passenger number 129, and Balbine Laeng, age 10 (born April 25, 1835) passenger number 130.
21, family number 100302, as passenger number 126 is Salome Kistler, no family number, age 21.
(this is the youngest daughter of Joseph Kistler and Catherine Alt who was born April 24, 1827 in
Herrlisheim. Jean George Laeng appears as a witness on her Act of Birth) and, as passenger
number 127 is Michel Kistler, age 16, no family number, who may be the brother of Salome.
In the remarks section for Jean Michel Laeng appears the following notation "6 chests".
may have worked as weavers. At that time, the area of the former Lower Palatinate was across the
Herrlisheim.
41
carpenter.
factory. How long they stayed in Mississippi and how Marcus got to Pittsburgh and Balbina
eventually to Maine and Rhode Island remains to be determined.
A possible connection follows. "The Bankston textille mill, Choctaw County, is regarded as
Laeng, Lang, Kistler, Linger, Schmitt (Smith) or Young (Jung) in our line. I have noted it here for
Thomas C. Sweet who married Balbina Laeng, the sister of Marcus, was born in 1828 and raised in
Rhode Island. His occupation in the 1880 Federal Census lists his occupation as "works in lace
mill". He would have been 19 years of age in 1847 and it may be that he accompanied the group
that brought the Semple steam engine to Mississippi. He enlisted in the Union Army in
Massachusetts in 1862 and he and Balbina were married in 1866. It may be that he stayed in
Mississippi for a period of time subsequent to 1847. It may be that Balbina, and perhaps others,
went north to New England prior to the Civil War to work in the textile industry. The latter two
comments, while speculative, are plausible, and are listed here for future reference. The question
remains, why did Balbina go to New England. According to the Federal Census for 1900, Balbine
Laeng is residing in Stonington, New London County, Connecticut. She married Thomas Sweet,
had four children, three living, son William Sweet born in Maine January 1878. (Note to File - JP
Rhein)
42
Picayune, December 28, 1847, B. 3, Col. 2; Registre Veritas, Vol. 17, p107, no.1885) (Note to File
- J.P. Rhein)
Notes for Thomas C. Sweet:
The 7th Regiment Infantry was organized at Taunton and mustered in June 15, 1861. Mustered out
July 1864 at the expiratin of its term, Among other battles, it fought at the Siege of Yorktown April 5
- May 4, 1862, Battle of Antietam September 18, 1862, Battle of Fredericksburg December 12 - 15,
1862, Chancellorsville April 27 - May 6, 1863, Battle of Gettysburg July 2 - 4, 1863, Battles of the
Wilderness May 5 - 7, Spottsylvania May 8 - 12, Spottsylvania Court House May 12 21, Bloody
Angle May 12, North Anna River May 23 - 26 and Cold Harbor June 1 - 12, 1864. Regiment lost
during service 4 Officers, 76 Enlisted men killed and mortally woulnded and 2 Officers and 72
Enlisted men by disease. Total 154. (Source - Extracts from History of the Union Army)
See Notes Section for Anthony McKinney for more details on the History of the Civil War and the
Army of the Potomac. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Thomas C. Sweet and Balbine Laeng had the following children:
55.
35.
i.
GEORGE B.10 SWEET was born in 1872 in Maine29.
ii.
MARY L. SWEET was born in 1877 in New Hampshire29.
iii.
WILLIAM A. SWEET was born in Jan 1878 in Maine23. He married Sarah F. nee
unknown in 1907. She was born in 1882 in Rhode Island.
ALOISE9 KISTLER (Maria Anna8 Laeng, Philippe7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng,
Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 04 Apr 1816 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He married Catherine Sattler after 1836.
Notes for Aloise Kistler:
In 1836 Aloise Kistler, age 20, is residing at 43 Steinstrasse, Herrlisheim, with his widowed mother,
Maria Anna Laeng, and siblings. (Source - 1836 Census of the Cantons of Bischwiller and
Haguenau.)
Aloise Kistler and Catherine Sattler had the following children:
36.
56.
i.
BALBINA10 KISTLER was born on 12 Jul 1849 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. She married PIERRE THOMAS II. He was born on 30 Oct 1849 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
57.
ii.
PHILOMENE KISTLER was born on 05 Dec 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. She married LOUIS HEITZ. He was born on 20 Mar 1846 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
MARIE LOUISE9 LAENG (Mathieu8, Melchior7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3,
Durs2, Urs1) was born on 24 Mar 1818 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died
on 08 Oct 1896 in Quesnoy sur Deule, France. She married Jacob Clamer, son of Johannes
Michael Clamer and Catherine Gnmper, on 13 Aug 1839 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Province of
Alsace, France. He was born on 11 Sep 1806 in Lembach, Bas-Rhin, France5. He died on 23 May
1864 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5.
Jacob Clamer and Marie Louise Laeng had the following child:
58.
37.
i.
ALEXE10 CLAMER was born on 09 Sep 1848 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France5. He married Marie Henrietta Joseph Hornet on 05 May 1873 in Comines,
France5. She was born on 08 Nov 1850 in Comines, France5. She died on 29 Oct
1894 in Quesnoy sur Dele, France5.
MARIE ANNE9 GROSS (Catherine8 Laeng, Antoine7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng,
Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 18 Nov 1816 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She married Joseph Pfaadt in 1836 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He was born in 1807 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France`.
Joseph Pfaadt and Marie Anne Gross had the following child:
43
59.
38.
i.
CAROLINE10
PFAADT was born on 17 Sep 1838 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. She married ANDRE PFAADT. He was born on 08 Mar 1827 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
MATHIEU9 LAENG (Jean Georges8, Antoine7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans Jacob3,
Durs2, Urs1) was born on 24 Feb 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France3. He died in
191511. He married Madeline Keith, daughter of Jean Keith and Catherine Bur, on 05 May 1871 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhein, France11. She was born on 06 Jul 1845 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. She died on 05 Nov 1910 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France11.
Mathieu Laeng and Madeline Keith had the following children:
39.
60.
i.
CHARLES10 LAENG was born on 10 Jun 1879 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany11. He died on 02 Aug 191511. He married Marie Louise
Rhein, daughter of Pierre Rhein and Therese Becker, on 11 Jun 1914 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany11. She was born on 03 Nov 1887 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany11. She died on 04 Aug 1965
in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
61.
ii.
CATHERINE LAENG was born on 02 Feb 1875 in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She
married Ernest Auguste Ullmann on 06 Jul 1900 in Bischeim, Bas-Rhin, France.
AMELIA9 FRAUEL (Francois Antoine8, Jean Michel7, Marie Catherine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng,
Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born in 1838 in Offendorff,
Bas-Rhin, France. She married FREDERICK BRETIENWISCHER.
Notes for Amelia Frauel:
Unless otherwise noted information on Amelia Frauel, her husband and descendants taken from
Family Tree - Lager Diebolt Rausch Laub Genealogy Page, Ancestry.com., submitted by Fred
Lager. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Frederick Bretienwischer and Amelia Frauel had the following child:
i.
40.
LOUISA A.10 BRETIENWISCHER. She married JOSEPH EMMERICH. He was born on 30
Aug 1855 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He died in Feb 1904.
REGINE9 KISTLER (Daniel8, Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng,
Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 28 Apr 1827 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died after 1880 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin,
France. She married Jacques Rhein, son of Antoine Rhein and Marie Anne Kistler, on 24 Jun 1850
in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He was born on 28 Feb 1820 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 06 Apr 1888 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin,
France11.
Notes for Jacques Rhein:
The legal age of majority in France was set in 1803 at 21 years (lowered in 1974 to 18 years).
However, there was an exception in the case of marriage: a man younger than 25 (and a woman
younger than 21) needed the consent of their parents in order to marry. If there was disagreement
between the parents, it was sufficient to have consent of the father. If one parent was dead or
incapable of indicating consent, the consent of the remaining parent was sufficient. If both parents
were dead or incapable of indicating consent, the grandparents took their place.
Even after having reached 25 (21 for women) it was still required for the prospective bride and
groom to make a formal, respectful request to their parents for their counsel regarding the marriage
-- this was necessary until the groom had reached 30 and the bride 25. If the parents were
opposed to the marriage, this formal request was required to be repeated two more times, once a
month. One month after a third unsuccessful request the marriage could go ahead.
And even after a prospective groom had reached 30 he was still required to make this formal
request to his parents. In the event of an objection on the part of his parents he could go ahead
with the marriage one month later.
44
If the parents and grandparents were all dead or all incapable of indicating consent, it was
necessary for anyone younger than 21 to obtain consent of the conseil de famille.
There were stiff penalties for civil officials who didn't enforce these regulations.
The conseil de famille was composed of a justice of the peace and six blood relatives or relatives
by marriage, half from the father's
side and half from the mother's side. (There were more complex regulations for the composition of
the group, but this is the basic idea.)
"Son Tuteur", means the groom's guardian, usually appointed to that position by the groom's father
just prior to his death, or by the groom's mother after her husband's death, or by the grandparents,
or by the conseil de famille.
This is all from Le Code Civil (also known as the Code NapolTon), the body of French civil law first
promulgated in 1803.
(Source - Robert Behra)
Jacques Rhein and Regine Kistler had the following children:
62.
63.
i.
ANASTASE10 RHEIN was born on 10 Mar 1851 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 24 Mar 1851 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France11.
ii.
ROSALIE RHEIN was born on 16 Jan 1853 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iii.
MARIE RHEIN was born on 17 May 1855 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died on 25 May 1855 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11.
iv.
ANTOINE RHEIN was born on 02 Apr 1856 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 29 Sep 191911.
v.
THERESA RHEIN was born on 17 Feb 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died on 09 Apr 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11.
vi.
THERESA RHEIN was born in Feb 1859 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died on 22 Jun 1859 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11.
vii.
JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 20 Apr 1860 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 13 Nov 1865 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
viii. PIERRE RHEIN was born on 11 Aug 1862 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 19 Mar 1929 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
He married Therese Becker, daughter of Thibaud Becker and Marie Anne Fritsch,
on 01 Mar 1886 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. She was born on
14 Jan 1865 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. She died on 10 Nov
ix.
FELIX RHEIN was born on 03 Mar 1864 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 08 Feb 1865 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
x.
JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 13 Apr 1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany4. He died on 19 Mar 1927 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6. He married Louise Laeng, daughter
of Alexandre Laeng and Francoise Pfaadt, on 03 May 1890 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France4. She was born on 15 May 1866 in Commune de
45
Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany3. She
died on 11 Dec 1954 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6.
41.
JOSEPH9 KISTLER (Andre8, Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng,
Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 20 Mar 1823 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France13. He married Anastase Huck, daughter of Ursule Huck, on 19 Apr
1845 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France13. She was born on 06 Jan 1825 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France13.
Joseph Kistler and Anastase Huck had the following child:
64.
42.
i.
JACQUES10 KISTLER was born on 05 Sep 1850 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France13. He married ELISABETH LIESS. She was born on 26 Oct 1854 in
Drusenheim.
JACQUES9 RHEIN (Marie Anne8 Kistler, Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng,
Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 28 Feb 1820 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 06 Apr 1888 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France11. He married Regine Kistler, daughter of Daniel Kistler and
Catherine Klein, on 24 Jun 1850 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She was born on
28 Apr 1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. She died after 1880 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France.
Notes for Jacques Rhein:
The legal age of majority in France was set in 1803 at 21 years (lowered in 1974 to 18 years).
However, there was an exception in the case of marriage: a man younger than 25 (and a woman
younger than 21) needed the consent of their parents in order to marry. If there was disagreement
between the parents, it was sufficient to have consent of the father. If one parent was dead or
incapable of indicating consent, the consent of the remaining parent was sufficient. If both parents
were dead or incapable of indicating consent, the grandparents took their place.
Even after having reached 25 (21 for women) it was still required for the prospective bride and
groom to make a formal, respectful request to their parents for their counsel regarding the marriage
-- this was necessary until the groom had reached 30 and the bride 25. If the parents were
opposed to the marriage, this formal request was required to be repeated two more times, once a
month. One month after a third unsuccessful request the marriage could go ahead.
And even after a prospective groom had reached 30 he was still required to make this formal
request to his parents. In the event of an objection on the part of his parents he could go ahead
with the marriage one month later.
If the parents and grandparents were all dead or all incapable of indicating consent, it was
necessary for anyone younger than 21 to obtain consent of the conseil de famille.
There were stiff penalties for civil officials who didn't enforce these regulations.
The conseil de famille was composed of a justice of the peace and six blood relatives or relatives
by marriage, half from the father's
side and half from the mother's side. (There were more complex regulations for the composition of
the group, but this is the basic idea.)
"Son Tuteur", means the groom's guardian, usually appointed to that position by the groom's father
just prior to his death, or by the groom's mother after her husband's death, or by the grandparents,
or by the conseil de famille.
This is all from Le Code Civil (also known as the Code NapolTon), the body of French civil law first
promulgated in 1803.
(Source - Robert Behra)
46
Jacques Rhein and Regine Kistler had the following children:
62.
63.
43.
i.
ANASTASE10 RHEIN was born on 10 Mar 1851 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France4. She died on 24 Mar 1851 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France11.
ii.
ROSALIE RHEIN was born on 16 Jan 1853 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4.
iii.
MARIE RHEIN was born on 17 May 1855 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died on 25 May 1855 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11.
iv.
ANTOINE RHEIN was born on 02 Apr 1856 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 29 Sep 191911.
v.
THERESA RHEIN was born on 17 Feb 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died on 09 Apr 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11.
vi.
THERESA RHEIN was born in Feb 1859 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died on 22 Jun 1859 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11.
vii.
JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 20 Apr 1860 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 13 Nov 1865 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
viii. PIERRE RHEIN was born on 11 Aug 1862 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 19 Mar 1929 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
He married Therese Becker, daughter of Thibaud Becker and Marie Anne Fritsch,
on 01 Mar 1886 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. She was born on
14 Jan 1865 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. She died on 10 Nov
ix.
FELIX RHEIN was born on 03 Mar 1864 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 08 Feb 1865 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
x.
JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 13 Apr 1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg,
Bas-Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany4. He died on 19 Mar 1927 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6. He married Louise Laeng, daughter
of Alexandre Laeng and Francoise Pfaadt, on 03 May 1890 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France4. She was born on 15 May 1866 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany3. She
died on 11 Dec 1954 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6.
AMBROISE9 RHEIN (Marie Anne8 Kistler, Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng,
Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 31 Mar 1831 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. He died on 06 Dec 191211. He married (1)
CATHERINE KORMANN. He married (2) ANASTASE NOE.
Ambroise Rhein and Anastase Noe had the following child:
i.
CAROLINE RHEIN was born on 07 Mar 1858 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France`. She married FELIX HEITZ. He was born on 09 Sep 1850 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Generation 10
44.
JEAN BAPTISTE10 HEITZ (Amand9, Jacques8, Marie Salome7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng,
Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 23
Jun 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`. He married Rosalie Becker on 01 Sep
1869 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She was born on 24 Nov 1846 in Commune
de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
Jean Baptiste Heitz and Rosalie Becker had the following child:
47
i.
45.
ALEXANDRE11
HEITZ was born on 15 Dec 1890 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. He died on 04 Jan 1975 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France. He married Josephine Kistler, daughter of Armand Kistler and
Therese Pfaadt, on 13 Feb 1922 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
She was born on 12 Dec 1896 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine,
Germany.
AUGUSTUS10 LAENG (Jean Michel9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born in Jul 1855 in Clinton Township, Seneca County,Ohio. He died
in 1919 in Clinton Township, Seneca County, Ohio. He married Anne nee unknown about 1880.
She was born in Oct 1858.
Notes for Augustus Laeng:
In June 1900 August Laeng (surname listed as Lang), age 44, married 20 years, occupation, glass
gatherer, is residing in Tiffin City, Clinton County, Ohio, with his wife Anne, age 42, keeping house,
and children; Albert, age 19, occupation glass gatherer, Rudolph, age 16, occupation glass
gatherer, Nellie, age 12, at school, Josephine, age 10, at school, and Rosa, age 2. Anne is listed
as having six children with five living. (Source - 1900 Federal Census for Ohio, Tiffin City, Clinton
County, enumerated on June 12, 1900.)
Augustus Laeng and Anne nee unknown had the following children:
46.
i.
ALBERT11 LANG was born in Mar 1881.
ii.
RUDOLPH LANG was born in May 1884.
iii.
NELLIE LANG was born in Aug 1887.
iv.
JOSEPHINE LANG was born in Oct 1889.
v.
ROSA LANG was born in Feb 1897.
PETER10
LAENG (Jean Michel9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans
Durs2, Urs1)25 was born on 04 Feb 1862 in New Washington, Ohio, USA25. He died on 16
Aug 1949 in St. Route 47, Sherman Township (rural), Huron, Ohio25. He married Anna Mary Frisch
in 188726. She was born on 23 Apr 1872 in Bellevue, Sherman Township, Huron, Ohio, USA25-26.
She died on 18 Mar 1937 in Bellevue, Groton Township, Erie, Ohio25.
Jacob3,
Peter Laeng and Anna Mary Frisch had the following children:
i.
ROSA11 LAENG was born in 1889 in Ohio.
ii.
JOHN A. LAENG was born on 04 Apr 1890 in Reed Township, Seneca, Ohio, USA25,
30 . He died on 25 Jan 1934 in the home of his parents, Groton Township, Erie,
Ohio25.
iii.
AMELIA C. LAENG was born in 1894 in Ohio30.
iv.
MARY N. LAENG was born in 1898 in Ohio30.
v.
PETER MICHLE LAENG was born on 26 Feb 1900 in Ohio30. He died on 13 Apr 1972
in Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio31. He married Esther Marie Dick, daughter of
Milton Frederick Dick and Mary Katherine Karlovetz, on 14 Nov 192331. She was
born on 07 Feb 190331. She died in 199732.
vi.
GENEVIEVE L. LAENG was born in 1902 in Ohio30.
vii.
ALBERT A. LAENG was born on 21 Jul 1904 in Ohio30. He died in Feb 1973.
viii. GEORGE W. LAENG was born in 1907 in Ohio30.
ix.
CLARA M. LAENG was born on 07 Oct 1909 in Bellevue, Ohio33. She died on 31 Mar
1992 in Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio33. She married (1) SHERMAN EDWARD
PASCH on 23 May 1929 in Bellevue, Ohio34. He was born on 15 Dec 1905 in Riley
Township, Sandusky County, Ohio33. He died on 22 Oct 1959 in Fremont,
Sandusky County, Ohio33. She married (2) CLIFFORD SMITH on 14 May 1962.
Notes for Clara M. Laeng:
48
Notes for Clara M. Laeng:
The following was extracted from One World Tree, Ancestry.Com.
Clara stayed a part of the Pasch family after Sherm's death. During their marriage,
he caused her much heartache because of his drinking and irresponsibility. A short
while after his death, she married Clifford "Tilly" Smith. He made her extremely
happy, but he died 3 months after the marriage. Sherm and Clara lived on CR 198
in the third house on the right after the overpass. In 1996, there is a brick house on
the right (lived in by Raymond Glasser, when he hung himself in the barn after
being released from prison for murder), a natural colored, ranch house and then
Sherm and Clara's. I think this was the original Plagman homestead. Clara is buried
with Sherm. In 1990, Brenda and I visited Clara at her home. She said that she met
Sherm while walking to her job. He sat on someone's front porch as she walked by
everyday. She commented that if she only know what heartache he was to bring to
her, she would have kept walking. After Sherm's death, she was a frequent visitor to
our house on CR 198. She was a special part of our lives and we hope that she has
at last found happiness.
CLARA M. SMITH, 82, OF 814 NORTH FIFTH STREET, died Tuesday at Quality
Care Nursing Center. Mrs. Smith was born Oct. 7, 1909, in Bellevue to Peter and
Anna (Frisch) Laeng. She married Sherman Pasch on May 23, 1929. He died on
Oct 22, 1959. She then married Clifford Smith on May 14, 1962. He died on August
2, 1962. Mrs. Smith had worked for Howard Zink Corp. She was a member of St.
John's Lutheran Church. Brothers George, Peter, and Albert Laeng, and sisters,
Mrs. Fred Rettinger, Mrs. Roy Pusback, Mrs. Albert Grams, Mrs. Harold Myers, and
Mrs. Fred Smith, are deceased. Graveside services will be at 11 am on April 6 at
Oakwood Cemetery. There will be no visitation. Memorials may be made to the
United Way.
I think she was cremated.
47.
MADELEINE10 LAENG (Alexandre9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 27 Jun 1849 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She died before 12 Apr 1909. She married Joseph Scheiber, son of Michel Scheiber and
Josephine Jung, on 08 Jul 1878 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He was born on 13 Mar 1840 in
Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Notes for Madeleine Laeng:
Information on the descendants of Madeleine Laeng and Joseph Scheiber was furnished by Ande
Buoro. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Notes for Joseph Scheiber:
Information on Joseph Scheiber and the children of his marriage to Madeleine Laeng was
furnished by Andre Buoro of France. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
The only Scheiber listed in the 1836 Census for the Cantons of Bischwiller and Haguenau is a
Georges Scheiber, age 30 (born October 4, 1805), Catholic, occupation farmer, residing at 52
Hauhoffen, Bischwiller with his wife Madeleine Lehmann, age 28 and their children; Madeleine, age
2 and Elisabeth, age 6 months. Also residing with the family is Anne Marie Lehmann, age 36, aunt.
There is a fair degree of probability that these are the parents of Joseph and I have listed it here for
Joseph Scheiber and Madeleine Laeng had the following children:
i.
MICHEL11 SCHEIBER was born on 03 Nov 1879 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
ii.
JOSEPH SCHEIBER was born on 09 Sep 1882 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France. He
died on 08 Oct 1916. He married Unknown on 24 Apr 1909.
iii.
JACQUES SCHEIBER was born on 23 Mar 1885 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
iv.
JOSEPHINE SCHEIBER was born on 20 May 1888 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
49
48.
v.
MADELEINE SCHEIBER was born on 02 Jul 1890 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
vi.
EMILE SCHEIBER was born on 04 Nov 1891 in Gambsheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
ALEXANDRE10 LAENG (Alexandre9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 08 Aug 1860 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. He died on 07 Mar 1928 in Jefferson County, Kentucky. He married Louise Metz,
daughter of Frederic Metz and Louise Schiess, in 1888 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany4. She was born in Sep 1863 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France. She died before 1910.
Notes for Alexandre Laeng:
I believe the Alexander Laeng married to a Louise Laeng, listed in the 1900 Federal Census in the
12 Ward, Louisville, Kentucky, enumerated on June 7, 1900, is the Alexandre Laeng, son of
Alexandre Laeng and Francoise Pfaadt of Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany married to
Louise Metz. He is the brother of Louise Laeng, married to Joseph Rhein, who immigrated to the
United States in 1890 and settled in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
The census data for 1900 states that Alexander was born in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. Wife is
Louise, born 1863, in Alsace-Lorraine. Married 12 years. This would make the date of their
marriage 1888 at which time Alexander would have been 28 years of age. Children, all born in the
United States, except Mary born 1888 Alsace-Lorraine, Elizabeth born September 1890, and Louis
born November 1893.
In the 1910 Census all of the above are listed except wife Louise.
Alexander Laeng is listed in the 1920 Federal Census in the 21st Precinct, Louisville, Jefferson
County, Kentucky, enumerated on January 14, 1920. His age is 60 (born 1860) in Alsace-Lorraine,
France, immigrated 1889, occupation is a glass blower (worked for Central Glass, located at 30th
and Broadway according to his grandson, Louis C. Laeng, Jr.) He has a daughter, Mary, age 31
(born 1889 in Alsace-Lorraine). Also residing with the family is daughter Elizabeth and her husband
Philip Woods.
It was not uncommon for the immigrants from Alsace to list Alsace-Lorraine, Germany as their
place of birth in any census taken prior to the First World War and their place of birth as
Alsace-Lorraine, France, following the war.
Alexander Laeng died March 7, 1928 (age 67) and Louis C. Laeng January 20, 1993 (age 99) and
his wife, Florence A. Laeng who died July 15, 1994 (age 100). All deaths were in Jefferson
County, Kentucky. (Source - Commonwealth of Kentucky, health Data Branch, Division of
Epidemiolgy and Health Planning, comp. Kentucky Death Index)
Louis C. Laeng, son of Alexander is listed in the 1920 Federal Census, enumerated January 14
and 15, 1920, residing at Ormsby Street (21st and Ormsby Street), 2nd Ward, Louisville, Jefferson
County, Kentucky with his wife, Florence, born in Kentucky, his son Louis, age 17, born 1903 in
Kentucky. Mary Asford (correct spelling is Alford), mother-in-law, age 62 (born 1858) in Kentucky.
Her parents were born in Ireland.
Social Security records lists Louis C. Laeng's date of birth as November 21, 1893 and his date of
death as January 20, 1993 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.
There is a high degree of probability that the above Alexander Laeng is the son of Alexandre
Laeng and Francoise Pfaadt of Herrlisheim and the brother of Louise Laeng, married to Joseph
Rhein. Accordingly, I have entered it here. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Alexandre Laeng and Louise Metz had the following children:
50
i.
MARY11
ii.
ELIZABETH LAENG was born in Sep 1890 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.
She married PHILIP WOODS. He was born in 1888 in Kentucky.
LAENG was born in Nov 1888 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France35.
Notes for Philip Woods:
In the 1930 Federal Census for Kentucky, Phillip Woods, age 41, value of real
estate $5,000, is residing in Louisville with his wife Elizabeth, age 39 and son
Norman, age 4 11/12's. Also residing with the family is Mary Laeng, age 41, sister
of Elizabeth. Mary's place of birth is listed as Alsace-Lorraine, France.
iii.
LOUIS CHARLES LAENG was born on 21 Nov 1893 in Louisville, Jefferson County,
Kentucky. He died on 20 Jan 1993 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. He
married FLORENCE ALFORD. She was born in 1894. She died on 15 Jul 1994 in
Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Notes for Louis Charles Laeng:
In the 1920 Federal Census for Kentucky Louis C. Laeng, age 26, occupation cutter in tailor shop, is residing in Ormsby Street, Louisville with his wife Florence,
age 26, son Louis, 17 days old and his mother-in-law, Mary Alford, age 62. His son,
Louis C. Laeng, Jr., advised that his father was a pattern maker and worked at Enro
Shirt Company.
In the 1930 Federal Census for Kentucky Louis C. Laeng, age 36, cutter/clothing,
value of real estate $6.000, is residing on 3rd Street, Louisville with his wife,
Florence, age 36 and son, Louis, age 10 and mother-in-law, Mary Alford, age 72.
Also residing with the family are; Fred W. Reichel, age 17, nephew and machinist
and Carl E. W. Reichel, age 16, nephew, apprentice printer. Louis C. Laeng parents
are listed as having been born in Alsace-Lorraine.
Don Pfaadt advised that in 1920 the Laengs resided at 21st and Ormsby which is
about four blocks from the residence of Ignatz Pfaadt, who lived at 22nd and Hale in
Louisville.
49.
MARIE ANNE10 LAENG (Alexandre9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 08 Jun 1862 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France4. She married Ignace Rhein, son of Jacques Rhein and Therese Schmitt, on 22 Nov 1886.
He was born in 1862.
Ignace Rhein and Marie Anne Laeng had the following child:
i.
50.
JACQUES CHARLES11 RHEIN was born in 1887. He died in 1968. He married
CATHERINE HUCK. She was born in 1884.
JOSEPH10 LAENG (Alexandre9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans
Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 30 Mar 1864 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He
died in 1939 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France.
Joseph Laeng had the following children:
i.
FRANTZ11 LAENG was born in 1893 in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. He died in 1915 in
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany.
ii.
MARIE LAENG was born in 1894 in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. She died in 1939 in
Bas-Rhin, France.
iii.
FELIX LAENG was born in 1895 in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. He died in 1914 in
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany.
iv.
THERESE LAENG was born in 1896 in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. She died in 1939 in
Bas-Rhin, France.
v.
ALBERT LAENG was born about 1902 in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. He died about
1990 in Bas-Rhin, France.
51
vi.
JACQUES LAENG was born in 1903 in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. He died in 1994 in
Bas-Rhin, France. He married Anna Schohn on 22 Aug 1932. She was born in
1913. She died in 1995.
vii.
JOSEPH LAENG.
viii. LUCIE LAENG.
ix.
51.
ALPHONSE LAENG.
LOUISE10
LAENG (Alexandre9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans
Durs2, Urs1) was born on 15 May 1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas Rhin,
France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany3. She died on 11 Dec 1954 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania6. She married Joseph Rhein, son of Jacques Rhein and Regine Kistler, on
03 May 1890 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin, France4. He was born on 13 Apr 1866 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany4. He
died on 19 Mar 1927 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6.
Jacob3,
Notes for Louise Laeng:
Louise Laeng and Joseph Rhein were married in St. Arbogast Roman Catholic Church of May 3,
1890.
St. Arbogast has been claimed as a native of Scotland, but this is owing to a misunderstanding of
the name "Scotia", which until late in the Middle Ages really meant Ireland. He flourished about the
middle of the seventh century. Leaving Ireland, as so many other missionaries had done, he settled
as a hermit in a German forest, and then proceeded to Alsace, where his real name, Arascach,
was changed to Arbogast. This change of name was owing to the difficulty experienced by
foreigners in pronouncing Irish Christian names; thus it is that Moengal, Maelmaedhog, Cellach,
Gillaisu, Gilla in Coimded, Tuathal, and Arascach were respectively transformed into Marcellus,
Malachy, Gall, Gelasius, Germanus, Tutilo, and Arbogast. St. Arbogast found a warm friend in King
Dagobert II of Austrasia, who had been educated at Slane, in Meath, in Ireland, and was restored
to his kingdom on the demise of King Childeric II. Monstrelet authenticates the story of King
Dagobert in Ireland; and the royal exile naturally fled to Slane in order to be under the ægis of the
Ard-Righ (HighKing) of Ireland, at Tara. On Dagobert's accession to the throne of Austrasia,
Arbogast was appointed Bishop of Strasburg, and was famed for sanctity and miracles. It is related
that the Irish saint raised to life Dagobert's son, who had been killed by a fall from his horse. St.
Arbogast died in 678, and, at his own special request, was buried on the side of a mountain, here
only malefactors were interred. The site of his burial was subsequently deemed suitable for a
church. He is commemorated 21 July. (Source- Catholic Encyclopedia - New Advert)
I believe the Alexander Laeng married to a Louise, listed in the 1900 Federal Census in the 12
Ward, Louisville, Kentucky, enumerated on June 7, 1900, is the Alexandre Laeng, son of
United States, are Mary born 1888, Elizabeth born September 1890, and Louis born November
1893.
France, immigrated 1888, occupation is a glass blower. He has a daughter, age 31 (born 1889). It
was not uncommon for the immigrants from Alsace to list Alsace-Lorraine, Germany as their place
of birth in any census taken prior to the First World War and their place of birth as Alsace-Lorraine,
France, following the war.
52
and 15, 1920, residing at Ormsby Street, 2nd Ward, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky with his
wife, Florence, born in Kentucky, his son Louis, age 17, born 1903 in Kentucky. Mary Asford,
mother-in-law, age 62 (born 1858) in Kentucky. Her parents were born in Ireland.
Due to the close relationship between Louisa Laeng Rhein of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania and the Gless family who resided on a garden farm in Shaler Township, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania from about 1890 to 1952, I have tentatively attached Rosalie Adam, born
about 1815 to 1825 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France (later
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany), a daughter of Jean George Adam and Catherine Laeng, as being
married to Joseph Gless, pending further investigation. Antoine Mertzin was a witness at the Act of
Birth for Adelina Gless, born October 1870 in Commune de Herrlisheim, daughter of Jacques
Gless and Josephine George. Angela Mertzin was a sponsor at the baptism of Rosa Rhein,
daughter of Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng Rhein, at St. Augustine Church, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1891. John Schohn, from Alsace-Lorraine, who lived in Sharpsburg,
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania during the period 1920 to 1940 was a friend of both the Rheins
and the Glesses. A Jean Michel Schohn was a witness at the Act of Birth for Francoise Gless,
Commune de Herrlisheim, July 1841, daughter of John Michel Gless and Adele Schmitt. (Note to
File - JPRhein)
"Mrs. Mary (Laeng) McCarthy, wife of James McCarthy, died at her home Friday, August 15, after
an illness of several months duration.
She was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., June 15, 1861 and resided there until 1878, when with her
parents she came to New Washington where she spent the greater part of her life.
On June 15, 1887 she was united in marriage to James McCarthy. To this union were born ten
children, 5 having preceded her departure, two dying in infancy and three, Francis, Aloysius and
Leo in early manhood.
She leaves to mourn her death, her bereaved husband, three sons, Edward of Columbus, Clement
of Galion and Fred of Mansfield: two daughters, Teresa of Toledo and Cecelia at home. Also a
grandson and a grand daughter.
Mrs. W. H Smith (Theresa Laeng), Mrs. Henry Bracht (Margaret Philomena Centner), Mrs. Mary
Acherhart (should be Mary Rose Centner Oxanhart), Mrs. Jos. Rhein (Louise Laeng), Mark and
John Centner, Pittsburgh, Pa.; B. A. Laeng, Mrs. Ed Weatt, Tiffin; Mr. and Mrs. J. I Laeng and
family, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kaple (Maria Josephine Laeng), Mrs. Tim McCarthy, son Clement and
daughter Bertha, Crestline; Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Dannenmiller (Maria Margaret Laeng), daughter
Minnie, Mrs. John Ball (Rose Mary Dannenmiller) and Mrs. Roma Dentinger (Agnes Cecelia
Dannenmiller), St. Stephen; Mr. and Mrs. and Justin McCarthy, Shelby; Henry Rall and son
George, Upper Sandusky.
Card of Thanks
53
Card of Thanks
We wish to thank the Reverend Pastor, the choir, and all neighbors, relatives and friends who were
ever ready to assist us in the sickness, death and burial of our beloved wife and mother. James
McCarthy and children."
Notes for Joseph Rhein:
Education in Alsace-Lorraine
An ordinance, dated 18 April, 1871, and issued by Count von Bismarck-Bohlen, Governor-General
of Alsace, obliges every child, on reaching the age of six, to attend either a public or a private
school, unless equivalent provision shall be made in the family itself. School attendance continues
to be obligatory until the final examination, which, for boys, takes place at the age of fourteen, for
girls at thirteen. The law of 12 February placed all lower and higher education under the
supervision and control of the State authorities. "In all schools," so runs the ordinance of the
Imperial Statthalter (Governor), dated 16 November, 1887 "religion, morality, respect for the State
and the laws shall be inculcated by means of teaching and education." The normal curriculum of
elementary schools comprises religion, German, arithmetic, geometry, drawing, history, geography,
natural history, natural science, singing, carpentry, and feminine handicrafts. The following are
charged with the local supervision of each elementary school: the burgomaster, the Catholic priest,
the Protestant pastor, the delegate of the Jewish religion and, in parishes of more than 2,000 souls,
one or more residents appointed thereto by the President of the district. The clergy are especially
charged with the supervision of the religious instruction given by the teachers in the schools; they
have, besides, the right of entering the schools at all times. The greater number of public
elementary schools are denominational. Most of the masters are laymen; most of the mistresses,
sisters of some teaching order. These communities, whose members teach in public, State, and
municipal schools, also maintain private elementary, intermediate, and higher girls' schools.
(Source - Catholic Encyclopedia
Immigration
Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng arrived Port of New York on May 20, 1890 from Le Havre on La
Champagne, L. Boyer as Ship's Master. Joseph is passenger number 808, farmer, and Louise
(surname spelled Lang) is passenger number 197, no occupation, travelling 3rd class. I am unable
to explain as to why her maiden name is listed on the ship's manifest, other than possibly she
obtained her authorization to immigrate prior to the date of their marriage. (Source - Examination
of copy of the ship manifest, New York Passenger Lists, 1851-1891, microfilm roll 548, List number
689)
The ship La Champagne was a 7,087 gross ton vessel, length 493.4 ft x beam 51.8 ft, two funnels,
four masts, single screw and a speed of 17 knots. Accommodation for 390 - 1st, 65 - 2nd and 600
3rd class passengers. Built by COT, St. Nazaire, she was launched for Compagnie Generale
Transatlantique (French Lines) on May 15, 1885. Her maiden voyage started on May 22, 1886
when she left Havre for New York. On August 7, 1887 she collided with and sank the French ship
Ville de Rio Janeiro, sustaining serious damage herself. Rebuilt in 1896 with two masts, new
engines and her 3rd class accommodations increased to 1,500. On February 17, 1898 she
fractured her propeller shaft and drifted until February 23rd, when she was sighted by the Warren
Liner Roman who towed her to Halifax. Her last Le Havre to New York sailing started on January
21, 1905 and she was then transferred to the Mexican service. She resumed Havre - New York for
two round voyages in March and April 1906 and then returned to the Mexico service. In 1913 she
was transferred to St. Nazaire - Panama sailings and on May 28, 1915 stranded at St. Nazaire and
broke her back. (Source - North Atlantic Seaway by N. R. P. Bonsor, volume 2, page 656)
Other
The Certificate of Death for Joseph Rhein lists his father as Jacob Rhein and his mother as Regina
Kistler. It states that Joseph was born in Lorraine. I suspect that Louise Laeng Rhein gave his
54
place of birth as Alsace-Lorraine, which is the way she always described where they were from in
Germany, and the person completing the death certificate elected to enter only Lorraine. (Note to
File - JP Rhein)
Served with the German Army in the German Territories in Africa between 1884 and 1890. I do not
know in which of the Territories he may have been during this period. Extracts from various articles
state that Germany came late to its colonial empire, acquiring Toga, Cameroon, German East
Africa (present-day Tanzania) and German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia) by 1885. The
Berlin Conference, called in 1884 by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, established African
colonial boundaries. This empire would last only 35 years, until the end of World War I
(1914-1918). (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng Rhein were parishioners of St. Augustine Catholic Church, 37th
Street, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
"St. Augustine was founded in 1863 as a German ethnic parish. The origin of the parish can
actually be traced to the year 1854. Germans had been settling in Lawrenceville for a number of
years. They attended St. Philomena to attend Mass and sent their children to school at either St.
Philomena or the English school at St. Mary. Concerned with the distance that the children had to
walk to attend St. Philomena, local Catholics in cooperation with the Redemptorist Fathers at St.
Philomena established a school in a Lawrenceville home. As the number of children attending the
school increased, the school was moved to an unused storeroom and later to a community hall.
The school's first few years were unsettled. Various teachers came and went and the school
discontinued operations for a brief period. Eventually, local German Catholics decided that the only
way to have an effective school was to establish a parish to oversee it. In 1860, a meeting was held
to take steps to establish a parish and school. In April of 1860, land was purchased for a parish.
Assisting in the development of the new parish was Fr. George Kircher, who had been appointed
pastor of Holy Trinity in the Hill District in 1860. In 1861, he began working with the German
Catholics in Lawrenceville to establish an independent parish. In that year, the bishop granted
permission to build a church for the Germans in Lawrenceville. However, they first built a school
which was dedicated on December 15, 1861. Beginning on February 2, 1862, Mass was
celebrated in the school.
On June 22, 1862 the cornerstone of the new church was laid. In December of that year a resident
pastor was assigned to the parish. The completed church was dedicated on November 26, 1863.
By the end of the century, this church needed extensive repair and renovation. Rather than expend
money on the existing building, the parish decided to build a new church. The cornerstone of the
new church was laid on October 29, 1899 and the completed church was dedicated on May 21,
1901. The old church was renovated and turned into a parish hall. Part of the tower was removed
and the transepts were closed with a wall, This building was eventually tom down in 1955.
Beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, people began moving from the city. By the 1990's
Lawrenceville could no longer sustain the number of existing churches. In 1993, St. Augustine was
merged with three other parishes to form the new Our Lady of the Angels parish. St. Augustine
church remains open and serves the new parish." (Souce - Diocese of Pittsburgh)
"As far back as 1854, a little school for German children of the neighborhood was being maintained
in the home of Franz Xavier Helbling opposite the Allegheny Cemetery on Butler Street. Gradually
the people interested organized St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church and built a little
schoolhouse on the hillside of Thirty-seventh Street. The building served as a church also from its
completion in 1862 until the fall of 1863 when a church was completed on Butler Street between
Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Streets. The school was enlarged by digging out beneath it and
making it a two story building. Until 1874 the parish was in charge of a Capuchin monk. In that
year other members of the order arrived and established St. Augustine Monastery, which is the
mother house of the St. Augustine Capuchin Province of Pennsylvania. There is also a convent in
55
connection with the church." (Source - Volume 2, Pittsburgh of Today, Its Resources and People,
by Frank C. Harper, New York, The American Historical Society, Inc., 1931-1932)
"About 1897 or 1898 there came to Pittsburgh a young man, John T. Comes who was given the
commission of preparing drawings for a new church for St. Augustine Parish, Thirty-seventh Street.
The completion of St. Augustine's Church in 1901 marked a new era in the history of ecclesiastical
arts in the diocese. It was acclaimed as a masterpiece." (Source - Catholic Pittsburgh's One
Hundred Years, Published under the patronage of His Excellency the Most Reverend Hugh C.
Boyle, Loyola University Press, Chicago, Ill., 1943)
St. Augustine (Lawrenceville, PA) Parish History
HISTORY OF ST. AUGUSTINE PARISH, Lawrenceville, Pa., 1863 -- 1988
(Extracted from St. Augustine Parish 125th Anniversary Book, 1863-1988)
Lawrenceville could boast of only one landmark in 1860. That was the arsenal built as a result
of the war of 1812. Other than that, nothing stood out in Lawrenceville. Seventy new houses went
up in the district in 1860, and Butler Street was paved, but the biggest thing that happened in
Lawrenceville that year was a meeting. The Catholic leaders of the area had been meeting off and
on for several years trying to establish a school for their children. Every time a teacher had to
resign or a bigger classroom was needed, the people got together to work out their problem. But in
1860 the meeting was more important than usual. What the people wanted was a bigger school.
And this time their plans included a church. They drew up the Society of German Catholics of
Lawrenceville. With the spirit of Captain Lawrence who died ordering his men: "Don't give up the
ship," the people living in the Borough named after him were going to move ahead against all
odds.
Along with loans, the committee sponsored one picnic after another to raise funds for building. As
plans congealed they obtained a German-speaking priest to say Mass for them regularly. Father
George Kircher now became the organizer of the parish. First the school went up. While the church
was under construction services were held in the school. The first Mass in the school took place on
February 2, 1862, with Vespers in the afternoon. Father Kircher had Charles Bartberger sketch the
plans for the church September 29, 1861. The committee approved the plans the next month. At
that same meeting Mr. Landelin Vogel suggested that the parish should select St. Augustine as its
patron. The reason for the choice was not any special devotion to the saint, but rather a way of
expressing recognition to Mr. Augustine Hoeveler, the leading organizer of Catholic activities in
Lawrenceville. Right from the start, the parish was blessed with strong leaders.
In other ways the parish was still very small. At the same meeting in which the patron was chosen,
the members of the building association made a pledge of paying ten cents monthly to the church
fund. By piling up their dimes, the parishioners eventually raised the twelve thousand dollars
needed to build the first St. Augustine Church. The cornerstone was laid June 22, 1862. Even
before the church was under roof, in December of 1862, Bishop Domenec appointed Father Franz
Schmidt as the first resident pastor of the parish. In less than a year he had to resign because of
bad health. Father John Nepomucene Tamchina, a missionary Capuchin, assumed the
responsibilities of pastor just two months before the dedication of the new church.
Bishop Domenec blessed the church Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1863. Religious
organizations from Pittsburgh and Allegheny marched in procession. The new church could seat
650. Its 150 foot tower faced Butler Street. It was of red brick Romanesque in style, a hundred feet
long. Lawrenceville had a new landmark. During the next ten years the parish was busy paying off
its debts. The biggest achievement of those ten years was the establishment of the means to keep
the parish thriving for the future. Father Tamchina secured Sisters for the school. From the
founding of the school in 1854 lay teachers conducted the classes. For one reason or another a
new teacher had to be found each September. The perennial problem sometimes led to hasty
56
decisions and poorly qualified teachers. But Father Tamchina resolved the difficulty in 1871. The
Sisters of St. Francis were just eight blocks away. After they opened St. Francis Hospital in 1566
they began to accept teaching assignments in the German parishes. November 8, 1871 the Sisters
took over the responsibilities of St. Augustine School. This was the kind of addition which was
more important than a new building. The Catholic of that age were convinced that Sisters were the
best teachers in the world. According to the chronicler, even the children rejoiced. The parish took
on its first Franciscanism. Just two years later, 1873, the Franciscan influence became an intimate
feature of the parish. The Capuchin Fathers were invited to the parish November 7, 1873. They
came from Germany. Bismarck was suppressing Religious Orders as part of his program to
nationalize the state. The Capuchins were told to prepare to leave.
While the Capuchins were being expelled from Bavaria, Bishop Domenec was searching for
German-speaking priests for his parishes. The
persecution in Germany became a blessing for Pittsburgh.
Father Hyacinth Epp, O.F.M.
Cap., assumed the pastorate of St. Augustine's April 19,1874. From then on the parish reflected
the atmosphere of a monastery parish. Devotions and societies were those of the Capuchins. St.
Augustine's was no longer an ordinary parish. Connected to it was the headquarters of a new
province of Capuchins. This would set the decisions for parishes in a dozen states where the
members of the province would minister. Less than a month after he became pastor, Fr. Hyacinth
established the Third Order of St. Francis in the parish. The parish intensified its Franciscan flavor.
Up till then Third Order members who migrated from Germany retained their devotion to St.
Francis, but now it was organized into a thriving fraternity. From the opening date the monthly
meetings went on to the present. The only change made was that of language, for, originally, the
sermons at the monthly meetings were in German.
Along with the spiritual growth of the parish, Father Hyacinth had to keep pace with the increase in
members. Hundreds of families had to relocate when the Union Depot was built by the
Pennsylvania Railroad. Many of the families moved to Lawrenceville, with the result that St.
Augustine Church had to be expanded. A hundred-foot transept was added in 1874, according to
plans drawn by Brother Eleutherius, one of the Capuchins who arrived with Father Hyacinth. At the
time of enlarging the church, Brother also carved the main altar, the pulpit and the communion rail.
After the remodeling, "St. Augustine's was considered one of the finest churches in Pittsburgh." It
seated a thousand. Brother Eleutherius planned to carve five altars in all, but he died before
completing the task. He was a victim of smallpox June 18, 1877. Brother was the first of the
Capuchins to be buried from St. Augustine's. He was thirty-eight years old. Another interesting friar
of those early days was Father Maurice Greck, 0. F.M. Cap. Father Maurice had been an officer in
the German army. He became the second Capuchin pastor of St. Augustine's.
In July, 1877, striking railroad employees led a riot in Lawrenceville. The militia tried to restore
order but the mob forced the soldiers to retreat. In the attempt one of the soldiers was wounded in
front of St. Augustine's Church. The Fathers immediately slipped him through the church into the
monastery, where they gave him first aid and sent him to St. Francis Hospital. In the meantime the
rioters tried to force their way into the monastery to capture the soldier. It was at that point that
Father Maurice relied on his training as an officer. He just stood in the doorway with an air of
authority and ordered the rioters away. They left without further protest.
By 1888 the growing population of Lawrenceville made a new school necessary for the parish.
Father Maurice was again pastor at the time. Each wage earner pledged fifteen dollars. March
3,1889, Bishop Phelan of Pittsburgh blessed the new school. The twelve-room building cost
forty-five thousand dollars. Typical of the spirit of St. Augustine's, the school was one of the best
equipped in the city. Newspaper clippings of the day referred to it as one of the most modern
schools in western Pennsylvania. In addition to all the subjects taught in the public school, the
parish school conducted extra classes in the German language, and, of course, courses in religion.
During that same year a new monastery and rectory was completed, the present quarters of the
Capuchins. The third floor of the present building was added in 1905. Ten years after the
monastery was built the existing convent was completed. The parish constantly demonstrated a
thriving growth.
57
The present church came not so much from the need of expansion, but because the old church
needed extensive repairs. Father Charles Speckert, O.F.M. Cap., the pastor, called on Mrs. Mary
Regina Frauenheim and her daughter Miss Rose, to ask for a substantial contribution for the
renovation of the church. The Frauenheim family had been bountiful toward the parish in the past.
The pastor was hoping that they would now pay for windows for the remodeling of the church. The
ladies quietly objected that such an old building was not eally worth expensive windows. Father
Charles teasingly remarked that if the good ladies were willing to donate the small sum of fifty
thousand dollars then he would do more than renovate; he could build a new, more beautiful
church. It seemed almost a joke at the time. The debt in the parish was already thirty thousand
dollars. But the Frauenheims did not take it as a joke. They asked for time to think about it. Mr.
Aloysius Frauenheim called on Father Charles a few days later to pledge the fifty thousand dollars.
With such generosity among the parishioners, the pastor could hardly refuse. Sixteen houses were
cleared from the site where the church now stands. The property alone absorbed the generous
donation, costing more than forty-eight thousand dollars. Since the project came so spontaneously,
no one really had an idea of what kind of church to build. So they looked around, trying to find
something they would like. One of the friars in the monastery came across a picture of St. Benno's
Church in Munich. It immediately caught the pastor's fancy. That was it, Mr. John T. Comes used
the picture for a model in sketching the new church. The plans looked good, but the lowest bid
looked forbidding. With a dept of thirty thousand dollars hanging over the parish, contractors were
asking another one hundred thousand for the new church. The Frauenheim
family relieved the situation by donating another fifty thousand dollars.
Five thousand people attended the cornerstone laying ceremony. The parishioners' interest ran
high all through the construction of the church. They seemed to count the layers of vitrified brick as
the masons laid the walls. Layer after layer carried the walls to the climax of a dome ninety-two feet
from the floor of the church. The towers went on for fifty feet more, twin arms raised in prayer,
reaching a hundred and forty-eight feet over Lawrenceville. When the towers extended their full
salute to God, the last stone in place, the people and clergy dedicated their church May 12, 1901.
A procession from the old church carried the Blessed Sacrament over a flower strewn path to the
new tabernacle. As the procession moved out from the church the bells clanged their farewell. Just
as the last clang of the smaller bells faded the deep, musical bells of the new church welcomed the
procession to the bigger, more beautiful house of God. Just eleven years later Father Ignatius
Weisbruch, 0. F.M. Cap., paid off the last portion of the building debt. The date can hardly seem
very remote to older parishioners who can still remember Fr. Ignatius.
Throughout the history of St. Augustine's the main theme which arises most often is change and
the ability and adaptability of the physical structures as well as the parishioners to accept these
changes. With the promulgation of the Apostolic Instruction, Custas Fidei, in April 1969, and
Immensae Cartitatis on January 23, 1973, lay persons were given permission to distribute
communion both during Mass and outside Mass. On December 1, 1974, the first Parish Council
was installed with the concept of finding an effective way of participation by the entire Christian
community in the mission of the Church. Today the Parish Council is now called the Council of
Ministries and is comprised of many dedicated people who help keep the St. Augustine Community
unified and filled with spiritual values. The roots of St. Augustine's had been firmly planted a long
time ago by many dedicated people who believed the Catholic faith was the center of their lives.
These values have remained constant. Once again the parishioners have been asked to contribute
to the renovation of St. Augustine Church. In this the 125th anniversary of St. Augustine Parish, we
have again seen the generosity and unselfishness of the parishioners who made many sacrifices to
fortify, maintain and preserve our structure for another 100 years as well as the faith values which
the Church symbolizes.
On October 23, 1958, the official celebration of the 125th anniversary occurred rededicating our
church, our Parish, and ourselves to God for now and for the future. There was a Liturgy of
Thanksgiving at 11 am, celebrated by Bishop Donald W. Wuerl, followed by an informal reception
in the Parish Hall for the entire parish family. The unity and Christian love for one another are
typical qualities of the Augustine community and can be summed up by a quote of St. Augustine
himself: "The Kingdom of Heaven requires no other price than yourself, the value of it is yourself;
58
give YOURSELF to it and you shall have it."
(This history was taken in part from the St. Augustine Tour Book and from previous anniversary
Souvenir Books.)
Ruling Favors a 10-Inch Citizen of France
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 9, 2011
A Great Hamster of Alsace in a breeding center in Hunawihr, eastern France
The European hamster in grass.
The Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the European Union’s highest court, ruled Thursday that
France had failed to protect the Great Hamster of Alsace, sometimes known as the European
hamster, the last wild hamster species in Western Europe. If France does not adjust its agricultural
and urbanization policies sufficiently to protect it, the court said, the government will be subject to
fines of as much as $24.6 million.
The Great Hamster, which can grow up to 10 inches long, has a brown-and-white face, white paws
and a black belly. There are thought to be about 800 left in France, with burrows in Alsace along
the Rhine. That is an improvement: the number had dropped to fewer than 200 four years ago,
according to figures from the European Commission, which brought the lawsuit in 2009.
The Great Hamster likes grass and crops like alfalfa, but these have largely been replaced by corn,
which is not ripe in the spring when the hamster awakens from six months of hibernation, eager to
eat and mate. It must make longer and more hazardous journeys as its grazing area shrinks
because of new highways and housing developments.
“Protection measures for the Great Hamster put in place by France were insufficient” in 2008 “to
ensure the strict protection of the species” in accordance with European law, the court ruled. The
hamster has been protected legally since 1993, and while it is prevalent in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia, it is thought to exist in Western Europe only in Alsace.
Farmers have generally considered the hamster to be a farmyard pest, and before it was protected
they flooded its burrows and used poison and traps to kill it.
Jean-Paul Burget, president of Sauvegarde Faune Sauvage, or Safeguard Wildlife, in Wittenheim,
in Alsace, said in a telephone interview that “we are very happy,” and that “European rules must be
followed.” France “now must work to raise the population of hamsters up to 1,500,” which would be
enough to preserve the species, he said, and the prefecture of Alsace “must stop some
urbanization projects and restore” older agreements to grow certain cereals that hamsters eat.
Mr. Burget’s association filed an initial complaint to the European Commission on behalf of the
Great Hamster in 2006.
The court did, however, reject the commission’s complaint about the use of nitrates, on the
grounds that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate “to the requisite legal standard” a link between
the use of nitrates in agriculture and the “deterioration or destruction of the breeding sites or resting
places of the European hamster.”
The chief of staff for Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, France’s minister of ecology, sustainable
development, transport and housing, said Thursday evening that Ms. Kosciusko-Morizet would
make no comment on the ruling.
Alsace and Lorraine
59
I have included he following in the Notes section of my paternal grandfather Joseph Rhein. I am
not aware of any other of my Rhein forebears that immigrated to the United States. His brothers,
sisters, uncles and aunts and some gandparents were in Alsace following the end of World War I.
Copyright © 2000 by The Society for French Historical Studies. All rights reserved. This work may
be used, with this header included, noncommercial purposes within a subscribed institution. No
copies of this work may be distributed electronically outside of the subscribed institution, in whole
or in part, without express written permission from the JHU Press. This revolutionary publishing
model depends on mutual trust between user and publisher.
French Historical Studies 23.1 (2000) 129-162
-----------------------------------------------------------------------From Liberation to Purge Trials in the “Mythic Provinces”:
Recasting French Identities in Alsace and Lorraine, 1918-1920
Laird Boswell *
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Nothing proved more important for the French at the Great War’s end than regaining control of the
lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. This was an event of momentous political and symbolic
significance. After a hiatus of close to half a century, the nation took solace in the fact that it was
once again “whole.” The euphoria that followed the Great War’s end and Alsace-Lorraine’s return
to the French nation, however, was short-lived. Alsace-Lorraine’s complex place within French
identity, the nation’s enormous emotional investment in the lost provinces, and four years of
devastating losses all converged to transform the region into a site of contention during the postwar
years. The recovery of the border provinces involved far more than the reacquisition of lost
territory, and the reimposition of French rule proved far more difficult than popular opinion and
politicians, influenced by a massive and ever
present nationalistic literature on the region, had expected.
The lost province occupied a unique position in the French popular imaginary as the most patriotic
of regions. In the nationalistic climate that followed victory, squaring the myth of a patriotic
Alsace-Lorraine faithfully waiting for deliverance with the reality of a German-speaking province
that had benefited, in ways large and small, from close to fifty years of German rule proved
impossible. But there was far more to the problematic reintegration than the widespread
discrepancy [End Page 129] between myth and reality. French bureaucrats and military officials
came armed with an ethnic vision of the borderland. In an attempt to recast Alsatian and Lorrainer
identity, they immediately set off to categorize the population according to its ancestry and
launched-to use the vocabulary of contemporaries-a large-scale épuration designed to weed out
“bad” Alsatians and Lorrains.1 Accommodation was not the order of the day; instead, integrating
the province within France meant denying its Germanic characteristics, its regional and cultural
identity. Between 1918 and 1920 the French thus undertook massive purges of Alsatian and
Lorrainer society and reimposed the French language in schools on a generation educated entirely
in German. A few years later (1924-25), Edouard Herriot’s Cartel des Gauches government would
awkwardly challenge the religious privileges located at the heart of border province identity.2
Today, it has been long forgotten that the first French épuration of the twentieth century took place
not in the wake of the Vichy regime, but immediately after the First World War in Alsace and
Lorraine. Although more restricted in geographical scale and less violent in nature (there were no
summary executions), this purge was massive in numbers and intensity. The infamous
commissions de triage set up by the French state to cleanse border province society are now
erased from collective memory. A few regional writers have mentioned them-with a mixture of
regret and bitterness-in their writings, and historians sometimes devote a few, though rarely
well-informed, sentences to them. The waves of purges and denunciations are thus seen as a
mere detail in the postwar history of the region, dwarfed by the “unforgettable hours” of the 1918
liberation, the problematic transition from German to French rule,
60
the continuous administrative blunders of the French, and growing skepticism and resistance
among Alsatians and Lorrainers. Of all these events, however, the commissions de triage rank as
the most disturbing.
The complex events that followed the war’s end-from the celebrations of the liberation to the
purges and denunciations that followed on their heels-were part of a larger process of
reconfiguring and redefining national, local, and moral identities in Alsace and Lorraine. This
process was initiated by the heavy hand of the state, but once under [End Page 130] way it did not
always remain under state control, and the process was soon relayed by local inhabitants eager to
prove their patriotic credentials, searching for ways to make their voices heard, or motivated by
personal gain, sentiments of revenge, and long-standing village feuds. But there was more to the
purges than redefinition of identities. The épuration in the lost provinces illustrated three crucial
characteristics of twentieth-century French history: the development of increasingly racialized
notions of Frenchness that found their origins in the late nineteenth century, the state’s willingness
to impose its authority at the expense of republican values, and the centrality of collaboration and
resistance in determining national sentiment and trustworthiness. The purges,
however, need to be understood within the broader context of the myth of a patriotic
Alsace-Lorraine and the patriotic frenzy of the liberation, and it is with these two moments that I
begin this article.
The Mythic Provinces and French Identity
France had relinquished Alsace and a significant part of Lorraine (theGerman-speaking areas and
a francophone strip that included Metz) after its shattering defeat in the War of 1870. But as France
lost physical control of the
region, paradoxically, popular attachment to this little-known and distant region grew. Between
1871 and 1914 Alsace-Lorraine became known in political discourse, in the schools, and in the
popular imagination as the “lost province” or the “twin sisters” without which the nation could not be
whole.3 On school maps the region was shrouded in purple and black, the colors of mourning.
Even after the 1890s, when Alsace-Lorraine receded from the forefront of public discourse, it
remained profoundly anchored in the nation’s memory.
The myth of Alsace-Lorraine was born during the thirty years after the War of 1870, and it was
during this time period that the predominantly German-speaking provinces (in 1910, 87.2 percent of
the population considered German or German dialect as its mother tongue), whose significant
Protestant community (26.5 percent of the population in Alsace in 1910) also distinguished them
from the rest of the French nation, became a constituent part of French identity and patriotism.4
Over time, thanks in part to the drawings of the Alsatian caricaturist [End Page 131] l’Oncle Hansi
(the pen name of Jean-Jacques Waltz), the Alsatian (but not the Lorrainer) village became the
archetype of the French village, and the region to the east of the Vosges mountains was
transformed into a sentimental homeland of French nationalism.5 The seeds of future
misunderstandings can be found in the paradoxical situation of a
nonfrancophone and culturally distinct region being invested with a degree of patriotic symbolism
on a scale known to no other French province. Alsace-Lorraine, moreover, had been part and
parcel of Germany, and its inhabitants German citizens during the critical period of the construction
of German national identity between 1871 and 1914. In France, the sense of the nation was
substantially refashioned by the new republican regime, and Alsace-Lorraine (or its absence)
played an essential role in this process.6
Much of the idealized vision of the provinces perdues was related to the profoundly gendered and
subordinate place Alsace and Lorraine occupied in the French imaginary. Widely distributed
popular imagery depicted Alsace and Lorraine alternatively as sisters in mourning or young women
in regional costumes faithfully waiting for the return of the “motherland.” 7 The imagery of the twin
sisters shedding tears of sorrow, resisting the Germans through cunning and resourcefulness, or
placed at the mercy of the Germans (often in very sexual terms) proved enduring. After 1871, the
allegorical representations of Alsace and Lorraine came to represent French patriotism and la
revanche more than Marianne herself, and in a different register than the increasingly popular Joan
61
of Arc whose patriotism was more defensive in nature. But the critical point was that the soeurs
jumelles fitted in with cultural
stereotypes that represented France as feminine in opposition to a more masculine Germany. To
the French public Alsace and Lorraine became best known as feminine, sometimes adolescent
figures whose complex imagery embodied faithfulness, courage, resignation, determination, and
patriotism.8 [End Page 132]
While Alsace-Lorraine, its cities and countryside, and its regional costumes became mythologized
in the French imaginary, the majority of the region’s inhabitants gradually accommodated
themselves to German rule. In the late 1890s, however, the growth of an autonomist movement,
spurred by growing dissatisfaction with the region’s second-class status in the Reich, signaled that
unresolved questions of regional identity remained central to cultural and political life in the area.9
The region was of considerable symbolic importance to Germany-a point studiously ignored by the
French-and it benefited from the Empire’s solicitude. Strasbourg, whose cathedral made it a
powerful symbol on both sides of the Rhine, was the recipient of substantial investments in
infrastructure and was remade the German way.10 By 1914, the region had spent close to half a
century under German control, and for the new
generations the cultural and emotional links with France proved ever more distant.
The war’s outbreak, however, radically changed the provinces’ situation.
Alsace-Lorraine, which had gradually lost the central position in French political
discourse that it had occupied in the last three decades of the nineteenth century
and was relegated to what Marc Bloch termed the “discreet shadows,” was thrust anew
into the forefront of public concerns.11 The Germans placed the two provinces under
harsh military rule for the duration of the conflict-strict censorship was enforced,
freedom of movement limited, the use of the French language banned in public, and the
germanization of French speaking areas of Lorraine accelerated.12 In Lorraine alone
some two thousand to three thousand men and women were condemned for anti-German
declarations, ranging from speaking French to “inappropriate” behavior toward German
soldiers or the Reich. 13 The government arrested prominent politicians and
journalists and exiled some to Germany (perhaps four hundred during the course of the
war in Lorraine). German immigrants increasingly occupied positions of power and
confidence. All these [End Page 133] measures contributed to simmering conflict and
fueled growing anti-German sentiments. The two provinces paid a heavy toll during the
war. The vast majority of Alsatians and Lorrainers who served did so in the German
army (380,000); deeming them too unreliable to fight on the western front, the high
command sent most to the east. Fifty thousand never returned.14 By the war’s end, the
socialist Hermann Wendel sensed that the winds had shifted: in 1914, he argued,
four-fifths of Alsace-Lorraine’s population would have voted to remain with Germany;
in 1918-in retribution for the province’s suffering during wartime-the overwhelming
majority would have chosen France.15
Alsatians and Lorrainers did not fare much better in French hands. Soon after the
war’s outbreak, the French interned thousands of Alsatians and Lorrains living on
French soil; they were joined by some eight thousand Alsatians deported from parts of
southern Alsace “liberated” during the first weeks of the conflict, and by
unspecified numbers of Lorrainers taken hostage during the French army’s initial
advance.16 Even the fervent nationalist Maurice Barrès, whose patriotism could surely
not be questioned, complained in late 1914 that young Alsaciennes and Lorraines (the
region’s iconographic symbols), employed as maids and servants in Paris, had been
deported to concentration camps.17 Up until the November 1918 armistice, the French
continued to intern civilians (Albert Schweitzer among them) from AlsaceLorraine
whose loyalty was judged suspect. Countless others found themselves the victims of
discriminatory hiring or bureaucratic practices, not to mention denounced as Germans
or boches by patriotic citizens. The pervasive suspicion of Alsatians and Lorrainers,
the lingering doubts about their patriotic trustworthiness, did not disappear with
the end of wartime circumstances; on the contrary, these attitudes would extend well
62
into the postwar years, and decisively shape relations between the region and its new
rulers. [End Page 134]
Celebrating the Return to the Mère Patrie
French troops met with an enthusiastic welcome as they marched through Strasbourg,
Mulhouse, Colmar, and Metz in late November 1918. Hundreds of young women in Alsatian
headdress and costumes, sporting tricolor cockades, holding flowers, and waving
French flags or white handkerchiefs turned out to greet the poilus. The streets were
decked in tricolor flags, bands played the Marseillaise, bars gave out free beer to
soldiers, and huge crowds of people lined the streets, peered from windows, and
climbed on roofs to give French soldiers a welcome that exceeded all expectations
(especially in Strasbourg). But the animated welcome had more to do with the
understandable relief that the war (fought in part on Alsatian soil for the control
of the Vosges ridges) had ended, that famine and widespread shortages would be
averted, that Alsatian and Lorrainer soldiers would be returning home, and that
Alsace-Lorraine would not pay the heavy price of defeat but on the contrary share,
however ambiguously, in the fruits of victory. For the bourgeoisie, the arrival of
French troops meant social peace, and the end of the threatening revolutionary
movement of soldiers and workers that emerged in urban areas in the midst of the
German military collapse. French soldiers were soon followed by Marshal Ferdinand
Foch, and on 8 December by President Raymond Poincaré, who headed three specially
chartered trains carrying hundreds of senators, deputies, elected Paris officials,
members of alsacien and lorrain associations in exile, and journalists who came to
reclaim Strasbourg as France’s own.18
The spontaneous outbursts of enthusiasm for French troops often took a carnivalesque
and religious coloration and revealed how much underlying sympathies for France had
developed during four years of German wartime military dictatorship. But spontaneity
was only part of the story. Local authorities played a crucial role by forming
“reception committees” that printed posters calling upon “truly Alsatian young women”
(those of mixed ancestry were presumably unwelcome) to greet their liberators in
Alsatian costumes, and gave them precise instructions on how to do so.19 The Alsatian
costume, a rarity at the time, [End Page 135] was worn only in rural villages on
festive occasions, and its use in 1918 was the object of debate both among urban
elites and rural inhabitants; some opposed this masquerade and could not understand
why Strasbourg’s demoiselles wanted to be “disguised as peasants.”20 But the costume,
shunned by French revolutionaries, had, thanks to widespread popular engravings,
become for the Third Republic a dual symbol of Alsace’s quaint “attachment” to France
and its sense of local identity.21 Out of “charming daintiness” (the words of the
Michelin guide), Alsace presented itself to its liberators in the traditional
“uniform” that the French had expected women to wear. 22 Alsatian writer René
Schickele had a more dyspeptic view: he questioned whether all young women who wore
the costume on 18 November were of longstanding Alsatian ancestry; a few years later
he noted that the costumed women at a Paris exposition could not speak a word of
Alsatian dialect or German.23
Most French had a one-dimensional understanding of the complex motivations behind the
patriotic upsurge in November 1918. Air force captain René Chambre was one of the
first soldiers to enter Alsace on 19 November 1918; his encounter with hundreds of
flag-waving Alsatians, including numerous blond women in costume marching toward the
French border, constituted for him the materialization of the “entire vision of our
childhood . . . We are entering the dream fully alive.” 24 The French mistook the
celebrations and rejoicings of the liberation as another confirmation of Alsace’s
out-and-out patriotism, and this contributed to reinforcing popular perceptions of
Alsace as the most patriotic of provinces. Glorified images of the liberation of
Alsace would soon make it into schoolbooks and forge enduring memories in the minds
63
of French schoolchildren.
The celebration did not reach epic proportions everywhere, however. Industrial parts
of Lorraine along the German border proved more subdued in their welcome. Some rural
Protestant regions in Alsace (the region of Saverne) displayed markedly less
enthusiasm than larger cities, and rural areas in general tended to downplay their
welcome. In northern Alsace (Oberbetschdorf), military authorities claimed Catholics
greeted French troops with enthusiasm, while Protestants [End Page 136] adopted a
“reserved, almost hostile” attitude; the liberation revived long-standing enmities
and led to clashes between youths of both confessions.25 The protestant Hanauerland
was reputedly refractory to French influence, but some soldiers appear to have met
with a warm welcome, while others faced a more reserved reception.26 Protestants,
closely bound to German culture via Lutheranism, worried about their future as a
minority in a Catholic country. Some Catholics, on the contrary, welcomed the return
of French rule.27 Wine growers worried about their economic future in the world of
French viticulture. And the numerous Alsatians and Lorrains who had fought in German
uniform discreetly returned to their homes and kept a low profile.
No sooner had the celebrations died down than French civil and military authorities
turned to the task of administering the newly recovered provinces and “reintegrating”
them within France. They proved ill-prepared for the task, however. Within a few
years France had squandered the important reservoir of sympathy with which it began,
and had succeeded in alienating, in ways large and small, a substantial portion of
the Alsatian and Lorrainer population. While Alsace-Lorraine constituted a key war
aim, until the final months of the war the government had done little preparation to
reestablish governance in the region.28 And the French ignored the advice of even the
most rabidly patriotic Alsatians and Lorrains who urged them not to import large
numbers of bureaucrats unfamiliar with the region’s particularisms, but to rely
instead on the services of carefully chosen local elites, some of whom had spent
decades in exile.29
The war’s end also brought about a gradual shift away from the heavily gendered
representations of the province. The twin sisters became increasingly referred to as
children. This was not accidental: the twin sisters had resisted German rule largely
on their own, and it was time to return them to the nation’s control. “France comes
to you,” wrote General Henri Gouraud, “as a mother comes to her dear child, [End Page
137] lost and later found.” Speaking in Strasbourg, Raymond Poincaré, the president
of the Republic, spoke of the “children we have regained [enfants retrouvés]” and
added “the plebiscite is completed. Alsace has thrown herself, crying with joy, at
the neck of her long lost mother [mère retrouvée ].”30 Now that the children had
returned home, however, it was time for them to follow the household’s (French)
habits.31 Patriotic Alsatians internalized this discourse and underscored their pride
at being “obedient children.” 32 When Poincaré arrived in Strasbourg, wrote one
commentator, he found a daughter (Alsace-Lorraine) “already sitting comfortably on
her mother’s lap.”33 But interestingly enough, France was not only reunited with its
daughter, but also its sons who had been absent from the imagery of the lost
province. “What nation,” wrote Louis Madelin, “had witnessed among its sons such
fidelity?”34 The imagery of a mother returning to embrace her long-lost children,
combined with the obsession with fidelity, set the tone for French policies in Alsace
and Lorraine. Some patriotic essayists argued that even those “children” most
compromised by the German Empire should be allowed to return to the family’s fold,
much like children who had “disowned their mother but are conscious of the
wretchedness of this unnatural act.”35 The growing emphasis on family reflected the
view that Alsace was biologically part of France.
It was but one step from the familial imagery of the mère patrie and her children,
destined in large part for popular consumption, to the ethnic and racial discourses
64
that also structured the encounter between the French and the Alsaciens-Lorrains. The
vast literature on the “Alsace-Lorraine question” published during the period of
German rule (and especially during the Great War) was far from devoid of racial
undertones. From caricatures to pamphlets and academic works, Alsace-Lorraine was
increasingly described as having formed the borderline between Celts (i.e., the
Gauls) and the Germanic tribes-an outpost of Latin civilization on the Rhine.
Alsace-Lorraine, it was argued, had been part and parcel of Gaul; it later came under
Roman control when Caesar conquered Gaul and fixed its boundary along the Rhine
river.36 [End Page 138] The Romans brought with them Latin culture, and, historians
Ernest Lavisse and Christian Pfister maintained, latinity perhaps struck deeper roots
in Alsace-Lorraine than in the rest of Gaul.37 But the longstanding unity with France
was not just historical or cultural, it was racial. The Alsatian “race,” wrote
Camille Jullian of the Collège de France, was gauloise (Gallic), not Germanic, and
the Alsatians did not physically resemble the Germans-on the contrary, these “eastern
meridionals” were vivacious, supple, and had a distinct and flexible frame.38 Others
distinguished a “Latin race” on one bank of the Rhine and a “Germanic race” on the
other side. 39 After the Great War, the 1919 Michelin guide to Alsace’s battlefields
continued to underline the region’s French racial character: The Alsatian race
remained, by and large, of Celtic type; Alsatian men, though chiefly blond, did not
have the same facial and physical characteristics as Germans; and Alsatian women,
thinner than German ones, resembled women from northern France.40 This literature
found its roots in the racial nationalism that emerged in the late nineteenth
century. Its purpose was clear: to demonstrate that Alsace-Lorraine had been part and
parcel of France (i.e., Gaul) from the beginning, and shared with the nation a common
racial (Celtic), cultural (Latin, “meridional”), and geographic (the Rhine as a
natural frontier) heritage. This was a profound shift from Fustel de Coulanges, who
had argued in 1870 that Alsace might well be German by race, but that it was French
by choice.41
Cleansing and Categorizing: Defining Frenchness
The growing ethnic and racial discourse surrounding Alsace-Lorraine influenced French
military officials, civil servants, and even those returning from exile ( les
revenants) in the immediate postwar years. French authorities quickly set forward on
a massive purge and categorization [End Page 139] of Alsatian and Lorrain society in
the hope of reshaping the region’s identity. Their objective was threefold: to expel
those of German blood in the hope of restoring racial purity; to categorize
inhabitants according to their ethnic background; to purge society of those Alsatians
and Lorrainers suspected of having collaborated with the Germans or of harboring
sympathies for the German cause. 42 These three undertakings were closely
interrelated. The French wanted nothing less than to recast the sense of national
allegiance in Alsace-Lorraine, and they did so following racial, ethnic, cultural,
and moral criteria. Different understandings of what it meant to be French
crystallized around the épuration in Alsace-Lorraine.
What explains the decision to cleanse, categorize, and purge? The desire for revenge
that had been latent since 1870, the enduring myth of Alsace-Lorraine as the most
patriotic of provinces, and the profound hostility and hatred of the Germans that
emanated from the Great War are the most obvious factors. After four years of war
propaganda that focused on the barbaric nature of German soldiers and the
“atrocities” they had committed on French soil,43 it was difficult to envisage
accommodation with German officials-even in Alsace-Lorraine. During the war, German
military authorities had arrested, interned, imprisoned, and even executed a certain
number of Alsatians and Lorrainers for a whole range of antinational crimes ranging
from Deutschfeindlichkeit to spying; the purges were designed to uncover those who
had denounced “good Alsatians.” Restoring the province to the patriotic purity so
dear to the myth meant cleansing it of German influences and indigenous traitors.
65
Other factors played a role as well. An influential number of Alsatians had opted for
French citizenship and established themselves in France after the War of 1870;44 they
organized interest groups and, after 1918, pressured the regime to act against German
settlers. They often worked as consultants and advisors for the government, and some
returned to Alsace where their knowledge of the region and its dialect, albeit dated,
was much needed by the authorities.
German immigrants were the first targets of administrative reprisals and popular
resentment. One month after the 11 November armistice, 150 Alsatian men met in
Strasbourg to form a comité d’épuration whose objective was “to purge Alsace of the
boches who deserve it” and to cleanse Strasbourg’s municipal administration. “Good
Alsatians” could [End Page 140] not stand idly by and watch the boches preserve their
influence.45 French authorities expelled large numbers of Germans (more often than
not, without a hearing), and pressured countless others to leave. They quickly turned
their attention to the bureaucracy, and by late 1920 some 11,500 German civil
servants had either voluntarily or forcibly departed. Schoolteachers, because of
their role in the teaching of language and the dissemination of wartime propaganda,
found themselves first in the line of fire. The new French rulers targeted
high-ranking municipal and regional administrators, railroad workers, and
bureaucrats, along with German pastors and priests. They also expelled political
opponents such as Socialists and autonomists.
German immigration had played an important role in the social and economic life of
Alsace and Lorraine after 1870. On the war’s eve close to 300,000 Germans (including
70,000 members of the military) lived in Alsace-Lorraine. They had settled, by and
large, in the towns and occupied key positions within industry, the liberal
professions, the civil service, and within the skilled and unskilled work force.
Germans comprised 35 percent of Strasbourg’s inhabitants at the beginning of the
century. By 1918 some Germans had been established in Alsace-Lorraine for decades.
Their relatively high intermarriage rate with Alsatians strengthened regional social
ties to Germany.46 The growing links between the immigrant communities and Alsatians
made the massive repatriations in the postwar years all the more difficult.
More than 110,000 German men, women, and children living in Alsace crossed the Rhine
back to Germany between late 1918 and late 1920. Some had been expelled, others lost
their jobs, and yet others driven by fear quickly packed up and left when they saw
the new order of things.47 Approximately 100,000 Germans in Lorraine met the same
fate. Near Strasbourg, those expelled, allowed only a few hand-held suitcases,
crossed the Rhine with their heads bowed under the jeers of “patriotic” (and
sometimes rock-throwing) Alsatians who cried “death to the boches” and “in the Rhine
with you.” Amused French soldiers stood and watched. Old Alsatians complained of an
“ignominious” and “pitiful” spectacle. 48 Later, Alsatian Catholic historians
sympathetic to [End Page 141] autonomism (a broad movement that campaigned for
regional self-determination) placed the blame on mobs led by hysterical women,
unemployed journeymen, and men “in bourgeois clothes” who taunted and insulted the
Germans, pelted them with horse manure, and spat at them. Unable to explain
convincingly why Alsatians had turned with such fury against Germans, the authors
accused those whose sense of regional identity was presumably tenuous: women and the
down-and-out.49 This was easier than confronting the fact that the war and liberation
had shattered the mythical unity of Alsatian society.
While Germans fled the region en masse, the new French administration was busy
issuing identity cards to all Alsace and Lorraine residents over the age of fifteen.
In theory these identity cards did not confer citizenship, they merely accorded
different travel rights to individuals based on their ancestry. The state classified
individuals into four categories, A, B, C, or D, depending on their birthplace, the
birthplace of their parents, and sometimes that of their grandparents.50 Individuals
66
born in Alsace-Lorraine, and whose parents (or grandparents) had once been French
citizens (because they were born in Alsace or Lorraine before 1870) acquired the much
sought after Carte A . Those born in Alsace-Lorraine who had only one French ancestor
(a German- or Swiss-born mother or grandmother, for example) were given a Carte B.
Authorities gave citizens of the defeated powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey,
and Bulgaria) a Carte D, and all other foreigners (e.g., Italian immigrants) received
a Carte C . A child whose father was of longstanding Alsatian heritage (Carte A), but
whose mother had a Carte B because her family had a small German component, ended up,
more often than not, with a Carte B. 51 An Alsacienne whose spouse was from Baden,
across the Rhine, would be issued a Carte A ; her husband, however, had to make do
with a Carte D, and their children Cartes B. Some of the most patriotic, francophile
Alsatians had [End Page 142] German blood in their veins, and they reacted with
predictable outrage at their second-rate classification.52
By distinguishing between “pure blooded” Alsatians and Lorrains , those of mixed
ancestry, boches, and foreigners, the card system crystallized public opinion around
issues of ethnicity. A Carte B was a stain that few wanted to display in public; it
led to continuous suspicions and humiliations (“the boches called me French-now that
we are French, lo and behold I am boche”). 53 The Carte A , on the other hand,
conferred legitimacy (and potential Frenchness) on its holder. Many of those who
penned denunciations (of Germans, of fellow Alsatians and Lorrains) in the year after
the armistice made their Carte A status clear, and often signed their letters “good
Frenchmen,” or as some put it, “alsacien pur sang” or “une bonne Alsacienne, Carte
A.”54 The classification of the population was a divisive issue in the postwar years,
because it was thought, not without reason, that identity cards would have a direct
bearing on citizenship in the future. The establishment of a system of identity cards
based on ethnicity sent a powerful message to Alsatians and Lorrainers, and it was
all the more powerful because French citizenship was founded on a combination of jus
soli and jus sanguinis.55 When it came to questions of citizenship, however-and the
stipulations of the Versailles Treaty would spell this out-Alsace-Lorraine was a case
apart. 56 This was a telling point. After all, if the mythic Alsace-Lorraine
represented quintessential Frenchness, why should citizenship matters be different
there than in the rest of the nation? True enough, it would have required
considerable political deftness to adopt more open policies in the wake of four years
of conflict with Germany. But far more was involved here, I would argue, than the
contingencies and consequences of the Great War.
The classification system paved the way for the recriminations, denunciations, and
purges that would leave enduring marks in border [End Page 143] province society. By
categorizing people according to their ethnicity, the French provoked profound
divisions within Alsatian and Lorrainer society, and contributed to weaken the social
cement that bound communities together. The state’s objective was to strengthen its
authority and to create multiple categories of Alsatians and Lorrainers with
different rights. The card system relegated 40 percent of all adult residents to
second-class status and fueled legitimate fears concerning their future. True
enough-and contrary to common assumption-the cards did not confer French citizenship;
they only constituted a form of identification and discrimination. But there were few
reassurances here for 10 percent of the population categorized as mixed heritage, and
the 28 percent determined to be Germans, many of them longstanding residents.57 In
December 1918, only those with the much sought after Carte A (59 percent of all
residents) could travel freely throughout Alsace-Lorraine. The Carte A was also a
passport to voter registration (i.e., political rights) and currency exchange (and,
though not officially, employment). Moreover, the card system encouraged Alsatians to
discriminate between themselves: some Carte A holders soon thought those with Carte B
should cede them their place in food lines.58
The large-scale categorization of individuals was eerily premonitory of restrictions
67
placed on the rights of the newly naturalized in the late 1930s, and especially of
the Vichy regime’s policy toward the Jews. Beginning in 1940 the French state devoted
considerable efforts to defining who was Jewish and who was not, and the first Statut
des Juifs placed racial criteria at the forefront. In both 1918 and 1940, then, the
republican concept of citizenship was jettisoned in favor of an increasingly racial
one-something that pointed to profound tensions in France between competing visions
of nationhood.59
The Mechanisms of the Epuration
After the First World War, weeding out Germans and categorizing residents of
Alsace-Lorraine according to their ethnic purity was not [End Page 144] enough; it
was necessary to purge the Alsatians and Lorrains , identify and punish those
politically, morally, and socially compromised by association with the German regime.
To organize these purges and give them a semblance of legality, the French
established commissions de triage on 2 November 1918.60 The concept of triage had
been forwarded as early as 1915 by the abbé Emile Wetterlé, former Alsatian Catholic
deputy to the Reichstag, who escaped to France in 1914, joined the cause of French
nationalism, and made a profession of writing rabidly anti-German pamphlets.61 Once
the lost provinces had been recovered, Wetterlé argued, France had to sort out the
immigrant Germans from the true Alsatians and Lorrains; and he also proposed to use
triage to separate the wheat from the chaff among civil servants in
Alsace-Lorraine.62 But Wetterlé resisted any larger forms of discrimination against
those (save the most guilty) who had collaborated with the Germans in ways large and
small.63
French authorities, however, took the concept of triage one critical step further.
Inauspiciously named-triage , after all, evoked the grim “sorting out” of wounded
soldiers first developed by the French army in the Great War’s field hospitals-the
triage commission’s role was to sort out “good” and “bad” Alsatians and Lorrainers,
to classify them according to their degree of patriotism, their morality, and their
activity under German rule, so as to weed out undesirable elements of all kinds and
sentence the guilty to surveillance in Alsace-Lorraine, internment in the “interior”
of France, or expulsion from French territory.64 In 1918 few could ignore that triage
had acquired new and poignant meaning on the field of battle. In wartime, the triage
of the wounded separated those who would live from those who would not; in
Alsace-Lorraine triage separated those deemed fit to belong to the national community
from those who were not.
The commissions de triage , which functioned from November 1918 to October 1919,
operated in a legal vacuum. While French troops occupied [End Page 145]
Alsace-Lorraine on 18 November 1918, and while France’s claim to the region was not
seriously challenged by the Allies, the exact mechanics of the territorial handover
would only be spelled out by the Versailles treaty. In the seven-month interim, the
region was governed by a civil-military administration responsible to the War
Ministry,65 and its inhabitants found themselves in an intermediary position: they
were not yet French citizens nor did they enjoy the same judicial rights as the
French. The ratification of the Versailles Treaty in June 1919 brought their
ambiguous position to an end; in the words of the Commissaire général de la
République in Strasbourg, the treaty turned “Alsatians into French citizens” and
brought the triage commissions to an end, for “the grievances formulated against bad
Alsatians no longer have any reason to exist.” 66 This was an understated way of
admitting that the crimes with which many Alsatians had been charged had no basis
under French law.
The triage commissions are best described as military decision-making bodies with a
hand-picked civilian component. Located in significant urban areas, they were
68
presided by an officer appointed by the commanding general, and staffed by two
Alsatian or Lorrainer members: one named by Paris, usually a patriotic Alsatian or
Lorrain émigré returning after a long absence, and another (most often a trusted
local notable with francophile sentiments) chosen by the local military
administrator. Of the six Alsatians named by Paris to serve on the commissions de
triage of northern Alsace, four lived in Paris and two served in the army; all six
had probably opted for France in 1871. 67 The triage commission’s decision was
reviewed by a general, who passed it on to a triage review commission68 that could
uphold or reverse the judgment. The final decision, however, was taken by the
commanding general. From start to finish the army was firmly in command.
The triage commission’s powers, and its indifference to the rights of the accused,
were even more troubling than its composition. On the basis of rumors, accusations,
denunciations, or official requests, the triage commissions convoked “suspects.”
There was no consistent sense of who was a suspect, what kind of accusations merited
investigation, and what constituted acceptable evidence.69 Paris had instructed that
[End Page 146] triage commissions had no right to review questions of citizenship and
could only investigate Germans under exceptional circumstances, but these directives
were consistently ignored.70 The commissions de triage called in suspects by mail,
providing them with only a cursory mention of the charges (“for an affair that
concerns you”; “to answer for anti-French acts”). At best, the triage commissions
solicited letters and additional evidence concerning suspects, although they were
under no obligation to do so. Hearings were expedited quickly and in secrecy: the
accused faced the three-person triage board alone; they had no right to legal
representation, nor could they call witnesses in their defense. On the other hand,
they could be confronted with their accusers, who enjoyed the right to call witnesses
to buttress their accusations. 71 In some cases, the accused never saw their accusers
and had to defend themselves in the face of charges made by “good patriots.” In
others, the commissions condemned the accused without ever having granted them a
hearing.72
The commissions de triage were little more than sham trials that openly trampled on
the rights of the accused. Opponents of the trials drew parallels with the
Inquisition and intimated that the boche terror was being replaced with the tricolor
one; others denounced them as comités de salut public .73 Communication between
“judges” and “suspects” was difficult, if not impossible, and the commission’s
members, who had virtually no legal background, found themselves ill equipped to
undertake investigations about a society of which they knew little, and in a language
they did not comprehend. Of six officers presiding over triage commissions in
northern Alsace, two spoke not a word of German, one understood it, and another had
some knowledge of dialect as well; only two spoke both dialect and German. None had
the slightest legal background. 74 The commissions were thus linguistically and
legally poorly prepared for their task. And the accused often had difficulty
following proceedings conducted in French. Finally, a high turnover rate also plagued
the commissions de triage: Wissembourg’s military administrator complained in early
1919 that three presidents [End Page 147] succeeded themselves over the course of
three weeks, and a similar situation prevailed in Sarre-Union.75 The problems of
staffing and bureaucratic inertia, however, worked both ways: the expeditiousness and
sheer incompetence of the commission worked to the detriment of the accused in
certain cases, while on the other hand their inefficiency probably saved greater
numbers of civilians from trial.
The Triage of Germans and Alsatians
Who was brought before the triage commissions? What crimes did these inquisitive
bodies charge them with? And how were they judged? Surviving archival records limit
our ability to answer these questions. The commissions de triage kept no transcripts
69
of the interrogations of suspects, accusers, and “witnesses,” and preserved copies of
letters of denunciations and other accusatory documents erratically. They did,
however, keep lists of accused individuals, and sometimes outlined the charges and
provided an explanation for the commission’s verdict. To back themselves up, they
often quoted from letters of denunciation and the testimony of the defendants and
their accusers.
The number of people brought before the commissions de triage is open to question.
Strasbourg’s triage commission alone deliberated more than forty-three hundred cases
between January and October 1919, and this figure may have reached fifteen thousand
in all of Alsace and Lorraine.76 But the ramifications of triage extended well beyond
those individuals called before the commissions. The triage commissions received and
gathered information on people who they never brought in for questioning, either for
lack of time or of evidence. And large numbers of individuals participated in the
triage process by sending in denunciations and serving as witnesses for the
accusation, and even larger numbers-friends and family members of the accused-were
indirectly affected.
Imposed from above by administrative fiat, the process of triage would have failed
without the ongoing flow of denunciations that sprang from below. In the months
following the armistice, the triage commissions received “an avalanche of
denunciations” from Alsatians [End Page 148] and Lorrains of all walks of life aimed
at neighbors, political opponents, coworkers, and competitors.77 In December 1918,
Strasbourg’s police were too overwhelmed by the flood of denunciations to undertake
detailed inquiries in each case.78 Some denouncers, in a wonderful example of the
power of bureaucracy, came armed with “certificates of denunciation.” 79 Without
active cooperation from the region’s inhabitants, the purges (given linguistic and
other problems) would have faced insurmountable difficulties. Why did people
cooperate? The war, and the uncertainties and divisions it engendered, were greatly
responsible for the growing practice of denunciation. Following France’s victory,
however, it was no longer a question of identifying enemies in wartime, but finding
ways of affirming loyalty to the new state and shaping national identity at the grass
roots.
The accuseds’ putative national sympathies (or lack of them) were at the heart of the
vast majority of cases. Initially, the army’s goal had been to investigate past and
present members of the German officer corps, denouncers who had worked for German
intelligence, and “women of easy virtue” suspected of sexual relationships with the
enemy and whose “bad conduct” continued under French rule.80 But triage commissions
quickly cast a wider net and investigated individuals of “mixed heritage,” denouncers
and spies (real and imagined) of all kinds, and those of dubious patriotic
allegiances. A certain Mr. X, notaire at Hochfelden, argued that all individuals who
might have had a “pernicious influence” needed to be investigated. This included
German immigrants, along with influential political and cultural brokers: mayors,
pastors, and schoolteachers; officers in the German army; and the young apaches
(ruffians) responsible for spreading bolshevism rounded off a list that reflected the
concerns of a small-town notable.81
Despite official instruction to the contrary, the triage commissions consistently
brought in German citizens for questioning, partly because they saw their task as
cleansing the recovered provinces, and partly because a large number of the
denunciations in their hands targeted Germans. In northern Alsace (excluding
Strasbourg), Germans accounted for 53 percent of some six hundred individuals
referred to the commissions [End Page 149] de triage.82 The Germans, much like their
Alsatian counterparts, faced a variety of accusations, ranging first and foremost
from the denunciation of “patriotic” Alsatians during wartime, to “spying,” to more
Kafkaesque charges of “pangermanism” and “Germanophilia.” (Over time some triage
70
commissions recognized that it was not surprising to find Germans accused of
“Germanophile sentiments”; after all they were German.) But the charges needed not be
spelled out in detail-having German or Prussian sentiments was guilt in itself and
being German was reason enough to be “considered suspect.” 83 Thus one woman was
expelled as a “German woman, undesirable first and foremost because of her boches
sentiments,” while the triage board described another one as a “recalcitrant boche
woman who is hostile to everything to do with our cause,” and a Württenberger couple
was denounced for having behaved like “outrageous boches” during the war. 84 The
leitmotiv of countless denunciations and verdicts was the impossibility of
assimilation and the need for purification. A German tramway engineer was charged
with having sent Alsatians to the front lines (how was not specified), but the real
issue at stake was his nationality: “How can it be that such a guy has not yet been
expelled? And yet he’s a pure-blooded Prussian,” wrote the denouncer, who added
incredulously, “Does one believe, perhaps, that one can make a boche into a
Frenchman?” 85 Another letter writer accused a German of having denounced him for
speaking French in a wine bar in 1915: invoking his “French-Alsatian” heart and his
duty to his “dear French patrie” he asked for the expulsion of this “ sale
boche-traître.”86
As a rule the commissions de triage proved more understanding of Germans married to
Alsatians and Lorrains. The verdict thus depended on the suspect’s nationality and
the strength of his ties to Alsace and Lorraine. Auguste Glasser, an upholsterer in
Strasbourg married to a woman from Baden (Germany), was first condemned by the triage
commission as a “hateful and violent German; will always be a danger to our
cause-must be repatriated” until members of the commission realized he was an
“Alsatian of French origin,” whereupon they crossed out all [End Page 150] their
previous comments and presumably dropped the charges. 87 It was testimony to the
complexity of the situation that even triage commissions displayed confusion about
who was Alsatian or Lorrainer (and thus French) and who was German. Overloaded with
cases, the commissions also displayed sloppiness in their judgment: one accused was
listed as Alsatian “son of Germans”-an impossibility given that the identity card
system had clearly stipulated that the children of German immigrants could not be
categorized as pure-blooded Alsatians.88
Alsatians figured prominently (40 percent) among the accused in northern Alsace.89
The most common accusation (over half the cases for which charges are specified), and
the one that met most often with harsh sentencing, was leveled against those who had
denounced fellow Alsatians during the war for harboring pro-French sentiments,
singing the Marseillaise, or hiding a French flag. While some of these charges, no
doubt, contained elements of truth, in other cases denouncers used the war, which had
a profoundly divisive effect on Alsatian society, as the best possible means of
incriminating their enemies. Close to one-third of the cases involved charges of
“Germanophilia” or “pangermanism.” These catchall categories encompassed anyone
suspected of having public or even private sympathies for the German Empire or German
culture. Finally, the triage commissions brought in smaller numbers of Alsatians on
charges of “Francophobia,” “anti-French crimes,” or “guilty toward France.”90
Those accused of having turned in fellow Alsatians and Lorrainers during the war
faced the most difficult trials. The receiver of registry fees in Soultz-sous-Forêts
(Bas-Rhin), whose spouse was German, was charged with having denounced Alsatians to
German authorities during the war. He argued in his defense that he had been forced
to report “Germanophobic” remarks that came to his ear. The triage board’s verdict,
however, was unambiguous: he was guilty and was marked for expulsion to Germany.91
Albert Nusbaum, an Alsatian schoolteacher in Soufflenheim, was accused of having
denounced a colleague for [End Page 151] “Francophilia,” and for having struck a
child who exhibited “francophone sentiments” after the armistice. The commission de
triage judged he should be evacuated to the interior of France. 92 More troubling,
71
perhaps, were the cases of those who, because of their positions, had to collaborate
with German authorities. An Alsatian forest warden, accused of having led German
troops through the Schirmeck woods in 1914, argued in his defense that he was only
fulfilling his duty as a fonctionnaire. The triage review board thought otherwise,
declared his mission “undignified of a good Alsatian,” and sentenced him to
surveillance outside his place of residence.93 In the same vein, a hunting warden
accused of guiding German troops during the war’s early days was sentenced to
“evacuation in a concentration camp”; the review board noted that “a good Alsatian”
should not have accepted the order to undertake such a task.94
The trials and the denunciations inevitably centered on distinguishing “good”
Alsatians who had remained faithful to France and “bad” Alsatians who had
collaborated with the Germans, exhibited “German sentiments,” and continued to do so
in the present. On those grounds the trials were troubling to the majority of
Alsatians and Lorrains who, after all, had been German citizens for the better part
(if not all) of their lives and whose sons had often served in the German army. The
records of the commissions de triage contain countless cases questioning the moral
and patriotic credentials of Alsatians and Lorrainers. Brumath’s triage commission
charged that Dr. Kassel from Hochfelden, motivated by money and glory, displayed an
“anti-French attitude” during the war, and decided to expel him in keeping with the
“unanimous opinion” of the pays. 95 The commission pronounced on the expulsion of
another Alsatian, accused of being the flagbearer for Brumath’s Kriegerverein
(veterans’ association), that he was under no “obligation to join,” and in another
case the insults a “Germanophile” resident of Erstein directed at French troops were
judged to reflect the fact that he was a “bad Alsatian.” 96 Mittelhausen’s village
cartwright, charged with denouncing a Belgian civilian, was expelled to Germany [End
Page 152] on grounds that he was “a bad Alsatian with pernicious instincts,” and an
unnamed compatriot-brought for unspecified reasons-was found to be a “dubious-looking
unscrupulous Alsatian.”97 Finally, the triage review board, after having examined the
sermons and letters of Bischwiller’s pastor, expelled him so he could no longer exert
his influence on “good Alsatians.”98
For the triage commissions, “bad Alsatians” included those supportive of regional
autonomy as well as those whose past or present politics were judged to be dangerous.
There had been some talk in both Germany and Alsace-Lorraine as the war neared an end
of organizing a plebiscite to determine the region’s future, or of according the
region autonomy. The French government opposed both these ideas vigorously, and the
triage commissions did not hesitate to punish those sympathetic to regional autonomy
and independence. Eckwersheim’s Alsatian schoolteacher was transferred to another
post for having flown the Alsatian flag after France’s victory, and the priest who
directed Sélestat’s library was expelled on grounds of having declared that he “was
no more German than French, but only Alsatian” and was a partisan of
Alsace-Lorraine’s neutrality. The commissions de triage condemned others for backing
a plebiscite.99
Part of the process of refashioning and purifying Alsatian and Lorrainer society
involved purging disproportionate numbers of cultural mediators who occupied
positions of moral influence in communities, such as priests, pastors, and
schoolteachers. In Alsace alone it is estimated that triage commissions removed 921
schoolteachers (either Germans or Alsaciens-Lorrains) from their positions.100 More
than others, priests, pastors, and schoolteachers needed to make their allegiances
known to the new state in no uncertain terms or risk losing their jobs, and more so
than others they were the victims of denunciations. Hauled before the triage
commission, a professor at Haguenau’s lycée, accused of German sympathies, committed
himself “to be a good and loyal servant of France.” Despite the fact that there was
no compelling evidence in the case, the commission decided to evacuate him.
Molsheim’s Alsatian pastor, Jacques Bucher, who did not “deny his German sentiments
72
but declared his readiness to serve France with devotion,” [End Page 153] met with
the same sentence.101 The commissions de triage placed hundreds of religious,
educational, and state officials on trial for collaboration with the German regime.
In large numbers of cases concerning civil servants, however, personal vengeance and
jealousy, combined with the designs of unscrupulous Alsatians hoping to acquire newly
vacated jobs, also motivated denunciations and, by extension, purge trials.
The commissions de triage’s binary worldview, of an Alsatian and Lorrainer society
divided the “good” from the “bad,” the pure and the impure, depending on the
patriotism and the morality of the accused, reflected the enduring mythology of the
lost provinces. But it also reflected that “pure blooded” Alsatians and Lorrainers
(unlike Germans) could not be purged on racial grounds. The purge commissions thus
turned to judging people’s intentions and sentiments in order to purify Alsatian
society.
What kind of sentences did Alsatians receive at the hands of the commissions de
triage? No overall figures are available, but some tentative numbers can be pieced
together from the records of the commissions in the northern-most parts of Alsace.102
In close to half the cases for which the decision is known, the commissions dropped
the charges altogether-an indication that numerous accusations lacked solid
foundations. One-fourth of the accused were sentenced to surveillance in Alsace,
while smaller percentages were assigned to residence in France (6.7 percent),
expelled to the French-occupied zone of Germany (6 percent) or, in the case of civil
servants, transferred to other positions (8 percent). 103 Those condemned were
stripped of their voting rights. The expulsion of old-standing Alsatians (Carte A)
proved disturbing to the population and prompted protests.104 It demonstrated that
triage was also about political vengeance, that no one was protected, that proper
ethnicity was not a sufficient criteria. The triage commissions of rural northern
Alsace, however, appear to have been more lenient than others. In Lorraine, the heads
of the triage review board complained that the commissions had proved far too
receptive to “slanderous denunciations” [End Page 154] and had expelled too many
individuals, many of whom never received a hearing.105
In March 1919, four months after the triage commissions set to work, the state
directed that only four types of sentences be given to condemned Alsatians and
Lorrainers: surveillance in their place of residence; exile and surveillance in other
parts of Alsace-Lorraine; expulsion to Germany; and surveillance in the interior of
France.106 The last option, which authorities now placed on the back burner, had been
the punishment of choice in the three months after the armistice. Between December
1918 and March 1919, Strasbourg’s triage review board had sent one-third of all
condemned Alsatians to surveillance and internment in la France de l’intérieur. But
authorities soon realized that this strategy might backfire. Alsatians would surely
be embittered by their forced exile, and their position as German speakers, and in
some cases their sympathy for regionalist or autonomist ideas, could only distress a
French public unfamiliar with the newly recovered provinces. It made more sense,
vis-à-vis both French and Alsatian public opinion, to place them under surveillance
in Alsace proper. And in “grave cases” state authorities encouraged the review boards
to expel Alsatians without hesitation to Germany, and to do so quickly, before the
ratification of the peace agreement turned them into full-fledged French citizens.107
In the hands of the triage review board, the state’s new directives resulted in
assigning fewer Alsatians to residency in France, expelling far more to Germany, and
sentencing an increasing number to surveillance in Alsace proper.
Over time, however, triage commissions had grown weary of the flood of contradictory
denunciations. In Benjamin Vallotton’s patriotic novel . . . et voici la France, the
president of Ixebourg’s commission de triage, eyeing a stack of accusatory dossiers,
complained of the “bedlam” and wondered how he could choose between two petitions:
73
one calling for the expulsion of a hotel owner (a German married to an Alsatian) and
another arguing that he would make a fine Frenchman. The president dismissed evidence
concerning other individuals by arguing, “If we listened to everybody, there would be
no one left in Alsace.” Even Vallotton, [End Page 155] whose support for French rule
and hatred of Germany colored every page of the novel, could not but criticize the
pervasive climate of denunciations that pitted Alsatians against each other and
deeply divided the smallest of communities.108 “Defiance, calumny, and délation were
the great wounds of the new Alsace,” wrote the comtesse de Pange, who regretted that
personal conflicts paralyzed society and marred social relations.109
The Meaning of Denunciation
In the months following the armistice, patriotism became the language of social and
cultural conflict. Beyond the common accusations against those who had turned in
“unpatriotic” Alsatians to the German authorities during the war, the denunciations
encompassed a whole range of personal vendettas, family feuds, village hatreds, and
commercial clashes directed at “German immigrants,” Alsatians, and Lorrainer natives,
all couched in the language of French nationalism. In the hope of avoiding
investigation, those who thought themselves compromised by their activities under
German rule tried to regain, in the words of Metz’s triage commission, a “French
virginity” by informing on others, and especially on German immigrants. The language
of “virginity” suggested that patriotism was tied to moral purity (in the image of
the twin sisters) and that contact with Germans could only pollute the French
character.110 Business owners denounced competitors and former workers. An Alsatian
locksmith denounced a Saxon who had opened up shop next door; soon thereafter the
Saxon sold him his shop and left.111 Those with an eye on German-owned businesses
called for a boycott of their stores in the hope of later purchasing them at
rock-bottom prices. 112 It was the syndrome, wrote a Moselle senator, of “Ote-toi de
là, que je m’y mette.”113
The climate of denunciation left profound scars at the grass roots. What small town
had not endured its bitter set of denunciations and counterdenunciations? Patriotic
Alsatians wrote to newspapers to denounce neighbors and coworkers, and their
accusations became part of [End Page 156] the public domain and the pervasive rumor
networks. The widespread practice of délation gave birth to a climate of fear and
silenced public opinion in smaller towns and the countryside.114 But most telling, in
the end, was that the majority of Alsatians and Lorrainers who backed French rule
squarely placed the blame on the French for encouraging an unhealthy climate of
délation.115 There was, of course, some truth to this. But the argument ignored that
délation needed no outside encouragement; it reflected the deep fault lines that
crisscrossed Alsatian society. Inhabitants of the region imagined (and so did the
French) that Alsace-Lorraine was still a homogeneous society, tightly bound by
networks of local and regional solidarity. By 1919 this was no longer the case.
The denunciations provided a vehicle for expressing the enmities, jealousies, and
rancors engendered during the wartime years, structured along national and ethnic
lines. The denouncers, who invariably characterized themselves as “good Frenchmen” or
“good Alsatians of long-standing Alsatian heritage,” labeled their counterparts
“boches,” influenced by “boche” ideas, “bad Frenchmen,” or lacking a pure Alsatian or
lorrain descent. In doing so they staked a claim on what constituted Frenchness, and
they clearly influenced the commissions de triage’s deliberations. In the eyes of
denouncers, nationality was not just related to ethnicity, but also to national
sentiment, public morality, and political behavior. The parallel with the widespread
practice of délation under the Vichy regime (some three to five million letters
penned by “good Frenchmen” who denounced Jews, communists, Freemasons, business
competitors) is striking.116 In both cases the disorientation produced by military
defeat and the radical changes in political legitimacy opened the floodgates to waves
74
of denunciations.
Denouncers used the language of nationalism because this was the language the state
wanted to hear, and the language denouncers knew would work. It enabled denouncers
both to establish their patriotic virtue and to achieve their objectives: doing away
with competitors, village enemies, political opponents, civil servants, and those
tainted by their association with Germans. In this sense, as Sheila Fitzpatrick has
underlined, denunciations can be understood as weapons of the [End Page 157] weak.117
Between the armistice and the ratification of the Versailles treaty Alsatians and
Lorrainers did not enjoy French citizenship and rights. Ruled by a civil-military
administration and troubled by the psychological disorientation that resulted from
the changeover from German to French rule, inhabitants of the region had few means to
defend their interests at their disposal. The absence of a well-established,
respected, and sizable local elite that did not owe its existence to France made it
difficult to challenge the state’s purge of regional society. Denunciations thus
fulfilled numerous and contradictory functions: they gave a voice to the “little
guy,” they provided a means for people to seek “justice,” to establish their national
legitimacy, and to solve their long-standing grievances.
Aftermath
Judged over the long term, however, the purge trials failed on all counts.118 Large
numbers of citizens had been called before these bodies, and even if the triage
commission found many innocent of all charges, reputations had been damaged, and the
bitterness would be enduring. Among Alsatians and Lorrainers, few things would unite
rightists and leftists, Protestants and Catholics, autonomists and assimilationists,
as much as their hatred of the purge trials.119 The large-scale triage of border
province society-sorting individuals on the basis of their national worthiness and
their ethnicity-weakened social structures and severely compromised the inhabitants’
perception of the Republic. In their parody of justice the triage commissions
undermined the appeal of republicanism-a critical error since Alsace-Lorraine had
been outside the French nation during the crucial founding decades of the republican
system.
Few in France at the time paid attention to the vigorous critique of the purges by
small numbers of Alsatians and Lorrainers during the 1920s.120 Even the patriotically
inclined Journal d’Alsace et de Lorraine [End Page 158] complained (in May 1919) that
the triage commissions had been the fundamental error of French policy.121 The Ligue
française pour la défense des droits de l’homme et du citoyen criticized, as late as
1921, the expulsion of Alsatians to Germany. The Ligue worried about the ongoing
climate of despotism in Alsace, and remarked with irony that French revolutionaries
had posted a famous signpost on the banks of the Rhine reading, “Here begins the
country of liberty.”122 Robert Redslob, a well-known professor of international law
in Strasbourg, wrote vigorous articles in Le Temps, one of France’s leading dailies,
arguing that the triage commissions had been little more than a “fox hunt” (chasse à
courre), high courts that judged the patriotism of the accused.123 German rule in
Alsace-Lorraine had been recognized by an international treaty, and there was no
legal basis for prosecuting citizens for their support of a constitutionally
established regime. Associations of Alsatian civil servants campaigned to overturn
triage commission verdicts and defended those who had been pensioned off,
transferred, or demoted.124 In 1928, the conseil général of the Haut-Rhin called for
a review of the verdicts imposed on “innocent victims” by the commissions de triage.
But the ministry of justice responded that nothing could be done: the triage
commissions were not tribunals, nor did they have links to the ministère. The only
recourse was thus parliamentary. In November 1929 the Alsatian deputy Marcel Stürmel
proposed to the Chamber of Deputies a strongly worded bill granting French citizens
the right to appeal the triage commissions’s verdicts and request financial
75
compensation. Deputies referred the proposed law to the Alsace-Lorraine committee,
and it was eventually shelved. Stürmel proposed the same bill again in June 1936 and
met with the same result.125
Conclusion
Alsace-Lorraine has consistently been on the margins of modern French historiography,
relegated there by historians who see the [End Page 159] German-speaking region as
little more than an interesting anomaly with minimal relevance to the nation’s
history.126 But border regions-contentious ones in particular-are fruitful sites to
explore the relationship between national myths and reality, along with the
problematic reconstruction of national belonging and sentiment. 127 The complex
process of reconfiguring and redefining identities in a region that symbolized French
national identity sheds light both on the state’s shifting definition of Frenchness
and on how local inhabitants tried to shape it.
The postwar purges brought into sharp relief multiple understandings and practices of
what made up Frenchness. The first was a racialized sense of Frenchness that grew out
of the neonationalism of the 1880s and the aggressive social Darwinism of the fin de
siècle.128 The civil-military administration arrived in Alsace-Lorraine influenced by
a racial view of what constituted an Alsatian or Lorrainer and set out to make the
region conform to the myth. By establishing a system of identity cards based on
ancestry, the state awakened latent conflicts in society and pitted individuals
against each other. The identity cards sent a clear message: they indicated that in
the eyes of the state, Frenchness in the border provinces was determined by blood,
and they intimated that the attribution of citizenship would not follow the same
rules as in the rest of the nation. The fear that German blood would pollute the
French national community echoed acrimonious wartime debates-notably ones concerned
with how to come to terms with the “children of the barbarians” whose mothers had
been raped by German soldiers. In the eyes of some, the racial impurity of these
children was a threat to the French family and civilization. 129 Similarly, German
blood in Alsace-Lorraine jeopardized the nation’s purity.
This racial view of Frenchness that was at odds with the republican concept of
citizenship coexisted with one based on imputed national sentiment, morality, and
culture. Not content with categorizing the population according to their bloodline,
the state purged Alsatian and Lorrainer society. The French believed that cleansing
the German past and present would be enough to allow underlying French national
sentiment [End Page 160] (as they imagined it) to resurface. While ostensibly the
purges were not about nationality, the issue was never far from the center of the
proceedings. The triage process suggested that Frenchness was both complex and
contingent: being a “good Alsatian” was not just a question of having the correct
family tree, it was related to patriotic sentiments, to political and moral acts, to
one’s standing in the local community, and to the role one had played under German
rule.
The racialist understanding of Frenchness faded from public view as the identity card
system was phased out and the triage commissions closed down. It would remain below
the surface, however, throughout the interwar years. The moral and cultural sense of
nationhood also became less prominent as republican rule was reinstated in
Alsace-Lorraine; it would reappear in force during times of tension, most notably at
the outbreak of the Second World War.130 After the War of 1870, Fustel de Coulanges,
Ernest Renan, and others had made much of the fact that Alsace and Lorraine were
French by choice, and up to the First World War the region was commonly used to
illustrate the contrast between a restrictive German ethnocultural view of nationhood
and the more “enlightened” French republican position that emphasized the voluntary
adhesion to the values of the national community. Ironically, by 1918, the republican
76
view of nationhood was clearly most on the defensive in the region that, in theory,
exemplified it, thus illustrating the profound impact of late-nineteenth-century
nationalist thought and of the First World War on understandings of the nation in
France.
The redefinition of identities was not just a top-down affair-even if the state made
sure it retained the upper hand-but it was also relayed and forged through conflict
at the local level. For Alsatians and Lorrains the question was how to construct and
reconstruct a sense of French identity after having been German for the better part
of their lives. Troubled by the switch to French rule, and worried that the card
system and the triage commissions would transform them into second-class citizens
(with second-class rights), the region’s inhabitants intervened-through the medium of
denunciations-to defend themselves as best they could and establish their patriotic
credentials. Denunciation was thus a form of resistance, but it simultaneously
undermined the cohesiveness of local communities.
The events surrounding the dramatic reintegration of Alsace-Lorraine [End Page 161]
after the Great War suggest a comparison with the actions of the state and of
individual citizens during other times of crisis in the twentieth century. The
parallels between the denunciations of 1918-20 and those of the Vichy years, between
the purges in postwar Alsace-Lorraine and the 1944 épuration , the tendency to pass
judgment on acts of collaboration and accommodation to evaluate national belonging
and sentiment, are too striking to be ignored. Postwar Alsace-Lorraine was a
laboratory of things to come: the use of purges to cleanse the national community of
unwanted elements, the practice of denunciation as a complex and multifaceted
expression of resistance and powerlessness, the weighing of moral criteria to
determine national worthiness, the systematic classification of the population-all
these techniques would be used on a more extensive and sinister scale later in the
century. And, significantly, regimes turned to these practices to assert (or
reassert) their authority and extend it over the entire nation.
In the end, little word of these divisive conflicts filtered into public discourse in
France. The purge trials would never gain a place in the nation’s memory, and
attempts to claim compensation for the victims would meet with indifference. The
French political class had no interest in reviving an issue that raised disturbing
questions about the nature of French republicanism and understandings of citizenship.
It was one thing to admit abuses that could be chalked up to the exigencies of
wartime-and Parliament did so in 1927 when it voted modest indemnities for Alsatian
and Lorrainer civilians wrongly interned during the war131 -but it was quite another
for the republican regime to acknowledge large-scale abuses of human rights, the
indiscriminate use of purges, and the pronounced turn toward racialist and moralistic
discourses of nationhood during peacetime. To do so would have been to recognize the
limits of French republicanism, limits that were drawn in sharp relief when the time
came to integrate culturally and linguistically different regions.
Laird Boswell is associate professor of history at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and author of Rural Communism in France, 1920-1939 (Ithaca, N.Y.,
1998). He is currently working on problems of national and cultural identity in
twentieth-century Alsace and Lorraine.
Notes
* An earlier version of this article was presented to the 1997 German Studies
Association meeting in Washington, D.C. The author thanks Florence Bernault, Suzanne
Desan, and the referees for French Historical Studies for their critiques of earlier
drafts. The research was undertaken thanks to a grant from the German Marshall Fund
of the United States.
77
1. The term épuration was often used at the time, by both friends and foes of the
process. See, for example, “L’Epuration,” in Le Journal d’Alsace-Lorraine, 15 Dec.
1918; Commission de triage: organisation, Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin
(hereafter ADBR) 121 AL 902; unsigned police report, 1919, in Archives nationales,
Paris (hereafter AN) AJ 30 170.
2. This article does not address the linguistic and religious conflicts in detail. On
language and education see Stephen L. Harp, Learning to be Loyal: Primary Schooling
as Nation Building in Alsace and Lorraine, 1850-1940 (DeKalb, Ill., 1998), chap. 9.
3. On the memory of the provinces perdues, see François Roth, La Guerre de 70 (Paris,
1990), chap. 20.
4. In Lorraine, German immigration helped the Protestant population reach 12 percent
in 1910. The number of Protestants grew from seven thousand to seventy-four thousand
between 1870 and 1914 (François Roth, La Lorraine annexée: Etude sur la Présidence de
Lorraine dans l’Empire allemand, 1870-1918 [Saint-Ruffine, 1976], 139-40). Religious
statistics for Alsace include military personnel; see Joseph Rossé, Marcel Stürmel,
Albert Bleicher, Fernand Deiber, and Jean Keppi, Das Elsass von 1870-1932, 4 vols.
(Colmar, 1936-38), 4:222; for statistics on language, see p. 198.
5 . See Jean-Jacques Waltz, Mon Village: Ceux qui n’oublient pas: Images et
commentaires par l’Oncle Hansi (Paris, n.d.).
6 . On German identity during this period see Alon Confino, The Nation as Local
Metaphor: Württemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918 (Chapel Hill,
N.C., 1997) and Celia Applegate, A Nation of Provincials: The German Idea of Heimat
(Berkeley, Calif., 1990). On France, see Raoul Girardet, Le Nationalisme français,
1871-1914 (Paris, 1983); Robert Tombs, ed., Nationhood and Nationalism in France from
Boulangism to the Great War, 1889-1918 (London, 1991); and Pierre Birnbaum, “La
France aux Français”: Histoire des haines nationalistes (Paris, 1993).
7. Among the most famous was Jean-Jacques Henner’s 1871 painting Elle attend, which
depicted a young Alsatian woman, dressed in black with the traditional Alsatian noeuf
(headdress), waiting patiently for France’s return.
8 . See Georges Bischoff, “L’Invention de l’Alsace,” Saisons d’Alsace 119 (1993):
34-69; Gerd Krumeich, Jeanne d’Arc à travers l’histoire, trans. J. Mély, M.-H.
Pateau, and L. Rosenfeld (Paris, 1993), 176-87; Ruth Harris, “The ‘Child of the
Barbarian’: Rape, Race, and Nationalism in France during the First World War,” Past
and Present 141 (1993): 204; Maurice Agulhon, Marianne au pouvoir: L’Imagerie et la
symbolique républicaine de 1880 à 1914 (Paris, 1989).
9. Autonomism was a complex and ever changing movement. For a perceptive discussion
see Paul Smith, “A la recherche d’une identité nationale en Alsace, 1870-1918,”
Vingtième siècle: Revue d’histoire 50 (1996): 23-35.
10 . The Germans undertook large-scale urban renewal projects, erected imposing
administrative buildings, and transformed the city into a center of higher education
that boasted the world’s largest university library on the eve of World War I-a
library that remains to this day one of France’s best. John E. Craig, Scholarship and
Nation Building: The Universities of Strasbourg and Alsatian Society, 1870-1939
(Chicago, 1984), 60.
11. Marc Bloch, L’Etrange défaite (Paris, 1946), 155.
12. On Lorraine during wartime, see François Roth, La Lorraine annexée, 593-653.
78
13. Roth, La Lorraine annexée, 600.
14. Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 1:300. A smaller number-twenty thousand to thirty-eight
thousand-fought in French uniform; these included some ten thousand who had crossed
the border in the weeks before the war’s outbreak to enroll in the French army. They
were joined by Alsatians and Lorrains who lived in France, deserters, and prisoners
of war who chose to join the ranks of the French army. On these issues, see Roth, La
Lorraine annexée, 626-27, and Alfred Wahl and Jean-Claude Richez, La Vie quotidienne
en Alsace entre France et Allemagne, 1850-1950 (Paris, 1993), 247.
15. Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 1:339.
16 . The majority of those interned would eventually be released, although French
authorities would continue to intern Alsatians and Lorrainers throughout the war
years. See Jean-Claude Farcy, Les Camps de concentration français de la Première
guerre mondiale, 1914-1920 (Paris, 1995), 51-62. On the treatment of civilians during
wartime see Annette Becker, Oubliés de la Grande guerre: Humanitaire et culture de
guerre: Populations occupées, déportés civils, prisonniers de guerre (Paris, 1998).
17. Maurice Barrès in L’Echo de Paris, 3 Dec. 1914, cited in Les Alsaciens-Lorrains
en France pendant la guerre (Paris, 1915), 87. French authorities consistently
referred to internment camps as camps de concentration during the First World War.
18. On the voyages of Foch and Georges Clemenceau see AN AJ 30 249; on Strasbourg’s
liberation, see Archives municipales de Strasbourg (hereafter AMS), Evènements
historiques 19 and Archives contemporaines, II, 2; and 1918: Les Glorieuses journées
de Lorraine et d’Alsace (Nancy, 1919). On the liberation of Alsace see the work of
Jean-Claude Richez, “Conseils ouvriers et conseils de soldats: Revendications de
classes et revendications nationales en Alsace en novembre 1918,” Mémoire de
Maîtrise, Université des lettres et sciences humaines de Strasbourg, 1979, and “La
Révolution de novembre 1918 en Alsace dans les petites villes et les campagnes,”
Revue d’Alsace 107 (1981): 153-68. For the patriotic perspective, see Jacques
Granier, Novembre 18 en Alsace: Album du cinquantenaire (Strasbourg, 1969).
19. AMS, Archives contemporaines, II, 1.
20. Charles Spindler, L’Alsace pendant la guerre (Strasbourg, 1925), 709; Auguste
Braun, “L’Entrée des français à Strasbourg: Récit détaillé des évènements,”
Manuscript, n.d., AMS, Archives contemporaines, II, 2.
21. L’Alsace et les combats des Vosges, 1914-1918, 2 vols., Guides illustrés Michelin
des champs de bataille (Clermont-Ferrand, 1920), 1:7.
22. Strasbourg, Guides illustrés Michelin des champs de bataille (Clermont-Ferrand,
1919), 12; Louis Madelin, Les Heures merveilleuses d’Alsace et de Lorraine (Paris,
1919), 60.
23. René Schickele, “Das Ewige Elsass,” in his Die Grenze (Berlin, 1932), 18-20.
24. Granier, Novembre 18 en Alsace, 50-51.
25. Administrateur militaire de Wissembourg to haut commissaire de la République à
Strasbourg, 3 Mar. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 904. The mayor, schoolteacher, pastor, and a few
youths were soon hauled before the commission de triage . For other examples see
Richez, “La Révolution de novembre 1918 en Alsace,” 164-65.
79
26. See Jean de Pange, Les Meules de Dieu: France-Allemagne Europe (Paris, 1951),
155; for the reserved welcome, see the novel by Pauline de Broglie, comtesse de
Pange, Le Beau Jardin (Paris, 1923), 8-9.
27. For more on the problem of confession, Alfred Wahl, Confession et comportement
dans les campagnes d’Alsace et de Bade, 1871-1939, 2 vols. ([Strasbourg], 1980),
2:1130-33.
28. During the war it did establish the Conférence d’Alsace-Lorraine whose role was
to plan for the resumption of French rule. The Conférence’s opinion, however, was
purely consultative in nature. See Procès-verbaux de la Conférence d’Alsace-Lorraine,
2 vols. (Paris, 1917-19).
29 . See Emile Wetterlé, Ce qu’était l’Alsace-Lorraine et ce qu’elle sera (Paris,
1917), 313-16, and L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française (Paris, 1917), 236-37.
30. 1918: Les Glorieuses journées, 41, 59, 64.
31. Georges Delahache, “La Réadaptation de l’Alsace,” Revue de Paris, 15 Mar. 1925,
327.
32. One Alsatian wrote (5 Dec. 1919) to the haut commissaire de la République in
Strasbourg that he was “proud . . . to be the obedient child of such a worthy and
good representative of the French state” and signed his letter “your devoted child.”
ADBR 121 AL 899.
33. Madelin, Les Heures merveilleuses, 7.
35. Wetterlé, L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française, 233-34.
36. Authors often invoked Caesar’s Commentaries of the Gallic Wars to support the
view that the Rhine was the border of Gaul. See Jules Roche, Alsace-Lorraine: French
Land (Paris, n.d.), 7-8. For caricatures see Henri Zislin, Sourires d’Alsace (Paris,
n.d.).
37. Ernest Lavisse and Christian Pfister, La Question d’Alsace-Lorraine (Paris, n.d.,
[1917]), 3.
38. Camille Jullian, L’Alsace française: A un ami du front (Paris, n.d., [1917]),
4-5. For a more extended discussion see idem, Le Rhin gaulois (Paris, n.d., [1915]),
and Peter Schöttler’s excellent analysis in “Le Rhin comme enjeu historiographique
dans l’entre-deux-guerres: Vers une histoire des mentalités frontalières,” Genèses 14
(1994): 63-82.
39. Charles Weimann, France et Allemagne: Les Deux Races (Paris, 1918).
40. L’Alsace et les combats des Vosges, 1:6. For other examples of ethnic themes, see
Georges Delahache (pseud. of Lucien Aaron), Petite Histoire de l’Alsace-Lorraine
(Paris, 1918), 12; Wetterlé, L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française , 22; Benjamin
Vallotton, . . . Dis-moi quel est ton pays? . . . (Nancy, 1919), 8; 1918: Les
Glorieuses Journées, 62; Jeanne et Frédéric Regamey, L’Alsace au lendemain de la
conquête (Paris, 1912), 1-3. For a more balanced view, see Rodolphe Reuss, Histoire
d’Alsace (Paris, 1934). See also Karl-Heinz Rothenberger, Die elsass-lothringische
Heimat-und Autonomiebewegung zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen (Frankfurt, 1976), 35.
Lucien Febvre has penned a brilliant critique of the ethnic interpretation (Le Rhin:
80
Histoire, mythes et réalités [Paris, 1997]).
41. Fustel de Coulanges, “L’Alsace est-elle allemande ou française?” in his Questions
contemporaines, 2d ed. (Paris, 1917), 96-99.
42. The word collaborated was not used at the time.
43. John Horne and Alan Kramer, “German ‘Atrocities’ and Franco-German Opinion, 1914:
The Evidence of German Soldiers’ Diaries,” Journal of Modern History 66 (1994): 1-33.
44. Alfred Wahl, L’Option et l’émigration des Alsaciens-Lorrains 1871-1872 (Paris,
1974).
45. Letter of J. Ringeisser, secretary of the Comité d’épuration, 27 Dec. 1918, ADBR
121 AL 899.
46. François Uberfill, “L’Immigration allemande entre 1871 et 1918,” Saisons d’Alsace
128 (1995): 63-71.
47. See the figures in Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 4:87. On expulsions from Metz see
Philippe Schillinger, “Metz de l’Allemagne à la France, 1918-19,” Annuaire de la
société d’histoire et d’archéologie de la Lorraine (1974): 123-31.
48. Letter from an old Alsatian whose brother had been expelled, 13 Dec. 1918, ADBR
121 AL 899; “Zum Abschied an der Rheinbrücke,” Strassburger Neuen Zeitung, 3 Dec.
1918, reproduced in Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 4:408-9.
50. This was not a complete novelty. During the war the French state had classified
Alsatians and Lorrainers according to their degree of trustworthiness and their
national heritage. Those deemed reliable received a carte tricolore allowing them
substantial freedom of movement.
51 . For the instructions concerning the various cartes see Général commandant
l’armée, “Arrêté relatif à la police dans les communes d’Alsace-Lorraine,” 14 Dec.
1918, AMS, Archives contemporaines, II, 5; Avis officiels pour l’arrondissement de
Château-Salins, no. 10, 5 Mar. 1919, in AN AJ 30 170. Both Rossé et al., Das Elsass,
1:529, and Wahl and Richez, La Vie quotidienne en Alsace, 118, argue that the
children of a long-standing Alsatian (Carte A) married to an Alsatian woman of
partial German ancestry ( Carte B ) would receive a Carte A if they were still
considered minors, and a Carte B otherwise.
52 . Spindler, L’Alsace pendant la guerre , 757. See also Georges Delahache,
“Strasbourg, 1918-1920,” Revue de Paris (1920), 196-97.
53. Delahache, “Strasbourg,” 197.
54. ADBR 121 AL 906.
55. For a general description of citizenship on each side of the Rhine, see Rogers
Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge, Mass., 1992).
See also Dominique Schnapper, La Communauté des citoyens: Sur l’idée moderne de
nation (Paris, 1994).
56. Citizenship would be determined by the provisions of the Versailles treaty. In a
nutshell, the treaty stipulated that those who had been French before 1870, as well
81
as their descendents, would be reintegrated into French citizenship. However those
with a German father or grandfather among their ascendents did not qualify for
reintegration and had to apply for naturalization. See Traité de paix entre les
puissances alliées et associées et l’Allemagne, et protocole signés à Versailles le
28 Juin 1919 (Paris, 1919), 47.
57. Foreigners accounted for 2.9 percent of all residents (Carte C). Statistics from
Grayson L. Kirk, “French Administrative Policies in Alsace-Lorraine, 1918-1929”
(Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1931), 137. Figures on the breakdown of
identity cards are similar for Strasbourg. See ADBR 121 AL 952.
58. Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 1:529; Wahl and Richez, La Vie quotidienne en Alsace,
118.
59. In the second Statut des Juifs (June 1940) the definition of Jew mixed religious
and racial criteria. See Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France and the
Jews (New York, 1981), 92-95; François and Renée Bédarida, “La Persécution des
Juifs,” in La France des années noires, ed. Jean-Pierre Azéma and François Bédarida
(Paris, 1993), 2:136-39. For changes in citizenship law see Vicki Caron, “The
Antisemitic Revival in France in the 1930s: The Socioeconomic Dimension
Reconsidered,” Journal of Modern History 70 (1998): 24-73.
60 . See ADBR 121 AL 899, and “Instruction concernant l’administration de
l’Alsace-Lorraine et ses rapports avec l’autorité militaire,” in ADBR 121 AL 902.
61. In March 1915 French authorities had also set up triage camps (dépôts de triage)
to “sort through” individuals who had been arrested or evacuated because of their
nationality (Germans, Alsatians, Lorrains, and so on) or because they were considered
suspect. Wetterlé probably borrowed the concept of triage from here. See Farcy, Les
Camps de concentration, 189-93.
62. Emile Wetterlé, La Grande guerre: L’Alsace-Lorraine (Paris, 1915), cited in Rossé
et al., Das Elsass , 1:530. During the war, Wetterlé thought that triage needed to be
undertaken in the French internment camps where Alsatians and Lorrains were unjustly
victimized and taken for Germans. See Emile Wetterlé, Ce qu’était l’Alsace-Lorraine
et ce qu’elle sera (Paris, 1917), 306-8.
63. Wetterlé, L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française, 211, 232-34.
64 . Triage also evoked the internment camps (camps de triage) for foreigners
(including Alsatians and Lorrainers) set up by the French during the war.
65. Bulletin officiel d’Alsace et Lorraine 1 (1918-19): 1.
66. Commissaire général de la République à Strasbourg, 21 Oct. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
67. Quartier général de l’Armée, 15 Dec. 1918, ADBR 121 AL 902. They could have also
been descendents of Alsatians who had opted for French citizenship. Northern
Alsace-the Bas-Rhin-had eight commissions de triage.
68. The review boards were called Commissions de triage et de classement du 2e degré.
69. Note of Colonel Michel, Président de la commission de triage de Haguenau, 24 Jan.
1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
70. Jeanneney, sous secrétaire d’état à la présidence du Conseil, 18 Jan. 1919, ADBR
121 AL 902.
82
71 . In theory, suspects could not be confronted with their accusers without the
suspect’s approval. See ibid.
72. For a novelistic rendition of an interrogation before a commission de triage see
Henri de Turenne and François Ducher, Les Alsaciens, ou les deux Mathilde (Paris,
1996), 214-17. This novel is based on the television series by the same title
produced by Pathé Télévision, La Sept/Arte, France 3, SR , WDR, SDR, SWF, and RTSI
(1986).
73. F. Oesinger in Radical , 27 Apr. 1919, clipping in ADBR 121 AL 968; Abbé Ch.
Thilmont, Devant la commission de triage (Strasbourg, 1919), 1, in AMS , Fonds
Peirotes, box 13.
74. Sixième corps d’armée, 1 Dec. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
75 . Administrateur militaire de Wissembourg, 7 Jan., 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902. On
turnover see Commissaire de la république de Haute-Alsace, 4 Mar. 1919, AN AJ 30 170.
Presiding officers regularly took home leave or had themselves transferred to other
posts in the army, if they were not demobilized altogether.
76. These figures include German citizens. Répertoire de la commission de triage,
AMS, Evènements historiques 20. There is also another Répertoire de la commission de
triage for Strasbourg in ADBR 121 AL 905. Surviving records of the triage commissions
are not complete enough to provide a reliable indication of the number of accused for
the whole region.
77. Commission de triage et de classement du 2e degré (Metz) à commissaire général de
la République (Strasbourg), 7 July 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
78. Commissaire spécial to haut commissaire de la République à Strasbourg, 19 Dec.
1918, ADBR 121 AL 899.
79. Commission de triage de Strasbourg, 28 Dec. 1918, ADBR 121 AL 905.
80. ADBR 121 AL 902. I have found no written record of cases of women pursued for
fraternizing with the enemy.
81. Ibid. Mr. X was probably a member of the triage commission.
82. Close to 20 percent of them came from neighboring Baden. This is based on what
appears to be a partial list of those brought before the triage commissions in
northern Alsace (encompassing the regions of Brumath, Erstein, Haguenau, Molsheim,
Strasbourg-Campagne, and Wissembourg). See Liste nominative des individus déférés à
la commission de triage des Alsaciens-Lorrains, Mission militaire et administrative
de basse Alsace, ADBR 121 AL 904.
83. Commission de triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Feb.
1919.
84. Commission de triage de Strasbourg, ADBR 121 AL 900, 6 May and 31 Dec. 1919.
85. Ibid., 22 July 1919.
86. Ibid., 12 Dec. 1918.
87. Ibid.
83
88. Commission de triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Jan.
1919.
89 . See Liste nominative des individus déférés à la commission de triage des
Alsaciens-Lorrains, Mission militaire et administrative de basse Alsace, ADBR 121 AL
904. Women accounted for close to 18 percent of all Alsatians brought in for triage.
Unfortunately the charges leveled against Alsatians in northern Alsace are known in
only one-third of the cases. The triage commissions kept poor records, some of those
convoked failed to appear, and in some cases the commissions condemned without ever
clearly specifying the charges.
90. Ibid.
91. Commission de triage, arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904, 8 Feb.
1919.
92. The term evacuate was ambiguous: in some cases the commissions wanted the suspect
placed under a résidence surveillée in the interior of France, and in others they
wanted the accused to be placed in an internment camp. Commission de triage, Centre
de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Feb. 1919.
93. Ibid., Mar. 1919.
94. Ibid., Jan. 1919.
95. Commission de triage, arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904. The triage
review board reviewed Kassel’s sentence and, given his regrets and appeals for
clemency, decided to evacuate him to the interior of France. See ADBR 121 AL 903.
96. Commission de triage de Brumath, ADBR 121 AL 904. For Erstein, see Commission de
triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Jan. 1919.
97 . Commission de triage, Arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904, and
Commission de triage de Strasbourg, ADBR 121 AL 900.
1919.
99. Commission de triage, Arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904; Commission
de triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Jan. and Feb. 1919.
100. L’Alsace depuis son retour à la France, 2 vols. (Strasbourg, 1932), 1:400.
101. Commission de triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903,
Jan. 1919.
102 . Liste nominative des individus déférés à la Commission de triage des
904. There is a record of the sentence for 60 percent of Alsatians charged.
103. Using these figures and if one assumes (tentatively, to be sure) that some nine
thousand Alsatians and Lorrains were brought before the triage boards, then 540 would
have been expelled to Germany, 2,160 assigned to residence in Alsace, 603 assigned to
residence in France, and 720 civil servants transferred.
104. Letter of Grunbach and Richard to haut commissaire de la République (Colmar?),
13 Feb. 1919, AN AJ 30 170.
84
105. Commission de triage et de classement du 2e degré (Metz) à commissaire général
de la République (Strasbourg), 7 July 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902. In Strasbourg, the
triage review boards, which reconsidered and, if necessary, overturned the decisions
of the town’s commission de triage, did not judge and condemn in entirely the same
fashion. The purges in Strasbourg had been more extensive and exemplary than
elsewhere. By the time cases reached the triage review board, however, the charged
political climate had subsided, and the boards increasingly discounted excessive,
fabricated, and unfounded denunciations.
106. See ADBR 121 AL 103, Mar. 1919.
107. Rapport de la commission interministérielle des Alsaciens-Lorrains, n.d. (winter
1919), ADBR 121 AL 902.
108. Benjamin Vallotton, . . . Et voici la France , vol. 3 of Quel est ton pays?
(Lausanne, 1931), 52-53.
109. Comtesse Jean de Pange, Le Beau Jardin, 63, 78.
110. Commission de triage et de classement du 2e degré (Metz) to Commissaire général
de la République (Strasbourg), 7 July 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902; Thilmont, Devant la
commission de triage, 8.
111. Commission de triage de Strasbourg, 11 Apr. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 900.
112. See, for example, Commission de triage de Strasbourg, 28 Jan. 1919, ADBR 121 AL
906.
113. Jean Stuhl, senator of the Moselle, to Ministre des affaires étrangères, 2 Mar.
1925, AN AJ 30 296.
114. See Bernard Klein, La Vie politique en Alsace Bossue et dans le pays de la
petite pierre de 1918 à 1939 (Strasbourg, 1991), 58-59. French distinguishes between
dénonciation, which is more neutral in character, and délation, a term that carries a
highly pejorative connotation and encompasses an element of treason and unsavory
interests (unlike délations, dénonciations can be done in the public interest). But
the line between délation and dénonciation (not to mention mouchardage) was, as
always, a fine one.
115. Spindler, L’Alsace pendant la guerre, 750.
116. See André Halimi, La Délation sous l’occupation (Paris, 1983).
117. Sheila Fitzpatrick and Robert Gellately, Accusatory Practices: Denunciation in
Modern European History, 1789-1989 (Chicago, 1997), 188. She is referring to James
Scott’s Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.,
1985). See also Sébastien Fontenelle, La France des mouchards: Enquête sur la
délation (Paris, 1997).
118. For the substantially different, “official” French view see Alexandre Millerand,
Le Retour de l’Alsace-Lorraine à la France (Paris, 1923), 30-31.
119. “But one is astonished to find, after ten years, how bitter are the memories of
the people concerning these commissions and their work” (Kirk, “French Administrative
Policies in Alsace-Lorraine,” 46).
120. See, for example, Thilmont, Devant la commission de triage ; Abbé Dr. Haegy,
85
“Eine kritische Stimme aus der Übergangszeit,” Elsässer Kurier , 20 Feb. 1919,
reproduced in Das Elsass, 4:409-13.
121. Journal d’Alsace Lorraine, 25 May 1919, cited in ADBR 121 AL 902.
122. For the war years see AN AJ 30 310, and for 1921, AN AJ 30 227, letter of the
Ligue to Président du conseil, Oct. 1921.
123. Redslob’s article is cited in “Proposition de loi tendant à faire réviser les
décisions des commissions de triage en Alsace et en Lorraine et à assurer réparation
du préjudice pour les victimes de ces commissions de triage,” in Annales de la
Chambre des députés, 14e législature: Documents parlementaires, 117, 2eme session
extraordinaire de 1929 (Paris, 1930), 143-44.
124. “Für die Opfer der Commissions de Triage,” Unidentified news clipping, 16 Oct.
1924, AMS, Fonds Peirotes 40.
125. See “Proposition de loi tendant à faire réviser les décisions des commissions de
triage.” For 1936 see Annales de la Chambre des députés: 16e législature: Documents
parlementaires, 133. Stürmel’s close links to autonomism did little to help the bill.
126 . Alfred Wahl, Jean-Claude Richez, and Freddy Raphaël have done much to
problematize the region’s history. But my point is that scant attention has been paid
to the region by historians in the rest of France.
127 . On the role of frontier regions in an earlier period see Peter Sahlins,
Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, Calif., 1989).
128 . See Zeev Sternhell, La Droite révolutionnaire: Les Origines françaises du
fascisme, 1885-1914 (Paris, 1978), chap. 3; and Tombs, ed., Nationhood and
Nationalism in France.
129. See the pioneering works of Harris, “The ‘Child of the Barbarian’”; and Stéphane
Audoin-Rouzeau, L’Enfant de l’ennemi, 1914-1918: Viol, avortement, infanticide
pendant la Grande guerre (Paris, 1995).
130 . See Laird Boswell, “Franco-Alsatian Conflict and the Crisis of National
Sentiment during the Phoney War,” Journal of Modern History 71 (1999): 552-84. This
article addresses the relationship between religion, language, and national identity
in greater detail.
131. See Camille Maire’s introduction to François Laurent, Des Alsaciens-Lorrains
otages en France: 1914-1918: Souvenirs d’un Lorrain interné en France et en Suisse
pendant la guerre (Strasbourg, 1998), 26.
Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng had the following children:
i.
ROSA ANGELA11 RHEIN was born on 13 May 1891 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania21. She died before 1900 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
ii.
JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 10 Jul 1893 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania21. He died before 1895 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
86
Pennsylvania.
iii.
JOSEPH PETER RHEIN was born on 16 Mar 1895 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania21. He died on 11 Feb 1965 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. He married Mabel Florence McKinney, daughter of John Henry
McKinney and Rosa Linda Stewart, on 06 Aug 1924 in St. Augustine Roman
Catholic Church, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania4. She was born on 29
May 1901 in Sligo, Clarion County, Pennsylvania36. She died on 07 Apr 1996 in
Sarasota, Sarasota County, Florida.
Notes for Joseph Peter Rhein:
France
August 26, 1918
My Dear Brothers,
I hope you are as well and happy as I am. Things here are fine. Will have many
interesting stories to tell you when I see you again. I hope it will not be too long a
while. I hope work and study is agreeing with you two and that you may do your
best until I come back. The weather here is very nice and the place where I am at is
one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Wishing you the best of success. I am with love.
Your brother,
Joseph P. Rhein
Ord. Sgt.
320th Infantry Regiment of the 80th Division
France 1918
NANTILLOIS (MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE)
On the night of October 7th, the Regiment, with the First Battalion in front,
took over the right half of a new Divisional Sector north of Montfaucon, and at
three-thirty on the afternoon of October 9th, started to attack in the Bois des Ogons
under cover of a creeping barrage.
Heavy machine gun resistance was encountered, but by morning the
battalion had advanced two kilometers through difficult woods and reached the road
running from Cunel to Brieulles. Concentrations of machine gun fire from all
directions and of artillery fire, especially from batteries across the river, caused the
battalion to entrench and to employ flanking and infiltrating tactics.
The attack was continued the following morning in the wake of a rolling
barrage, but nothing in the way of artillery preparation seemed to interfere with the
effectiveness of the German machine gun. It's fire from all angles was terrific and,
though two companies were able to reach a small trench system some three
hundred yards in advance of the road, they were later withdrawn under cover of the
woods to avoid useless exposure.
On the morning of October 11th, the attempt was made again, and this time
an advance of another kilometer was made and maintained in the face of a most
determined resistance. That night, after fifty-five hours of almost constant fighting in
an area drenched with gas and shelled by high explosives, the Regiment was
relieved by troops of the Fifth Division and routed via Montfaucon and Avocourt to a
bivouac area in the Foret De Hesse. A line drawn from Montfaucon north through
Nantillois to Ancreville represents the general direction taken by the 320th Infantry
in what may be designated, from the Regimental standpoint, as the Nantillois Phase
of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
After several rainy days in the woods, the troops embussed and were taken
to billets in an area just south of the Argonne Forest. Here, with Regimental
87
Headquarters, Headquarters Company and Machine Gun and the Third at
Passavant, the men obtained baths, various items of new clothing, rest, and, what
seemed the most to be desired, freedom from the ominous hum and burst of shells.
The change was not for long, however, and on October 27th, the Regiment
marched to the western approach of Triaucourt and there embussed in French
camions for the Neuvilly area. The debussing took place at le Neufour, in the
Argonne Forest, followed by a five kilometer march to bivouac in the. woods at la
Chalade.
ST. JUVIN-ST. GEORGES (MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE)
The Regiment remained there under ideal weather conditions until the night
of October 30th, when it marched via le Four de Paris, la Barricade, Chatel
Chehery, Fleville to support position southeast of St. Juvin in the Department of
Ardennes. On the night of October 31st, the Eightieth Division relieved the
Eighty-Second, and the Third Battalion formed along the St. Juvin-St. Georges
Road in preparation for an attack at dawn.
The barrage which opened at three-thirty a. M., was immediately followed
by a destructive enemy counter-barrage placed along the St. Juvin-St. Georges
Road. The battalion jumped off at five-forty-two a. M., meeting intense machine gun
fire from the very start. The German position on the far side of a ravine (aux
Pierres), with an unbroken field of fire, seemed impregnable. The fighting was of the
most desperate order during the morning but the enemy's resistance was slowly but
surely broken down. Further artillery support was given that night and, upon
continuing the attack at five-fifteen a. M., November 2nd, the Regiment made
steady progress until relieved that morning. This day of November 1st marked the
last of heavy fighting for the Division and, in fact, for substantially the entire First
American Army. When that day was over, the march to the Rhine had actually
begun. The Infantry, thereafter, could not keep pace with the retreating enemy and
his rearguard action was but feebly maintained during the following days that
proved to be the last of the war.
The Regiment, after relief, continued the march forward through Imecourt,
Sivry, Buzancy, to a bivouac area in a woods twenty-five kilometers due south of
historic Sedan.
On November 8th, it began a march southward which developed into a two
hundred kilometer tramp through a half dozen Departments to a southern training
area. The line of march went through Marcq, Bois d'Apremont (Department of
Ardennes), les Islettes (Meuse), Verrieres, Givry-en Argonne (Marne), Revigny,
Baudonvilliers (Meuse), Villiersaux Bois, Dommartin, St. Pierre (Haute-Marne),
Fontette, les Riceys (Aube) to a training area in the Department of Cote D'Or.
(Source - 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, McGraw-Phillips Printing
Company, Inc., New York City.)
During the few months that the 320th Infantry Regiment fought in France in the late
summer and fall of 1918 they suffered the following killed in action or died of
wounds.
Field Officers
Headquarters Company
Machine Gun Company
Medical Detachment
Company A
Company B
Company C
Company D
Company E
Company F
1
5
6
5
28
19
36
19
16
11
88
Company F
Company G
Company H
Company I
Company K
Company L
Company M
11
12
23
25
20
38
16
HEADQUARTERS, EIGHTIETH DIVISION AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY
FORCES
GENERAL ORDER
FRANCE, Ilth November, 1918.
No. 19
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE 80TH DIVISION
The 80th Division only moves FORWARD.
It not only moves forward against the Enemy, but it moves forward in the estimation
of all who are capable of judging its courage, its fighting and its many qualities.
In the operations for the period November Ist-5th, the Division moved forward
fifteen and five eighths miles in an air line.
It always led.
It captured two Huns for every man wounded.
It captured one machine gun for every man wounded.
It captured one cannon for every ten men wounded, besides large quantities of
munitions and other stores.
It accomplished these results, of vast importance to the success of the general
operation, with a far smaller percentage of casualties than any other Division
engaged.
It has learned by hard training and experience.
The appreciation of the Corps and Army Commanders is expressed in the following:
Telegram from the Commanding General, First Army:
"The Army Commander desires that you inform the Commander of the 80th Division
of the Army Commander's appreciation of his excellent work during the battle of
today. He desires that you have this information sent to all organizations of that
Division as far as may be practicable this night. He fully realizes the striking blow
your Division has delivered to the enemy this date."
Telegram from the Commanding General, First Army Corps:
"The Corps Commander is particularly pleased with the persistent, intelligent work
accomplished by your Division today. He is further desirous that his congratulations
and appreciation reach General LLOYD M. BRETT, commanding your Brigade,
which has bome the brunt of the burden."
Letter from the Commanding General, First 4rmy Corps:
89
"The Corps Commander desires that you be informed, and that those under your
command be informed, that in addition to other well deserved commendations
received from the Army Commander and the Corps Commander, he wishes to
express his particular gratification and appreciation of the work of your Division from
the time it has entered under his command."
It is necessarily a great honor to be allowed to command an organization which
earns such commendation.
It is likewise a great honor to belong to such an organization.
1 do not know what the future has in store for us. If it be war, we must and shall
sustain our honor and our reputation by giving our best to complete the salvation of
our Country.
If it be peace, we must and shall maintain our reputation and the honor of our
Division and the Army, as soldiers of the greatest country on earth, and as
right-minded, self respecting men.
A. CRONKHITE, Major General.
(Source - 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, McGraw Phillips Printing
Company, Inc., New York City)
The World War I Meuse-Argonne American Cenetery and Memorial is located east
of the village of Romagne-sons-Montfaucon (Meuse), France and about twenty-six
miles northwest of Verdun. Meuse-Argonne, covering one hundred and thirty acres,
holds the largest number of American Dead in Europe, a total of 14,246. Most of
those buried here gave their lives during the Meuse Argonne Offensive in World
War I. The immense array of headstones rises in rectangular rows upwards beyond
a wide central pool to the chapel which crowns a ridge. A beautiful bronze screen
separates the chapel foyer from the rows upward beyond a wide central pool to the
chapel which crowns a ridge.
American Expeditionary Forces
80th Division
Nickname - "Blue Ridge" Division.
Background
National Army Division established by the War Department on 5 Aug 17 to be
established at Camp Lee, VA. Draftees were from Pennsylvania, Virginia and West
Virginia. Movement overseas commenced on 17 May 18 and was completed by 9
Jun
18.
Primary Units
159th Infantry Brigade:
317th Infantry Regiment
313th Machine Gun Battalion
90
155th Field Artillery Brigade:
313th Field Artillery Regiment (75mm)
305th Trench Mortar Battery
Divisional Troops:
305th Engineer Regiment
305th Field Signal Battalion
305th Train Headquarters and MP
305th Ammunition Train
305th Supply Train
305th Engineer Train
305th Sanitary Train (Ambulance Companies & Field Hospitals 317, 318, 319, 320)
Campaign Participation
Campaign Streamers (most units):
Somme Offensive
Meuse-Argonne
Picardy
155th Field Artillery Brigade & 305th Ammunition Train: Meuse-Argonne only
U. S. Victory Medal Clasps:
Defensive Sector
Meuse-Argonne
"The commander of the American Expeditionary Force, General John I. Pershing,
fixed the Army division at 979 officers, 27,082 men (about 40,000 all told), including
support personnel. Pershing created this division - which was more than twice the
size of its European counterpart - to acheive a capacity for sustained battle which
would ensure that American divisions would not falter short of their objectives as
British and French divisions so often had done. A division with fewer but larger
regiments would facilitate a more reasonable span of control and battle momentum.
Similar to - albeit larger than - early European "square designs, the American
square division consisted of two infantry brigades of two regiments each, one field
artillery brigade (two 75-mm regiments, one 155-mm regiment) an engineer
regiment, a machine gun battalion, a signal battalion, and division supply, and
sanitary trains. Each regiment had the strength of 112 officers and 3,720 men
formed into three battalions and one machine gun company. Each battalion
consisted of four companies of six officers and 250 men each." (Source - The U.S.
Army in the Twentieth Century)
iv.
ALOYSIUS RALPH RHEIN was born on 01 Feb 1900 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania37. He died in Jun 1978 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania37. He married STELLA L. RITZEL. She was born on 06 Mar 1907 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania38. She died in Aug 1980 in Pittsburgh,
91
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania38.
Notes for Aloysius Ralph Rhein:
[Brøderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 4, Social Security Death Index: U.S.,
Social Security Death Index, Surnames from M through Z, Date of Import: Mar 28,
1997, Internal Ref. #1.112.4.54022.178]
Individual: Rhein, Aloysius
Birth date: Feb 1, 1900
Death date: Jun 1978
Social Security #: 190-05-3152
Last residence: PA 15201
State of issue: PA
Notes for Stella L. Ritzel:
1997, Internal Ref. #1.112.4.54024.152]
Individual: Rhein, Stella
Birth date: Mar 6, 1907
Death date: Aug 1980
State of issue: PA
Zip of last payment: 15224
In the 1930 Federal Census for Pennsylvania Stella Ritzel is residing with her sister,
Anna and her husband Fred W. Lang in Oswego Street in the 27th Ward of
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Also residing in the household are her
brothers Edward H. and Richard T. Stella's occupation is listed as sales lady in
grocery store.
v.
INFANT RHEIN was born after 1900 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Infant died before 1910 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
vi.
LOUISA MARIA RHEIN was born on 19 Aug 1902 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
vii.
ANTHONY JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 14 Jul 1905 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania39. He died on 08 Dec 1982 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania39. He married (1) ELIZABETH ANNA WALTERS, daughter of Edward
James Walters and Sarah Wentzel, on 19 Aug 1931 in St. Augustine Roman
Catholic Church, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She was born in
1909 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania40. She died in 1943 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He married (2) WINIFRED REGINA
SMITH, daughter of Daniel J. Smith and Rosalia M. Kress, on 03 Oct 1945 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She was born on 28 Sep 1912 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She died in 1996 in Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Notes for Anthony Joseph Rhein:
1997, Internal Ref. #1.112.4.54022.194]
92
Individual: Rhein, Anthony
Birth date: Jul 14, 1905
Death date: Dec 1982
State of issue: PA
52.
MARY KATHARINE10 LAENG (Marcus9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 15 Jun 1861 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. She died on 24 Aug 1924 in New Washington, Cranberry Township, Crawford
County, Ohio. She married James McCarthy between 1881-1887. He was born on 24 Jun 1846 in
New Washington, Cranberry Township, Crawford County, Ohio28. He died on 26 Jun 1930.
Notes for James McCarthy:
I believe this was the farm in Ohio that my Father, Joseph Peter Rhein, spent the better part of the
summer when he was in his late teans around 1912 to 1914. See pictures of the farm in the
scrapbook section for Joseph Peter Rhein. (Note to File - J.P. Rhein)
James McCarthy and Mary Katharine Laeng had the following children:
i.
FRANCIS LAWRENCE11 MCCARTHY was born on 17 Oct 188823. He died on 14 May
1913.
ii.
EDWARD FLORENCE MCCARTHY was born on 18 Jan 189023. He died on 26 Nov
1925.
iii.
ALOYSIUS FIDELIS MCCARTHY was born on 25 Dec 1891 in New Washington,
Crawford County, Ohio23. He died on 16 Mar 1924. He married Magdalene
Eschenbrenner on 10 Oct 1922 in St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tiffin, Seneca
County, Ohio. She was born on 26 Nov 1895 in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. She
died on 04 Nov 1924.
iv.
CLEMENT BERNARD MCCARTHY was born on 07 Jul 189323. He died about 1974. He
married MARY E. HILL.
v.
THERESA PHILOMENA MCCARTHY was born on 21 Apr 1895 in New Washington,
Ohio23. She died on 19 Aug 1973 in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. She married
LAWRENCE SYLVESTER WILHELM. He was born on 08 Oct 1895 in Bloom Township,
Seneca County, Ohio. He died on 21 Jun 1972 in Tiffin, Ohio.
vi.
JOSEPHINE MARY MCCARTHY was born on 23 Dec 1896. She died on 26 Dec 1896.
vii.
FREDERICK IGATIUS MCCARTHY was born on 19 Dec 189823. He married STELLA ???.
viii. LEO JOSEPH JAMES MCCARTHY was born on 03 Mar 1901 in New Washington,
Crawford County, Ohio. He died on 16 May 1923.
53.
ix.
CECELIA IRENE MCCARTHY was born on 01 Aug 1904. She died on 15 Nov 1952. She
married WILLIAM FRANCIS RATHBURN.
x.
RICHARD MCCARTHY was born on 31 Mar 1906. He died on 02 Apr 1906.
JOSEPH IGNATIUS10 LAENG (Marcus9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 01 Feb 1865 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. He died on 07 Dec 1931 in Crestline, Crawford County, Ohio. He married (1) MARY
ELIZABETH BOUVIER on 29 Oct 1901 in Antwerp, Pauding County, Ohio22. She was born on 17 Jul
1878 in Antwerp, Paulding County, Ohio. She died on 05 Sep 1946 in Columbus, Franklin County,
Ohio. He married (2) ANNA M. KREIM about 1890. She was born on 22 Feb 1869. She died on 04
Apr 1894.
Notes for Joseph Ignatius Laeng:
Information on this line was taken from Family TreeMaker Volume 73, Tree 1214, submitted by
Caryl A. Densley, Canby, Oregon. (Note to File - J.P. Rhein)
Joseph Ignatius Laeng and Mary Elizabeth Bouvier had the following children:
i.
JENNIEVA11 LAENG was born in 1903.
93
i.
ii.
ALICE LAENG was born in 1905.
iii.
MARY GERTRUDE LAENG was born on 30 Aug 1906 in Crestline, Crawford County,
Ohio. She died on 18 Mar 1992 in San Bernardino County, California. She married
RALPH JONES. He was born on 28 Jan 1906 in Kansas. He died on 19 Sep 1980 in
Duarte, California.
iv.
CLARENCE LAENG was born in 1911. He died in 1962.
v.
JOSEPH IGNATIUS LAENG JR. was born on 18 Dec 1918 in Crestline, Crawford
County, Ohio. He died on 23 Oct 1974 in Compton, Los Angeles County, California.
He married Sarah Salome Baylor, daughter of James Baylor and Anna Neuman, on
18 Oct 1940 in Norwalk, Huron County, Ohio. She was born on 31 Aug 1921 in
Galion, Crawford County, Ohio. She died on 29 Dec 1970 in Long Beach, Los
Angeles County, California.
Joseph Ignatius Laeng and Anna M. Kreim had the following children:
54.
vi.
WALTER LAENG was born in Apr 1892 in Crestline, Crawford County, Ohio.
vii.
ANNE LAENG was born in Jul 1894 in Crestline, Crawford County, Ohio.
MARIA MARGARET10 LAENG (Marcus9, Jean Michel8, Philippe7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 26 May 1867 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. She died on 10 Nov 1937 in Bloom Township, Seneca County, Ohio. She married
Frank C. Dannemiller, son of Jean Henri Dannemiller and Marie Gross, in 1887 in New
Washington, Crawford County, Ohio. He was born on 04 Dec 1862 in Stark County, Ohio. He died
on 25 Feb 1950 in Seneca County, Ohio.
Notes for Maria Margaret Laeng:
Acherhart (should be Centner Oxanhart), Mrs. Jos. Rhein (Louise Laeng), Mark and John Centner,
Pittsburgh, Pa.; B. A. Laeng, Mrs. Ed Weatt, Tiffin; Mr. and Mrs. J. I Laeng and family, Mr. and
Mrs. Frank Kaple, Mrs. Tim McCarthy, son Clement and daughter Bertha, Crestline; Mr. and Mrs.
F. C. Dannenmiller (Maria Margaret Laeng), daughter Minnie, Mrs. John Ball and Mrs. Roma
Dentinger (Agnes Cecelia Dannenmiller), St. Stephen; Mr. and Mrs. and Justin McCarthy, Shelby;
Henry Rall and son George, Upper Sandusky.
Card of Thanks
Notes for Frank C. Dannemiller:
F.C. Dannemiller Funeral Tuesday. Died Saturday in Daughter's Home.
Frank C. Dannemiller, 87, retired farmer, died at 9:35 p.m. Saturday, Feb 25, 1950, in the home of
94
his daughter, Mrs. Roman Dentinger, near St. Stephens. He had been in failing health for the last
six weeks. Mr. Dannemiller was born in Stark County, Dec. 4, 1862, to Henry and Mary
Dannemiller. He is survived by three daughters, Miss Minnie M. Dannemiller, Tiffm; Mrs. John Ball,
Bloomville; and Mrs. Roman Dentinger, St. Stephens; and 10 grandchildren and one great
grandchild. His wife and one daughter are deceased. Funeral services will be held at 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday in St. Stephens's Catholic church and will be conducted by the Rev. R.L. Monnin. Burial
will be made in the parish cemetery. Friends may call at the home of Mrs. John Ball, near
Bloomville.
Source - Advertiser Tribune, Tiffin, Ohio)
Jane Losey advised me on August 22, 2004 that she had seen a postcard in the records of her
mother's sister that contained a postcard addressed to Mr. and and Mrs. Frank Dannemiller, dated
May 31, 1916, Millvale, Pennsylvania from Jos. Rhein. She is to let me know if she comes across
that postcard. (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Census, 26/27 Jan 1920 in Bloom Twp, Seneca Co, OH.
County directory, 1921-1924 in Seneca co, Oh Bloomville, RFD #1. Dannemiller, Frank. 160 acres.
Owned.
County directory, 1927 in Seneca co, Oh Dannemiller, F. C. Bloom No 1. Personal property value
2160.
County directory, 1929-1933 in Seneca co, Oh Dannemiller, F.C. 80 acres. Own. Bloomville, RFD
#1.
Census, 1 May 1930 in Bloom Twp, Seneca Co, OH. Frank C Dannemiller and wife and Minnie
living here.
County directory, 1931-1934 in Seneca co, Oh Bloomville, RR #1. Dannemiller, Frank C. 80 acres.
Value personal property 5510.
Clerk Of Courts Seneca Co. Oh. File Box 620 # 22177 Apr 1933. 132/406 Frank C Dannemiller,
loaned Philp Falter & H. G. Falter. $1000.00 due on 21 Mar 1933. $24.50 Interest. Judgement for
Frank Dannemiller.
County directory, 1938-1939 in Seneca Co, Bloom Twp, OH. Dannenmiller, Frank. Bloomville, 80
acres. 4960 value.
County directory, 1948 in Seneca co, Oh Dannemiller, Frank C. Co Rd #6. Widower. 80 acres,
owned. North. Ph 120 F3 Bloomville, Farm. Dora Dentinger, grandaughter.
Seneca Co Probate Ct, Will General Index, Vol 2, Civil Docket #1909, Will #14560? has Mary
Dannemiller, Claim of Administrator for Frank Dannemiller.
Death Cert in Board of Health, Seneca Co, Oh Says the cause of death was Atherosclerosis,
Coronary. He was born Stark Co, Oh. Died St Stephens Rd, St. Stephens, OH. Parents Henry
Dennemiller & Mary Gross.
Advertiser Tribune.
F.C. Dannemiller Funeral Tuesday. Died Saturday in Daughter's Home.
his daughter, Mrs. Roman Dentinger, near St. Stephens. He had been in failing health for the last
six weeks. Mr. Dannemiller was born in Stark County, Dec. 4, 1862, to Henry and Mary
Dannemiller. He is survived by three daughters, Miss Minnie M. Dannemiller, Tiffin; Mrs. John Ball,
Bloomville; and Mrs. Roman Dentinger, St. Stephens; and 10 grandchildren and one great
grandchild. His wife and one daughter are deceased. Funeral services will be held at 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday in St. Stephens's Catholic church and will be conducted by the Rev. R.L. Monnin. Burial
will be made in the parish cemetery. Friends may call at the home of Mrs. John Ball, near
Bloomville.
95
Frank C. Dannemiller and Maria Margaret Laeng had the following children:
i.
PHILOMENA M.11 DANNEMILLER was born on 14 Sep 1889. She died on 15 Jul 1972.
ii.
DORA DANNEMILLER was born on 06 Dec 1891.
iii.
ROSE MARY DANNEMILLER was born on 22 May 1894. She died on 04 Apr 1954. She
married John Cornelius Ball, son of John R Ball and Catherine Reiderman, on 02
Sep 1919 in St. Stephens, Seneca County, Ohio. He was born on 06 Jun 1881 in
St. Stephens, Bloom Township, Seneca County, Ohio. He died on 04 Jun 1958 in
Bloomville, Ohio.
iv.
AGNES CECELIA DANNEMILLER was born on 29 Jun 1896 in Bloom Township, Seneca
County, Ohio. She died on 23 Aug 1974. She married ROMAN DENTINGER. He was
born in 1898. He died in 1982.
Notes for Agnes Cecelia Dannemiller:
"Mrs. Mary (Laeng) McCarthy, wife of James McCarthy, died at her home Friday,
August 15, after an illness of several months duration.
She was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., June 15, 1861 and resided there until 1878, when
with her parents she came to New Washington where she spent the greater part of
her life.
On June 15, 1887 she was united in marriage to James McCarthy. To this union
were born ten children, 5 having preceded her departure, two dying in infancy and
three, Francis, Aloysius and Leo in early manhood.
She leaves to mourn her death, her bereaved husband, three sons, Edward of
Columbus, Clement of Galion and Fred of Mansfield: two daughters, Teresa of
Toledo and Cecelia at home. Also a grandson and a grand daughter.
Mrs. W. H Smith (Theresa Laeng), Mrs. Henry Bracht (Margaret Philomena
Centner), Mrs. Mary Acherhart (should be Centner Oxanhart), Mrs. Jos. Rhein
(Louise Laeng), Mark and John Centner, Pittsburgh, Pa.; B. A. Laeng, Mrs. Ed
Weatt, Tiffin; Mr. and Mrs. J. I Laeng and family, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kaple, Mrs.
Tim McCarthy, son Clement and daughter Bertha, Crestline; Mr. and Mrs. F. C.
Dannenmiller (Maria Margaret Laeng), daughter Minnie, Mrs. John Ball and Mrs.
Roma Dentinger (Agnes Cecelia Dannenmiller), St. Stephen; Mr. and Mrs. and
Justin McCarthy, Shelby; Henry Rall and son George, Upper Sandusky.
Card of Thanks
We wish to thank the Reverend Pastor, the choir, and all neighbors, relatives and
friends who were ever ready to assist us in the sickness, death and burial of our
beloved wife and mother. James McCarthy and children."
55.
WILLIAM A.10 SWEET (Balbine9 Laeng, Jean Michel8 Laeng, Philippe7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng,
Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born in Jan
1878 in Maine23. He married Sarah F. nee unknown in 1907. She was born in 1882 in Rhode
Island.
Notes for William A. Sweet:
The 1910 Federal Census for Newport City, Newport County, Rhode Island lists William Sweet,age
30, married 12 years, occupation machinist, residing at Cross Street with his wife, Sarah and sons;
Walter, age 10 years and Arthur, age 4 and 7/12 months. Sarah had two children both living.
he 1910 Federal Census for Newport City, Newport County, Rhode Island lists William A. Sweet,
age 41, residing with his wife Sarah F. and sons; Walter A. rrepairman in garage and Arthur F., no
occupation.
96
The 1930 Federal Census for Newport City, Newport County, Rhode Island lists William Sweet,
age 52, occupation machinist,residing with his wife Sarah and son Anthony (I believe this is Arthur
listed on the 1910 Census), age 21 on Lelyard Street. The have been married 23 years. He was
born in Maine as were his parents (Note mother born in France). She was born in Rhode Island as
were her parents. Anthony was born in Rhode Island.
William A. Sweet and Sarah F. nee unknown had the following children:
i.
WALTER L.11 SWEET was born in 1900 in Rhode Island. He married Josephine A.
nee unknown in 1923. She was born in 1903.
Notes for Walter L. Sweet:
The 1930 Federal Census for Massachuttes, Springfield City, Hampden County lists
Walter L. Sweet, age 30, occupation coach operator, born Rhode Island as were his
parents, residing with his wife Josephine A., age 27, born in Rhode Island as were
her parents. Retal payment for home is $35 per month.
ii.
56.
ARTHUR F. SWEET was born in 1909 in Rhode Island.
BALBINA10
KISTLER (Aloise9, Maria Anna8 Laeng, Philippe7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng, Georges5
Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 12 Jul 1849 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She married PIERRE THOMAS II. He was born on 30
Oct 1849 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Pierre Thomas II and Balbina Kistler had the following children:
57.
i.
EUGENE11 THOMAS was born on 13 Jul 1875 in Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine,
Germany.
ii.
JOSEPH THOMAS was born on 09 Apr 1877 in Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine,
Germany. He married MADELEINE SCHONN. She was born on 02 Nov 1878 in
Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany.
iii.
JEAN BAPTISTE THOMAS was born on 21 Sep 1879 in Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine,
Germany.
PHILOMENE10 KISTLER (Aloise9, Maria Anna8 Laeng, Philippe7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng,
Dec 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She married LOUIS HEITZ. He was born
on 20 Mar 1846 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
Louis Heitz and Philomene Kistler had the following children:
i.
MARC11 HEITZ.
ii.
THERESE HEITZ.
iii.
MARIE ANNE HEITZ.
iv.
CHARLES HEITZ.
v.
BEATRIX HEITZ.
vi.
CHARLES HEITZ.
vii.
AMAND HEITZ.
viii. ANDRE HEITZ.
58.
ALEXE10 CLAMER (Marie Louise9 Laeng, Mathieu8 Laeng, Melchior7 Laeng, Jean Georges6 Laeng,
Sep 1848 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France5. He married Marie Henrietta Joseph
Hornet on 05 May 1873 in Comines, France5. She was born on 08 Nov 1850 in Comines, France5.
She died on 29 Oct 1894 in Quesnoy sur Dele, France5.
Alexe Clamer and Marie Henrietta Joseph Hornet had the following child:
i.
HENRI ALBERT11 CLAMER was born on 25 Sep 1879 in La Chapelle d'Amrenties,
97
i.
59.
HENRI ALBERT11 CLAMER was born on 25 Sep 1879 in La Chapelle d'Amrenties,
France5. He died on 29 Nov 1965 in Marcq en Baroeul, France5. He married
THEODOSIE MARIE LEVALLOIS. She was born on 17 Apr 1882 in Chreng, France5.
She died on 05 Feb 1965 in Marcq en Baroeul, France5.
CAROLINE10 PFAADT (Marie Anne9 Gross, Catherine8 Laeng, Antoine7 Laeng, Jean Georges6
Laeng, Georges5 Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born
on 17 Sep 1838 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She married ANDRE PFAADT. He
was born on 08 Mar 1827 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Andre Pfaadt and Caroline Pfaadt had the following child:
i.
60.
CHARLES11 PFAADT was born on 09 Sep 1862 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas-Rhin, France`. He died. He married Marie Justine Alt, daughter of Jean
Georges Alt and Francoise, on 24 Mar 1888 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. She was born on 18 May 1863 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France`.
CHARLES10 LAENG (Mathieu9, Jean Georges8, Antoine7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4, Hans
Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 10 Jun 1879 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine,
Germany11. He died on 02 Aug 191511. He married Marie Louise Rhein, daughter of Pierre Rhein
and Therese Becker, on 11 Jun 1914 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany11.
She was born on 03 Nov 1887 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany11. She died
on 04 Aug 1965 in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
Charles Laeng and Marie Louise Rhein had the following child:
i.
61.
MARIE MADELEINE11 LAENG was born on 17 Dec 1914 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas Rhin, France11. She died on 09 Aug 1987 in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
She married Marin Wenger on 29 Jan 1938 in Schiltigheim11.
CATHERINE10 LAENG (Mathieu9, Jean Georges8, Antoine7, Jean Georges6, Georges5, Dorsch4,
Hans Jacob3, Durs2, Urs1) was born on 02 Feb 1875 in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France. She
married Ernest Auguste Ullmann on 06 Jul 1900 in Bischeim, Bas-Rhin, France.
Ernest Auguste Ullmann and Catherine Laeng had the following child:
i.
62.
ALBERT MATHIEU11 ULLMANN.
PIERRE10 RHEIN (Regine9 Kistler, Daniel8 Kistler, Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5
Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 11 Aug 1862
in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France4. He died on 19 Mar 1929 in Commune de
Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. He married Therese Becker, daughter of Thibaud Becker and
Marie Anne Fritsch, on 01 Mar 1886 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. She was
born on 14 Jan 1865 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11. She died on 10 Nov 1932 in
Pierre Rhein and Therese Becker had the following children:
i.
MARIE11 RHEIN11 was born in 1886. She married JEAN MARTY.
ii.
MARIE LOUISE RHEIN was born on 03 Nov 1887 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany11. She died on 04 Aug 1965 in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin,
France11. She married (1) CHARLES LAENG, son of Mathieu Laeng and Madeline
Keith, on 11 Jun 1914 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany11.
He was born on 10 Jun 1879 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Alsace-Lorraine,
Germany11. He died on 02 Aug 191511. She married (2) JOSEPH KIEFFER on 30 Jul
1919 in Bischeim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
iii.
ANGELE RHEIN11 was born in 1893. She married ??? DELDEMME.
iv.
CHARLES RHEIN11 was born in 1895. He died in 1944 in Forbach. He married ???
PHILIPPS.
v.
MATHILDE RHEIN11 was born on 06 Jun 1896. She died in Apr 1971. She married
Joseph Wenger on 09 Nov 1943 in Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France11.
vi.
JOSEPH RHEIN11 was born in 1899. He died in 1950 in Paris, France. He married
CATHERINE SCHIFF.
98
vii.
EUGENE
RHEIN11
was born about 1900.
viii. PAUL RHEIN11 was born in 1904. He married BERTHE STADELMANN.
ix.
63.
JACQUES RHEIN11 was born in 1908. He died on 20 Apr 1944 in Paris, France.
JOSEPH10 RHEIN (Regine9 Kistler, Daniel8 Kistler, Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5
Laeng, Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 13 Apr 1866 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany4. He
died on 19 Mar 1927 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania6. He married Louise Laeng,
daughter of Alexandre Laeng and Francoise Pfaadt, on 03 May 1890 in Commune de Herrlisheim,
Bas Rhin, France4. She was born on 15 May 1866 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas
Rhin, France, later Alsace-Lorraine, Germany3. She died on 11 Dec 1954 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania6.
Notes for Joseph Rhein:
Education in Alsace-Lorraine
An ordinance, dated 18 April, 1871, and issued by Count von Bismarck-Bohlen, Governor-General
of Alsace, obliges every child, on reaching the age of six, to attend either a public or a private
school, unless equivalent provision shall be made in the family itself. School attendance continues
to be obligatory until the final examination, which, for boys, takes place at the age of fourteen, for
girls at thirteen. The law of 12 February placed all lower and higher education under the
supervision and control of the State authorities. "In all schools," so runs the ordinance of the
Imperial Statthalter (Governor), dated 16 November, 1887 "religion, morality, respect for the State
and the laws shall be inculcated by means of teaching and education." The normal curriculum of
elementary schools comprises religion, German, arithmetic, geometry, drawing, history, geography,
natural history, natural science, singing, carpentry, and feminine handicrafts. The following are
charged with the local supervision of each elementary school: the burgomaster, the Catholic priest,
the Protestant pastor, the delegate of the Jewish religion and, in parishes of more than 2,000 souls,
one or more residents appointed thereto by the President of the district. The clergy are especially
charged with the supervision of the religious instruction given by the teachers in the schools; they
have, besides, the right of entering the schools at all times. The greater number of public
elementary schools are denominational. Most of the masters are laymen; most of the mistresses,
sisters of some teaching order. These communities, whose members teach in public, State, and
municipal schools, also maintain private elementary, intermediate, and higher girls' schools.
(Source - Catholic Encyclopedia
Immigration
Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng arrived Port of New York on May 20, 1890 from Le Havre on La
Champagne, L. Boyer as Ship's Master. Joseph is passenger number 808, farmer, and Louise
(surname spelled Lang) is passenger number 197, no occupation, travelling 3rd class. I am unable
to explain as to why her maiden name is listed on the ship's manifest, other than possibly she
obtained her authorization to immigrate prior to the date of their marriage. (Source - Examination
of copy of the ship manifest, New York Passenger Lists, 1851-1891, microfilm roll 548, List number
689)
The ship La Champagne was a 7,087 gross ton vessel, length 493.4 ft x beam 51.8 ft, two funnels,
four masts, single screw and a speed of 17 knots. Accommodation for 390 - 1st, 65 - 2nd and 600
3rd class passengers. Built by COT, St. Nazaire, she was launched for Compagnie Generale
Transatlantique (French Lines) on May 15, 1885. Her maiden voyage started on May 22, 1886
when she left Havre for New York. On August 7, 1887 she collided with and sank the French ship
Ville de Rio Janeiro, sustaining serious damage herself. Rebuilt in 1896 with two masts, new
engines and her 3rd class accommodations increased to 1,500. On February 17, 1898 she
fractured her propeller shaft and drifted until February 23rd, when she was sighted by the Warren
Liner Roman who towed her to Halifax. Her last Le Havre to New York sailing started on January
21, 1905 and she was then transferred to the Mexican service. She resumed Havre - New York for
99
was transferred to St. Nazaire - Panama sailings and on May 28, 1915 stranded at St. Nazaire and
broke her back. (Source - North Atlantic Seaway by N. R. P. Bonsor, volume 2, page 656)
Other
The Certificate of Death for Joseph Rhein lists his father as Jacob Rhein and his mother as Regina
place of birth as Alsace-Lorraine, which is the way she always described where they were from in
Germany, and the person completing the death certificate elected to enter only Lorraine. (Note to
File - JP Rhein)
Served with the German Army in the German Territories in Africa between 1884 and 1890. I do not
know in which of the Territories he may have been during this period. Extracts from various articles
state that Germany came late to its colonial empire, acquiring Toga, Cameroon, German East
Africa (present-day Tanzania) and German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia) by 1885. The
Berlin Conference, called in 1884 by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, established African
colonial boundaries. This empire would last only 35 years, until the end of World War I
(1914-1918). (Note to File - JP Rhein)
Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng Rhein were parishioners of St. Augustine Catholic Church, 37th
"St. Augustine was founded in 1863 as a German ethnic parish. The origin of the parish can
actually be traced to the year 1854. Germans had been settling in Lawrenceville for a number of
years. They attended St. Philomena to attend Mass and sent their children to school at either St.
Philomena or the English school at St. Mary. Concerned with the distance that the children had to
walk to attend St. Philomena, local Catholics in cooperation with the Redemptorist Fathers at St.
Philomena established a school in a Lawrenceville home. As the number of children attending the
school increased, the school was moved to an unused storeroom and later to a community hall.
The school's first few years were unsettled. Various teachers came and went and the school
discontinued operations for a brief period. Eventually, local German Catholics decided that the only
way to have an effective school was to establish a parish to oversee it. In 1860, a meeting was held
to take steps to establish a parish and school. In April of 1860, land was purchased for a parish.
Assisting in the development of the new parish was Fr. George Kircher, who had been appointed
pastor of Holy Trinity in the Hill District in 1860. In 1861, he began working with the German
Catholics in Lawrenceville to establish an independent parish. In that year, the bishop granted
permission to build a church for the Germans in Lawrenceville. However, they first built a school
which was dedicated on December 15, 1861. Beginning on February 2, 1862, Mass was
celebrated in the school.
On June 22, 1862 the cornerstone of the new church was laid. In December of that year a resident
pastor was assigned to the parish. The completed church was dedicated on November 26, 1863.
By the end of the century, this church needed extensive repair and renovation. Rather than expend
money on the existing building, the parish decided to build a new church. The cornerstone of the
new church was laid on October 29, 1899 and the completed church was dedicated on May 21,
1901. The old church was renovated and turned into a parish hall. Part of the tower was removed
and the transepts were closed with a wall, This building was eventually tom down in 1955.
Beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, people began moving from the city. By the 1990's
Lawrenceville could no longer sustain the number of existing churches. In 1993, St. Augustine was
merged with three other parishes to form the new Our Lady of the Angels parish. St. Augustine
church remains open and serves the new parish." (Souce - Diocese of Pittsburgh)
"As far back as 1854, a little school for German children of the neighborhood was being maintained
in the home of Franz Xavier Helbling opposite the Allegheny Cemetery on Butler Street. Gradually
100
the people interested organized St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church and built a little
schoolhouse on the hillside of Thirty-seventh Street. The building served as a church also from its
completion in 1862 until the fall of 1863 when a church was completed on Butler Street between
Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Streets. The school was enlarged by digging out beneath it and
making it a two story building. Until 1874 the parish was in charge of a Capuchin monk. In that
year other members of the order arrived and established St. Augustine Monastery, which is the
connection with the church." (Source - Volume 2, Pittsburgh of Today, Its Resources and People,
by Frank C. Harper, New York, The American Historical Society, Inc., 1931-1932)
"About 1897 or 1898 there came to Pittsburgh a young man, John T. Comes who was given the
commission of preparing drawings for a new church for St. Augustine Parish, Thirty-seventh Street.
The completion of St. Augustine's Church in 1901 marked a new era in the history of ecclesiastical
arts in the diocese. It was acclaimed as a masterpiece." (Source - Catholic Pittsburgh's One
Hundred Years, Published under the patronage of His Excellency the Most Reverend Hugh C.
Boyle, Loyola University Press, Chicago, Ill., 1943)
St. Augustine (Lawrenceville, PA) Parish History
HISTORY OF ST. AUGUSTINE PARISH, Lawrenceville, Pa., 1863 -- 1988
(Extracted from St. Augustine Parish 125th Anniversary Book, 1863-1988)
Lawrenceville could boast of only one landmark in 1860. That was the arsenal built as a result
of the war of 1812. Other than that, nothing stood out in Lawrenceville. Seventy new houses went
up in the district in 1860, and Butler Street was paved, but the biggest thing that happened in
Lawrenceville that year was a meeting. The Catholic leaders of the area had been meeting off and
on for several years trying to establish a school for their children. Every time a teacher had to
resign or a bigger classroom was needed, the people got together to work out their problem. But in
1860 the meeting was more important than usual. What the people wanted was a bigger school.
And this time their plans included a church. They drew up the Society of German Catholics of
Lawrenceville. With the spirit of Captain Lawrence who died ordering his men: "Don't give up the
ship," the people living in the Borough named after him were going to move ahead against all
odds.
Along with loans, the committee sponsored one picnic after another to raise funds for building. As
plans congealed they obtained a German-speaking priest to say Mass for them regularly. Father
George Kircher now became the organizer of the parish. First the school went up. While the church
was under construction services were held in the school. The first Mass in the school took place on
February 2, 1862, with Vespers in the afternoon. Father Kircher had Charles Bartberger sketch the
plans for the church September 29, 1861. The committee approved the plans the next month. At
that same meeting Mr. Landelin Vogel suggested that the parish should select St. Augustine as its
patron. The reason for the choice was not any special devotion to the saint, but rather a way of
expressing recognition to Mr. Augustine Hoeveler, the leading organizer of Catholic activities in
Lawrenceville. Right from the start, the parish was blessed with strong leaders.
In other ways the parish was still very small. At the same meeting in which the patron was chosen,
the members of the building association made a pledge of paying ten cents monthly to the church
fund. By piling up their dimes, the parishioners eventually raised the twelve thousand dollars
needed to build the first St. Augustine Church. The cornerstone was laid June 22, 1862. Even
before the church was under roof, in December of 1862, Bishop Domenec appointed Father Franz
Schmidt as the first resident pastor of the parish. In less than a year he had to resign because of
bad health. Father John Nepomucene Tamchina, a missionary Capuchin, assumed the
responsibilities of pastor just two months before the dedication of the new church.
101
organizations from Pittsburgh and Allegheny marched in procession. The new church could seat
650. Its 150 foot tower faced Butler Street. It was of red brick Romanesque in style, a hundred feet
long. Lawrenceville had a new landmark. During the next ten years the parish was busy paying off
its debts. The biggest achievement of those ten years was the establishment of the means to keep
the parish thriving for the future. Father Tamchina secured Sisters for the school. From the
founding of the school in 1854 lay teachers conducted the classes. For one reason or another a
new teacher had to be found each September. The perennial problem sometimes led to hasty
decisions and poorly qualified teachers. But Father Tamchina resolved the difficulty in 1871. The
Sisters of St. Francis were just eight blocks away. After they opened St. Francis Hospital in 1566
they began to accept teaching assignments in the German parishes. November 8, 1871 the Sisters
took over the responsibilities of St. Augustine School. This was the kind of addition which was
more important than a new building. The Catholic of that age were convinced that Sisters were the
best teachers in the world. According to the chronicler, even the children rejoiced. The parish took
on its first Franciscanism. Just two years later, 1873, the Franciscan influence became an intimate
feature of the parish. The Capuchin Fathers were invited to the parish November 7, 1873. They
came from Germany. Bismarck was suppressing Religious Orders as part of his program to
nationalize the state. The Capuchins were told to prepare to leave.
While the Capuchins were being expelled from Bavaria, Bishop Domenec was searching for
German-speaking priests for his parishes. The
persecution in Germany became a blessing for Pittsburgh.
Father Hyacinth Epp, O.F.M.
Cap., assumed the pastorate of St. Augustine's April 19,1874. From then on the parish reflected
the atmosphere of a monastery parish. Devotions and societies were those of the Capuchins. St.
Augustine's was no longer an ordinary parish. Connected to it was the headquarters of a new
province of Capuchins. This would set the decisions for parishes in a dozen states where the
members of the province would minister. Less than a month after he became pastor, Fr. Hyacinth
established the Third Order of St. Francis in the parish. The parish intensified its Franciscan flavor.
Up till then Third Order members who migrated from Germany retained their devotion to St.
Francis, but now it was organized into a thriving fraternity. From the opening date the monthly
meetings went on to the present. The only change made was that of language, for, originally, the
sermons at the monthly meetings were in German.
Along with the spiritual growth of the parish, Father Hyacinth had to keep pace with the increase in
members. Hundreds of families had to relocate when the Union Depot was built by the
Pennsylvania Railroad. Many of the families moved to Lawrenceville, with the result that St.
Augustine Church had to be expanded. A hundred-foot transept was added in 1874, according to
plans drawn by Brother Eleutherius, one of the Capuchins who arrived with Father Hyacinth. At the
time of enlarging the church, Brother also carved the main altar, the pulpit and the communion rail.
After the remodeling, "St. Augustine's was considered one of the finest churches in Pittsburgh." It
seated a thousand. Brother Eleutherius planned to carve five altars in all, but he died before
completing the task. He was a victim of smallpox June 18, 1877. Brother was the first of the
Capuchins to be buried from St. Augustine's. He was thirty-eight years old. Another interesting friar
of those early days was Father Maurice Greck, 0. F.M. Cap. Father Maurice had been an officer in
the German army. He became the second Capuchin pastor of St. Augustine's.
In July, 1877, striking railroad employees led a riot in Lawrenceville. The militia tried to restore
order but the mob forced the soldiers to retreat. In the attempt one of the soldiers was wounded in
front of St. Augustine's Church. The Fathers immediately slipped him through the church into the
monastery, where they gave him first aid and sent him to St. Francis Hospital. In the meantime the
rioters tried to force their way into the monastery to capture the soldier. It was at that point that
Father Maurice relied on his training as an officer. He just stood in the doorway with an air of
authority and ordered the rioters away. They left without further protest.
By 1888 the growing population of Lawrenceville made a new school necessary for the parish.
Father Maurice was again pastor at the time. Each wage earner pledged fifteen dollars. March
3,1889, Bishop Phelan of Pittsburgh blessed the new school. The twelve-room building cost
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equipped in the city. Newspaper clippings of the day referred to it as one of the most modern
schools in western Pennsylvania. In addition to all the subjects taught in the public school, the
parish school conducted extra classes in the German language, and, of course, courses in religion.
During that same year a new monastery and rectory was completed, the present quarters of the
Capuchins. The third floor of the present building was added in 1905. Ten years after the
monastery was built the existing convent was completed. The parish constantly demonstrated a
thriving growth.
The present church came not so much from the need of expansion, but because the old church
needed extensive repairs. Father Charles Speckert, O.F.M. Cap., the pastor, called on Mrs. Mary
Regina Frauenheim and her daughter Miss Rose, to ask for a substantial contribution for the
renovation of the church. The Frauenheim family had been bountiful toward the parish in the past.
The pastor was hoping that they would now pay for windows for the remodeling of the church. The
ladies quietly objected that such an old building was not eally worth expensive windows. Father
Charles teasingly remarked that if the good ladies were willing to donate the small sum of fifty
thousand dollars then he would do more than renovate; he could build a new, more beautiful
church. It seemed almost a joke at the time. The debt in the parish was already thirty thousand
dollars. But the Frauenheims did not take it as a joke. They asked for time to think about it. Mr.
Aloysius Frauenheim called on Father Charles a few days later to pledge the fifty thousand dollars.
With such generosity among the parishioners, the pastor could hardly refuse. Sixteen houses were
cleared from the site where the church now stands. The property alone absorbed the generous
donation, costing more than forty-eight thousand dollars. Since the project came so spontaneously,
no one really had an idea of what kind of church to build. So they looked around, trying to find
something they would like. One of the friars in the monastery came across a picture of St. Benno's
Church in Munich. It immediately caught the pastor's fancy. That was it, Mr. John T. Comes used
the picture for a model in sketching the new church. The plans looked good, but the lowest bid
looked forbidding. With a dept of thirty thousand dollars hanging over the parish, contractors were
asking another one hundred thousand for the new church. The Frauenheim
family relieved the situation by donating another fifty thousand dollars.
Five thousand people attended the cornerstone laying ceremony. The parishioners' interest ran
high all through the construction of the church. They seemed to count the layers of vitrified brick as
the masons laid the walls. Layer after layer carried the walls to the climax of a dome ninety-two feet
from the floor of the church. The towers went on for fifty feet more, twin arms raised in prayer,
reaching a hundred and forty-eight feet over Lawrenceville. When the towers extended their full
salute to God, the last stone in place, the people and clergy dedicated their church May 12, 1901.
A procession from the old church carried the Blessed Sacrament over a flower strewn path to the
new tabernacle. As the procession moved out from the church the bells clanged their farewell. Just
as the last clang of the smaller bells faded the deep, musical bells of the new church welcomed the
procession to the bigger, more beautiful house of God. Just eleven years later Father Ignatius
Weisbruch, 0. F.M. Cap., paid off the last portion of the building debt. The date can hardly seem
very remote to older parishioners who can still remember Fr. Ignatius.
Throughout the history of St. Augustine's the main theme which arises most often is change and
the ability and adaptability of the physical structures as well as the parishioners to accept these
changes. With the promulgation of the Apostolic Instruction, Custas Fidei, in April 1969, and
Immensae Cartitatis on January 23, 1973, lay persons were given permission to distribute
communion both during Mass and outside Mass. On December 1, 1974, the first Parish Council
was installed with the concept of finding an effective way of participation by the entire Christian
community in the mission of the Church. Today the Parish Council is now called the Council of
Ministries and is comprised of many dedicated people who help keep the St. Augustine Community
unified and filled with spiritual values. The roots of St. Augustine's had been firmly planted a long
time ago by many dedicated people who believed the Catholic faith was the center of their lives.
These values have remained constant. Once again the parishioners have been asked to contribute
to the renovation of St. Augustine Church. In this the 125th anniversary of St. Augustine Parish, we
have again seen the generosity and unselfishness of the parishioners who made many sacrifices to
103
the Church symbolizes.
On October 23, 1958, the official celebration of the 125th anniversary occurred rededicating our
church, our Parish, and ourselves to God for now and for the future. There was a Liturgy of
Thanksgiving at 11 am, celebrated by Bishop Donald W. Wuerl, followed by an informal reception
in the Parish Hall for the entire parish family. The unity and Christian love for one another are
typical qualities of the Augustine community and can be summed up by a quote of St. Augustine
himself: "The Kingdom of Heaven requires no other price than yourself, the value of it is yourself;
give YOURSELF to it and you shall have it."
(This history was taken in part from the St. Augustine Tour Book and from previous anniversary
Souvenir Books.)
Ruling Favors a 10-Inch Citizen of France
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 9, 2011
A Great Hamster of Alsace in a breeding center in Hunawihr, eastern France
The European hamster in grass.
The Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the European Union’s highest court, ruled Thursday that
France had failed to protect the Great Hamster of Alsace, sometimes known as the European
hamster, the last wild hamster species in Western Europe. If France does not adjust its agricultural
and urbanization policies sufficiently to protect it, the court said, the government will be subject to
fines of as much as $24.6 million.
The Great Hamster, which can grow up to 10 inches long, has a brown-and-white face, white paws
and a black belly. There are thought to be about 800 left in France, with burrows in Alsace along
the Rhine. That is an improvement: the number had dropped to fewer than 200 four years ago,
according to figures from the European Commission, which brought the lawsuit in 2009.
The Great Hamster likes grass and crops like alfalfa, but these have largely been replaced by corn,
which is not ripe in the spring when the hamster awakens from six months of hibernation, eager to
eat and mate. It must make longer and more hazardous journeys as its grazing area shrinks
because of new highways and housing developments.
“Protection measures for the Great Hamster put in place by France were insufficient” in 2008 “to
ensure the strict protection of the species” in accordance with European law, the court ruled. The
hamster has been protected legally since 1993, and while it is prevalent in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia, it is thought to exist in Western Europe only in Alsace.
Farmers have generally considered the hamster to be a farmyard pest, and before it was protected
they flooded its burrows and used poison and traps to kill it.
Jean-Paul Burget, president of Sauvegarde Faune Sauvage, or Safeguard Wildlife, in Wittenheim,
in Alsace, said in a telephone interview that “we are very happy,” and that “European rules must be
followed.” France “now must work to raise the population of hamsters up to 1,500,” which would be
enough to preserve the species, he said, and the prefecture of Alsace “must stop some
urbanization projects and restore” older agreements to grow certain cereals that hamsters eat.
Mr. Burget’s association filed an initial complaint to the European Commission on behalf of the
Great Hamster in 2006.
The court did, however, reject the commission’s complaint about the use of nitrates, on the
grounds that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate “to the requisite legal standard” a link between
104
places of the European hamster.”
The chief of staff for Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, France’s minister of ecology, sustainable
development, transport and housing, said Thursday evening that Ms. Kosciusko-Morizet would
make no comment on the ruling.
Alsace and Lorraine
I have included he following in the Notes section of my paternal grandfather Joseph Rhein. I am
not aware of any other of my Rhein forebears that immigrated to the United States. His brothers,
sisters, uncles and aunts and some gandparents were in Alsace following the end of World War I.
Copyright © 2000 by The Society for French Historical Studies. All rights reserved. This work may
be used, with this header included, noncommercial purposes within a subscribed institution. No
copies of this work may be distributed electronically outside of the subscribed institution, in whole
or in part, without express written permission from the JHU Press. This revolutionary publishing
model depends on mutual trust between user and publisher.
French Historical Studies 23.1 (2000) 129-162
-----------------------------------------------------------------------From Liberation to Purge Trials in the “Mythic Provinces”:
Recasting French Identities in Alsace and Lorraine, 1918-1920
Laird Boswell *
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Nothing proved more important for the French at the Great War’s end than regaining control of the
lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. This was an event of momentous political and symbolic
significance. After a hiatus of close to half a century, the nation took solace in the fact that it was
once again “whole.” The euphoria that followed the Great War’s end and Alsace-Lorraine’s return
to the French nation, however, was short-lived. Alsace-Lorraine’s complex place within French
identity, the nation’s enormous emotional investment in the lost provinces, and four years of
devastating losses all converged to transform the region into a site of contention during the postwar
years. The recovery of the border provinces involved far more than the reacquisition of lost
territory, and the reimposition of French rule proved far more difficult than popular opinion and
politicians, influenced by a massive and ever
present nationalistic literature on the region, had expected.
The lost province occupied a unique position in the French popular imaginary as the most patriotic
of regions. In the nationalistic climate that followed victory, squaring the myth of a patriotic
Alsace-Lorraine faithfully waiting for deliverance with the reality of a German-speaking province
that had benefited, in ways large and small, from close to fifty years of German rule proved
impossible. But there was far more to the problematic reintegration than the widespread
discrepancy [End Page 129] between myth and reality. French bureaucrats and military officials
came armed with an ethnic vision of the borderland. In an attempt to recast Alsatian and Lorrainer
identity, they immediately set off to categorize the population according to its ancestry and
launched-to use the vocabulary of contemporaries-a large-scale épuration designed to weed out
“bad” Alsatians and Lorrains.1 Accommodation was not the order of the day; instead, integrating
the province within France meant denying its Germanic characteristics, its regional and cultural
identity. Between 1918 and 1920 the French thus undertook massive purges of Alsatian and
Lorrainer society and reimposed the French language in schools on a generation educated entirely
in German. A few years later (1924-25), Edouard Herriot’s Cartel des Gauches government would
awkwardly challenge the religious privileges located at the heart of border province identity.2
Today, it has been long forgotten that the first French épuration of the twentieth century took place
105
not in the wake of the Vichy regime, but immediately after the First World War in Alsace and
Lorraine. Although more restricted in geographical scale and less violent in nature (there were no
summary executions), this purge was massive in numbers and intensity. The infamous
commissions de triage set up by the French state to cleanse border province society are now
erased from collective memory. A few regional writers have mentioned them-with a mixture of
regret and bitterness-in their writings, and historians sometimes devote a few, though rarely
well-informed, sentences to them. The waves of purges and denunciations are thus seen as a
mere detail in the postwar history of the region, dwarfed by the “unforgettable hours” of the 1918
liberation, the problematic transition from German to French rule,
the continuous administrative blunders of the French, and growing skepticism and resistance
among Alsatians and Lorrainers. Of all these events, however, the commissions de triage rank as
the most disturbing.
The complex events that followed the war’s end-from the celebrations of the liberation to the
purges and denunciations that followed on their heels-were part of a larger process of
reconfiguring and redefining national, local, and moral identities in Alsace and Lorraine. This
process was initiated by the heavy hand of the state, but once under [End Page 130] way it did not
always remain under state control, and the process was soon relayed by local inhabitants eager to
prove their patriotic credentials, searching for ways to make their voices heard, or motivated by
personal gain, sentiments of revenge, and long-standing village feuds. But there was more to the
purges than redefinition of identities. The épuration in the lost provinces illustrated three crucial
characteristics of twentieth-century French history: the development of increasingly racialized
notions of Frenchness that found their origins in the late nineteenth century, the state’s willingness
to impose its authority at the expense of republican values, and the centrality of collaboration and
resistance in determining national sentiment and trustworthiness. The purges,
however, need to be understood within the broader context of the myth of a patriotic
Alsace-Lorraine and the patriotic frenzy of the liberation, and it is with these two moments that I
begin this article.
The Mythic Provinces and French Identity
France had relinquished Alsace and a significant part of Lorraine (theGerman-speaking areas and
a francophone strip that included Metz) after its shattering defeat in the War of 1870. But as France
lost physical control of the
region, paradoxically, popular attachment to this little-known and distant region grew. Between
1871 and 1914 Alsace-Lorraine became known in political discourse, in the schools, and in the
popular imagination as the “lost province” or the “twin sisters” without which the nation could not be
whole.3 On school maps the region was shrouded in purple and black, the colors of mourning.
Even after the 1890s, when Alsace-Lorraine receded from the forefront of public discourse, it
remained profoundly anchored in the nation’s memory.
The myth of Alsace-Lorraine was born during the thirty years after the War of 1870, and it was
during this time period that the predominantly German-speaking provinces (in 1910, 87.2 percent of
the population considered German or German dialect as its mother tongue), whose significant
Protestant community (26.5 percent of the population in Alsace in 1910) also distinguished them
from the rest of the French nation, became a constituent part of French identity and patriotism.4
Over time, thanks in part to the drawings of the Alsatian caricaturist [End Page 131] l’Oncle Hansi
(the pen name of Jean-Jacques Waltz), the Alsatian (but not the Lorrainer) village became the
archetype of the French village, and the region to the east of the Vosges mountains was
transformed into a sentimental homeland of French nationalism.5 The seeds of future
misunderstandings can be found in the paradoxical situation of a
nonfrancophone and culturally distinct region being invested with a degree of patriotic symbolism
on a scale known to no other French province. Alsace-Lorraine, moreover, had been part and
parcel of Germany, and its inhabitants German citizens during the critical period of the construction
of German national identity between 1871 and 1914. In France, the sense of the nation was
substantially refashioned by the new republican regime, and Alsace-Lorraine (or its absence)
played an essential role in this process.6
106
Much of the idealized vision of the provinces perdues was related to the profoundly gendered and
subordinate place Alsace and Lorraine occupied in the French imaginary. Widely distributed
popular imagery depicted Alsace and Lorraine alternatively as sisters in mourning or young women
in regional costumes faithfully waiting for the return of the “motherland.” 7 The imagery of the twin
sisters shedding tears of sorrow, resisting the Germans through cunning and resourcefulness, or
placed at the mercy of the Germans (often in very sexual terms) proved enduring. After 1871, the
allegorical representations of Alsace and Lorraine came to represent French patriotism and la
of Arc whose patriotism was more defensive in nature. But the critical point was that the soeurs
jumelles fitted in with cultural
stereotypes that represented France as feminine in opposition to a more masculine Germany. To
the French public Alsace and Lorraine became best known as feminine, sometimes adolescent
figures whose complex imagery embodied faithfulness, courage, resignation, determination, and
patriotism.8 [End Page 132]
While Alsace-Lorraine, its cities and countryside, and its regional costumes became mythologized
in the French imaginary, the majority of the region’s inhabitants gradually accommodated
themselves to German rule. In the late 1890s, however, the growth of an autonomist movement,
spurred by growing dissatisfaction with the region’s second-class status in the Reich, signaled that
unresolved questions of regional identity remained central to cultural and political life in the area.9
The region was of considerable symbolic importance to Germany-a point studiously ignored by the
French-and it benefited from the Empire’s solicitude. Strasbourg, whose cathedral made it a
powerful symbol on both sides of the Rhine, was the recipient of substantial investments in
infrastructure and was remade the German way.10 By 1914, the region had spent close to half a
century under German control, and for the new
generations the cultural and emotional links with France proved ever more distant.
The war’s outbreak, however, radically changed the provinces’ situation.
Alsace-Lorraine, which had gradually lost the central position in French political
discourse that it had occupied in the last three decades of the nineteenth century
and was relegated to what Marc Bloch termed the “discreet shadows,” was thrust anew
into the forefront of public concerns.11 The Germans placed the two provinces under
harsh military rule for the duration of the conflict-strict censorship was enforced,
freedom of movement limited, the use of the French language banned in public, and the
germanization of French speaking areas of Lorraine accelerated.12 In Lorraine alone
some two thousand to three thousand men and women were condemned for anti-German
declarations, ranging from speaking French to “inappropriate” behavior toward German
soldiers or the Reich. 13 The government arrested prominent politicians and
journalists and exiled some to Germany (perhaps four hundred during the course of the
war in Lorraine). German immigrants increasingly occupied positions of power and
confidence. All these [End Page 133] measures contributed to simmering conflict and
fueled growing anti-German sentiments. The two provinces paid a heavy toll during the
war. The vast majority of Alsatians and Lorrainers who served did so in the German
army (380,000); deeming them too unreliable to fight on the western front, the high
command sent most to the east. Fifty thousand never returned.14 By the war’s end, the
socialist Hermann Wendel sensed that the winds had shifted: in 1914, he argued,
four-fifths of Alsace-Lorraine’s population would have voted to remain with Germany;
in 1918-in retribution for the province’s suffering during wartime-the overwhelming
majority would have chosen France.15
Alsatians and Lorrainers did not fare much better in French hands. Soon after the
war’s outbreak, the French interned thousands of Alsatians and Lorrains living on
French soil; they were joined by some eight thousand Alsatians deported from parts of
southern Alsace “liberated” during the first weeks of the conflict, and by
unspecified numbers of Lorrainers taken hostage during the French army’s initial
advance.16 Even the fervent nationalist Maurice Barrès, whose patriotism could surely
not be questioned, complained in late 1914 that young Alsaciennes and Lorraines (the
107
region’s iconographic symbols), employed as maids and servants in Paris, had been
deported to concentration camps.17 Up until the November 1918 armistice, the French
continued to intern civilians (Albert Schweitzer among them) from AlsaceLorraine
whose loyalty was judged suspect. Countless others found themselves the victims of
discriminatory hiring or bureaucratic practices, not to mention denounced as Germans
or boches by patriotic citizens. The pervasive suspicion of Alsatians and Lorrainers,
the lingering doubts about their patriotic trustworthiness, did not disappear with
into the postwar years, and decisively shape relations between the region and its new
rulers. [End Page 134]
Celebrating the Return to the Mère Patrie
French troops met with an enthusiastic welcome as they marched through Strasbourg,
Mulhouse, Colmar, and Metz in late November 1918. Hundreds of young women in Alsatian
headdress and costumes, sporting tricolor cockades, holding flowers, and waving
French flags or white handkerchiefs turned out to greet the poilus. The streets were
decked in tricolor flags, bands played the Marseillaise, bars gave out free beer to
soldiers, and huge crowds of people lined the streets, peered from windows, and
climbed on roofs to give French soldiers a welcome that exceeded all expectations
(especially in Strasbourg). But the animated welcome had more to do with the
understandable relief that the war (fought in part on Alsatian soil for the control
of the Vosges ridges) had ended, that famine and widespread shortages would be
averted, that Alsatian and Lorrainer soldiers would be returning home, and that
Alsace-Lorraine would not pay the heavy price of defeat but on the contrary share,
however ambiguously, in the fruits of victory. For the bourgeoisie, the arrival of
French troops meant social peace, and the end of the threatening revolutionary
movement of soldiers and workers that emerged in urban areas in the midst of the
German military collapse. French soldiers were soon followed by Marshal Ferdinand
Foch, and on 8 December by President Raymond Poincaré, who headed three specially
chartered trains carrying hundreds of senators, deputies, elected Paris officials,
members of alsacien and lorrain associations in exile, and journalists who came to
reclaim Strasbourg as France’s own.18
The spontaneous outbursts of enthusiasm for French troops often took a carnivalesque
and religious coloration and revealed how much underlying sympathies for France had
developed during four years of German wartime military dictatorship. But spontaneity
was only part of the story. Local authorities played a crucial role by forming
“reception committees” that printed posters calling upon “truly Alsatian young women”
(those of mixed ancestry were presumably unwelcome) to greet their liberators in
Alsatian costumes, and gave them precise instructions on how to do so.19 The Alsatian
costume, a rarity at the time, [End Page 135] was worn only in rural villages on
festive occasions, and its use in 1918 was the object of debate both among urban
elites and rural inhabitants; some opposed this masquerade and could not understand
why Strasbourg’s demoiselles wanted to be “disguised as peasants.”20 But the costume,
shunned by French revolutionaries, had, thanks to widespread popular engravings,
become for the Third Republic a dual symbol of Alsace’s quaint “attachment” to France
and its sense of local identity.21 Out of “charming daintiness” (the words of the
Michelin guide), Alsace presented itself to its liberators in the traditional
“uniform” that the French had expected women to wear. 22 Alsatian writer René
Schickele had a more dyspeptic view: he questioned whether all young women who wore
the costume on 18 November were of longstanding Alsatian ancestry; a few years later
he noted that the costumed women at a Paris exposition could not speak a word of
Alsatian dialect or German.23
Most French had a one-dimensional understanding of the complex motivations behind the
108
first soldiers to enter Alsace on 19 November 1918; his encounter with hundreds of
flag-waving Alsatians, including numerous blond women in costume marching toward the
French border, constituted for him the materialization of the “entire vision of our
childhood . . . We are entering the dream fully alive.” 24 The French mistook the
celebrations and rejoicings of the liberation as another confirmation of Alsace’s
out-and-out patriotism, and this contributed to reinforcing popular perceptions of
Alsace as the most patriotic of provinces. Glorified images of the liberation of
of French schoolchildren.
The celebration did not reach epic proportions everywhere, however. Industrial parts
of Lorraine along the German border proved more subdued in their welcome. Some rural
Protestant regions in Alsace (the region of Saverne) displayed markedly less
enthusiasm than larger cities, and rural areas in general tended to downplay their
welcome. In northern Alsace (Oberbetschdorf), military authorities claimed Catholics
greeted French troops with enthusiasm, while Protestants [End Page 136] adopted a
“reserved, almost hostile” attitude; the liberation revived long-standing enmities
and led to clashes between youths of both confessions.25 The protestant Hanauerland
was reputedly refractory to French influence, but some soldiers appear to have met
with a warm welcome, while others faced a more reserved reception.26 Protestants,
closely bound to German culture via Lutheranism, worried about their future as a
minority in a Catholic country. Some Catholics, on the contrary, welcomed the return
of French rule.27 Wine growers worried about their economic future in the world of
French viticulture. And the numerous Alsatians and Lorrains who had fought in German
uniform discreetly returned to their homes and kept a low profile.
No sooner had the celebrations died down than French civil and military authorities
turned to the task of administering the newly recovered provinces and “reintegrating”
them within France. They proved ill-prepared for the task, however. Within a few
years France had squandered the important reservoir of sympathy with which it began,
and had succeeded in alienating, in ways large and small, a substantial portion of
the Alsatian and Lorrainer population. While Alsace-Lorraine constituted a key war
aim, until the final months of the war the government had done little preparation to
reestablish governance in the region.28 And the French ignored the advice of even the
most rabidly patriotic Alsatians and Lorrains who urged them not to import large
numbers of bureaucrats unfamiliar with the region’s particularisms, but to rely
instead on the services of carefully chosen local elites, some of whom had spent
decades in exile.29
The war’s end also brought about a gradual shift away from the heavily gendered
representations of the province. The twin sisters became increasingly referred to as
children. This was not accidental: the twin sisters had resisted German rule largely
on their own, and it was time to return them to the nation’s control. “France comes
to you,” wrote General Henri Gouraud, “as a mother comes to her dear child, [End Page
137] lost and later found.” Speaking in Strasbourg, Raymond Poincaré, the president
of the Republic, spoke of the “children we have regained [enfants retrouvés]” and
added “the plebiscite is completed. Alsace has thrown herself, crying with joy, at
the neck of her long lost mother [mère retrouvée ].”30 Now that the children had
returned home, however, it was time for them to follow the household’s (French)
habits.31 Patriotic Alsatians internalized this discourse and underscored their pride
at being “obedient children.” 32 When Poincaré arrived in Strasbourg, wrote one
commentator, he found a daughter (Alsace-Lorraine) “already sitting comfortably on
her mother’s lap.”33 But interestingly enough, France was not only reunited with its
daughter, but also its sons who had been absent from the imagery of the lost
province. “What nation,” wrote Louis Madelin, “had witnessed among its sons such
fidelity?”34 The imagery of a mother returning to embrace her long-lost children,
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and Lorraine. Some patriotic essayists argued that even those “children” most
compromised by the German Empire should be allowed to return to the family’s fold,
much like children who had “disowned their mother but are conscious of the
wretchedness of this unnatural act.”35 The growing emphasis on family reflected the
view that Alsace was biologically part of France.
It was but one step from the familial imagery of the mère patrie and her children,
that also structured the encounter between the French and the Alsaciens-Lorrains. The
vast literature on the “Alsace-Lorraine question” published during the period of
German rule (and especially during the Great War) was far from devoid of racial
undertones. From caricatures to pamphlets and academic works, Alsace-Lorraine was
increasingly described as having formed the borderline between Celts (i.e., the
Gauls) and the Germanic tribes-an outpost of Latin civilization on the Rhine.
Alsace-Lorraine, it was argued, had been part and parcel of Gaul; it later came under
Roman control when Caesar conquered Gaul and fixed its boundary along the Rhine
river.36 [End Page 138] The Romans brought with them Latin culture, and, historians
Ernest Lavisse and Christian Pfister maintained, latinity perhaps struck deeper roots
in Alsace-Lorraine than in the rest of Gaul.37 But the longstanding unity with France
was not just historical or cultural, it was racial. The Alsatian “race,” wrote
Camille Jullian of the Collège de France, was gauloise (Gallic), not Germanic, and
the Alsatians did not physically resemble the Germans-on the contrary, these “eastern
meridionals” were vivacious, supple, and had a distinct and flexible frame.38 Others
distinguished a “Latin race” on one bank of the Rhine and a “Germanic race” on the
other side. 39 After the Great War, the 1919 Michelin guide to Alsace’s battlefields
continued to underline the region’s French racial character: The Alsatian race
remained, by and large, of Celtic type; Alsatian men, though chiefly blond, did not
have the same facial and physical characteristics as Germans; and Alsatian women,
thinner than German ones, resembled women from northern France.40 This literature
found its roots in the racial nationalism that emerged in the late nineteenth
century. Its purpose was clear: to demonstrate that Alsace-Lorraine had been part and
parcel of France (i.e., Gaul) from the beginning, and shared with the nation a common
racial (Celtic), cultural (Latin, “meridional”), and geographic (the Rhine as a
natural frontier) heritage. This was a profound shift from Fustel de Coulanges, who
had argued in 1870 that Alsace might well be German by race, but that it was French
by choice.41
Cleansing and Categorizing: Defining Frenchness
The growing ethnic and racial discourse surrounding Alsace-Lorraine influenced French
military officials, civil servants, and even those returning from exile ( les
revenants) in the immediate postwar years. French authorities quickly set forward on
a massive purge and categorization [End Page 139] of Alsatian and Lorrain society in
the hope of reshaping the region’s identity. Their objective was threefold: to expel
those of German blood in the hope of restoring racial purity; to categorize
inhabitants according to their ethnic background; to purge society of those Alsatians
and Lorrainers suspected of having collaborated with the Germans or of harboring
sympathies for the German cause. 42 These three undertakings were closely
interrelated. The French wanted nothing less than to recast the sense of national
allegiance in Alsace-Lorraine, and they did so following racial, ethnic, cultural,
and moral criteria. Different understandings of what it meant to be French
crystallized around the épuration in Alsace-Lorraine.
What explains the decision to cleanse, categorize, and purge? The desire for revenge
that had been latent since 1870, the enduring myth of Alsace-Lorraine as the most
patriotic of provinces, and the profound hostility and hatred of the Germans that
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propaganda that focused on the barbaric nature of German soldiers and the
“atrocities” they had committed on French soil,43 it was difficult to envisage
accommodation with German officials-even in Alsace-Lorraine. During the war, German
military authorities had arrested, interned, imprisoned, and even executed a certain
number of Alsatians and Lorrainers for a whole range of antinational crimes ranging
from Deutschfeindlichkeit to spying; the purges were designed to uncover those who
had denounced “good Alsatians.” Restoring the province to the patriotic purity so
dear to the myth meant cleansing it of German influences and indigenous traitors.
Other factors played a role as well. An influential number of Alsatians had opted for
French citizenship and established themselves in France after the War of 1870;44 they
organized interest groups and, after 1918, pressured the regime to act against German
settlers. They often worked as consultants and advisors for the government, and some
returned to Alsace where their knowledge of the region and its dialect, albeit dated,
was much needed by the authorities.
German immigrants were the first targets of administrative reprisals and popular
resentment. One month after the 11 November armistice, 150 Alsatian men met in
Strasbourg to form a comité d’épuration whose objective was “to purge Alsace of the
boches who deserve it” and to cleanse Strasbourg’s municipal administration. “Good
Alsatians” could [End Page 140] not stand idly by and watch the boches preserve their
influence.45 French authorities expelled large numbers of Germans (more often than
not, without a hearing), and pressured countless others to leave. They quickly turned
their attention to the bureaucracy, and by late 1920 some 11,500 German civil
servants had either voluntarily or forcibly departed. Schoolteachers, because of
their role in the teaching of language and the dissemination of wartime propaganda,
found themselves first in the line of fire. The new French rulers targeted
high-ranking municipal and regional administrators, railroad workers, and
bureaucrats, along with German pastors and priests. They also expelled political
opponents such as Socialists and autonomists.
German immigration had played an important role in the social and economic life of
Alsace and Lorraine after 1870. On the war’s eve close to 300,000 Germans (including
70,000 members of the military) lived in Alsace-Lorraine. They had settled, by and
large, in the towns and occupied key positions within industry, the liberal
professions, the civil service, and within the skilled and unskilled work force.
Germans comprised 35 percent of Strasbourg’s inhabitants at the beginning of the
century. By 1918 some Germans had been established in Alsace-Lorraine for decades.
Their relatively high intermarriage rate with Alsatians strengthened regional social
ties to Germany.46 The growing links between the immigrant communities and Alsatians
made the massive repatriations in the postwar years all the more difficult.
More than 110,000 German men, women, and children living in Alsace crossed the Rhine
back to Germany between late 1918 and late 1920. Some had been expelled, others lost
their jobs, and yet others driven by fear quickly packed up and left when they saw
the new order of things.47 Approximately 100,000 Germans in Lorraine met the same
fate. Near Strasbourg, those expelled, allowed only a few hand-held suitcases,
crossed the Rhine with their heads bowed under the jeers of “patriotic” (and
sometimes rock-throwing) Alsatians who cried “death to the boches” and “in the Rhine
with you.” Amused French soldiers stood and watched. Old Alsatians complained of an
“ignominious” and “pitiful” spectacle. 48 Later, Alsatian Catholic historians
sympathetic to [End Page 141] autonomism (a broad movement that campaigned for
regional self-determination) placed the blame on mobs led by hysterical women,
unemployed journeymen, and men “in bourgeois clothes” who taunted and insulted the
Germans, pelted them with horse manure, and spat at them. Unable to explain
convincingly why Alsatians had turned with such fury against Germans, the authors
accused those whose sense of regional identity was presumably tenuous: women and the
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had shattered the mythical unity of Alsatian society.
While Germans fled the region en masse, the new French administration was busy
issuing identity cards to all Alsace and Lorraine residents over the age of fifteen.
In theory these identity cards did not confer citizenship, they merely accorded
different travel rights to individuals based on their ancestry. The state classified
individuals into four categories, A, B, C, or D, depending on their birthplace, the
born in Alsace-Lorraine, and whose parents (or grandparents) had once been French
citizens (because they were born in Alsace or Lorraine before 1870) acquired the much
sought after Carte A . Those born in Alsace-Lorraine who had only one French ancestor
(a German- or Swiss-born mother or grandmother, for example) were given a Carte B.
Authorities gave citizens of the defeated powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey,
and Bulgaria) a Carte D, and all other foreigners (e.g., Italian immigrants) received
a Carte C . A child whose father was of longstanding Alsatian heritage (Carte A), but
whose mother had a Carte B because her family had a small German component, ended up,
more often than not, with a Carte B. 51 An Alsacienne whose spouse was from Baden,
across the Rhine, would be issued a Carte A ; her husband, however, had to make do
with a Carte D, and their children Cartes B. Some of the most patriotic, francophile
Alsatians had [End Page 142] German blood in their veins, and they reacted with
predictable outrage at their second-rate classification.52
By distinguishing between “pure blooded” Alsatians and Lorrains , those of mixed
ancestry, boches, and foreigners, the card system crystallized public opinion around
issues of ethnicity. A Carte B was a stain that few wanted to display in public; it
led to continuous suspicions and humiliations (“the boches called me French-now that
we are French, lo and behold I am boche”). 53 The Carte A , on the other hand,
conferred legitimacy (and potential Frenchness) on its holder. Many of those who
penned denunciations (of Germans, of fellow Alsatians and Lorrains) in the year after
the armistice made their Carte A status clear, and often signed their letters “good
Frenchmen,” or as some put it, “alsacien pur sang” or “une bonne Alsacienne, Carte
A.”54 The classification of the population was a divisive issue in the postwar years,
because it was thought, not without reason, that identity cards would have a direct
bearing on citizenship in the future. The establishment of a system of identity cards
based on ethnicity sent a powerful message to Alsatians and Lorrainers, and it was
all the more powerful because French citizenship was founded on a combination of jus
soli and jus sanguinis.55 When it came to questions of citizenship, however-and the
stipulations of the Versailles Treaty would spell this out-Alsace-Lorraine was a case
apart. 56 This was a telling point. After all, if the mythic Alsace-Lorraine
represented quintessential Frenchness, why should citizenship matters be different
there than in the rest of the nation? True enough, it would have required
considerable political deftness to adopt more open policies in the wake of four years
of conflict with Germany. But far more was involved here, I would argue, than the
contingencies and consequences of the Great War.
The classification system paved the way for the recriminations, denunciations, and
purges that would leave enduring marks in border [End Page 143] province society. By
categorizing people according to their ethnicity, the French provoked profound
divisions within Alsatian and Lorrainer society, and contributed to weaken the social
cement that bound communities together. The state’s objective was to strengthen its
authority and to create multiple categories of Alsatians and Lorrainers with
different rights. The card system relegated 40 percent of all adult residents to
second-class status and fueled legitimate fears concerning their future. True
enough-and contrary to common assumption-the cards did not confer French citizenship;
they only constituted a form of identification and discrimination. But there were few
reassurances here for 10 percent of the population categorized as mixed heritage, and
the 28 percent determined to be Germans, many of them longstanding residents.57 In
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December 1918, only those with the much sought after Carte A (59 percent of all
residents) could travel freely throughout Alsace-Lorraine. The Carte A was also a
passport to voter registration (i.e., political rights) and currency exchange (and,
though not officially, employment). Moreover, the card system encouraged Alsatians to
discriminate between themselves: some Carte A holders soon thought those with Carte B
should cede them their place in food lines.58
placed on the rights of the newly naturalized in the late 1930s, and especially of
the Vichy regime’s policy toward the Jews. Beginning in 1940 the French state devoted
considerable efforts to defining who was Jewish and who was not, and the first Statut
des Juifs placed racial criteria at the forefront. In both 1918 and 1940, then, the
republican concept of citizenship was jettisoned in favor of an increasingly racial
one-something that pointed to profound tensions in France between competing visions
of nationhood.59
The Mechanisms of the Epuration
After the First World War, weeding out Germans and categorizing residents of
Alsace-Lorraine according to their ethnic purity was not [End Page 144] enough; it
was necessary to purge the Alsatians and Lorrains , identify and punish those
politically, morally, and socially compromised by association with the German regime.
To organize these purges and give them a semblance of legality, the French
established commissions de triage on 2 November 1918.60 The concept of triage had
been forwarded as early as 1915 by the abbé Emile Wetterlé, former Alsatian Catholic
deputy to the Reichstag, who escaped to France in 1914, joined the cause of French
nationalism, and made a profession of writing rabidly anti-German pamphlets.61 Once
the lost provinces had been recovered, Wetterlé argued, France had to sort out the
immigrant Germans from the true Alsatians and Lorrains; and he also proposed to use
triage to separate the wheat from the chaff among civil servants in
Alsace-Lorraine.62 But Wetterlé resisted any larger forms of discrimination against
those (save the most guilty) who had collaborated with the Germans in ways large and
small.63
French authorities, however, took the concept of triage one critical step further.
Inauspiciously named-triage , after all, evoked the grim “sorting out” of wounded
soldiers first developed by the French army in the Great War’s field hospitals-the
triage commission’s role was to sort out “good” and “bad” Alsatians and Lorrainers,
to classify them according to their degree of patriotism, their morality, and their
activity under German rule, so as to weed out undesirable elements of all kinds and
sentence the guilty to surveillance in Alsace-Lorraine, internment in the “interior”
of France, or expulsion from French territory.64 In 1918 few could ignore that triage
had acquired new and poignant meaning on the field of battle. In wartime, the triage
of the wounded separated those who would live from those who would not; in
Alsace-Lorraine triage separated those deemed fit to belong to the national community
from those who were not.
The commissions de triage , which functioned from November 1918 to October 1919,
operated in a legal vacuum. While French troops occupied [End Page 145]
Alsace-Lorraine on 18 November 1918, and while France’s claim to the region was not
seriously challenged by the Allies, the exact mechanics of the territorial handover
would only be spelled out by the Versailles treaty. In the seven-month interim, the
region was governed by a civil-military administration responsible to the War
Ministry,65 and its inhabitants found themselves in an intermediary position: they
were not yet French citizens nor did they enjoy the same judicial rights as the
French. The ratification of the Versailles Treaty in June 1919 brought their
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République in Strasbourg, the treaty turned “Alsatians into French citizens” and
brought the triage commissions to an end, for “the grievances formulated against bad
Alsatians no longer have any reason to exist.” 66 This was an understated way of
admitting that the crimes with which many Alsatians had been charged had no basis
under French law.
The triage commissions are best described as military decision-making bodies with a
presided by an officer appointed by the commanding general, and staffed by two
Alsatian or Lorrainer members: one named by Paris, usually a patriotic Alsatian or
Lorrain émigré returning after a long absence, and another (most often a trusted
local notable with francophile sentiments) chosen by the local military
administrator. Of the six Alsatians named by Paris to serve on the commissions de
triage of northern Alsace, four lived in Paris and two served in the army; all six
had probably opted for France in 1871. 67 The triage commission’s decision was
reviewed by a general, who passed it on to a triage review commission68 that could
uphold or reverse the judgment. The final decision, however, was taken by the
commanding general. From start to finish the army was firmly in command.
The triage commission’s powers, and its indifference to the rights of the accused,
were even more troubling than its composition. On the basis of rumors, accusations,
denunciations, or official requests, the triage commissions convoked “suspects.”
There was no consistent sense of who was a suspect, what kind of accusations merited
investigation, and what constituted acceptable evidence.69 Paris had instructed that
[End Page 146] triage commissions had no right to review questions of citizenship and
could only investigate Germans under exceptional circumstances, but these directives
were consistently ignored.70 The commissions de triage called in suspects by mail,
providing them with only a cursory mention of the charges (“for an affair that
concerns you”; “to answer for anti-French acts”). At best, the triage commissions
solicited letters and additional evidence concerning suspects, although they were
under no obligation to do so. Hearings were expedited quickly and in secrecy: the
accused faced the three-person triage board alone; they had no right to legal
representation, nor could they call witnesses in their defense. On the other hand,
they could be confronted with their accusers, who enjoyed the right to call witnesses
to buttress their accusations. 71 In some cases, the accused never saw their accusers
and had to defend themselves in the face of charges made by “good patriots.” In
others, the commissions condemned the accused without ever having granted them a
hearing.72
The commissions de triage were little more than sham trials that openly trampled on
the rights of the accused. Opponents of the trials drew parallels with the
Inquisition and intimated that the boche terror was being replaced with the tricolor
one; others denounced them as comités de salut public .73 Communication between
“judges” and “suspects” was difficult, if not impossible, and the commission’s
members, who had virtually no legal background, found themselves ill equipped to
undertake investigations about a society of which they knew little, and in a language
they did not comprehend. Of six officers presiding over triage commissions in
northern Alsace, two spoke not a word of German, one understood it, and another had
some knowledge of dialect as well; only two spoke both dialect and German. None had
the slightest legal background. 74 The commissions were thus linguistically and
legally poorly prepared for their task. And the accused often had difficulty
following proceedings conducted in French. Finally, a high turnover rate also plagued
the commissions de triage: Wissembourg’s military administrator complained in early
1919 that three presidents [End Page 147] succeeded themselves over the course of
three weeks, and a similar situation prevailed in Sarre-Union.75 The problems of
staffing and bureaucratic inertia, however, worked both ways: the expeditiousness and
114
certain cases, while on the other hand their inefficiency probably saved greater
numbers of civilians from trial.
The Triage of Germans and Alsatians
Who was brought before the triage commissions? What crimes did these inquisitive
bodies charge them with? And how were they judged? Surviving archival records limit
of the interrogations of suspects, accusers, and “witnesses,” and preserved copies of
letters of denunciations and other accusatory documents erratically. They did,
however, keep lists of accused individuals, and sometimes outlined the charges and
provided an explanation for the commission’s verdict. To back themselves up, they
often quoted from letters of denunciation and the testimony of the defendants and
their accusers.
The number of people brought before the commissions de triage is open to question.
Strasbourg’s triage commission alone deliberated more than forty-three hundred cases
between January and October 1919, and this figure may have reached fifteen thousand
in all of Alsace and Lorraine.76 But the ramifications of triage extended well beyond
those individuals called before the commissions. The triage commissions received and
gathered information on people who they never brought in for questioning, either for
lack of time or of evidence. And large numbers of individuals participated in the
triage process by sending in denunciations and serving as witnesses for the
accusation, and even larger numbers-friends and family members of the accused-were
indirectly affected.
Imposed from above by administrative fiat, the process of triage would have failed
without the ongoing flow of denunciations that sprang from below. In the months
following the armistice, the triage commissions received “an avalanche of
denunciations” from Alsatians [End Page 148] and Lorrains of all walks of life aimed
at neighbors, political opponents, coworkers, and competitors.77 In December 1918,
Strasbourg’s police were too overwhelmed by the flood of denunciations to undertake
detailed inquiries in each case.78 Some denouncers, in a wonderful example of the
power of bureaucracy, came armed with “certificates of denunciation.” 79 Without
active cooperation from the region’s inhabitants, the purges (given linguistic and
other problems) would have faced insurmountable difficulties. Why did people
cooperate? The war, and the uncertainties and divisions it engendered, were greatly
responsible for the growing practice of denunciation. Following France’s victory,
however, it was no longer a question of identifying enemies in wartime, but finding
ways of affirming loyalty to the new state and shaping national identity at the grass
roots.
The accuseds’ putative national sympathies (or lack of them) were at the heart of the
vast majority of cases. Initially, the army’s goal had been to investigate past and
present members of the German officer corps, denouncers who had worked for German
intelligence, and “women of easy virtue” suspected of sexual relationships with the
enemy and whose “bad conduct” continued under French rule.80 But triage commissions
quickly cast a wider net and investigated individuals of “mixed heritage,” denouncers
and spies (real and imagined) of all kinds, and those of dubious patriotic
allegiances. A certain Mr. X, notaire at Hochfelden, argued that all individuals who
might have had a “pernicious influence” needed to be investigated. This included
German immigrants, along with influential political and cultural brokers: mayors,
pastors, and schoolteachers; officers in the German army; and the young apaches
(ruffians) responsible for spreading bolshevism rounded off a list that reflected the
concerns of a small-town notable.81
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brought in German citizens for questioning, partly because they saw their task as
cleansing the recovered provinces, and partly because a large number of the
denunciations in their hands targeted Germans. In northern Alsace (excluding
Strasbourg), Germans accounted for 53 percent of some six hundred individuals
referred to the commissions [End Page 149] de triage.82 The Germans, much like their
Alsatian counterparts, faced a variety of accusations, ranging first and foremost
from the denunciation of “patriotic” Alsatians during wartime, to “spying,” to more
Kafkaesque charges of “pangermanism” and “Germanophilia.” (Over time some triage
commissions recognized that it was not surprising to find Germans accused of
“Germanophile sentiments”; after all they were German.) But the charges needed not be
spelled out in detail-having German or Prussian sentiments was guilt in itself and
being German was reason enough to be “considered suspect.” 83 Thus one woman was
expelled as a “German woman, undesirable first and foremost because of her boches
sentiments,” while the triage board described another one as a “recalcitrant boche
woman who is hostile to everything to do with our cause,” and a Württenberger couple
was denounced for having behaved like “outrageous boches” during the war. 84 The
leitmotiv of countless denunciations and verdicts was the impossibility of
assimilation and the need for purification. A German tramway engineer was charged
with having sent Alsatians to the front lines (how was not specified), but the real
issue at stake was his nationality: “How can it be that such a guy has not yet been
expelled? And yet he’s a pure-blooded Prussian,” wrote the denouncer, who added
incredulously, “Does one believe, perhaps, that one can make a boche into a
Frenchman?” 85 Another letter writer accused a German of having denounced him for
speaking French in a wine bar in 1915: invoking his “French-Alsatian” heart and his
duty to his “dear French patrie” he asked for the expulsion of this “ sale
boche-traître.”86
As a rule the commissions de triage proved more understanding of Germans married to
Alsatians and Lorrains. The verdict thus depended on the suspect’s nationality and
the strength of his ties to Alsace and Lorraine. Auguste Glasser, an upholsterer in
Strasbourg married to a woman from Baden (Germany), was first condemned by the triage
commission as a “hateful and violent German; will always be a danger to our
cause-must be repatriated” until members of the commission realized he was an
“Alsatian of French origin,” whereupon they crossed out all [End Page 150] their
previous comments and presumably dropped the charges. 87 It was testimony to the
complexity of the situation that even triage commissions displayed confusion about
who was Alsatian or Lorrainer (and thus French) and who was German. Overloaded with
cases, the commissions also displayed sloppiness in their judgment: one accused was
listed as Alsatian “son of Germans”-an impossibility given that the identity card
system had clearly stipulated that the children of German immigrants could not be
categorized as pure-blooded Alsatians.88
Alsatians figured prominently (40 percent) among the accused in northern Alsace.89
The most common accusation (over half the cases for which charges are specified), and
the one that met most often with harsh sentencing, was leveled against those who had
denounced fellow Alsatians during the war for harboring pro-French sentiments,
singing the Marseillaise, or hiding a French flag. While some of these charges, no
doubt, contained elements of truth, in other cases denouncers used the war, which had
a profoundly divisive effect on Alsatian society, as the best possible means of
incriminating their enemies. Close to one-third of the cases involved charges of
“Germanophilia” or “pangermanism.” These catchall categories encompassed anyone
suspected of having public or even private sympathies for the German Empire or German
culture. Finally, the triage commissions brought in smaller numbers of Alsatians on
charges of “Francophobia,” “anti-French crimes,” or “guilty toward France.”90
Those accused of having turned in fellow Alsatians and Lorrainers during the war
116
(Bas-Rhin), whose spouse was German, was charged with having denounced Alsatians to
German authorities during the war. He argued in his defense that he had been forced
to report “Germanophobic” remarks that came to his ear. The triage board’s verdict,
however, was unambiguous: he was guilty and was marked for expulsion to Germany.91
Albert Nusbaum, an Alsatian schoolteacher in Soufflenheim, was accused of having
denounced a colleague for [End Page 151] “Francophilia,” and for having struck a
child who exhibited “francophone sentiments” after the armistice. The commission de
perhaps, were the cases of those who, because of their positions, had to collaborate
with German authorities. An Alsatian forest warden, accused of having led German
troops through the Schirmeck woods in 1914, argued in his defense that he was only
fulfilling his duty as a fonctionnaire. The triage review board thought otherwise,
declared his mission “undignified of a good Alsatian,” and sentenced him to
surveillance outside his place of residence.93 In the same vein, a hunting warden
accused of guiding German troops during the war’s early days was sentenced to
“evacuation in a concentration camp”; the review board noted that “a good Alsatian”
should not have accepted the order to undertake such a task.94
The trials and the denunciations inevitably centered on distinguishing “good”
Alsatians who had remained faithful to France and “bad” Alsatians who had
collaborated with the Germans, exhibited “German sentiments,” and continued to do so
in the present. On those grounds the trials were troubling to the majority of
Alsatians and Lorrains who, after all, had been German citizens for the better part
(if not all) of their lives and whose sons had often served in the German army. The
records of the commissions de triage contain countless cases questioning the moral
and patriotic credentials of Alsatians and Lorrainers. Brumath’s triage commission
charged that Dr. Kassel from Hochfelden, motivated by money and glory, displayed an
“anti-French attitude” during the war, and decided to expel him in keeping with the
“unanimous opinion” of the pays. 95 The commission pronounced on the expulsion of
another Alsatian, accused of being the flagbearer for Brumath’s Kriegerverein
(veterans’ association), that he was under no “obligation to join,” and in another
case the insults a “Germanophile” resident of Erstein directed at French troops were
judged to reflect the fact that he was a “bad Alsatian.” 96 Mittelhausen’s village
cartwright, charged with denouncing a Belgian civilian, was expelled to Germany [End
Page 152] on grounds that he was “a bad Alsatian with pernicious instincts,” and an
unnamed compatriot-brought for unspecified reasons-was found to be a “dubious-looking
unscrupulous Alsatian.”97 Finally, the triage review board, after having examined the
sermons and letters of Bischwiller’s pastor, expelled him so he could no longer exert
his influence on “good Alsatians.”98
For the triage commissions, “bad Alsatians” included those supportive of regional
autonomy as well as those whose past or present politics were judged to be dangerous.
There had been some talk in both Germany and Alsace-Lorraine as the war neared an end
of organizing a plebiscite to determine the region’s future, or of according the
region autonomy. The French government opposed both these ideas vigorously, and the
triage commissions did not hesitate to punish those sympathetic to regional autonomy
and independence. Eckwersheim’s Alsatian schoolteacher was transferred to another
post for having flown the Alsatian flag after France’s victory, and the priest who
directed Sélestat’s library was expelled on grounds of having declared that he “was
no more German than French, but only Alsatian” and was a partisan of
Alsace-Lorraine’s neutrality. The commissions de triage condemned others for backing
a plebiscite.99
Part of the process of refashioning and purifying Alsatian and Lorrainer society
involved purging disproportionate numbers of cultural mediators who occupied
positions of moral influence in communities, such as priests, pastors, and
schoolteachers. In Alsace alone it is estimated that triage commissions removed 921
117
schoolteachers (either Germans or Alsaciens-Lorrains) from their positions.100 More
than others, priests, pastors, and schoolteachers needed to make their allegiances
known to the new state in no uncertain terms or risk losing their jobs, and more so
than others they were the victims of denunciations. Hauled before the triage
commission, a professor at Haguenau’s lycée, accused of German sympathies, committed
himself “to be a good and loyal servant of France.” Despite the fact that there was
no compelling evidence in the case, the commission decided to evacuate him.
but declared his readiness to serve France with devotion,” [End Page 153] met with
the same sentence.101 The commissions de triage placed hundreds of religious,
educational, and state officials on trial for collaboration with the German regime.
In large numbers of cases concerning civil servants, however, personal vengeance and
jealousy, combined with the designs of unscrupulous Alsatians hoping to acquire newly
vacated jobs, also motivated denunciations and, by extension, purge trials.
The commissions de triage’s binary worldview, of an Alsatian and Lorrainer society
divided the “good” from the “bad,” the pure and the impure, depending on the
patriotism and the morality of the accused, reflected the enduring mythology of the
lost provinces. But it also reflected that “pure blooded” Alsatians and Lorrainers
(unlike Germans) could not be purged on racial grounds. The purge commissions thus
turned to judging people’s intentions and sentiments in order to purify Alsatian
society.
What kind of sentences did Alsatians receive at the hands of the commissions de
triage? No overall figures are available, but some tentative numbers can be pieced
together from the records of the commissions in the northern-most parts of Alsace.102
In close to half the cases for which the decision is known, the commissions dropped
the charges altogether-an indication that numerous accusations lacked solid
foundations. One-fourth of the accused were sentenced to surveillance in Alsace,
while smaller percentages were assigned to residence in France (6.7 percent),
expelled to the French-occupied zone of Germany (6 percent) or, in the case of civil
servants, transferred to other positions (8 percent). 103 Those condemned were
stripped of their voting rights. The expulsion of old-standing Alsatians (Carte A)
proved disturbing to the population and prompted protests.104 It demonstrated that
triage was also about political vengeance, that no one was protected, that proper
ethnicity was not a sufficient criteria. The triage commissions of rural northern
Alsace, however, appear to have been more lenient than others. In Lorraine, the heads
of the triage review board complained that the commissions had proved far too
receptive to “slanderous denunciations” [End Page 154] and had expelled too many
individuals, many of whom never received a hearing.105
In March 1919, four months after the triage commissions set to work, the state
directed that only four types of sentences be given to condemned Alsatians and
Lorrainers: surveillance in their place of residence; exile and surveillance in other
parts of Alsace-Lorraine; expulsion to Germany; and surveillance in the interior of
France.106 The last option, which authorities now placed on the back burner, had been
the punishment of choice in the three months after the armistice. Between December
1918 and March 1919, Strasbourg’s triage review board had sent one-third of all
condemned Alsatians to surveillance and internment in la France de l’intérieur. But
authorities soon realized that this strategy might backfire. Alsatians would surely
be embittered by their forced exile, and their position as German speakers, and in
some cases their sympathy for regionalist or autonomist ideas, could only distress a
French public unfamiliar with the newly recovered provinces. It made more sense,
vis-à-vis both French and Alsatian public opinion, to place them under surveillance
in Alsace proper. And in “grave cases” state authorities encouraged the review boards
to expel Alsatians without hesitation to Germany, and to do so quickly, before the
118
In the hands of the triage review board, the state’s new directives resulted in
assigning fewer Alsatians to residency in France, expelling far more to Germany, and
sentencing an increasing number to surveillance in Alsace proper.
Over time, however, triage commissions had grown weary of the flood of contradictory
denunciations. In Benjamin Vallotton’s patriotic novel . . . et voici la France, the
president of Ixebourg’s commission de triage, eyeing a stack of accusatory dossiers,
one calling for the expulsion of a hotel owner (a German married to an Alsatian) and
another arguing that he would make a fine Frenchman. The president dismissed evidence
concerning other individuals by arguing, “If we listened to everybody, there would be
no one left in Alsace.” Even Vallotton, [End Page 155] whose support for French rule
and hatred of Germany colored every page of the novel, could not but criticize the
pervasive climate of denunciations that pitted Alsatians against each other and
deeply divided the smallest of communities.108 “Defiance, calumny, and délation were
the great wounds of the new Alsace,” wrote the comtesse de Pange, who regretted that
personal conflicts paralyzed society and marred social relations.109
The Meaning of Denunciation
In the months following the armistice, patriotism became the language of social and
cultural conflict. Beyond the common accusations against those who had turned in
“unpatriotic” Alsatians to the German authorities during the war, the denunciations
encompassed a whole range of personal vendettas, family feuds, village hatreds, and
commercial clashes directed at “German immigrants,” Alsatians, and Lorrainer natives,
all couched in the language of French nationalism. In the hope of avoiding
investigation, those who thought themselves compromised by their activities under
German rule tried to regain, in the words of Metz’s triage commission, a “French
virginity” by informing on others, and especially on German immigrants. The language
of “virginity” suggested that patriotism was tied to moral purity (in the image of
the twin sisters) and that contact with Germans could only pollute the French
character.110 Business owners denounced competitors and former workers. An Alsatian
locksmith denounced a Saxon who had opened up shop next door; soon thereafter the
Saxon sold him his shop and left.111 Those with an eye on German-owned businesses
called for a boycott of their stores in the hope of later purchasing them at
rock-bottom prices. 112 It was the syndrome, wrote a Moselle senator, of “Ote-toi de
là, que je m’y mette.”113
The climate of denunciation left profound scars at the grass roots. What small town
had not endured its bitter set of denunciations and counterdenunciations? Patriotic
Alsatians wrote to newspapers to denounce neighbors and coworkers, and their
accusations became part of [End Page 156] the public domain and the pervasive rumor
networks. The widespread practice of délation gave birth to a climate of fear and
silenced public opinion in smaller towns and the countryside.114 But most telling, in
the end, was that the majority of Alsatians and Lorrainers who backed French rule
squarely placed the blame on the French for encouraging an unhealthy climate of
délation.115 There was, of course, some truth to this. But the argument ignored that
délation needed no outside encouragement; it reflected the deep fault lines that
crisscrossed Alsatian society. Inhabitants of the region imagined (and so did the
French) that Alsace-Lorraine was still a homogeneous society, tightly bound by
networks of local and regional solidarity. By 1919 this was no longer the case.
The denunciations provided a vehicle for expressing the enmities, jealousies, and
rancors engendered during the wartime years, structured along national and ethnic
lines. The denouncers, who invariably characterized themselves as “good Frenchmen” or
“good Alsatians of long-standing Alsatian heritage,” labeled their counterparts
119
lorrain descent. In doing so they staked a claim on what constituted Frenchness, and
they clearly influenced the commissions de triage’s deliberations. In the eyes of
denouncers, nationality was not just related to ethnicity, but also to national
sentiment, public morality, and political behavior. The parallel with the widespread
practice of délation under the Vichy regime (some three to five million letters
penned by “good Frenchmen” who denounced Jews, communists, Freemasons, business
competitors) is striking.116 In both cases the disorientation produced by military
of denunciations.
Denouncers used the language of nationalism because this was the language the state
wanted to hear, and the language denouncers knew would work. It enabled denouncers
both to establish their patriotic virtue and to achieve their objectives: doing away
with competitors, village enemies, political opponents, civil servants, and those
tainted by their association with Germans. In this sense, as Sheila Fitzpatrick has
underlined, denunciations can be understood as weapons of the [End Page 157] weak.117
Between the armistice and the ratification of the Versailles treaty Alsatians and
Lorrainers did not enjoy French citizenship and rights. Ruled by a civil-military
administration and troubled by the psychological disorientation that resulted from
the changeover from German to French rule, inhabitants of the region had few means to
defend their interests at their disposal. The absence of a well-established,
respected, and sizable local elite that did not owe its existence to France made it
difficult to challenge the state’s purge of regional society. Denunciations thus
fulfilled numerous and contradictory functions: they gave a voice to the “little
guy,” they provided a means for people to seek “justice,” to establish their national
legitimacy, and to solve their long-standing grievances.
Aftermath
Judged over the long term, however, the purge trials failed on all counts.118 Large
numbers of citizens had been called before these bodies, and even if the triage
commission found many innocent of all charges, reputations had been damaged, and the
bitterness would be enduring. Among Alsatians and Lorrainers, few things would unite
rightists and leftists, Protestants and Catholics, autonomists and assimilationists,
as much as their hatred of the purge trials.119 The large-scale triage of border
province society-sorting individuals on the basis of their national worthiness and
their ethnicity-weakened social structures and severely compromised the inhabitants’
perception of the Republic. In their parody of justice the triage commissions
undermined the appeal of republicanism-a critical error since Alsace-Lorraine had
been outside the French nation during the crucial founding decades of the republican
system.
Few in France at the time paid attention to the vigorous critique of the purges by
small numbers of Alsatians and Lorrainers during the 1920s.120 Even the patriotically
inclined Journal d’Alsace et de Lorraine [End Page 158] complained (in May 1919) that
the triage commissions had been the fundamental error of French policy.121 The Ligue
française pour la défense des droits de l’homme et du citoyen criticized, as late as
1921, the expulsion of Alsatians to Germany. The Ligue worried about the ongoing
climate of despotism in Alsace, and remarked with irony that French revolutionaries
had posted a famous signpost on the banks of the Rhine reading, “Here begins the
country of liberty.”122 Robert Redslob, a well-known professor of international law
in Strasbourg, wrote vigorous articles in Le Temps, one of France’s leading dailies,
arguing that the triage commissions had been little more than a “fox hunt” (chasse à
courre), high courts that judged the patriotism of the accused.123 German rule in
Alsace-Lorraine had been recognized by an international treaty, and there was no
legal basis for prosecuting citizens for their support of a constitutionally
120
triage commission verdicts and defended those who had been pensioned off,
transferred, or demoted.124 In 1928, the conseil général of the Haut-Rhin called for
a review of the verdicts imposed on “innocent victims” by the commissions de triage.
But the ministry of justice responded that nothing could be done: the triage
commissions were not tribunals, nor did they have links to the ministère. The only
recourse was thus parliamentary. In November 1929 the Alsatian deputy Marcel Stürmel
proposed to the Chamber of Deputies a strongly worded bill granting French citizens
the right to appeal the triage commissions’s verdicts and request financial
compensation. Deputies referred the proposed law to the Alsace-Lorraine committee,
and it was eventually shelved. Stürmel proposed the same bill again in June 1936 and
met with the same result.125
Conclusion
Alsace-Lorraine has consistently been on the margins of modern French historiography,
relegated there by historians who see the [End Page 159] German-speaking region as
little more than an interesting anomaly with minimal relevance to the nation’s
history.126 But border regions-contentious ones in particular-are fruitful sites to
explore the relationship between national myths and reality, along with the
problematic reconstruction of national belonging and sentiment. 127 The complex
process of reconfiguring and redefining identities in a region that symbolized French
national identity sheds light both on the state’s shifting definition of Frenchness
and on how local inhabitants tried to shape it.
The postwar purges brought into sharp relief multiple understandings and practices of
what made up Frenchness. The first was a racialized sense of Frenchness that grew out
of the neonationalism of the 1880s and the aggressive social Darwinism of the fin de
siècle.128 The civil-military administration arrived in Alsace-Lorraine influenced by
a racial view of what constituted an Alsatian or Lorrainer and set out to make the
region conform to the myth. By establishing a system of identity cards based on
ancestry, the state awakened latent conflicts in society and pitted individuals
against each other. The identity cards sent a clear message: they indicated that in
the eyes of the state, Frenchness in the border provinces was determined by blood,
and they intimated that the attribution of citizenship would not follow the same
rules as in the rest of the nation. The fear that German blood would pollute the
French national community echoed acrimonious wartime debates-notably ones concerned
with how to come to terms with the “children of the barbarians” whose mothers had
been raped by German soldiers. In the eyes of some, the racial impurity of these
children was a threat to the French family and civilization. 129 Similarly, German
blood in Alsace-Lorraine jeopardized the nation’s purity.
This racial view of Frenchness that was at odds with the republican concept of
citizenship coexisted with one based on imputed national sentiment, morality, and
culture. Not content with categorizing the population according to their bloodline,
the state purged Alsatian and Lorrainer society. The French believed that cleansing
the German past and present would be enough to allow underlying French national
sentiment [End Page 160] (as they imagined it) to resurface. While ostensibly the
purges were not about nationality, the issue was never far from the center of the
proceedings. The triage process suggested that Frenchness was both complex and
contingent: being a “good Alsatian” was not just a question of having the correct
family tree, it was related to patriotic sentiments, to political and moral acts, to
one’s standing in the local community, and to the role one had played under German
rule.
The racialist understanding of Frenchness faded from public view as the identity card
system was phased out and the triage commissions closed down. It would remain below
121
nationhood also became less prominent as republican rule was reinstated in
Alsace-Lorraine; it would reappear in force during times of tension, most notably at
the outbreak of the Second World War.130 After the War of 1870, Fustel de Coulanges,
Ernest Renan, and others had made much of the fact that Alsace and Lorraine were
French by choice, and up to the First World War the region was commonly used to
illustrate the contrast between a restrictive German ethnocultural view of nationhood
and the more “enlightened” French republican position that emphasized the voluntary
view of nationhood was clearly most on the defensive in the region that, in theory,
exemplified it, thus illustrating the profound impact of late-nineteenth-century
nationalist thought and of the First World War on understandings of the nation in
France.
The redefinition of identities was not just a top-down affair-even if the state made
sure it retained the upper hand-but it was also relayed and forged through conflict
at the local level. For Alsatians and Lorrains the question was how to construct and
reconstruct a sense of French identity after having been German for the better part
of their lives. Troubled by the switch to French rule, and worried that the card
system and the triage commissions would transform them into second-class citizens
(with second-class rights), the region’s inhabitants intervened-through the medium of
denunciations-to defend themselves as best they could and establish their patriotic
credentials. Denunciation was thus a form of resistance, but it simultaneously
undermined the cohesiveness of local communities.
The events surrounding the dramatic reintegration of Alsace-Lorraine [End Page 161]
after the Great War suggest a comparison with the actions of the state and of
individual citizens during other times of crisis in the twentieth century. The
parallels between the denunciations of 1918-20 and those of the Vichy years, between
the purges in postwar Alsace-Lorraine and the 1944 épuration , the tendency to pass
judgment on acts of collaboration and accommodation to evaluate national belonging
and sentiment, are too striking to be ignored. Postwar Alsace-Lorraine was a
laboratory of things to come: the use of purges to cleanse the national community of
unwanted elements, the practice of denunciation as a complex and multifaceted
expression of resistance and powerlessness, the weighing of moral criteria to
determine national worthiness, the systematic classification of the population-all
these techniques would be used on a more extensive and sinister scale later in the
century. And, significantly, regimes turned to these practices to assert (or
reassert) their authority and extend it over the entire nation.
In the end, little word of these divisive conflicts filtered into public discourse in
France. The purge trials would never gain a place in the nation’s memory, and
attempts to claim compensation for the victims would meet with indifference. The
French political class had no interest in reviving an issue that raised disturbing
questions about the nature of French republicanism and understandings of citizenship.
It was one thing to admit abuses that could be chalked up to the exigencies of
wartime-and Parliament did so in 1927 when it voted modest indemnities for Alsatian
and Lorrainer civilians wrongly interned during the war131 -but it was quite another
for the republican regime to acknowledge large-scale abuses of human rights, the
indiscriminate use of purges, and the pronounced turn toward racialist and moralistic
discourses of nationhood during peacetime. To do so would have been to recognize the
limits of French republicanism, limits that were drawn in sharp relief when the time
came to integrate culturally and linguistically different regions.
Laird Boswell is associate professor of history at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and author of Rural Communism in France, 1920-1939 (Ithaca, N.Y.,
1998). He is currently working on problems of national and cultural identity in
twentieth-century Alsace and Lorraine.
122
Notes
* An earlier version of this article was presented to the 1997 German Studies
Association meeting in Washington, D.C. The author thanks Florence Bernault, Suzanne
Desan, and the referees for French Historical Studies for their critiques of earlier
drafts. The research was undertaken thanks to a grant from the German Marshall Fund
of the United States.
1. The term épuration was often used at the time, by both friends and foes of the
process. See, for example, “L’Epuration,” in Le Journal d’Alsace-Lorraine, 15 Dec.
1918; Commission de triage: organisation, Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin
(hereafter ADBR) 121 AL 902; unsigned police report, 1919, in Archives nationales,
Paris (hereafter AN) AJ 30 170.
2. This article does not address the linguistic and religious conflicts in detail. On
language and education see Stephen L. Harp, Learning to be Loyal: Primary Schooling
as Nation Building in Alsace and Lorraine, 1850-1940 (DeKalb, Ill., 1998), chap. 9.
3. On the memory of the provinces perdues, see François Roth, La Guerre de 70 (Paris,
1990), chap. 20.
4. In Lorraine, German immigration helped the Protestant population reach 12 percent
in 1910. The number of Protestants grew from seven thousand to seventy-four thousand
between 1870 and 1914 (François Roth, La Lorraine annexée: Etude sur la Présidence de
Lorraine dans l’Empire allemand, 1870-1918 [Saint-Ruffine, 1976], 139-40). Religious
statistics for Alsace include military personnel; see Joseph Rossé, Marcel Stürmel,
Albert Bleicher, Fernand Deiber, and Jean Keppi, Das Elsass von 1870-1932, 4 vols.
(Colmar, 1936-38), 4:222; for statistics on language, see p. 198.
5 . See Jean-Jacques Waltz, Mon Village: Ceux qui n’oublient pas: Images et
commentaires par l’Oncle Hansi (Paris, n.d.).
6 . On German identity during this period see Alon Confino, The Nation as Local
Metaphor: Württemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918 (Chapel Hill,
N.C., 1997) and Celia Applegate, A Nation of Provincials: The German Idea of Heimat
(Berkeley, Calif., 1990). On France, see Raoul Girardet, Le Nationalisme français,
1871-1914 (Paris, 1983); Robert Tombs, ed., Nationhood and Nationalism in France from
Boulangism to the Great War, 1889-1918 (London, 1991); and Pierre Birnbaum, “La
France aux Français”: Histoire des haines nationalistes (Paris, 1993).
7. Among the most famous was Jean-Jacques Henner’s 1871 painting Elle attend, which
depicted a young Alsatian woman, dressed in black with the traditional Alsatian noeuf
(headdress), waiting patiently for France’s return.
8 . See Georges Bischoff, “L’Invention de l’Alsace,” Saisons d’Alsace 119 (1993):
34-69; Gerd Krumeich, Jeanne d’Arc à travers l’histoire, trans. J. Mély, M.-H.
Pateau, and L. Rosenfeld (Paris, 1993), 176-87; Ruth Harris, “The ‘Child of the
Barbarian’: Rape, Race, and Nationalism in France during the First World War,” Past
and Present 141 (1993): 204; Maurice Agulhon, Marianne au pouvoir: L’Imagerie et la
symbolique républicaine de 1880 à 1914 (Paris, 1989).
9. Autonomism was a complex and ever changing movement. For a perceptive discussion
see Paul Smith, “A la recherche d’une identité nationale en Alsace, 1870-1918,”
Vingtième siècle: Revue d’histoire 50 (1996): 23-35.
10 . The Germans undertook large-scale urban renewal projects, erected imposing
123
that boasted the world’s largest university library on the eve of World War I-a
library that remains to this day one of France’s best. John E. Craig, Scholarship and
Nation Building: The Universities of Strasbourg and Alsatian Society, 1870-1939
(Chicago, 1984), 60.
11. Marc Bloch, L’Etrange défaite (Paris, 1946), 155.
12. On Lorraine during wartime, see François Roth, La Lorraine annexée, 593-653.
13. Roth, La Lorraine annexée, 600.
14. Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 1:300. A smaller number-twenty thousand to thirty-eight
thousand-fought in French uniform; these included some ten thousand who had crossed
the border in the weeks before the war’s outbreak to enroll in the French army. They
were joined by Alsatians and Lorrains who lived in France, deserters, and prisoners
of war who chose to join the ranks of the French army. On these issues, see Roth, La
Lorraine annexée, 626-27, and Alfred Wahl and Jean-Claude Richez, La Vie quotidienne
en Alsace entre France et Allemagne, 1850-1950 (Paris, 1993), 247.
16 . The majority of those interned would eventually be released, although French
authorities would continue to intern Alsatians and Lorrainers throughout the war
years. See Jean-Claude Farcy, Les Camps de concentration français de la Première
guerre mondiale, 1914-1920 (Paris, 1995), 51-62. On the treatment of civilians during
wartime see Annette Becker, Oubliés de la Grande guerre: Humanitaire et culture de
guerre: Populations occupées, déportés civils, prisonniers de guerre (Paris, 1998).
17. Maurice Barrès in L’Echo de Paris, 3 Dec. 1914, cited in Les Alsaciens-Lorrains
en France pendant la guerre (Paris, 1915), 87. French authorities consistently
referred to internment camps as camps de concentration during the First World War.
18. On the voyages of Foch and Georges Clemenceau see AN AJ 30 249; on Strasbourg’s
liberation, see Archives municipales de Strasbourg (hereafter AMS), Evènements
historiques 19 and Archives contemporaines, II, 2; and 1918: Les Glorieuses journées
de Lorraine et d’Alsace (Nancy, 1919). On the liberation of Alsace see the work of
Jean-Claude Richez, “Conseils ouvriers et conseils de soldats: Revendications de
classes et revendications nationales en Alsace en novembre 1918,” Mémoire de
Maîtrise, Université des lettres et sciences humaines de Strasbourg, 1979, and “La
Révolution de novembre 1918 en Alsace dans les petites villes et les campagnes,”
Revue d’Alsace 107 (1981): 153-68. For the patriotic perspective, see Jacques
Granier, Novembre 18 en Alsace: Album du cinquantenaire (Strasbourg, 1969).
19. AMS, Archives contemporaines, II, 1.
20. Charles Spindler, L’Alsace pendant la guerre (Strasbourg, 1925), 709; Auguste
Braun, “L’Entrée des français à Strasbourg: Récit détaillé des évènements,”
Manuscript, n.d., AMS, Archives contemporaines, II, 2.
21. L’Alsace et les combats des Vosges, 1914-1918, 2 vols., Guides illustrés Michelin
des champs de bataille (Clermont-Ferrand, 1920), 1:7.
22. Strasbourg, Guides illustrés Michelin des champs de bataille (Clermont-Ferrand,
1919), 12; Louis Madelin, Les Heures merveilleuses d’Alsace et de Lorraine (Paris,
1919), 60.
23. René Schickele, “Das Ewige Elsass,” in his Die Grenze (Berlin, 1932), 18-20.
124
24. Granier, Novembre 18 en Alsace, 50-51.
25. Administrateur militaire de Wissembourg to haut commissaire de la République à
Strasbourg, 3 Mar. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 904. The mayor, schoolteacher, pastor, and a few
youths were soon hauled before the commission de triage . For other examples see
Richez, “La Révolution de novembre 1918 en Alsace,” 164-65.
26. See Jean de Pange, Les Meules de Dieu: France-Allemagne Europe (Paris, 1951),
155; for the reserved welcome, see the novel by Pauline de Broglie, comtesse de
Pange, Le Beau Jardin (Paris, 1923), 8-9.
27. For more on the problem of confession, Alfred Wahl, Confession et comportement
dans les campagnes d’Alsace et de Bade, 1871-1939, 2 vols. ([Strasbourg], 1980),
2:1130-33.
28. During the war it did establish the Conférence d’Alsace-Lorraine whose role was
to plan for the resumption of French rule. The Conférence’s opinion, however, was
purely consultative in nature. See Procès-verbaux de la Conférence d’Alsace-Lorraine,
2 vols. (Paris, 1917-19).
29 . See Emile Wetterlé, Ce qu’était l’Alsace-Lorraine et ce qu’elle sera (Paris,
1917), 313-16, and L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française (Paris, 1917), 236-37.
30. 1918: Les Glorieuses journées, 41, 59, 64.
31. Georges Delahache, “La Réadaptation de l’Alsace,” Revue de Paris, 15 Mar. 1925,
327.
32. One Alsatian wrote (5 Dec. 1919) to the haut commissaire de la République in
Strasbourg that he was “proud . . . to be the obedient child of such a worthy and
good representative of the French state” and signed his letter “your devoted child.”
ADBR 121 AL 899.
35. Wetterlé, L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française, 233-34.
36. Authors often invoked Caesar’s Commentaries of the Gallic Wars to support the
view that the Rhine was the border of Gaul. See Jules Roche, Alsace-Lorraine: French
Land (Paris, n.d.), 7-8. For caricatures see Henri Zislin, Sourires d’Alsace (Paris,
n.d.).
37. Ernest Lavisse and Christian Pfister, La Question d’Alsace-Lorraine (Paris, n.d.,
[1917]), 3.
38. Camille Jullian, L’Alsace française: A un ami du front (Paris, n.d., [1917]),
4-5. For a more extended discussion see idem, Le Rhin gaulois (Paris, n.d., [1915]),
and Peter Schöttler’s excellent analysis in “Le Rhin comme enjeu historiographique
dans l’entre-deux-guerres: Vers une histoire des mentalités frontalières,” Genèses 14
(1994): 63-82.
39. Charles Weimann, France et Allemagne: Les Deux Races (Paris, 1918).
40. L’Alsace et les combats des Vosges, 1:6. For other examples of ethnic themes, see
125
(Paris, 1918), 12; Wetterlé, L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française , 22; Benjamin
Vallotton, . . . Dis-moi quel est ton pays? . . . (Nancy, 1919), 8; 1918: Les
Glorieuses Journées, 62; Jeanne et Frédéric Regamey, L’Alsace au lendemain de la
conquête (Paris, 1912), 1-3. For a more balanced view, see Rodolphe Reuss, Histoire
d’Alsace (Paris, 1934). See also Karl-Heinz Rothenberger, Die elsass-lothringische
Heimat-und Autonomiebewegung zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen (Frankfurt, 1976), 35.
Histoire, mythes et réalités [Paris, 1997]).
41. Fustel de Coulanges, “L’Alsace est-elle allemande ou française?” in his Questions
contemporaines, 2d ed. (Paris, 1917), 96-99.
42. The word collaborated was not used at the time.
43. John Horne and Alan Kramer, “German ‘Atrocities’ and Franco-German Opinion, 1914:
The Evidence of German Soldiers’ Diaries,” Journal of Modern History 66 (1994): 1-33.
44. Alfred Wahl, L’Option et l’émigration des Alsaciens-Lorrains 1871-1872 (Paris,
1974).
45. Letter of J. Ringeisser, secretary of the Comité d’épuration, 27 Dec. 1918, ADBR
121 AL 899.
46. François Uberfill, “L’Immigration allemande entre 1871 et 1918,” Saisons d’Alsace
128 (1995): 63-71.
47. See the figures in Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 4:87. On expulsions from Metz see
Philippe Schillinger, “Metz de l’Allemagne à la France, 1918-19,” Annuaire de la
société d’histoire et d’archéologie de la Lorraine (1974): 123-31.
48. Letter from an old Alsatian whose brother had been expelled, 13 Dec. 1918, ADBR
121 AL 899; “Zum Abschied an der Rheinbrücke,” Strassburger Neuen Zeitung, 3 Dec.
1918, reproduced in Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 4:408-9.
50. This was not a complete novelty. During the war the French state had classified
Alsatians and Lorrainers according to their degree of trustworthiness and their
national heritage. Those deemed reliable received a carte tricolore allowing them
substantial freedom of movement.
51 . For the instructions concerning the various cartes see Général commandant
l’armée, “Arrêté relatif à la police dans les communes d’Alsace-Lorraine,” 14 Dec.
1918, AMS, Archives contemporaines, II, 5; Avis officiels pour l’arrondissement de
Château-Salins, no. 10, 5 Mar. 1919, in AN AJ 30 170. Both Rossé et al., Das Elsass,
1:529, and Wahl and Richez, La Vie quotidienne en Alsace, 118, argue that the
children of a long-standing Alsatian (Carte A) married to an Alsatian woman of
partial German ancestry ( Carte B ) would receive a Carte A if they were still
considered minors, and a Carte B otherwise.
52 . Spindler, L’Alsace pendant la guerre , 757. See also Georges Delahache,
“Strasbourg, 1918-1920,” Revue de Paris (1920), 196-97.
53. Delahache, “Strasbourg,” 197.
54. ADBR 121 AL 906.
126
55. For a general description of citizenship on each side of the Rhine, see Rogers
Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge, Mass., 1992).
See also Dominique Schnapper, La Communauté des citoyens: Sur l’idée moderne de
nation (Paris, 1994).
56. Citizenship would be determined by the provisions of the Versailles treaty. In a
as their descendents, would be reintegrated into French citizenship. However those
with a German father or grandfather among their ascendents did not qualify for
reintegration and had to apply for naturalization. See Traité de paix entre les
puissances alliées et associées et l’Allemagne, et protocole signés à Versailles le
28 Juin 1919 (Paris, 1919), 47.
57. Foreigners accounted for 2.9 percent of all residents (Carte C). Statistics from
Grayson L. Kirk, “French Administrative Policies in Alsace-Lorraine, 1918-1929”
(Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1931), 137. Figures on the breakdown of
identity cards are similar for Strasbourg. See ADBR 121 AL 952.
58. Rossé et al., Das Elsass, 1:529; Wahl and Richez, La Vie quotidienne en Alsace,
118.
59. In the second Statut des Juifs (June 1940) the definition of Jew mixed religious
and racial criteria. See Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France and the
Jews (New York, 1981), 92-95; François and Renée Bédarida, “La Persécution des
Juifs,” in La France des années noires, ed. Jean-Pierre Azéma and François Bédarida
(Paris, 1993), 2:136-39. For changes in citizenship law see Vicki Caron, “The
Antisemitic Revival in France in the 1930s: The Socioeconomic Dimension
Reconsidered,” Journal of Modern History 70 (1998): 24-73.
60 . See ADBR 121 AL 899, and “Instruction concernant l’administration de
l’Alsace-Lorraine et ses rapports avec l’autorité militaire,” in ADBR 121 AL 902.
61. In March 1915 French authorities had also set up triage camps (dépôts de triage)
to “sort through” individuals who had been arrested or evacuated because of their
nationality (Germans, Alsatians, Lorrains, and so on) or because they were considered
suspect. Wetterlé probably borrowed the concept of triage from here. See Farcy, Les
Camps de concentration, 189-93.
62. Emile Wetterlé, La Grande guerre: L’Alsace-Lorraine (Paris, 1915), cited in Rossé
et al., Das Elsass , 1:530. During the war, Wetterlé thought that triage needed to be
undertaken in the French internment camps where Alsatians and Lorrains were unjustly
victimized and taken for Germans. See Emile Wetterlé, Ce qu’était l’Alsace-Lorraine
et ce qu’elle sera (Paris, 1917), 306-8.
63. Wetterlé, L’Alsace-Lorraine doit rester française, 211, 232-34.
64 . Triage also evoked the internment camps (camps de triage) for foreigners
(including Alsatians and Lorrainers) set up by the French during the war.
65. Bulletin officiel d’Alsace et Lorraine 1 (1918-19): 1.
66. Commissaire général de la République à Strasbourg, 21 Oct. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
67. Quartier général de l’Armée, 15 Dec. 1918, ADBR 121 AL 902. They could have also
been descendents of Alsatians who had opted for French citizenship. Northern
Alsace-the Bas-Rhin-had eight commissions de triage.
127
68. The review boards were called Commissions de triage et de classement du 2e degré.
69. Note of Colonel Michel, Président de la commission de triage de Haguenau, 24 Jan.
1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
70. Jeanneney, sous secrétaire d’état à la présidence du Conseil, 18 Jan. 1919, ADBR
121 AL 902.
71 . In theory, suspects could not be confronted with their accusers without the
suspect’s approval. See ibid.
72. For a novelistic rendition of an interrogation before a commission de triage see
Henri de Turenne and François Ducher, Les Alsaciens, ou les deux Mathilde (Paris,
1996), 214-17. This novel is based on the television series by the same title
produced by Pathé Télévision, La Sept/Arte, France 3, SR , WDR, SDR, SWF, and RTSI
(1986).
73. F. Oesinger in Radical , 27 Apr. 1919, clipping in ADBR 121 AL 968; Abbé Ch.
Thilmont, Devant la commission de triage (Strasbourg, 1919), 1, in AMS , Fonds
Peirotes, box 13.
74. Sixième corps d’armée, 1 Dec. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
75 . Administrateur militaire de Wissembourg, 7 Jan., 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902. On
turnover see Commissaire de la république de Haute-Alsace, 4 Mar. 1919, AN AJ 30 170.
Presiding officers regularly took home leave or had themselves transferred to other
posts in the army, if they were not demobilized altogether.
76. These figures include German citizens. Répertoire de la commission de triage,
AMS, Evènements historiques 20. There is also another Répertoire de la commission de
triage for Strasbourg in ADBR 121 AL 905. Surviving records of the triage commissions
are not complete enough to provide a reliable indication of the number of accused for
the whole region.
77. Commission de triage et de classement du 2e degré (Metz) à commissaire général de
la République (Strasbourg), 7 July 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902.
78. Commissaire spécial to haut commissaire de la République à Strasbourg, 19 Dec.
1918, ADBR 121 AL 899.
79. Commission de triage de Strasbourg, 28 Dec. 1918, ADBR 121 AL 905.
80. ADBR 121 AL 902. I have found no written record of cases of women pursued for
fraternizing with the enemy.
81. Ibid. Mr. X was probably a member of the triage commission.
82. Close to 20 percent of them came from neighboring Baden. This is based on what
appears to be a partial list of those brought before the triage commissions in
northern Alsace (encompassing the regions of Brumath, Erstein, Haguenau, Molsheim,
Strasbourg-Campagne, and Wissembourg). See Liste nominative des individus déférés à
la commission de triage des Alsaciens-Lorrains, Mission militaire et administrative
de basse Alsace, ADBR 121 AL 904.
83. Commission de triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Feb.
1919.
128
84. Commission de triage de Strasbourg, ADBR 121 AL 900, 6 May and 31 Dec. 1919.
85. Ibid., 22 July 1919.
86. Ibid., 12 Dec. 1918.
87. Ibid.
1919.
89 . See Liste nominative des individus déférés à la commission de triage des
904. Women accounted for close to 18 percent of all Alsatians brought in for triage.
Unfortunately the charges leveled against Alsatians in northern Alsace are known in
only one-third of the cases. The triage commissions kept poor records, some of those
convoked failed to appear, and in some cases the commissions condemned without ever
clearly specifying the charges.
90. Ibid.
91. Commission de triage, arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904, 8 Feb.
1919.
92. The term evacuate was ambiguous: in some cases the commissions wanted the suspect
placed under a résidence surveillée in the interior of France, and in others they
wanted the accused to be placed in an internment camp. Commission de triage, Centre
de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Feb. 1919.
93. Ibid., Mar. 1919.
94. Ibid., Jan. 1919.
95. Commission de triage, arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904. The triage
review board reviewed Kassel’s sentence and, given his regrets and appeals for
clemency, decided to evacuate him to the interior of France. See ADBR 121 AL 903.
96. Commission de triage de Brumath, ADBR 121 AL 904. For Erstein, see Commission de
triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Jan. 1919.
97 . Commission de triage, Arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904, and
Commission de triage de Strasbourg, ADBR 121 AL 900.
1919.
99. Commission de triage, Arrondissement de Wissembourg, ADBR 121 AL 904; Commission
de triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903, Jan. and Feb. 1919.
100. L’Alsace depuis son retour à la France, 2 vols. (Strasbourg, 1932), 1:400.
101. Commission de triage, Centre de classement du second degré, ADBR 121 AL 903,
Jan. 1919.
102 . Liste nominative des individus déférés à la Commission de triage des
904. There is a record of the sentence for 60 percent of Alsatians charged.
129
103. Using these figures and if one assumes (tentatively, to be sure) that some nine
thousand Alsatians and Lorrains were brought before the triage boards, then 540 would
have been expelled to Germany, 2,160 assigned to residence in Alsace, 603 assigned to
residence in France, and 720 civil servants transferred.
104. Letter of Grunbach and Richard to haut commissaire de la République (Colmar?),
13 Feb. 1919, AN AJ 30 170.
105. Commission de triage et de classement du 2e degré (Metz) à commissaire général
de la République (Strasbourg), 7 July 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902. In Strasbourg, the
triage review boards, which reconsidered and, if necessary, overturned the decisions
of the town’s commission de triage, did not judge and condemn in entirely the same
fashion. The purges in Strasbourg had been more extensive and exemplary than
elsewhere. By the time cases reached the triage review board, however, the charged
political climate had subsided, and the boards increasingly discounted excessive,
fabricated, and unfounded denunciations.
106. See ADBR 121 AL 103, Mar. 1919.
107. Rapport de la commission interministérielle des Alsaciens-Lorrains, n.d. (winter
1919), ADBR 121 AL 902.
108. Benjamin Vallotton, . . . Et voici la France , vol. 3 of Quel est ton pays?
(Lausanne, 1931), 52-53.
109. Comtesse Jean de Pange, Le Beau Jardin, 63, 78.
110. Commission de triage et de classement du 2e degré (Metz) to Commissaire général
de la République (Strasbourg), 7 July 1919, ADBR 121 AL 902; Thilmont, Devant la
commission de triage, 8.
111. Commission de triage de Strasbourg, 11 Apr. 1919, ADBR 121 AL 900.
112. See, for example, Commission de triage de Strasbourg, 28 Jan. 1919, ADBR 121 AL
906.
113. Jean Stuhl, senator of the Moselle, to Ministre des affaires étrangères, 2 Mar.
1925, AN AJ 30 296.
114. See Bernard Klein, La Vie politique en Alsace Bossue et dans le pays de la
petite pierre de 1918 à 1939 (Strasbourg, 1991), 58-59. French distinguishes between
dénonciation, which is more neutral in character, and délation, a term that carries a
highly pejorative connotation and encompasses an element of treason and unsavory
interests (unlike délations, dénonciations can be done in the public interest). But
the line between délation and dénonciation (not to mention mouchardage) was, as
always, a fine one.
115. Spindler, L’Alsace pendant la guerre, 750.
116. See André Halimi, La Délation sous l’occupation (Paris, 1983).
117. Sheila Fitzpatrick and Robert Gellately, Accusatory Practices: Denunciation in
Modern European History, 1789-1989 (Chicago, 1997), 188. She is referring to James
Scott’s Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.,
1985). See also Sébastien Fontenelle, La France des mouchards: Enquête sur la
délation (Paris, 1997).
130
118. For the substantially different, “official” French view see Alexandre Millerand,
Le Retour de l’Alsace-Lorraine à la France (Paris, 1923), 30-31.
119. “But one is astonished to find, after ten years, how bitter are the memories of
the people concerning these commissions and their work” (Kirk, “French Administrative
Policies in Alsace-Lorraine,” 46).
“Eine kritische Stimme aus der Übergangszeit,” Elsässer Kurier , 20 Feb. 1919,
reproduced in Das Elsass, 4:409-13.
121. Journal d’Alsace Lorraine, 25 May 1919, cited in ADBR 121 AL 902.
122. For the war years see AN AJ 30 310, and for 1921, AN AJ 30 227, letter of the
Ligue to Président du conseil, Oct. 1921.
123. Redslob’s article is cited in “Proposition de loi tendant à faire réviser les
décisions des commissions de triage en Alsace et en Lorraine et à assurer réparation
du préjudice pour les victimes de ces commissions de triage,” in Annales de la
Chambre des députés, 14e législature: Documents parlementaires, 117, 2eme session
extraordinaire de 1929 (Paris, 1930), 143-44.
124. “Für die Opfer der Commissions de Triage,” Unidentified news clipping, 16 Oct.
1924, AMS, Fonds Peirotes 40.
125. See “Proposition de loi tendant à faire réviser les décisions des commissions de
triage.” For 1936 see Annales de la Chambre des députés: 16e législature: Documents
parlementaires, 133. Stürmel’s close links to autonomism did little to help the bill.
126 . Alfred Wahl, Jean-Claude Richez, and Freddy Raphaël have done much to
problematize the region’s history. But my point is that scant attention has been paid
to the region by historians in the rest of France.
127 . On the role of frontier regions in an earlier period see Peter Sahlins,
Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, Calif., 1989).
128 . See Zeev Sternhell, La Droite révolutionnaire: Les Origines françaises du
fascisme, 1885-1914 (Paris, 1978), chap. 3; and Tombs, ed., Nationhood and
Nationalism in France.
129. See the pioneering works of Harris, “The ‘Child of the Barbarian’”; and Stéphane
Audoin-Rouzeau, L’Enfant de l’ennemi, 1914-1918: Viol, avortement, infanticide
pendant la Grande guerre (Paris, 1995).
130 . See Laird Boswell, “Franco-Alsatian Conflict and the Crisis of National
Sentiment during the Phoney War,” Journal of Modern History 71 (1999): 552-84. This
article addresses the relationship between religion, language, and national identity
in greater detail.
131. See Camille Maire’s introduction to François Laurent, Des Alsaciens-Lorrains
otages en France: 1914-1918: Souvenirs d’un Lorrain interné en France et en Suisse
pendant la guerre (Strasbourg, 1998), 26.
131
Notes for Louise Laeng:
Louise Laeng and Joseph Rhein were married in St. Arbogast Roman Catholic Church of May 3,
1890.
St. Arbogast has been claimed as a native of Scotland, but this is owing to a misunderstanding of
the name "Scotia", which until late in the Middle Ages really meant Ireland. He flourished about the
middle of the seventh century. Leaving Ireland, as so many other missionaries had done, he settled
as a hermit in a German forest, and then proceeded to Alsace, where his real name, Arascach,
was changed to Arbogast. This change of name was owing to the difficulty experienced by
foreigners in pronouncing Irish Christian names; thus it is that Moengal, Maelmaedhog, Cellach,
Gillaisu, Gilla in Coimded, Tuathal, and Arascach were respectively transformed into Marcellus,
Malachy, Gall, Gelasius, Germanus, Tutilo, and Arbogast. St. Arbogast found a warm friend in King
Dagobert II of Austrasia, who had been educated at Slane, in Meath, in Ireland, and was restored
to his kingdom on the demise of King Childeric II. Monstrelet authenticates the story of King
Dagobert in Ireland; and the royal exile naturally fled to Slane in order to be under the ægis of the
Ard-Righ (HighKing) of Ireland, at Tara. On Dagobert's accession to the throne of Austrasia,
Arbogast was appointed Bishop of Strasburg, and was famed for sanctity and miracles. It is related
that the Irish saint raised to life Dagobert's son, who had been killed by a fall from his horse. St.
Arbogast died in 678, and, at his own special request, was buried on the side of a mountain, here
only malefactors were interred. The site of his burial was subsequently deemed suitable for a
church. He is commemorated 21 July. (Source- Catholic Encyclopedia - New Advert)
I believe the Alexander Laeng married to a Louise, listed in the 1900 Federal Census in the 12
Ward, Louisville, Kentucky, enumerated on June 7, 1900, is the Alexandre Laeng, son of
United States, are Mary born 1888, Elizabeth born September 1890, and Louis born November
1893.
France, immigrated 1888, occupation is a glass blower. He has a daughter, age 31 (born 1889). It
was not uncommon for the immigrants from Alsace to list Alsace-Lorraine, Germany as their place
of birth in any census taken prior to the First World War and their place of birth as Alsace-Lorraine,
France, following the war.
and 15, 1920, residing at Ormsby Street, 2nd Ward, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky with his
wife, Florence, born in Kentucky, his son Louis, age 17, born 1903 in Kentucky. Mary Asford,
mother-in-law, age 62 (born 1858) in Kentucky. Her parents were born in Ireland.
132
Due to the close relationship between Louisa Laeng Rhein of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania and the Gless family who resided on a garden farm in Shaler Township, Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania from about 1890 to 1952, I have tentatively attached Rosalie Adam, born
about 1815 to 1825 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France (later
Alsace-Lorraine, Germany), a daughter of Jean George Adam and Catherine Laeng, as being
married to Joseph Gless, pending further investigation. Antoine Mertzin was a witness at the Act of
Birth for Adelina Gless, born October 1870 in Commune de Herrlisheim, daughter of Jacques
Gless and Josephine George. Angela Mertzin was a sponsor at the baptism of Rosa Rhein,
daughter of Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng Rhein, at St. Augustine Church, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1891. John Schohn, from Alsace-Lorraine, who lived in Sharpsburg,
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania during the period 1920 to 1940 was a friend of both the Rheins
and the Glesses. A Jean Michel Schohn was a witness at the Act of Birth for Francoise Gless,
Commune de Herrlisheim, July 1841, daughter of John Michel Gless and Adele Schmitt. (Note to
File - JPRhein)
Acherhart (should be Mary Rose Centner Oxanhart), Mrs. Jos. Rhein (Louise Laeng), Mark and
John Centner, Pittsburgh, Pa.; B. A. Laeng, Mrs. Ed Weatt, Tiffin; Mr. and Mrs. J. I Laeng and
family, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kaple (Maria Josephine Laeng), Mrs. Tim McCarthy, son Clement and
daughter Bertha, Crestline; Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Dannenmiller (Maria Margaret Laeng), daughter
Minnie, Mrs. John Ball (Rose Mary Dannenmiller) and Mrs. Roma Dentinger (Agnes Cecelia
Dannenmiller), St. Stephen; Mr. and Mrs. and Justin McCarthy, Shelby; Henry Rall and son
George, Upper Sandusky.
Card of Thanks
Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng had the following children:
i.
ROSA ANGELA11 RHEIN was born on 13 May 1891 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
ii.
JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 10 Jul 1893 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
133
iii.
JOSEPH PETER RHEIN was born on 16 Mar 1895 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania21. He died on 11 Feb 1965 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. He married Mabel Florence McKinney, daughter of John Henry
McKinney and Rosa Linda Stewart, on 06 Aug 1924 in St. Augustine Roman
Catholic Church, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania4. She was born on 29
May 1901 in Sligo, Clarion County, Pennsylvania36. She died on 07 Apr 1996 in
Sarasota, Sarasota County, Florida.
Notes for Joseph Peter Rhein:
France
August 26, 1918
My Dear Brothers,
I hope you are as well and happy as I am. Things here are fine. Will have many
interesting stories to tell you when I see you again. I hope it will not be too long a
while. I hope work and study is agreeing with you two and that you may do your
best until I come back. The weather here is very nice and the place where I am at is
one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Wishing you the best of success. I am with love.
Your brother,
Joseph P. Rhein
Ord. Sgt.
320th Infantry Regiment of the 80th Division
France 1918
NANTILLOIS (MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE)
On the night of October 7th, the Regiment, with the First Battalion in front,
took over the right half of a new Divisional Sector north of Montfaucon, and at
three-thirty on the afternoon of October 9th, started to attack in the Bois des Ogons
under cover of a creeping barrage.
Heavy machine gun resistance was encountered, but by morning the
battalion had advanced two kilometers through difficult woods and reached the road
running from Cunel to Brieulles. Concentrations of machine gun fire from all
directions and of artillery fire, especially from batteries across the river, caused the
battalion to entrench and to employ flanking and infiltrating tactics.
The attack was continued the following morning in the wake of a rolling
barrage, but nothing in the way of artillery preparation seemed to interfere with the
effectiveness of the German machine gun. It's fire from all angles was terrific and,
though two companies were able to reach a small trench system some three
hundred yards in advance of the road, they were later withdrawn under cover of the
woods to avoid useless exposure.
On the morning of October 11th, the attempt was made again, and this time
an advance of another kilometer was made and maintained in the face of a most
determined resistance. That night, after fifty-five hours of almost constant fighting in
an area drenched with gas and shelled by high explosives, the Regiment was
relieved by troops of the Fifth Division and routed via Montfaucon and Avocourt to a
bivouac area in the Foret De Hesse. A line drawn from Montfaucon north through
Nantillois to Ancreville represents the general direction taken by the 320th Infantry
in what may be designated, from the Regimental standpoint, as the Nantillois Phase
of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
After several rainy days in the woods, the troops embussed and were taken
134
Passavant, the men obtained baths, various items of new clothing, rest, and, what
seemed the most to be desired, freedom from the ominous hum and burst of shells.
The change was not for long, however, and on October 27th, the Regiment
marched to the western approach of Triaucourt and there embussed in French
camions for the Neuvilly area. The debussing took place at le Neufour, in the
Argonne Forest, followed by a five kilometer march to bivouac in the. woods at la
Chalade.
ST. JUVIN-ST. GEORGES (MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE)
The Regiment remained there under ideal weather conditions until the night
of October 30th, when it marched via le Four de Paris, la Barricade, Chatel
Chehery, Fleville to support position southeast of St. Juvin in the Department of
Ardennes. On the night of October 31st, the Eightieth Division relieved the
Eighty-Second, and the Third Battalion formed along the St. Juvin-St. Georges
Road in preparation for an attack at dawn.
The barrage which opened at three-thirty a. M., was immediately followed
by a destructive enemy counter-barrage placed along the St. Juvin-St. Georges
Road. The battalion jumped off at five-forty-two a. M., meeting intense machine gun
fire from the very start. The German position on the far side of a ravine (aux
Pierres), with an unbroken field of fire, seemed impregnable. The fighting was of the
most desperate order during the morning but the enemy's resistance was slowly but
surely broken down. Further artillery support was given that night and, upon
continuing the attack at five-fifteen a. M., November 2nd, the Regiment made
steady progress until relieved that morning. This day of November 1st marked the
last of heavy fighting for the Division and, in fact, for substantially the entire First
American Army. When that day was over, the march to the Rhine had actually
begun. The Infantry, thereafter, could not keep pace with the retreating enemy and
his rearguard action was but feebly maintained during the following days that
proved to be the last of the war.
The Regiment, after relief, continued the march forward through Imecourt,
Sivry, Buzancy, to a bivouac area in a woods twenty-five kilometers due south of
historic Sedan.
On November 8th, it began a march southward which developed into a two
hundred kilometer tramp through a half dozen Departments to a southern training
area. The line of march went through Marcq, Bois d'Apremont (Department of
Ardennes), les Islettes (Meuse), Verrieres, Givry-en Argonne (Marne), Revigny,
Baudonvilliers (Meuse), Villiersaux Bois, Dommartin, St. Pierre (Haute-Marne),
Fontette, les Riceys (Aube) to a training area in the Department of Cote D'Or.
(Source - 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, McGraw-Phillips Printing
Company, Inc., New York City.)
During the few months that the 320th Infantry Regiment fought in France in the late
summer and fall of 1918 they suffered the following killed in action or died of
wounds.
Field Officers
Headquarters Company
Machine Gun Company
Medical Detachment
Company A
Company B
Company C
Company D
Company E
Company F
Company G
1
5
6
5
28
19
36
19
16
11
12
135
Company G
Company H
Company I
Company K
Company L
Company M
12
23
25
20
38
16
HEADQUARTERS, EIGHTIETH DIVISION AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY
FORCES
GENERAL ORDER
FRANCE, Ilth November, 1918.
No. 19
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE 80TH DIVISION
It not only moves forward against the Enemy, but it moves forward in the estimation
of all who are capable of judging its courage, its fighting and its many qualities.
In the operations for the period November Ist-5th, the Division moved forward
fifteen and five eighths miles in an air line.
It always led.
It captured two Huns for every man wounded.
It captured one machine gun for every man wounded.
It captured one cannon for every ten men wounded, besides large quantities of
munitions and other stores.
It accomplished these results, of vast importance to the success of the general
operation, with a far smaller percentage of casualties than any other Division
engaged.
It has learned by hard training and experience.
The appreciation of the Corps and Army Commanders is expressed in the following:
Telegram from the Commanding General, First Army:
"The Army Commander desires that you inform the Commander of the 80th Division
of the Army Commander's appreciation of his excellent work during the battle of
today. He desires that you have this information sent to all organizations of that
Division as far as may be practicable this night. He fully realizes the striking blow
your Division has delivered to the enemy this date."
Telegram from the Commanding General, First Army Corps:
"The Corps Commander is particularly pleased with the persistent, intelligent work
accomplished by your Division today. He is further desirous that his congratulations
and appreciation reach General LLOYD M. BRETT, commanding your Brigade,
which has bome the brunt of the burden."
Letter from the Commanding General, First 4rmy Corps:
136
"The Corps Commander desires that you be informed, and that those under your
command be informed, that in addition to other well deserved commendations
received from the Army Commander and the Corps Commander, he wishes to
express his particular gratification and appreciation of the work of your Division from
the time it has entered under his command."
It is necessarily a great honor to be allowed to command an organization which
earns such commendation.
It is likewise a great honor to belong to such an organization.
1 do not know what the future has in store for us. If it be war, we must and shall
sustain our honor and our reputation by giving our best to complete the salvation of
our Country.
If it be peace, we must and shall maintain our reputation and the honor of our
Division and the Army, as soldiers of the greatest country on earth, and as
right-minded, self respecting men.
A. CRONKHITE, Major General.
(Source - 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, McGraw Phillips Printing
Company, Inc., New York City)
The World War I Meuse-Argonne American Cenetery and Memorial is located east
of the village of Romagne-sons-Montfaucon (Meuse), France and about twenty-six
miles northwest of Verdun. Meuse-Argonne, covering one hundred and thirty acres,
holds the largest number of American Dead in Europe, a total of 14,246. Most of
those buried here gave their lives during the Meuse Argonne Offensive in World
War I. The immense array of headstones rises in rectangular rows upwards beyond
a wide central pool to the chapel which crowns a ridge. A beautiful bronze screen
separates the chapel foyer from the rows upward beyond a wide central pool to the
chapel which crowns a ridge.
American Expeditionary Forces
80th Division
Nickname - "Blue Ridge" Division.
Background
National Army Division established by the War Department on 5 Aug 17 to be
established at Camp Lee, VA. Draftees were from Pennsylvania, Virginia and West
Virginia. Movement overseas commenced on 17 May 18 and was completed by 9
Jun
18.
Primary Units
137
155th Field Artillery Brigade:
305th Trench Mortar Battery
Divisional Troops:
305th Engineer Regiment
305th Field Signal Battalion
305th Train Headquarters and MP
305th Ammunition Train
305th Supply Train
305th Engineer Train
305th Sanitary Train (Ambulance Companies & Field Hospitals 317, 318, 319, 320)
Campaign Participation
Campaign Streamers (most units):
Somme Offensive
Meuse-Argonne
Picardy
155th Field Artillery Brigade & 305th Ammunition Train: Meuse-Argonne only
U. S. Victory Medal Clasps:
Defensive Sector
Meuse-Argonne
"The commander of the American Expeditionary Force, General John I. Pershing,
fixed the Army division at 979 officers, 27,082 men (about 40,000 all told), including
support personnel. Pershing created this division - which was more than twice the
size of its European counterpart - to acheive a capacity for sustained battle which
would ensure that American divisions would not falter short of their objectives as
British and French divisions so often had done. A division with fewer but larger
regiments would facilitate a more reasonable span of control and battle momentum.
Similar to - albeit larger than - early European "square designs, the American
square division consisted of two infantry brigades of two regiments each, one field
artillery brigade (two 75-mm regiments, one 155-mm regiment) an engineer
regiment, a machine gun battalion, a signal battalion, and division supply, and
sanitary trains. Each regiment had the strength of 112 officers and 3,720 men
formed into three battalions and one machine gun company. Each battalion
consisted of four companies of six officers and 250 men each." (Source - The U.S.
Army in the Twentieth Century)
iv.
ALOYSIUS RALPH RHEIN was born on 01 Feb 1900 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania37. He died in Jun 1978 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania37. He married STELLA L. RITZEL. She was born on 06 Mar 1907 in
138
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania38.
Notes for Aloysius Ralph Rhein:
1997, Internal Ref. #1.112.4.54022.178]
Individual: Rhein, Aloysius
Birth date: Feb 1, 1900
Death date: Jun 1978
State of issue: PA
Notes for Stella L. Ritzel:
1997, Internal Ref. #1.112.4.54024.152]
Individual: Rhein, Stella
Birth date: Mar 6, 1907
Death date: Aug 1980
State of issue: PA
Zip of last payment: 15224
In the 1930 Federal Census for Pennsylvania Stella Ritzel is residing with her sister,
Anna and her husband Fred W. Lang in Oswego Street in the 27th Ward of
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Also residing in the household are her
brothers Edward H. and Richard T. Stella's occupation is listed as sales lady in
grocery store.
v.
INFANT RHEIN was born after 1900 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Infant died before 1910 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
vi.
LOUISA MARIA RHEIN was born on 19 Aug 1902 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
vii.
ANTHONY JOSEPH RHEIN was born on 14 Jul 1905 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania39. He died on 08 Dec 1982 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania39. He married (1) ELIZABETH ANNA WALTERS, daughter of Edward
James Walters and Sarah Wentzel, on 19 Aug 1931 in St. Augustine Roman
Catholic Church, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She was born in
1909 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania40. She died in 1943 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He married (2) WINIFRED REGINA
SMITH, daughter of Daniel J. Smith and Rosalia M. Kress, on 03 Oct 1945 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She was born on 28 Sep 1912 in
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She died in 1996 in Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Notes for Anthony Joseph Rhein:
1997, Internal Ref. #1.112.4.54022.194]
139
Individual: Rhein, Anthony
Birth date: Jul 14, 1905
Death date: Dec 1982
State of issue: PA
64.
JACQUES10 KISTLER (Joseph9, Andre8, Rosine7 Herrmann, Christine6 Laeng, Georges5 Laeng,
Dorsch4 Laeng, Hans Jacob3 Laeng, Durs2 Laeng, Urs1 Laeng) was born on 05 Sep 1850 in
Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas-Rhin, France13. He married ELISABETH LIESS. She was born on 26
Oct 1854 in Drusenheim.
Jacques Kistler and Elisabeth Liess had the following child:
i.
LOUIS11 KISTLER was born on 16 Oct 1877 in Commune de Herrlisheim, Bas Rhin,
France13. He died on 29 Jan 1945 in Germany. He married Louise Franck on 20
Feb 1905 in Beinheim. She was born on 05 Mar 1882 in Beinheim. She died on 30
Apr 1965 in Bischwiller, Bas-Rhin, France.
Sources
1 Examination of copy of applicable document, Birth Certificate, Copy of The Act of Birth,
Marriage License, Register listing marriage date, etc.
2 GeneaNet - guy 222 web site at http://www.geneanet.org, submitted by Guylaine Gaffet,
France, and as supplemented further by Christine Poirel.
3 Examination of Copy of Birth Certificate, Copy of Baptismal Certificate or applicable Register
listing such information.
Marriage License, Register listing marriage date, etc.
France, and as supplemented further by Christine Poirel.
6 Examination of copy of Certificate of Death or Register listing record of death or from
inscription taken from gravesite marker.
7 Le Centre Department d'Historie des Familles, France (web site).
8 Examination of Copy of Birth Certificate, Copy of Baptismal Certificate or applicable Register
listing such information., Derived from information of the records of the children.
9 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Batch M838153, Source Call Number
0721713, years 1776 to 1792.
France, and as supplemented by Christine Poirel.
11 Information furnished by Valerie Wenger Kastner, Rountzenheim, France.
12 Information furnished by Christine Piorel.
13 Examination of photo copy of the applicable Acts of Birth, Marriage or Death as furnished by
Daniel Kistler of Souffelweyersheim, France.
Marriage License, Register listing marriage date, etc., Derived from The Act of Birth of his
children.
15 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Batch M838146, Source 0721718, years
1792 to 1852.
16 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Batch M838146, Source Call Number
0721718, years 1793 to 1852.
France, and as supplemented further by Christine Poirel., I thank all my known cousins who
gave me permission to offer my work.
18 Herrlisheim un village de traditions tournee vers l'Europe.
19 1880 Federal Census for Ohio.
20 Family Tree Maker, Tree 1214, Volume 73.
140
Sources (con't)
21 Extracted from the Archives and Records Center of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, North Craig
22 GED File, Caryl Densley, Canby, Oregon.
23 1900 United States Census.
24 Herrlisheim un village de traditions tournee vers l'Europe.
25 Ancestry.com, Public Member Trees (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006),
www.ancestry.com, Database online.
26 1900 Federal Census for Ohio.
27 Web site for St. Meinrad Archabby, St. Meinrad, Indiana.
28 Ancestry.com, Public Member Trees (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006),
www.ancestry.com, Database online.
29 1880 Federal Census for New Hampshire.
30 1910 Census Miracode Index at Ancestry. com.
31 Family Tree Maker, Volume 55, Tree 200.
32 OneWorldTree, www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com. One World Tree (sm) [database online].
Provo, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc.
33 Family Tree Maker, Volume 13, Tree 2505.
34 Family Tree Maker, Volue 13, Tree 2505.
35 1930 United States Federal Census, www.ancestry.com.
36 1920 United States Census.
37 Brøderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 4, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Social
Security Death Index, Surnames from M through Z, Date of Import: Mar 28, 1997, Internal
Ref. #1.112.4.54022.178
Ref. #1.112.4.54024.152
Ref. #1.112.4.54022.194
40 1930 Federal Census for Pennsylvania.
141
Index of Individuals
?
???, Stella: 93
A
Alford, ???: 51
Alford, Florence: 51
Alt, Catherine: 10,14
Alt, Elisabeth: 7,10
Alt, Jean Georges: 98
Alt, Marie Justine: 98
B
Ball, John Cornelius: 96
Ball, John R: 96
Banzen, Anna: 3
Banzen, Endres: 3
Baylor, James: 94
Baylor, Sarah Salome: 94
Becker, Rosalie: 26,47
Becker, Therese (1): 12,24
Becker, Therese (1865): 44,45,47,98
Becker, Thibaud: 45,47,98
Bonn, Maria: 7,10
Bouvier, Mary Elizabeth: 40,93
Bretienwischer, Frederick: 23,44
Bretienwischer, Louisa A.: 44
Bur, Catherine: 22,44
Faleck, Odile: 10,13
Franck, Louise: 140
Francoise: 98
Frauel, Amelia: 23,44
Frauel, David: 6,7,9
Frauel, Francois Antoine: 12,23
Frauel, Jean Michel: 9,12
Frisch, Anna Mary: 27,48
Fritsch, Marie Anne: 45,47,98
G
Gnmper, Catherine: 21,43
Gross, Jacques: 12,21
Gross, Marcel: 6,7
Gross, Maria Salome: 6,7
Gross, Marie: 40,94
Gross, Marie Anne: 21,43
Gross, Rosalie: 21
Gross, Theresa: 21
Grun, Marie Anne: 12,24
Guhmann, Marie Eve: 7,11
H
Emmerich, Joseph: 44
Emmerich, Martin: 44
Eschenbrenner, Magdalene: 93
Hablawetz, Margarethe: 17,26,27
Heitz, Alexandre: 48
Heitz, Amand (1814): 13,26,47
Heitz, Amand (2): 97
Heitz, Andre: 97
Heitz, Beatrix: 97
Heitz, Charles (1): 97
Heitz, Charles (2): 97
Heitz, Felix: 26,47
Heitz, Jacques: 10,13
Heitz, Jean Baptiste: 26,47
Heitz, Jean Georges: 7,10
Heitz, Louis: 43,97
Heitz, Marc: 97
Heitz, Marie Anne: 97
Heitz, Therese: 97
Herrmann, Ambrosius: 9
Herrmann, Anna Marie: 10
Herrmann, Anne Marie: 7,11
Herrmann, Jean Georges (1723): 6,9
Herrmann, Jean Georges (1764): 10
Herrmann, Joseph (1753): 9
Herrmann, Joseph (1754): 9
Herrmann, Maria: 10
Herrmann, Odile: 9
Herrmann, Rosine: 9,12
Hild, Elisabeth: 12,23
Hill, Mary E.: 93
Hornet, Marie Henrietta Joseph: 43,97
Huck, Anastase: 24,46
Huck, Catherine: 51
Huck, Ursule: 24,46
F
J
C
Centner, Joseph: 19,32
Centner, Philomena Margaret: 19,32,39
Christmann, Catherine: 12,23
Clamer, Alexe: 43,97
Clamer, Henri Albert: 97
Clamer, Jacob: 21,43
Clamer, Johannes Michael: 21,43
Clauss, Madeleine: 12,21,22
D
Dannemiller, Agnes Cecelia: 96
Dannemiller, Dora: 96
Dannemiller, Elizabeth: 93
Dannemiller, Frank C.: 40,94,96
Dannemiller, Jean Henri: 40,94
Dannemiller, Philomena M.: 96
Dannemiller, Rose Mary: 96
Deldemme, ???: 98
Dentinger, Roman: 96
Dick, Esther Marie: 48
Dick, Milton Frederick: 48
E
142
Jones, Ralph: 94
Jung, Josephine: 27,49
Jung, Louis: 13
Jung, Madeleine: 13
Jung, Marie Anne: 13
Jung, Odilie: 13
Jung, Phiippe: 13
Jung, Philippe Jacques: 10,13
K
Kaple, Andrew: 40
Kaple, Frank J.: 40
Karlovetz, Mary Katherine: 48
Keith, Jean: 22,44
Keith, Madeline: 22,44,98
Kieffer, Joseph: 98
Kientz, Anne: 6
Kientz, Bartholme: 6
Kientz, Francesca: 7,11
Kientz, Joannes: 7,11
Kistler, Aloise: 20,43
Kistler, Anastasia: 23
Kistler, Andre: 12,24
Kistler, Antoine (1789): 12
Kistler, Antoine (1824): 23
Kistler, Arbogast (1749): 9,11,12,20
Kistler, Arbogast (1829): 23
Kistler, Armand: 48
Kistler, Balbina: 43,97
Kistler, Catherine: 23
Kistler, Charles: 20
Kistler, Daniel (1785): 12,23,24,46
Kistler, Daniel (1818): 23
Kistler, Jacques (1834): 24
Kistler, Jacques (1850): 46,140
Kistler, Jean Michel (1782): 11,20
Kistler, Jean Michel (1818): 20
Kistler, Johannes: 9,12
Kistler, Joseph: 24,46
Kistler, Josephine: 48
Kistler, Louis (1825): 23
Kistler, Louise: 24
Kistler, Marie Anne: 12,23,24,44
Kistler, Philomene: 43,97
Kistler, Regine: 23,24,32,44,45,46,47,52
Kistler, Reine: 23
Kistler, Rosalie: 20
Kistler, Rosine: 12
Kistler, Suzanne: 23
Kittel, Catherine: 9,12
Klein, Catherine (1723): 9,12
Klein, Catherine (1790): 12,23,24,46
Klein, Mathieu: 12,23
Kormann, Catherine: 26,47
Kreim, Anna M.: 40,93,94
Kress, Rosalia M.: 92,139
L
Laeng, ???: 21
Laeng, Abraham: 3
Laeng, Albert: 51
Laeng, Albert A.: 48
Laeng, Alexandre (1819): 17,27,45,47,99
Laeng, Alexandre (1860): 32,50
Laeng, Alice: 94
Laeng, Alphonse: 52
Laeng, Amelia C.: 48
Laeng, Anna: 3
Laeng, Anne: 94
Laeng, Antoine (1763): 7,11
Laeng, Antoine (1792): 12
Laeng, Antoine (1868): 32
Laeng, Augustus: 27,48
Laeng, Balbine (1829): 19
Laeng, Balbine (1835): 20,41,43
Laeng, Barbara: 3
Laeng, Bastian: 2
Laeng, Bendicht: 3
Laeng, Benjamin: 13,26
Laeng, Bernard Anthony: 41
Laeng, Caroline: 32
Laeng, Caspard (1694): 6
Laeng, Caspard (1751): 7,10
Laeng, Catherine (1769): 7
Laeng, Catherine (1791): 12,21
Laeng, Catherine (1875): 44,98
Laeng, Cecile: 21
Laeng, Charles: 44,98
Laeng, Christine: 6,9
Laeng, Clara M.: 48
Laeng, Clarence: 94
Laeng, Dorsch (1647): 3,6
Laeng, Dorsch (1689): 6
Laeng, Durs (1570): 2
Laeng, Durs (1644): 3
Laeng, Elisabeth: 7
Laeng, Elisbeth: 2
Laeng, Elizabeth (1786): 11,20
Laeng, Elizabeth (1890): 51
Laeng, Elsbeth: 3
Laeng, Felix (1812): 21
Laeng, Ferdinand: 18
Laeng, Francois Joseph (1785): 11
Laeng, Francois Joseph (1789): 11
Laeng, Frantz: 51
Laeng, Genevieve L.: 48
Laeng, George: 27
Laeng, George W.: 48
Laeng, Georges: 6
143
Laeng, Gertrude: 7
Laeng, Hans: 2
Laeng, Hans Jacob (1622): 2,3
Laeng, Hans Jacob (1646): 3
Laeng, Henrich: 2
Laeng, Infant (1): 11
Laeng, Jacques (1842): 22
Laeng, Jean Baptiste (1814): 21
Laeng, Jean Georges (1720): 6,7
Laeng, Jean Georges (1763): 7
Laeng, Jean Georges (1799): 12,21,22
Laeng, Jean Michel (1722): 6
Laeng, Jean Michel (1783): 10,14,17
Laeng, Jean Michel (1817): 17,26,27
Laeng, Jennieva: 93
Laeng, John A.: 48
Laeng, Joseph (1839): 22
Laeng, Joseph (1864): 32,51
Laeng, Joseph Francis: 40
Laeng, Joseph Ignatius: 40,93,94
Laeng, Joseph Ignatius Jr.: 94
Laeng, Josephine (1825): 22
Laeng, Josephine (1828): 14
Laeng, Jost: 2
Laeng, Louis: 21
Laeng, Louis Charles: 51
Laeng, Louisa: 27
Laeng, Louise (1826): 18
Laeng, Louise (1866): 32,45,47,52,86,99,132,133
Laeng, Lucie: 52
Laeng, Ludwig: 27
Laeng, Madeleine (1788): 10,13
Laeng, Madeleine (1824): 22
Laeng, Madeleine (1832): 22
Laeng, Madeleine (1849): 27,49
Laeng, Madieni: 3
Laeng, Marc: 27
Laeng, Marcus: 19,32,39
Laeng, Margin: 2
Laeng, Marguerite (1755): 7
Laeng, Marguerite (1766): 7
Laeng, Maria: 27
Laeng, Maria Anna (1780): 10
Laeng, Maria Anna (1788): 11,20
Laeng, Maria Josephine: 40
Laeng, Maria Louise: 18
Laeng, Maria Margaret: 40,94,96
Laeng, Marie: 51
Laeng, Marie Anne (1820): 22
Laeng, Marie Anne (1862): 32,51
Laeng, Marie Catherine (1718): 6
Laeng, Marie Catherine (1724): 6,7,9
Laeng, Marie Louise: 21,43
Laeng, Marie Madeleine: 98
Laeng, Marie Salome: 7,10
Laeng, Mary: 51
Laeng, Mary Gertrude: 94
Laeng, Mary Katharine: 39,93
Laeng, Mary N.: 48
Laeng, Mathieu (1787): 11,20,21
Laeng, Mathieu (1846): 22,44,98
Laeng, Mathieu (1848): 26
Laeng, Melchior: 7,11
Laeng, Michael: 27
Laeng, Michel (1568): 2
Laeng, Niclaus: 3
Laeng, Odile: 22
Laeng, Peter: 27,48
Laeng, Peter Michle: 48
Laeng, Philippe (1753): 7,10
Laeng, Philippe (1781): 10,13
Laeng, Philippe (1823): 13
Laeng, Philomena: 41
Laeng, Rafine: 22
Laeng, Regine: 17
Laeng, Rosa: 48
Laeng, Rosalie (1830): 22
Laeng, Rosalie (1870): 32
Laeng, Rudolf: 3
Laeng, Theresa (1850): 27
Laeng, Theresa (1862): 39
Laeng, Therese: 51
Laeng, Urs: 1,2
Laeng, Walter: 94
Lang, Albert: 48
Lang, Josephine: 48
Lang, Nellie: 48
Lang, Rosa: 48
Lang, Rudolph: 48
Levallois, Theodosie Marie: 97
Liess, Elisabeth: 46,140
Liess, Francoise: 12
Lutz, Agnes: 11,20
Lutz, Andre: 10,13
Lutz, Catherine: 10,13
M
Marty, Jean: 98
McCarthy, Aloysius Fidelis: 93
144
McCarthy, Cecelia Irene: 93
McCarthy, Clement Bernard: 93
McCarthy, Edward Florence: 93
McCarthy, Francis Lawrence: 93
McCarthy, Frederick Igatius: 93
McCarthy, James: 39,93
McCarthy, Josephine Mary: 93
McCarthy, Leo Joseph James: 93
McCarthy, Richard: 93
McCarthy, Theresa Philomena: 93
McKinney, John Henry: 87,134
McKinney, Mabel Florence: 87,134
Meder, Gertrude: 10,13
Metz, Frederic: 32,50
Metz, Louise: 32,50
N
Neuman, Anna: 94
Noe, Anastase: 26,47
Noe, Marie Anne: 43,97
Nonner, Anna Maria: 3,6
Nonner, Hans Georg: 3
P
Pasch, Sherman Edward: 48
Pfaadt, Andre: 44,98
Pfaadt, Caroline: 44,98
Pfaadt, Catherina: 12,24
Pfaadt, Charles: 98
Pfaadt, Francoise: 17,27,45,47,99
Pfaadt, Jean Michel: 17,27
Pfaadt, Joseph: 21,43
Pfaadt, Madeleine: 13,26,47
Pfaadt, Therese: 48
Pfaff, Benoit: 12,24
Pfaff, Marie Anne: 12,24
Pfister, ???: 12
Pfister, Francoise: 12
Philipps, ???: 98
R
Rathburn, William Francis: 93
Rectewald, Margaretha: 19,32
Regal, Anna Marie: 44
Reiderman, Catherine: 96
Rhein, Aloysius Ralph: 91,138
Rhein, Ambroise (1828): 25
Rhein, Ambroise (1831): 26,47
Rhein, Anastase: 45,47
Rhein, Angele: 98
Rhein, Anthony Joseph: 92,139
Rhein, Antoine (1789): 12,23,24,44
Rhein, Antoine (1856): 45,47
Rhein, Caroline: 26,47
Rhein, Catherine: 26
Rhein, Charles: 98
Rhein, Elizabeth: 26
Rhein, Eugene: 99
Rhein, Felix: 45,47
Rhein, Francois Joseph: 12,24
Rhein, Georges: 26
Rhein, Ignace: 32,51
Rhein, Infant: 92,139
Rhein, Jacques (1820): 23,24,32,44,45,46,47,52
Rhein, Jacques (1823): 32,51
Rhein, Jacques (1908): 99
Rhein, Jacques Charles: 51
Rhein, Joseph (1827): 25
Rhein, Joseph (1860): 45,47
Rhein, Joseph (1866): 32,45,47,52,54,86,99,133
Rhein, Joseph (1893): 86,133
Rhein, Joseph (1899): 98
Rhein, Joseph Peter: 87,134
Rhein, Louisa Maria: 92,139
Rhein, Luden: 26
Rhein, Marie (1855): 45,47
Rhein, Marie (1886): 98
Rhein, Marie Louise: 44,98
Rhein, Mathilde: 98
Rhein, Paul (1823): 24
Rhein, Paul (1904): 99
Rhein, Pierre (1823): 24
Rhein, Pierre (1862): 44,45,47,98
Rhein, Rosa Angela: 86,133
Rhein, Rosalie: 45,47
Rhein, Theresa (1858): 45,47
Rhein, Theresa (1859): 45,47
Ritzel, Edward J.: 91,138
Ritzel, Stella L.: 91,138
S
Sattler, Catherine: 20,43
Scheiber, Emile: 50
Scheiber, Jacques: 49
Scheiber, Joseph (1840): 27,49
Scheiber, Joseph (1882): 49
Scheiber, Josephine: 49
Scheiber, Madeleine: 50
Scheiber, Michel (1807): 27,49
Scheiber, Michel (1879): 49
Scherer, Marie Anna: 12,21,22
Schertzler, Anna /Schuerch: 2,3
Schertzler, Anna Maria: 3
Schiess, Louise: 32,50
Schiff, Catherine: 98
Schiff, Reine: 13,26
Schmitt, Aloyse: 20
Schmitt, Antoine: 20
Schmitt, Bartholome: 11,20
Schmitt, Catherina: 6,7
Schmitt, Catherine: 11,20,21
Schmitt, Felix: 20
Schmitt, Jean Michel: 11,20
Schmitt, Marie Elizabeth: 20
145
Schmitt, Therese: 32,51
Schnoering, Marie Anne: 11,20
Schohn, Anna: 52
Schonn, Madeleine: 97
Sieffert, Joseph: 7,11
Sieffert, Madeleine: 7,11
Smith, Clifford: 48
Smith, Daniel J.: 92,139
Smith, W. H.: 39
Smith, Winifred Regina: 92,139
Stadelmann, Berthe: 99
Stewart, Rosa Linda: 87,134
Sweet, Arthur F.: 97
Sweet, George B.: 43
Sweet, Mary L.: 43
Sweet, Thomas: 20,41
Sweet, Thomas C.: 20,41,43
Sweet, Walter L.: 97
Sweet, William A.: 43,96,97
Zilliox, Odile: 7,10
Zinger, Catherine: 17,27
Zinger, Jean: 10,14
Zinger, Madeleine: 10,14,17
T
Thomas, Eugene: 97
Thomas, Jean Baptiste: 97
Thomas, Joseph: 97
Thomas, Pierre: 43,97
Thomas, Pierre II: 43,97
U
Ullmann, Albert Mathieu: 98
Ullmann, Ernest Auguste: 44,98
Unknown: 49
unknown, Anne nee: 27,48
unknown, Caroline nee: 40
unknown, Elizabeth nee: 91,138
unknown, Josephine A. nee: 97
unknown, Mary nee: 51
unknown, Sarah F. nee: 43,96,97
V
Voltzenlogel, Georg: 10,13
Voltzenlogel, Louise: 10,13
W
Walters, Edward James: 92,139
Walters, Elizabeth Anna: 92,139
Wenger, Joseph: 98
Wenger, Marin: 98
Wentzel, Sarah: 92,139
Wilhelm, Aloysisus John: 93
Wilhelm, Lawrence Sylvester: 93
Wolff, Catherine: 6
Wolff, Theobald: 6,7
Woods, Philip: 51
Wyss, Verena: 2
Z
Zeigler, Margret: 1,2
Zilliox, Andreas: 7,10
146

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