THE SWISS CONNECTION…

 

Since I have retired my cousin Helen Jean has been sharing her family information (husbands side) with me.  I have been researching a few of the Catholic families.

I made an informal research plan and decided to see if I could find information on Anton and Barbara Miller (Muller) who had listed their place of birth as Switzerland.   I found that Anton had come across in the late 1840’s.  

My goal was to see if the records existed to find Barbara maiden name and where they came from in Switzerland.   They had many children so I check for the Baptisms first.   I was able to find the Baptism of Chucks and Helens ancestor, Adelaide Miller Feldkamp.   Adelaide was born in 1851 and I indeed did find her Baptism which was at St. Marys’ RC Church in Allegheny City, Allegheny County,PA.   As I searched more I was able to find her siblings, Ferdinand, John, Caroline, Evelyn, and Bertha.  A check with the 1850 census produced a sister Susanna, who did not appear in the succeeding census of 1860.  

I was also able to glean Barbara maiden name, Bosshard and the town of her birth, Turpenthal/Turbenthal, Switzerland and the town of her husband Anton Muller/ Miller of Koblentz, Switzerland.   This was exciting…..because I came across a person who was also researching this line on Ancestry.   A quick note off to this other person and I found a cousin….Barbara who was descended of Adelaide's brother John.

We were able to share information amongst the three cousins.   Now we had three people in on the search and Barbara and Helen sent for some records from the LDS Church.  Barbara found a microfilm of a Family history of the Bosshard Family and it was documented the ancestors back for seven generations.    That is totally unbelievable to me that records could exist back that far.   After I realized Switzerland's neutrality and the records still exist.  We have still much to find but this was a great find in a new cousin and much more information with just the maiden name of Barbara Bosshard Muller and her town of birth.   From the family history we found that Barbara and Anton were married in Turbenthal before they emigrated to Pennsylvania.

It has been a good week.   In the records from Switzerland and St. Mary’s Church the name is recorded as Muller and later on on the census and other documents it has been changed to Miller.