GENEAL-FORUM

Please accept my apologies for this translation. My daughter may be proficient in German but her writing is sometimes illegible. -- Evelyn

Also, one biographical sketch of George Keller says he was born and raised in a small village near the city of Zurich, Zurich Kanton. Of course, the Keller name occurs so frequently that it is most difficult to trace, so I am using the Klingenfuss name of my female ancestor.

Ich suche nach Informationen über meine Urur-Großeltern Verena Klingenfuss und John J. Keller. Das Staatsarchiv Schaffhausen informiert mich, daß der Name "Klingenfuss" in Osterfingen entstand. Sie sagen auch, daß die Kirchenaufzeichnungen für Osterfingen im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert in der Pfarrei von Wilchingen notiert wurden.

Verena Klingenfuss war etwa 1797 geboren und hat John J. Keller etwa 1819 geheiratet. Ihre Kinder waren:
1. Joseph Keller war 1820 geboren. Er wanderte in die USA vor 1845 aus und heiratete, wohnte und starb in Memphis, Tennessee.
2. Anna Marie Elisabeth Keller, ihre Tochter, war geboren September 1839. Sie kam nach Memphis, ihren Bruder Joseph 1856 zu besuchen. Sie blieb in Memphis, heiratete und starb dort.
3.George Keller war geboren September 25, 1828. Ich glaube, daß er auch ein Sohn dieses Paares ist. Er wurde erst 1860 in Memphis, Tennessee gefunden und ist nachher nach St. Louis, Missouri gegangen, wo er der Rest seines Lebens lebte.

Ich würde alle mögliche Informationen schätzen, die Sie zu Verena Klingenfuss und ihrer Familie finden können. Sincerely,
- Editiert von Wolf am 28.12.2005, 19:17 -

Deutsche Zusammenfassung folgt unten.
Hello Evelyn,

right now I can only confirm that the only pre-1800 citizenship for Klingenfuss is Osterfingen SH - siehe Vorkommen Klingenfuss in der Schweiz. On this page also a reference to Klingenfuss is made - which may be in error, and should be Klingelfuss (with L instead of N). I'll try to sort this out - although this will likely not be of direct concern to your own research.

Later lines from Osterfingen gained citizenship in other places:
19th c. Neunkirch SH
1906 St.Gallen SG (from Osterfingen)
1910 Schaffhausen SH (from Neunkirch)
1931 Genève (from Osterfingen)
There are also lines from Germany gaining Swiss citizenship:
1924 Basel BS
1943 Zürich ZH
1953 Binningen BL
Whether there is a connection between the Osterfingen and the German lines, cannot be determined from Familiennamenbuch - but you shouldn't expect all Swiss Klingenfuss of today to be related to your family.
Laut Familiennamenbuch ist Osterfingen tatsächlich das einzige bis vor 1800 zurückreichende Bürgerrecht für Klingenfuss. Später haben Linien weitere Bürgerrechte erworben, auch in anderen Kantonen. Ob eine Verbindung zu nach 1924 eingebürgerten, ursprünglich aus Deutschland stammenden Linien besteht, geht aus dem Familiennamenbuch nicht hervor.

Thanks, Wolff. The name was written "Kilingerfuss" as best I could decipher on the Death Certificate of Verena's daughter here in the US. I could not find that name anywhere on the www. A kind gentleman in switzerland corrected the spelling to Klingenfuss, which I could locate in various genealogical forums so I accepted that spelling.

One other thing, Joseph Keller, son of Verena Klingenfuss and John J. Keller, was married in the Catholic church and their children were baptised there. However, I was told that it was unlikely that Joseph was raised a Catholic if he grew up in Zurich, as there were no Catholic churches there at that time. (Joseph was born in 1820.) would you agree? Of course, Joseph's wife could have been Catholic and that would account for their tie to the Catholic church.

Klingenfuss (with N) is certainly closer to "Kilingerfuss" than Klingelfuss - but the latter name certainly exists as well - even a Klingelfuss Family web page - in Hong Kong! And in the Zürich City Archive I found a document from 1399 (scroll down).

Back to Klingenfuss von Osterfingen. In your first posting you wrote:

Das Staatsarchiv Schaffhausen informiert mich, [...]. Sie sagen auch, daß die Kirchenaufzeichnungen für Osterfingen im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert in der Pfarrei von Wilchingen notiert wurden.

I am assuming the people at the State Archive know their sources quite well - but this statement is in contradiction to a listing on Schaffhausen church registers published by Ernst Steinemann (Der Schweizer Familienforscher, 1950, p.25-34 & 49-54):

bapt.1611-1658, marr.1610-1643: see Neunkirch.
bapt.1659-1875, marr.1676-1875, bur.1676-1875: see community archive (of Osterfingen).
Surnames (mentioned in records 1610-1659): Aeberli, Bechtold, Bollinger, Böugger, Brunister (Brunnenstein), Döuber, Huber, Klingenfuß, Koblet, Lang, Meyer, Richli, Ritzmann, Schmid, Stoll, Suter, Wyß, Zündel.

Unfortunately neither Osterfingen nor Wilchingen church records have been filmed by LDS - likely someone will have to visit the SH State Archive.

Now for the question catholic/reformed: you are correct- Zürich was strictly reformed (Zwinglian) for centuries after the reformation - and still is predominantly (about 3:1) reformed today. I am not an expert on "theological history of Zürich" - but to my knowledge the cath. church registers of St.Peter&Paul (city of Zürich) start in 1807 - so catholics likely started to spread in canton Zuerich early 19th century. BUT the same holds for canton Schaffhausen - strictly reformed centuries ago, and today about 4:1. Consequently it would be equally surprising for Verena Klingenfuss to be catholic. This raises the question: what is your source for the statement they got married in a catholic church? Which church was it - and do you have a copy of the church record?

Hier bitte NUR Klingenfuss diskutieren.

Zu Keller von Wilchingen existiert ein eigener Thread.