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church as it looks today

On Saturday, September 21st Rolf and his wife Andrea picked me up at 9:45 so that we could tour the tower of the Catholic Church in Busserach. The tower itself is the only piece of the church remaining from when my ancestors worshiped there as this is the third church building. Somehow the tower, circa 1464, survived the fires and other disasters that felled the previous two churches. Within the tower is a museum of artifacts that had been housed in the basement of the church until water damaged them. They are now on display in the museum. I was able to see the old basin that was used to baptize the parishioners, including my Kublers.

existing altar

picture of the second church building

an old vestment

photo of the original altar

baptismal font

We were able to climb the narrow, steep steps leading up to the bell tower tower. It was amazing to see the bells that close, but I kept thinking that here in the states no one would let anyone climb the tower due to liability. How refreshing that it does not seem to be an issue in Switzerland.

steps leading to the bells

a few of the bells

Following the tour of the church and the tower we celebrated with some wine and crackers.


Then it was time for the main event, the Kubler family gathering at Neu-Thierstein Castle, located just outside of the town. The castle I believe is from the 1100s, and it had fallen into ruin. In the 1800s efforts were made to stop the dismantling that had been taking place. In recent years the village of Busserach bought the castle and has done restoration work, including adding a clear roof so that the castle can be used for events year-round.













Once the family members started arriving, we gathered in one of the rooms on the upper level where we would be able to not only eat but also watch the slide presentation that Rolf had put together about my family. It was interesting to me that a number of the attendees had to introduce themselves to each other. I guess I just assumed that in a town the size of Busserach (around 2,000 people), everyone would know one another.


The food was good, and the slide show was very informative. I think the best part of it was that it got so much conversation started among the relatives. It was fun to hear the excited conversations, even if I didn't understand what was being said. We gathered up the email addresses of those who wished to contribute theirs, so I am hoping that we can somehow stay in touch despite the language barrier. I have very few Kubler relatives in the Unites States. Maybe I will end up with more in Switzerland.

The day ended with dinner at Rolf's house with his wife and two sons. We had cheese fondue, and it was very tasty. I think we do a pretty good job with fondue over here, but I have to say that their cheese is so much better. And it will be hard to ever top having it with a Swiss family in Switzerland.

The next morning Rolf picked me up at 9:00 so that we could drive to a high point for me to take some pictures of the village from up above. Unfortunately the morning was too foggy to do that, but we went to some land owned by a Kubler family and I got some interesting pictures there.

spider webs capture the dew

orchard on Kubler land

We then spent a little more time at his house while he burned some CDs for me, and I had an opportunity to say good-bye to his family before he took me to the Laufen station. From there I took several trains to Speyer, Germany where I met back up with my tour group. What an unbelievable experience, and I have no idea how to thank the person that made it all possible.

Me along the drive to Solothurn

Since Susanne lives in Breitenbach, she picked me up at my hotel on Friday morning at 7:10. We met two of her sisters and Rolf in a parking lot in Busserach to continue the drive to Solothurn. Rolf thought it would be nice to drive instead of taking the train so that I could see more of the countryside. I am so glad he did! It was a beautiful drive, and Rolf is so knowledgeable that it was like having my own personal tour guide along while I was in Switzerland. The roads were very twisty as we made our way up through the passage in the hills. I kept thinking how much Jim would have enjoyed a motorcycle ride there.
Along the way we passed a home owned by an ancestral family named Altamatt (need to check my spelling on that one after I have a chance to review all the materials Rolf gave to me). They once had a mill here and the property is still in the family today.

Altamatt property

We arrived at the archives shortly after they opened. Here I am with my three Kubler cousins.

Rolf puts the sisters to work on Carolina Borer

The sisters worked on looking for passport information on Carolina Borer, wife of Vinzenz Josef Kubler. He had already located Vinzenz and their four boys, but not Carolina. As there is no death record for her here and I have found her, I believe, in a census record in the U.S., there should be a passport for her. In the meantime, he I and I went through the Busserach books looking for birth, marriage and death records for any Kubler. We found many, and photographed all of them. The archives closes for two hours at lunch, so we took a break and walked to a nearby restaurant. When we returned to the archives we spent another hour and a half or so photographing Inventories, which is what the town prepared when someone dies. Rolf also found the birth record of a Kubler from 1617, so we know they were in Busserach by that time period. Nothing new was found on Carolina however.

Two of the sisters then headed home while Susanne, Rolf and I toured a little of the town of Solothurn. It is the oldest town in Switzerland and has a lot of interesting buildings in the old town section. Here are a couple of the cathedrals.





On the ceiling of this cathedral is a painting of the Altamatt crest, which indicates that the family donated money during construction so that they could have this done. I am guessing it must have been a lot of money, and sometime it would be fun to research the records to learn about the construction of this cathedral.
Following the tour of town we drove back towards Busserach, and Rolf dropped Susanne and me off in a rural area where we met up with Josef Kubler. Rolf had to leave to finish up some things for the family gathering on Saturday and also to pick up his wife at the airport. Susanna, Joseph and I ate at a restaurant located in a farm house high in the hills. As we walked along the country road the sound of the cows grazing on the hillside was like a symphony of wind chimes.



We enjoyed a nice meal and then drove under a full moon on our way back to Busserach. From sun up to sun down, the day was filled with adventure.

I have been delayed in posting because I hit the ground running in Switzerland. My train trip from Boppard to Basel was uneventful except for a suicide attempt. While still in southern Germany the train came to a screeching halt, and I nervously looked around my train car. No one else seemed concerned so I thought it was a brake check or something. But then we just sat. Finally an announcement came on that there were "people on the tracks" and we had to wait for them to be moved. I wondered if a car had gotten stuck on the tracks. A little later another announcement was made that someone was trying to commit suicide by laying on the tracks, and they had to wait for the police to come. I guess the person went willingly because we were soon on our way again. All this delayed my arrival time in Basel where Rolf, as promised, was waiting at the top of the escalator with a Swiss flag. I waved my own American flag at him, and we quickly bought my ticket to Laufen. Back down the escalator we went only to see our train pulling out. Back up the escalator we headed with me dragging all my luggage once again. We went into a coffee shop for some coffee and tea. Rolf brought me up to date in the plans for the rest of that day, which was Thursday.

Gasthaus where Joseph Kubler sold his land

We caught the next train 30 minutes later and then got into his car which was parked at the Laufen train station. From there we drove directly to my hotel in Breitenbach, which I believe I have mentioned is the same hotel where my ancestor Joseph Kubler sold his house and land in February of 1854 to finance passage to America for his family. We barely made it in the door to drop my bag with the hotel owner and grab a key before Rolf whisked me off to Busserach, a short distance away. There we went to to the Catholic Church office to look at the old birth, death and marriage records. The office is only open on Thursdays so we needed to take advantage of that.

With the parish record books in Busserach

A Kubler entry

The secretary had laid out three books for us to look through. We photographed every Kubler entry that we found. We did not have too much time to dissect what we came across as there were many Kubler entries. We got short on time, so Rolf suggested we go through two additional books at a later time. From the office we went to Rolf's house where I had a chance to meet his two sons, but not his wife as she was away on holiday. Then Josef Kubler (call Sep in Switzerland for short, but never Joe) came to pick us up to take us to his sister Susanne's house for dinner. The two of them speak no English and I don't speak German so Rolf was kept busy translating the conversation. Susanne prepared raclette, a traditional Swiss dish. It was so good! I may have to see if I can find the machine in the U.S.

Joseph on the left with Rolf

Raclette

I got back to the hotel about 10:30 that evening to prepare for a big day at the Solothurn archives on Friday.

Things have really been moving on my genealogy trip to Germany this fall. Family Tree Tour reps Kathy and Matthias have found people in both Germany and Switzerland who are willing to do some research on my family and also meet with me when I arrive. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the volunteer in Insheim is looking for my Metz family records. He will also accompany me to Steinweiler where my fourth great-grandmother was from, though she married my fourth great-grandfather Andreas Mez in Insheim in 1777. The volunteer sent an email with a document about this couple, which lists 10 additional children that my cousins and I did not know about! It was in German, so I ran it through a translating program in Gmail. I got a chuckle out of the fact that the program translated Apolonia Schwein to Apolonia Pig. Somehow, I don't think she would have appreciated that!

Meanwhile down in Switzerland, volunteer Rolf has been a busy bee! He has taken photos of over 400 documents to share with me. Wow! But perhaps even more exciting is the fact that he has contacted 25 members of the Kubler family in the area, and they want to have a family meeting with me. This is so above and beyond anything I could have imagined! We are still working out the logistics, but I believe I will leave my tour group in Boppard, Germany and take a train to Busserach on a Thursday. I have no concept of how long that will take by train, but it looks like it is about four hours by car. Then on Friday Rolf and I will go to the research center together and look at records, and Saturday will be the family gathering where we will talk about what we have found. At this point I am not sure if I will take the train to Speyer, Germany to meet up with my group on Saturday night, or if I can stay until Sunday. Currently I am scheduled to go to Insheim on Sunday to meet with the volunteer there, but Matthias is checking to see if we could do it on Monday instead.

Near Busserach is an inn called Gastof zum Kreuz where I hope to stay. My ancestor in 1854 sold his house and his land to finance his voyage to the United States. He left Switzerland after February 1854 with four children. We are uncertain at this time what happened to his wife. But how amazing would it be to stay at an inn that is part of my ancestor's history?

Yesterday I attended a workshop on writing your family history. While I have written other books, writing about family is another animal altogether. Trying to take dry statistics and turn them into something others will want to read is a challenge indeed. But I have a feeling that after my trip this September I will be able to find a way to make two of the branches come to life.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, I am heading to the Rheinland-Pfalz area of Germany with Family Tree Tours this fall. As a tour company specializing in genealogy, their trips combine the best of both worlds - travel to beautiful locations and the opportunity to learn more about your family heritage. In looking at all the names in my family tree, including those of Jim's ancestors, I was only able to locate one family in this part of Germany. But it happens to be the Metz family, and I have a couple of cousins who have previously researched the family so at least I have a base to work with. My 2nd great-grandfather was only 43 when he died of a bee sting in Insheim in 1862. His wife Barbara was left with a rather large family to raise, including my great-grandfather who was only 4 months old when his father died. In 1866 Barbara boarded the ship Fulton with 6 of her children, heading for Cincinnati where at least one of her older children resided.  I provided Family Tree Tours with all the information I had about this family.

Barbara Karch Metz grave, Cincinnati, OH

I was excited to learn recently that the company has already heard back from volunteers willing to help research my Metz family in Insheim, Germany. Someone will meet me when I arrive in the town and will show me around the area and talk to me about what they have found. Insheim is only about 30 minutes away from the town of Speyer that will function as our base on the second half of our trip, so that will be an easy trip to make.

As I studied the map of the part of Germany where we will be staying and traveling, I decided to gauge the distance between Speyer and Busserach, Switzerland. It appeared to be about a 2-3 hours ride. Busserach is where my 2nd great-grandfather Joseph V. Kubler was born. Kubler is my maiden name, which we always believed to be German. As I began to research the name many years ago, I traveled to Connersville, Indiana where Joseph raised his family and is buried. I found a death notice in the newspaper that stated he came from Busserach. An additional article in a book about leading industries in Fayette County, Indiana corroborated that fact. My dad was so surprised to learn that he was Swiss! No one had ever mentioned it in the family.

Joseph V. Kubler grave, Connersville, IN

I forwarded my information to Family Tree Tours, and they said it would be doable to travel to Busserach though I will have to spend the night there due to the distance. They contacted someone in the town and heard back from them right away. Someone from Busserach is willing to show me around the area, and there are still families named Kubler who live there. Further, they forwarded a Kubler family tree dating back to 1700! Is it my tree? I don't know yet as the birth year for their Josef and the one I have for Joseph (father of Joseph V.) is off by quite a bit. But it definitely points me in the direction of what I need to do next in order to see if they are one and the same.

In all my years of doing genealogy, and house research as well, things have never come easy. To have the opportunity to see these two ancestral towns with experts from the area is something I never dreamed would happen. I believe I will have much to write about this fall!