European origin of family found! - Big reunion in Frederick Co. MD in 2006?
European origin of family found! – Big reunion in Frederick Co. MD in 2006?
Dear Cousins,
We have news that should be of interest for all descendants of the “Debelbesin” immigrant family (including George, Michael, Caspar, and Magdalena) that came with ship “Britannia” to Philadelphia in 1731! This information was presented at the reunion of descendants of the immigrant Caspar Devilbiss, which was held in Sacramento, CA, this weekend.
The place of origin for this family finally has been revealed by the research of professional German genealogist Sabine Schleichert. She found the baptism entry for Caspar in the Lutheran parish of WOERTH-SUR-SAUER in Lower Alsace, northwest of Strasbourg. Caspar was born on March 19 and christened on March 22, 1721. The “Britannia” ship passenger list has him as being 10 years old in 1731, which means that the information is consistent. Caspar’s father was the cow-herder Samuel TEUFFELBESS, who was married to a Magdalena.
Unfortunately, no other trace of this family could be found in the parish records of Woerth and many of the surrounding parishes in Lower Alsace, except a second entry dated 1725 which mentions the father as a sponsor of another family’s child. Samuel, being a cow-herder, obviously moved around in the area and worked wherever he could. The family in all probability had a Swiss background, as the name Teufelbess (with lots of variations, the most frequent today being Deubelbeiss) is clustering in the Aargau region of Switzerland. So far it is unclear, however, whether it was Samuel or his as yet unknown father who moved to Alsace, and where Samuel had his other children.
But there is no doubt at all that this indeed is the right family. The Lower Alsace, and most especially the area around Woerth, was the origin of a large number of passengers on the ship “Britannia”, AND the origin of a number of very early settlers in the Monocacy area in Frederick Co., MD, where the Devilbiss families finally settled.
Now that the family’s bridge to Europe finally has been built, after more than 250 years, we would very much like to continue the research and find out more about the family’s years in Alsace as well as about their place of origin in Switzerland. This should also lead to the discovery of the baptism certificates for the immigrants George and Michael, who have lots of descendants in the US, too. We would like to hear from you, if you believe you are associated with this family.
The group has, tentatively, begun thinking about a family reunion in Frederick Co., Maryland, to be held in October 2006. This family reunion should include not only the descendants of Caspar, but of all the original “Debelbesin”/Devilbiss immigrants who came to this country in 1731, of Caspar, George and Michael. We invite all of you to join this project, and would like to hear from any of you who might be interested in this.
A search like this takes a lot of time and money, which is difficult for just one person to provide. As further research on the European side should be in the interest of all Devilbiss (et al.) genealogists in the US, we would like to invite you to share the financial funding of this project. Sabine Schleichert is willing to provide and discuss details about the next steps she would like to take in this research, with anyone who would like to join our group.
Ron Cassel, descendant of Caspar Devilbiss – [email protected]
Sabine Schleichert, professional genealogist – [email protected]
More Replies:
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Re: European origin of family found! - Big reunion in Frederick Co. MD in 2006?
Tom DeVilbiss 12/05/04
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Re: European origin of family found! - Big reunion in Frederick Co. MD in 2006?
JoBeth Gerrard 6/01/05
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Re: European origin of family found! - Big reunion in Frederick Co. MD in 2006?