Table of Contents:
Page 1: ... Greetings ... Site Overview ... Privacy Policy ... "The House of Faller"
... Coat of Arms
Page 2: ... Schwarzwald Roots ... Maps ... Origins ... Famous Fallers ... Descendants ... Faller "Citings" ... Photographs ... Research Queries ... Correspondents
Page 3: ... Genealogy & Resource Sites ... Books & Sources ... LDS Microfilm Sources ... LDS Invitation ... Yucatan Hacienda ... Wineries ... Black Forest Clocks ... Glass Works ... Travel Sites ... Miscellany ... My Background
NOTES and NEWS
- (12/10/2009) My new email in West Virginia is wderoche@frontierNet.net. Two nets.
- Robert de Falleur sent me two publications by Klara Werber which conflict, regarding some of the 19th century Fallengrund descendants. I'll have to look into things at the LDS Family History Center and try to get the best outcome. But this will probably have to wait until 2010.
- Sorry that my HTML editor does not support umlauts and other special characters! I'm doing a work-around so I hope things seem back-to-normal for the time being.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_forest)
- new links I'll add soon in the body somewhere.
www.blackforestinfo.com - (2/5/2006)Faller information last updated June 2, 2006 (6/2/06, US-style). About 30 new family groups in the Descendants File.
- (2/5/2006)New ISP since January 2006: wderoche@verizon.net and http://mysite.verizon.net/wderoche/faller.html.
- When contacting me for the first time, please advise if you wish not to have your name added to this site.
- Jürgen Sterk has advised us that Klaus Weber (the older man in St. Peter who wrote a lot of local history about the Black Forest region) is writing a new book on St. Peter, and wants information and sources on their emigrants--how and when they left, their families, professions, marriages and descendants. For example, he wants copies of emigration sheets, passenger lists, etc., with a connection to St. Peter, and perhaps Waldau (for a revision of his Waldau Chronik). Information on individuals is fine--it does not have to be whole families. Mr. Weber has no PC or email, so Jürgen Sterk is helping him spread this message. So, if your family emigrated from the St. Peter or Waldau areas, please contact Jürgen Sterk at sterks@web.de.
- The Faller branch from Alsace comprises a quarter of the documented individuals on this site. Georgius Faller is the father of the Alsatian Fallers. He was born in Gremmelsbach, Germany (just north of Triberg), around 1638, and died at Epfig, France, in 1714. (Epfig is southwest of Strasbourg on the N422.) The parents of Georgius are Hans Faller and Elisabeth Scherzinger. In the sources I used for my main Faller line, Hans Faller is described as being a cousin from Furtwangen who married Maria Faller (in my main line) in 1638. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) has a reference to a marriage between a Joannes Faller and Elisabeth Scherzinger around 1640. I plan to review the German book from Robert de Falleur on Offspring of Theis Faller and Veronica Mark to see if it sheds light on this. The Alsatian Fallers are quite significant, and have many branches in the United States.
- Schwarzwald Farmhouses (with
vacation apartments) You may find a photo of your ancestor's farmhouse!
UNKNOWN: Can you help? Please let me know if you know about any of these things.
- How to connect Jean Faller from Triberg around 1590 to the Neukirch / Gütenbach branch?
- Schwarzwald Veltlin Route (see Origins). What is Veltlin?
- Where is/was Tüberg, Germany?
- On the personal side, my father understood his grandfather, Leo Faller, to have been born somewhere in Pennsylvania. Leo returned to Gütenbach and worked there and his son, my grandfather Ernest A. Faller, Sr., was born there. But we don't know when or why Leo's mother (Maria Dold, 1798-1858) came to the U.S.
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GREETINGS and welcome to old and new visitors. This site was started by me, Patricia (Faller) DeRoche, in order to collect and disseminate information on the Faller family branch from the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) area of Germany. This particular branch of the Faller family is well documented from the mid 16th century onward. The Valler, or Faller, name was documented in the 10th century in Switzerland. Fallerderivations may include Fellure, Falleur, Faleur, de Falleur, Faler, Fallers, Fehler, Foeller, Fahller, Fowler, Phaller and Fallier. Researchers who have contacted me come from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, and the United States. Their respective branches have NOT necessarily been connected by documented research to the 10th century Swiss Fallers, nor to the Gütenbach-Neukirch-Furtwangen branch, which is my main focus. The reason I chose to document the Black Forest and Alsatian branches in detail (Descendants File) is to understand the relationships between family reunion attendants.I hope that other Faller cousins will contribute information and use this page as a communications resource by letting me add their family details and by reading others' "Research Queries" on page 2. Several serious genealogical researchers have found Faller ancestors through contacts or information posted here. My email address is wderoche@verizon.net. (Genealogy is just a hobby for me and, due to other demands, I may take weeks to reply, so please do not be offended.) First-time contacts should let me know if you object to having your name and email address listed on this site. If your name does appear on this site (in Correspondents list), please send me your new email address if it changes.
I became interested in genealogy in 1996 and started this Faller page when I realized how much information on the Fallers was available. I have done very little original research. About one fifth of the content of this site is from information passed down by my father Ernest August Faller, Jr. or collected by my sister Barbara Nagler. The remainder is recently added from contacts made through this site. My grandfather Ernest August Faller, Sr. was born in Gütenbach. He knew a lot about Fallers in Gütenbach from his youth, and researched the origins of the family over many years. My husband Bill and I live in a suburb of Washington, DC. This photo was taken in May 1998 when Jean-Pierre Faller and his wife from Obernai, France, visited Washington. (We are at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.) From left to right: my daughter, Mme. Faller, myself, M. Faller.
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SITE OVERVIEW: When searching this site for specific names, please check all spellings: Catherine/Katharina, Jacob/Jakob, etc. This site consists of three main pages and three secondary pages (attached to page 2). Page 1 contains general information on the site and early documentation on the Faller family. Page 2 contains details of the Neukirch / Gütenbach branch, a list-in-progress of descendants of Gertraud and Thomann Faller from around the middle of the 16th century to the present, references to other Faller farms in the Black Forest, various other Faller "citings," and "Research Queries" from cousins and potential cousins. Page 3 contains various genealogical resources (including book titles, LDS microfilm numbers related to the Black Forest, and links to genealogy sites) and miscellaneous topics about Fallers and Faller interests.My numbering convention is that numbered items usually appear in reverse order, due to loading the most recent items before older items. Within a numbered item, however, subparts are lettered, A, B, C, etc. in regular order.
New or changed paragraphs are preceded with the update date. An undated paragraph is probably from the original load of this site in 1997. Please pardon my misspellings and occasional omission of diacritical marks over German vowels and other non-English letters. I would appreciate being notified of any glaring errors.
CREDITS. I have tried to attribute information to the correct source. My two main sources for the Faller Descendants subsection are (1) "Aus der Geschichte von Neukirch" by Klaus Weber (LDS Microfilm 1183550), especially the chapter "Fallengrund" and (2) "Die Bauern von Gütenbach und ihre Hofguter von 1504 bis Heute" by Klara Werber (LDS Microfilm 1183578). This book contains a list of the referenced archives from St. Peter's, Waldkirch, Triberg, St. George's, St. Margaret's, etc.
I am indebted to my sister Barbara Nagler, and several Faller cousins for sending me maps, data, pictures, publications, and so on, which have been included on this site. Thanks especially to Joy Cluff, David Dale, Robert de Falleur, Pierre Guy Faller, Roland Faller, Hilda Patrick and Jörg Zamberger. Also thanks to my husband Bill for his computer help.
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PRIVACY: (5/27/01) Since this is a low-volume web site, I try to honor everyone's request for inclusion or omission of their name, email address, postal address, lineage, etc. BUT, I can't do so unless you tell me what your wishes are. Therefore, be forewarned: I will post new names and email addresses on this site unless you tell me up-front that you'd rather just be referred to by your initials. (You can always change your mind, so other researches can contact you directly.) If any individual wants to make a change to his or her information, let me know.(4/27/98) My policy for making and posting queries is: A query can either be private (not posted on the web), or public (posted under Research Queries on this web page). A private query will be answered by me or referred to another Faller correspondent who seems to be a good lead. A public query will be published with either the full name and e-mail (and/or postal) address OR the initials of the inquirer. Please be sure to specify if you want your query to be (a) private, (b) public with full name and e-mail address, (c) public with full name and postal address, (d) public with full name and e-mail and postal addresses, or (e) public with initials only. Furthermore, I will not publish a postal address without specific direction. That is, even if I know a postal address because someone wrote to me with a query, or if an e-mail correspondent sent me an address in order that I might mail him or her something, I will not automatically publish it on the web.
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THE "HOUSE OF FALLER"(1/23/04)Please note that I have no documentation connecting the Swiss Wilhelm Faller (b 1300) to the Schwarzwald Fallers, two and a half centuries later.
(10/27/01) Since the following section was written in 1999, I have received many many extracts from old publications regarding early Swiss and German Fallers from Robert de Falleur, of Belgium. He has done loads of research to discover his family origins and also travelled to the pertinent places of interest. I've been lax in keeping up with his inputs, and have had to add bits and pieces sporadically as I get time. Please refer to Origins for Robert's latest inputs about how the first Fallers may have gotten to the area near Chur.
(11/12/99) The earliest records that are known of for the name Faller are from the convent records at Coire (Chur) in Switzerland. I have two slightly different versions, one of which my father passed on to me years ago. He always gave me the impression that his father had done research, or paid to have it done by someone else. Another version, I think, was distributed at a family reunion in 1987 and was probably the work of the late Dr. Gaston Faller. I cannot really say for sure what the origin of either version is, but Pierre Faller of Bordeaux would be the best source to go to to find out more about this. Both versions (I & II) are shown below intact, followed by additional notes from me (PD) and Hilda (HP). Please note that slight variations of place names, etc., which I have NOT tried to rectify, appear in the two versions and there are some significant details mentioned in one version but not the other (and vice versa).
Version I.
979: Sebastian Valler born. He was 51 when:1030: Bartholomaeus (Bartle) Faller was born. Son of Sebastian. This is the first written record of the family, as preserved in the books of the Archives of the Bishop of Chur (Coire) in Graubünden, Switzerland. Bartholomaeus was baptised in the village of Bivium, Graubünden. The date of birth is not given but as it was customary in those days, he was probably born on August 24,1030, this being the saints day of St. Bartime. Bivio, the Roman Bivium, lies on the Altsteiner Rhine on an old mountain trail, which branches here, to lead to the Septimer pass and the Julier pass respectively.
1081: A Faller who is called the son of Bartholomew was in the Tross (train) of Emperor Heinrich IV, and accompanied the army to Italy. He must have returned safely as:
1111: Leuthold Faller, son of above, guided the army of Emperor Heinrich V, over the Septimer Pass to Italy. On the return of the army, he accompanied the emperor to the vicinity of the Aegerisee (Canton Schwytz now) but then belonging to that house, which had large holdings there. Leuthold had a farm holding given to him. He had three sons, and he divided his land between his sons before his death. The oldest son, Bartholomew had one son Wernher, born:
1191: Wernher prospered and enlarged his holdings. A record exists on the records of the “Landvogt” of Zug, that he had several sons, the oldest of whom, Blassius Faller, inherited his land.
1230: Blasius Faller married at Einsiedein.
1234: Friedrich Faller, son of above, was born.
1258: Friedrich secretly embraced the cause of the "Eidgenossen."
1266: The House of Hapsburg stripped Friedrich of his possessions. He fled to the protection of the convent of Einsiedeln; he did not take holy orders, but married in 1267.
1268: His son, Enderli (Andrew) Faller was born. He fell in the battle of Morgarten (1315). His herioc death is recorded in the archives of the Canton of Schwyz. He left one son: Kuoni, born 1300.
1352: Kuoni Faller died at Schornen, Canton of Schwyz. His son Wilhelm Faller was born (1330).
1379: Wilhelm Faller died.
This period of four hundred years covers the first ten generations of the House of Faller.
Version II: History of the House of Faller.
AD 979: Sebastian Faller born. Birthplace unknown. Year known since:1030: Bartholomaeus (Bartle) Faller was born. Entry in the books of the convent of Chur (Coire). This is the oldest written record dealing with the house of Faller. Bartholomaeus F. was baptised at Bivion (the Roman Bivium) on the Halbsteiner Rhine at the fork of the trails leading respectively to the Julier and Septimer Pass. It is stated in this record that his father was Sebastian F. and that he was fifty-one years old. This places the year of his birth at AD 979. It is not definitely known where his home was, but it is to be assumed that it was the Val da Faller, to the North. Assuming again, that this valley was named after the House of Faller, it is probable that the family was in existence more than a thousand years ago. The date of birth of Bartholomaeus F. is not stated, but, as it was customary (and still is in Catholic countries) to baptize children in the name of the saint of his birthday, we may thus assume that Bartholomaeus was born on August 24, 1030.
1081: A Faller (first name not known), but who was the son of Bartholomew was in the train of Emperor Henry IV, on his way across the Septimer Pass. He returned safely from Italy.
1111: Leuthold Faller, son of above, must have been an alpine guide, as it is recorded that he acted as such to the army of Emperor Henry V. He must have joined the enterprise of the emperor as he did not return from Italy immediately. On his return, the emperor granted him a large lot of land near the Aegerisee, in what is now Switzerland. He moved there and worked his holdings, leaving it to his oldest son.
1151: Bartholomaeus F. born 1151. Nothing else is known of him, except:
1191: He had a son, Wernher, born 1191. Date of death or other particulars of his life unknown, except:
1230: He had a son, Blasius F. Date of birth or death unknown, but he married at Einsidelen, Schwyz, 1230, and had a son:
1234: Friedrich F. was born to him in 1234. Friedrich secretly joined the “Eidgenossen” cause about 1258. He was married in 1267. The House of Hapsburg, then overlord of his land in question, stripped him of his holdings, and he fled to the sanctuary of the convent of Einsiedeln. He had a son:
1268: Enderli (probably Andreas) Faller, born 1268. He had a son:
1300: Kuoni F., born 1300. His father Enderli fell in the battle of Morgarten (1315), the first decisive battle bringing about the freedom of the Swiss.
1330: Wilhelm Faller, son of Kuoni, born.
1352: Kuoni Faller died.
1379: Wilhelm Faller died near Schornen, Switzerland.
(Note) This closes the first four centuries, and covers the first eleven generations of the House of Faller, of which there is a record.
Notes on above text from various sources: (Thanks, Hilda and Robert).
(1/18/04) According to the Klaus Faller family, which has lived in St. Blasien for centuries, the name Faller stems from the middle ages from northern Italy and South Tyrol and derives from the occupation of "Vahl." "Vahlers" went from house to house collecting the tithes.(1/18/04)1438: "Todtnauer Froner" (copy in Freiburg archives) listed Faller family name. Although Todtnau is quite near to Guetenbach, their Fallers do not seem to be connected to those at Oberfallengrundhof.
The Septimer Pass was probably not the most important pass in the Swiss Alps, and it may have been a clever idea for Leuthold (or his father) to guide Henry IV by that little known route.
(5/21/01) Regensberg Castle a few miles north of Zurich belonged to a Count Lütold; could this be Leuthold Faller? The fortified village of Regensberg was founded in 1245 by Lütold von Regensberg, who in 1265 fought Rhodolph of Hapsburgh with help from Uri, Schweitz and Unterwalden men. It is interesting that Lütold also drew assistance from Alsace and the lower Rhine. The castle once had two towers but only one survives. Records from Regensberg Castle indicate that their early Lütolds were landowners at Muri, Kyberg, Ruti and Kaiserstuhl, places widely spread around the Aegerisee.
(8/27/01) The Aegerisee is the small lake just east of Lake Zug. Morgarten is described as a mountain slope in Zug canton, on the border of Schwyz canton, just SE of Aegerisee. On Nov. 15, 1315 the Swiss defeated the greatly superior forces of Hapsburg Duke Leopold I at Morgarten. The “Eidgenossen” is the Swiss Confederation. Click here to see the Letziturm bei Morgarten.
(From "Switzerland" a Ward Lock & Co. tourist handbook): On Nov. 15, 1315, Frederick of Austria, having declared war on the Forest Cantons (which were slowly welding together the nucleus of the Swiss Republic) sent one division to Brünig Pass and led the main force himself from Zug. At Haselmatt his cavalry dismounted and began climbing the slopes of Morgarten. Suddenly there came pouring down upon the dense masses huge stones, pieces of rock, trunks of trees, hurled by men posted on the ridge. Soon the main body of the men from Schwyz and Uri appeared behind Schornen, rushed upon the Austrians and overwhelmed them. Hemmed in, they had no escape and a terrible hand-to-hand fight followed in which the Austrian cavalry was almost annihilated.
From historical atlases, it appears that during the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries South Bade-Wurtemberg and Switzerland were in the same country: duchy of Swabia or Alemania.
(3/7/03) To fill the gap from the late 14th century in Schornen, Switzerland to the early 16th century in Neukirch, Germany, we have only fragmentary references, including:
1372: "Bergrevier Kirchzarten" (copy in St. Blasien archives) may have listed Faller family name.
1464: Sixtus Waler of Schweinfurt registered in Heidelberg.
1505: Johannes Valler (Phaller) of Furtwangen, Baden, registered in Heidelberg.
1506: Simon Waller of Eppingen (Baden) registered in Heidelberg.Robert de Falleur reports that the 'Fallers' are still at Thusis, near Chur (Coire) since early times.
"The Faller...name derives from valley-inhabitants in general [Valler] or inhabitants of the Faller valley [VAL DA fALLER] near Mulegns [Switzerland] in particular; it is impossible to be more definitive." Source: Rätisches Namenbuch, by Huber, "Wohnstätten- und Herkunfsnamen" section for Graubünden canton in Switzerland.top of page
COAT OF ARMS second crest.