From: elle@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ellen Keyne Seebacher)
Subject: Re: city name translation needed
Reply-To: elle@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 16:03:53 GMT

In article <1992Sep9.094533.2097@tom.rz.uni-passau.de> 
 baier@forwiss.uni-passau.de (Joern Baier) writes:
>It seems that Fred's ancestors were french hugenots who fled from France
>to Prussia because of their non-catholic religion. ... It is strange that
>a lot of Germans who have now [resentments] against refugees are descendants
>of people who had to leave their homes because of [per]secution.

No, not really;  it happens all over.  The most rabid xenophobes in any
country are usually the recent immigrants!  :-(

>Oh, I forgot to mention I am a hugenot descendant, too. My mother's name
>was until her wedding "Matthee" (with an accent d'aigu on the first 'e').
>Recently, my uncle found the little town in French Swiss where our 
>ancestors came from.

Hmmmm.  A little light has just gone on in my head.

My gr-gr-grandfather, (Carl) Daniel Bottenus, writes in his family Bible:

  "My Father, born the 19th of March, 1798, in Muhlheim on the Rhein 
   in Prussia..."

This is the only clue I have, other than the name and birthdate of the
woman he married, and I haven't been pursuing this line.  I've heard
family rumors, however, that the name BOTTENUS was originally BOTTENEAUX
(or something similar -- forgive my French!).  I'd assumed that the
Botteneauxs migrated from Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine), and changed
their name -- but it never occurred to me that they might be either
(a) Huguenots from France, or (b) Swiss from a mixed French-German area.

Questions:

  1.  Is either (a) or (b) above likely?  

      Gr-gr-grandfather Daniel, born in Muhlheim in 1824, emigrated to
      Cincinnati, Ohio, before 1853; his eleven children were christened
      in various Methodist ("M.E.") churches in the Cincinnati area, so 
      we do know he was Protestant, and he was apparently very religious.
      I should do some research on the Huguenots, I think.

      I have no evidence for a Swiss tie, but it's an interesting possibility.

  2.  Geographic questions:  

      Does the name Muhlheim ring a bell?  "Prussia" is not really helpful,
      for the period around 1798;  another source leads me to believe that
      he was born near Koeln.  I haven't seen Muhlheim in atlases, though
      I haven't tried older ones yet.

      Daniel's wife Sophie Elisabeth Meuttman was born in "Altenbuch, 
      Hannover province" in 1834.  Her father may have owned a meat-
      packing export plant in Hamburg, then moved to Hannover.  Anything
      pointing me to "Altenbuch" (Altenbach?) would be helpful.  

     [I tried the Geographic Name Server already.  Do y'all have any
      idea how many "Han(n)over"s there _are_ in the U.S.?! :-)]

Thanks for any leads, speculations, or random comments.  

[I'm leaving s.c.g in the Newsgroups: line; if it becomes inappropriate,
 please followup to soc.roots only, or reply to me directly.]

--
Ellen Keyne Seebacher            elle@midway.uchicago.edu
  Lines:  Seebacher, Stein, Lehrman(n), Gigler, Peintinger, Kunkel, Busch;
          Glover, Kaiper; Kline, Bottenus, Meuttmann, Daniels

Newsgroups: soc.culture.german