Finding My Swiss Family

Fountain in Lengnau with village emblem of the horse

Where we left off last August, I was quite convinced I had found the names of my great grandfather and his father and his brother in the census records in the Gemeindehaus (community center) at Bad Zurzach, and visited Lengnau the village of their birth. And now, six months later, for the “Rest of the Story.”  In February I spent an afternoon in the Canton Aargau Staatsarchiv, scanning spools of microfilm and delicately handling fragile old immigration documents searching for the name Köferli.  I hoped to learn when my great-grandfather emigrated to America, and why.  The staff at the Staatsarchiv was most accommodating, telling me they often had visitors searching for family records. With their help, I was able to find a census record of Jakob Leonz Köfferlin, born in 1757, six generations from me.  I searched the immigration records from 1853 to 1870, which gave numbers of people who left for North America, but no names.

Lengnau, with Dorfmuseum and tower of St Martin's church

 

 Beginning to lose hope, I revisited Lengnau and this time gave my name and my daughter’s Swiss phone number to the Gemeindehaus staff, asking them to contact any remaining Köferli folks in the village to see if they would be willing to meet me.  Just before leaving the village, I stopped in at the bank and mentioned to the young lady at the teller window that I was in Lengnau searching for family, and she told me my Swiss name was one of the founding families of the village!  She told me some of the other family names: Bucher, Schmid, Angst, Müller, Suter, names which I had seen over and over in the Staatsarchiv records.  There was a book about the village, written by Hans Schmid, which I purchased, with old photos and stories of the families.  I later met Herr Schmid who gave me copies of the “Wappen” (coat of arms) for the founding families, including mine, and told me the name originated as Küfer, meaning a coppersmith, such as “Cooper” in English. He said one of his cousins is a Köferli, and I began to suspect the founding families were all inter-related.

The Surb, which flows into the Aare, which flows into the Rhein River

The following week, we got a phone call from Theresa Köferli-Suter, who arranged an afternoon meeting with us (my daughter and son-in-law) to include two other cousins, Helen and Josephina.  What a joy to meet my long-lost relatives, and they were simply delightful; we were all amazed at finding each other, pointing out family resemblances with much laughter, lots of German and English translations of the conversations and stories.  They presented me with a booklet “Köferli von Lengnau, Familie Genealogie.”  This booklet described our family in Lengnau as dating back to 1470, and the earliest name was one Hans Köfferlin von Lengnau born in 1550!  I gave them a copy of the Kaferly genealogy I had drawn up for the American side, and we pinpointed where the families diverged. They told me my great-great grandfather emigrated with his wife and four children in 1851, and they left probably because of bad economic times.  They showed me photos of their fathers, and their businesses in Lengnau, and told me about the Köferli Family reunion to take place in June that I simply must attend! And indeed, I have my tickets already…

The Köferli Metzgerai (third generation butcher shop) in Döttingen

The following week I meet with my Köferli family for lunch, and since it was the day after my birthday, they sang Happy Birthday to me in English, German, French, and Italian.  True multi-lingual Swiss.  After lunch, which they wouldn’t dream of letting me pay for, Helen and her husband Felix drove me around the valley of the Surb River to visit the tiny farming communities surrounding Lengnau and showed me where she and Josephina had lived as children.  It was a hazy winter day, with the chilly mist settled on the fields and the afternoon sun glowing on the hoarfrost on the tree branches in the hills above us.  What a perfectly peaceful rural scene, barns, grain silos, farmhouses, horses and cattle, and the friendly residents walking their dogs. I felt as though I had always been part of this land, and had known these lovely people all my life.

A winter walk in the Surb River valley

I can hardly believe it: from knowing almost nothing of my father’s family a year ago, I now have the Köferli Family history and genealogy that stretches back 15 generations. And the best part is I have met and fallen in love with my Swiss Family Köferli and plan to see them often in the future!

First visit to Munich

January sunrise over Lake Starnberg

It’s hard to believe, but in all my journeys to various places in Germany, I had not been to Munich.  This egregious oversight cannot persist, I thought, but I must see for myself the great city, the capitol of Bavaria.  How can one claim to have sampled southern Germany without Munich? 

Marienplatz, Munich

 

The drive from Zürich to Munich, a distance of about 310 km, was through charming winter scenery with the fields under a blanket of snow, the forests dusted with sparkly powder, and the setting sun shining on the white mountains --  a glorious sight. Being caught speeding in Switzerland results in a hefty fine (maybe 250 CHF) so I made sure to be the pokiest driver on my way to Sankt Gallen until I got to the Austrian border near Sankt Margarethe at the southern end of the Bodensee (aka Lake Constance, the largest inland lake in Europe). Very grateful to have GPS to guide me through the maze of tiny roads and tiny villages in Austria (after I stopped at a filling station to buy a road tax sticker called a ‘vignette’) before crossing the border into Germany just north of Bregenz.  What a huge, beautiful lake the Bodensee is, and how stunning the snow-covered Austrian Alps appeared just south of me. 

Museum Kaiserin Elisabeth in Possenhofen















The lake and snow covered mountains receded and I was in the rolling farmlands of Baden-Württemburg, familiar territory after many road trips through here.

But as I crossed the border into Bavaria and approached Munich, I had that sense of excitement from being someplace new. My GPS Lady guided me to Starnberg, about 30 km south of Munich, where I had reservations at the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth.  The route took me through the town of Pöking, which I remembered as the home of Dr Otto von Habsburg, who settled there with his family in exile after Austria was declared a republic after WWI.  I wondered whether anyone at the hotel might know where his house had been.

Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth

In the small town of Feldafing, south of Starnberg, is the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth, a fine old lady with a 19^th century Bavarian elegance. My room overlooked Lake Starnberg, the site of the mysterious drowning of King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1886. His cousin, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, for whom this hotel was named, stayed here every summer for 24 years. While ordering my supper in the quaint gasthof, the printed menu included the story of how this hotel was founded in the 1500’s and expanded in 1876, and hosted the Empress Elisabeth and her daughter Valerie when the two came to Bavaria from Vienna to visit Elisabeth’s mother in Possenhofen.  The halls and stairwells of the hotel are filled with portraits of Elisabeth (called ‘Sisi’ by her family), perhaps the most famously beautiful queen of all time. Not to be completely overlooked, a nice portrait of Ludwig hangs in the bar.

Lake Starnberg

 

There was a cordial friendship between Ludwig and Sisi.  I was told that Ludwig, when spending time at the Schloss Berg on the opposite shore of Lake Starnberg, would often cross over by boat to a carriage which would take him to this hotel where he could spend some time chatting with the Empress, his cousin. The site of some of their meetings was also at the Roseninsel, just off the shore of the hotel golf course.

Dining Room at Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth with portrait of 'Sisi' on far wall

 

After a nice breakfast in the sunny dining room, I caught the tram for the 30 minute ride to Munich, emerging at the Karlstor, one of the original city gates.  Wandered up the pedestrian shopping zone and noticed the façade of St Michael’s church.  I realize that I can’t resist visiting a Baroque church, and this one is stunning and is also famous for containing the burial crypt of many Wittelsbachs, including King Ludwig II.  I detoured off the main street when I saw the huge Frauenkirche, the largest medieval building in Munich, and walked through it. Originally built from 1468 to 1488, this is the reconstructed and restored version, since this building and much else in Munich was bombed to rubble in WWII.

 

Next was the ‘Neue Rathaus’ the New Town Hall, a fabulous neo-gothic construction with niches filled with statues of saints, kings, and legendary figures. 

 

Above the main arches is the Carillon, consisting of bells and carved figurines that dance to the bells at 11 am.  The tower of this marvelous building is 283 ft high, and gives a panoramic view of the city.  But no time to climb it because I was on a quest to find the English tea shop just south of the Viktualienmarkt, a little paradise for foodies. 

 

Wandering through the square of the Viktualienmarkt I saw the choice of fresh produce was overwhelming, and all seasonal, so that the winter vegetables and herbs and mushrooms were plentiful.  But also there was fresh geese, duck, chicken, and an innumerable variety of wursts, seafood, beef and veal. 

 

A leftover from the Christmas market was the ‘Glühwein’ stand, the hot mulled wine so welcome on a cold snowy day.  So many shops to check out, including one that specialized in Bavarian clothing, with the dirndls and lederhosen in abundance, and of course, the shop overflowing with cuckoo clocks, beer steins, and Bavarian dolls. 

 

 And the snow started in earnest, driving me back to Marienplatz where I caught the tram back to Feldafing, footsore, and loaded down with all my purchases.  A great first visit to Munich, and will plan to return in the warmer season!