Our ancestors in the Wernet, Eble, Winterer, Himmelsbach, Ruf, Nopper, and Moser families lived in Schuttertal and Seelbach in the Black Forest of Germany, only about 12 miles east of the Rhine, about 20 miles north of Freiburg. If you stand where the Wernet farm was, looking south you can see the Swiss Alps, and looking west, you can see the Vosges Mountains in France, separating Alsace from Lorraine.
The earliest church records for the parish of St. Anthony in Schuttertal date from 1662, but there are tax lists from the mid-1500's which list at least one of our surnames (Himmelsbach). The earliest mention of Schuttertal in any document dates from 1270.
During the 15th century, Schuttertal was a famous place for pilgrimages in honor of St. Anthony the Hermit, but after the Reformation, that was no longer the case.
Farmers in the area tended to have large families, and there was no room to spread out. The youngest son inherited the farm, and the other children were left to fend for themselves in an area with no industry and few trades. Crops failed, and many went hungry. Young people could not afford to marry, and the number of illegitimate births became staggering. And as if that were not enough, the French and Prussian armies tramped back and forth through the area, commandeering food and supplies, and destroying the countryside, driving refugees before them. The parish priest in Schuttertal kept a diary in which he described the terror of the people as the French marched in with guns blazing and took everything they had. And that was only the start.
It is no wonder that over the years the villagers of Schuttertal and Seelbach have had to say goodbye with great sorrow to loved ones who emigrated in hopes of a better chance to earn a living. In the second half of the 1700's a goodly number went to Hungary, an exodus which is still commemorated in Schuttertal. Konrad Wernet and his family were among the earlier villagers to go to America, and conditions in and around Schuttertal only continued to worsen after they left.
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In this beautiful place, land is so scarce that a grave can only be kept for twenty-five years; then another person is buried there. This is the cemetery beside St. Anthony's Church in Schuttertal. |