Thanks to all of you who have helped in this work. Trudy has just returned from Germany and I will include her report for all of you to see. She was not successful in locating the exact village from where Martin Brill originates, but every village crossed off the list is one less place to look and we are very close to finding the Brills. As you will see, she is finding Martins, Hermans and Heinrich Brills, indicating we are in the vicinity of Germany where our Martin likely came from as these were names peculiar to Hesse and not Wuerttemberg in Germany. We appreciate any who can help us in the work financially. I have paid Trudy in full for her latest research trip to Germany, so we do not owe any money for research, but we can always use help. I would like to identify a reliable researcher in Germany who lives near where we are searching who would go search in local parishes for us. This will help us financially if we can find a good person to do this. Please send the web site address to other Mower family members who would be interested in our site:
http://www.xmission.com/~mower/
Thanks,
Jerry Mower
615 County Road 123
Bedford, Wyoming 83112
Trudy Schenk Report March 1999 Brill
Brill Research in Germany, March 20th-26th, 1999
My attempt to find the Brills in a parish record in the districts Biedenkopf, Wetter and Battenberg of Hessen-Nassau once again ended after one weeks search without total satisfaction.
On Monday, March 21st I met at Pastor Kopania's parish in the village of Frohnhausen. A hint by an archivist who lives in this area led me to this place. The early church records of the villages Eifa, Frohnhausen and Oberasphe begin in 1658. I had great anticipation after having corresponded with the Pastor by e-mail frequently before. He had arranged a place to stay for me in another nearby village called Engelbach. It was a cold, rainy morning and I sat in a small room, windows open with only a little warmth come from a heater. The Pastor left me alone with all the church registers to use as I needed them. There were three sets of books for the different villages and I found many Briehl/ Bruehl/ Briel/ spellings varied from the beginning of the records to 1760 including the given names Heinrich and Hermann, but no Martin. None of those I found were the emigrants. I extracted all of them until I had no more to find. My search ended here with giving the Pastor a couple of gifts from Utah and a 50.00 Mark donation to the parish. It will be used for children.
While I was searching in Frohnhausen I found the place Dexbach appeared frequently in conjunction with the name Briehl. Pastor Kopania made arrangements for me with the young woman Pastor from Dexbach who was actually on vacation during that week, but happened to be home and she allowed me to come and search the records. I jumped in the little opel vectra which I was renting and took off for Dexbach. These villages are so close together it takes a few minutes and you're in another place. She was only home because of the lousy weather.
Again I asked for the earliest church books which she let me use, yet the christenings had only been preserved beginning in 1735. What a bummer. There was mention of other Hermann and Heinrich Briel which looked good but no Martin. I extracted all I could find with all the marriages and deaths beginning in 1658. Where were the earlier baptisms? She mentioned a man's name from the name "Karl Feige" and called him later on. He made the remark that the Pastor of the early 1700's was not consistent in recording the vital data.
Monday was gone. I had lots of names, but not those early emigrants. I decided to drive to the state's archive Marburg the next day. It is only about 30 minutes away from where I was staying. Before I left Salt Lake I had informed myself about registration at the archive and the hours they are open. Shortly after opening time I entered the building. It was another rainy and cold day. I had heard about a lady archivist who has come out with books about emigration from Hessen-Nassau for certain time periods. A consultation with her left me without new leads. In fact, her remarks were of such little hope to ever find these emigrants. One of the things she said though was that sometimes young men traveled to Holland, lived there for a few years, married, had children and worked to earn money for a voyage to America. She referred me also to the set of books called "The Hetrina". These contain the names of those Hessian soldiers who were sold to the English to serve in the American war. I had done this already in Salt Lake at the Family History Library, nevertheless I searched the books there once again in hopes to find a lead. The name Briel and Brill is listed often in this series of books and I jotted down places. Several of these place were the area where I was staying during this week.
The town of Marburg itself has a set of books called "Family Register". These are available on microfilm in Salt Lake, but the films are very faded. I had looked at them before and found many Briel had lived in Marburg in the 17th and 18th centuries. To have the actual books there was reason enough to search them, but luck was not my companion. The nearby village Moischt had been mentioned and Marburg happened to have the early records on microfiche. I ordered them to search for a possible Briel, but the result was nil.
My second day was spent and all I had was a few more leads from the Hetrina. I went back to my simple quarters and studied the map to see where I should go the next day. Using the telephone in an inn is triple the amount than the normal charge and I had to ask for the use of it each time. There was only one telephone in the inn. I figure the village I needed to be in was Wetter, I got a hold of the Pastor and was told I could come right away. The young Hessian soldier was a Martin Briel born in 1743 in Mellnau. The church records were kept in Wetter and my hopes were great. I figured that an older Martin could have lived there. Away to Wetter I went and this day it did not rain and it was a little warmer. Pastor Kraus in Wetter had a secretary, she was friendly and gave me a room to myself although unheated. I hadn't been cold like this for a long time sitting in one place with cold creeping up my legs. Well the Martin Briel born in 1743 in the village Mellnau was there yet no other. Again I extracted all the Briels from Mellnau, and Hetrina series for the name Koch. Koch are listed in 1754 the same ship the Briel men came on. So were the Keil, Braun, Blanck/Planck especially in Dexbach. I did all I could in Wetter. Other places came into view where Briels came from according to the parish records in Wetter, one village especially close to Wetter and Mellnau was Oberrosphe. There was no way of calling the Pastor there so I went without having contracted anyone in this parish. One of the problems I encountered was the school vacation two weeks before Easter. This particular pastor was on vacation also and he was gone that day.
On this Wednesday I had an appointment with a man in Schwabendorf who had put together a family book and a list of emigrants from there. He is still a working man and I couldn't come before 5:00 pm. I arranged the travel perfect and rang his doorbell five minutes after 5:00 pm. He also had the original church registers at his house. It proved negative, but he knew of another man in the neighboring village Bracht who also has the church registers at his home, we called and on I went. Wednesday was behind me. It was a long day.
My adrenalin was getting low. Here I was praying so hard I had others praying for me and found only names and who knows one day some of them will be direct lines. Yet it was discouraging. Did I not find the Briels because all of them want to be found and if I would have found them right away all those "others" would miss out?
This evening I made another phone call to a Mr. Stoehr in Rosenthal who had sent me an answer at one time after writing to the parish Pastor. He showed an interest in finding the Briels and was the person who was sure they could be found in Frohnhausen, the first parish I went to. After a discussion with him I had new ideas for the next day.
Thursday, march 25th I went once again to Oberrosphe, one of the Pastors who was on vacation that week. It was the first and only sunny day. He was home, but was preparing for a days trip and gave me no time to search. I did not blame him. Another place I had tried to get in was Niederasphe. Several times in my search that week did this place come up, but this Pastor seemed to be gone. I went there at least four times on different days at different times of the day.
There was one other place I wanted to search and this was a little larger and closer to Muenchhausen, the village where I found so many Briels on my previous research trip in 1997, this is called Blattenberg. I spoke with the Pastor by telephone and he denied me entrance to his books telling me to write him, he has a lady in town who can read the records. He has not time and no interest. Little did he know that he can't get me discouraged that easy. I drove to Battenberg anyway and found it to be a very charming small town located between hills. The church could be seen from a distance and this is usually my guide to find a parish. I rang the doorbell and over the intercom he asked who I was. He was a changed man, let me in and look at the book which was the period of the birth of Martin Briehl and his family. There was nothing. I left not knowing where to turn. Once again I tried those parishes where the Pastors were on vacation. I had no luck.
Back to the inn I went and looked over all the names I had extracted to this point putting them in an orderly fashion on family group sheets.
I prayed hard that night and I dreamed about the Briels and Dexbach. The next morning I had to check out which was done by 8:30 am. Once again I went to Dexbach and begged to let me look at the early book once more. She (the Pastor) was very sweet that Friday morning although still vacationing, she let me sit at her desk and go over the same material once again. I found no earlier christenings than 1735 as I saw before. But I noticed that the Pastor was keeping the records exactly as Mr. Feige had told me. Very fragmented, incomplete. I found marriages of young men who should have been recorded in the christening, yet there was no entry to be found. The deaths to be more complete than any other section. I searched through the confirmations and found the same pattern he used in the marriages. After 1732 , confirmations had a gap to 1757. Dexbach and Engelbach. He simply did not record them. Could this be why I couldn't find Martin and his family? The given name Martin was used in Dexbach and there are several Hermann and Heinrichs. Perhaps we will never find out. I can only say I tried.
Trudy Schenk