Bob's
Great Great Grandparents:
Charles WESCHLER
ca 1815- ca 1890 | his parents
of Austria
This is my working hypothesis - the way I see it
as of this moment!!
Elsa Weschler Koestler related that her father's
grandfather was named Charles Weschler of Austria, who never emigrated. He was said to
have had a grandfather Voschler born in 1732 and died in 1848 in Bavaria.
This man had three wives.
Child of Charles Weschler :
1. Marco Leo Weschler 1844 - 1894 New York
City
married Anna Juster
In 1986 a reunion of the family Weschler was held in
Leimersheim. Andre Weschler, genealogist from Strasbourg, in his
speech to the 400 assembled from scattered points had this to say:
"Leimersheim was the cradle. . . .The oldest document mentioning the
family Weschler dates from 1533, until the end of the 18th century the
Weschlers did not go much further than a dozen kilometers from their
birthplace. From 1830 onwards we begin to see a dispersion of our family
in the villages along the Rhine, especially the left bank of the Rhine. A
certain movement toward France can be noted from 1870 to 1910 . . . .
"Our name derives from the denomination of the gold diggers or rather
the gold washers. In German 'der Weschler' the washer and his lady wife
'die Weschlin'. Panning for gold in the sands of the Rhine was one way of
balancing the family budget in those far off days. In 1830 six hundred
gold searchers were working 50 locations between Bale and Mannheim. These
workings were stopped by the dykes enclosing the Rhine, constructed by the
German Engineer Tulla. We still find however placenames refering to gold
searchers at Leimersheim, and the last of the gold washers, Weschler by
name are mentioned in 1825.
"I might add that we have no relation whatsoever with the surname
Wexler who were money changers in the middle ages. All the Weschlers that
you might meet around the world originate from Leimersheim. The only other
surname which may have a relation is 'Woeschler' which was the French
equivalent at the end of the 18th century in the town of Woerth (Palatinat)."
Panning for gold in the Rhine 19th
century
from Article from
Newspaper 24 Mai 1986 by Helmut Sittinger
Documentation of a name: gold hunter in the Rhine.
Gold in the Rhine first mentioned in 1400.
Weschler signifies gold hunter.
"....The material used by the paners was very rudimentary, it was in
fact the same in the 19th century when the activity ceased as it was in 1582
when Herberer gave a description of it. 'They fixed three rough planks on
inclination and shoveled a quantity of silt onto them. After they took water
from the river and rinsed the sand. The bigger and lighter grains of sand
were washed away leaving the heavier gold-bearing sand in the crevices in
the planks. They continued this operation until they had about one pound of
sand which they brought back home. There, they lit a fire under an
earthenware crucible containing some of the sand already one could see the
little balls of gold taking form. They then added to this sand a little
mercury so forming on amalgam, the gold losing its brilliance when put in
contact with the mercury. These nuggets of amalgam were then collected and
modeled into round hard balls. After these balls were put into a glass
crucible and heated where upon the mercury evaporated leaving the brilliance
of gold. It was pure gold, the gold of the Rhine.' It seems however
that their gains were very meager especially as the prince elector (Kurfursten)
took a good part in taxes."
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