Yesterday morning, I tackled the problem of what the words were after Ludwig Fischer in the baptismal report at Sulzfeld for one of the Zimmerman babies. After a little study, I felt that it said “Bürger zu Tiefenbach”. This means that he was a citizen of Tiefenbach and not a local man.
Breaking out my detailed map book, I looked in the vicinity of Sulzfeld. There was no point in looking very far away from Sulzfield as the kid was born one day and baptized the next day. So the sponsors could not have lived too far away. There was no Tiefenbach, but there was a Diefenbach, and this is an allowable substitute. Diefenbach is five miles south of Sulzfeld, three miles southeast of Oberderdingen, where Matthias Blankenbaker married, four miles southwest of Zaberfeld, from where the Käfers came, and seven miles north of Ötisheim where John and Ursula Broyles lived. So far this was encouraging.
Going to the online card catalog of the LDS, I find that they recognize Diefenbach but that they have no microfilm for the Protestant church there. They do have a book, Ortssippenbuch Diefenbach , which has the family genealogies all worked out; however, this book cannot be microfilmed. I did try to order copies of some pages from this book using their online system but it didn’t work. They suggested that I visit my local FHC and get the forms there. In the afternoon I did go to the local FHC, but they could not find the forms. The lady helping me also suggested that was not a good route to go because they sometimes take months to answer the request. She then suggested, or told me, that she was going to Salt Lake City next week and she would be happy to make me copies if I would give her the information. Now that is what I call real service.
I was also pursuing another approach. An online search for “Ortssippenbuch Diefenbach” told me that it a 200 page book that was self-published about the year 2000 by a Professor in Germany. I found his address and sent an email to a friend in Germany who phoned the Professor. He learned that the Professor was on vacation for a few days. His wife did not know if copies of the book were still available. So I am still waiting for information from there.
I have high hopes that the book may prove very helpful in Germanna research. It is especially important because the church records, if any, perhaps have never been used in Germanna research. It may represent a trove of untapped information.
Does anyone live in Salt Lake City?
Let me emphasize that the Ludwig Fischer of the Zimmerman baptismal report may have no relationship to the Ludwig Fischer of Germanna. But it is worth pursuing.
(20 Feb 04)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.