My “ Ortssippenbuch Diefenbach ” came in the mail today. A few weeks ago when I investigating the baptisms of children of Christoph Zimmermann at Sulzfeld, I encountered the name Ludwig Fischer, a citizen of Tiefenbach, as a sponsor for one of the Zimmermann children. Seeing that there was a Diefenbach a few miles south of Sulzfeld, I became very excited when I saw that there was an Ortssippenbuch (place - genealogy - book) for Diefenbach. Inquiries to the author indicated that copies were still available. I had some Euros left over from the trip to Germany in 2002 and I used some of these to purchase the book. It came by surface mail, to reduce the shipping costs, and so it took a while to arrive. Even before I had ordered the book, I had become aware that there was a village named Tiefenbach which was a few miles north of Sulzfeld. However, I went ahead with the Diefenbach Ortssippenbuch purchase knowing that Diefenbach was in the general region of Germanna ancestors. These Ortssippenbüchen often become unavailable and I did not want to miss the opportunity of getting it. The author of it is Prof. Dr. Burkhart Oertel, who also published the book. (The book is in German.)
To show how the letters “ T ” and “ D ” are often interchanged, let me cite some men from this book. Michael Tranner appears also in the records as Michael Dranner. He was baptized in Diefenbach in 1580, married in Diefenbach in 1615, and died at an unknown date probably in another locality. His father was Jacob Tranner, the schoolteacher. Michael’s father and brother never were called Dranner.
The Treffinger family has many instances where the members’ names were given as Dreffinger. It was not a matter of ignorance. Ludwig Treffinger, sometimes called Dreffinger, was a judge and mayor. He was baptized in 1717.
I cite these examples to justify, partially, my equating Tiefenbach and Diefenbach. The village of Trupbach, a suburb of Siegen, used to be called something like Druppach which exhibits the interchange of " d " and " t " as well as " p " and " b ".
Often an Ortssippenbuch gives a summary of information that is hardly related to genealogy. This can be very interesting. For example, I am told in the book that Amerika is mentioned 102 times. Nearly always this would be noting a person or family who emigrated to America. In fact, though, the number 102 is probably too small. I make this judgment on the basis of the Ortssippenbuch for Oberöwisheim-Neuenbuerg where Amerika is mentioned about 150 times, but it is not a part of the record for the Blankenbuehlers, Fleischmanns, or Scheibles. Neither Neuenbuerg nor Diefenbach is a very large village.
(23 Apr 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.