I found my copy of an Ortssippenbuch. It is for Diefenbach, and I have mentioned it here before. Diefenbach is located between Ötisheim (Oetisheim), the home of the Broyles family, and Sulzfeld, the home of the Zimmerman, Uhl, Lang, and Kabler families. The research was done by Prof. Dr. Burkhart Oertel, and the data covers the period from 1558 to 1945. This is an unusually early date. There are gaps, especially during the Thirty Years' War when Diefenbach was laid to waste.
There is an index to geographical names. America is mentioned in 122 families, probably because one or more members emigrated there. In the German villages, Oetisheim, Sulzfeld, and Zaberfeld are mentioned, on the average, more than most villages. Zaberfeld was the home of the Germanna Kaefers. Switzerland is mentioned several times, but probably not because of emigration to that place but because people came from there to settle in Germany.
To show that the Ortssippenbuch is not a complete record, 50 names of men are given who were found in the muster rolls for 1523 to 1608 who said they were from Diefenbach. They have no appearance in the Ortssippenbuch. NOT EVERYONE APPEARS IN THE CHURCH RECORDS is the lesson. There is a list of 51 names, some with children, who had no surname, but were only identified in other ways. For example, "A small child of a poor woman by Ellwangen." The last case of no surname seems to occur in 1717.
Diefenbach is not a large village. In the eleven years ending in 1568, there were 180 children baptized. Except for the Thirty Years' War period (1618 to 1648), this is a fair representation. During the war years, Diefenbach was not a livable place for much of the time. It took until the 1740 decade ended to approach the earlier level, and did not exceed it until the 1790 decade ended. By the end of the decade in 1870, the number of baptisms had reached 323, the highest level to that date.
In the First World War, some of the familiar names in the casualty list, including the missing in action, are Fischer, Keppler, and Spaeth. In the Second World War, the familiar names include Fischer, Hirsch, Schneider, Spaeth, and Ziegler. Most of these names are common names so there is no special significance to them. This Ortssippenbuch was purchased from the author. I found the basic information on the net and wrote to him. I had some surplus Euros and I sent these to pay for the book.
(25 Feb 05)
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.