Origins of the KÄFERS:
Apollonia Käfer married John Nicholas Blankenbühler in Germany. She was said to be of Zaberfeld, though the marriage took place in Neuenbürg. It appears that she had been living in Neuenbürg for a while before the marriage because she was a sponsor at a baptism in Neuenbürg before she was married. Apollonia was born in the district of Ansbach in the Mittelfranken district of Bavaria. It had bothered me that John Nicholas Blankenbühler had married a girl whose home was said to be 12 miles (air mileage) from Neuenbürg. Then to find that Apollonia was living in Neuenbürg before her marriage was surprising.
When we visited Gresten, Austria, in 2000 and 2002, we saw that one of the businesses was named Käfer. We also saw that one of the farms, about a half-mile from the Blankenbühler farm, was the Scheiblau farm. It was also a surprise to see the name of an electrician was Scheible.
For some time I have believed, without proof, that the Blankenbakers, the Scheibles, and the Käfers in Virginia were related families. This migration was induced by the decision of the ruler of Austria that everyone had to be Catholic or else leave.
In the investigations of the Tanner family, I found there was a collection of microfilm rolls (the Brenner collection), of about 850 reels, which have a summary of the ninety or so parishes in the Ansbach district. I ordered the one which would have Käfer. Of course, I was looking for a Käfer record from the 1600's and I did find one.
There is a summary of Conrad Käfer, farmer, who married Margaret and had two children (Margaret and Magdalena) baptized (Oberreichenbach is mentioned). The most interesting feature of these records is that the Parish Dietenhofen is named. They say in Gresten that 800 people left there in the 1650's and most of them went to Dietenhofen in Bavaria. In the area surrounding Dietenhofen, there are many emigrants from Austria. [The tie between Gresten and Dietenhofen is so strong that bus loads of people make the trip today.]
It might pay to search the parishes around Dietenhofen for Käfers. IF this were to be the origins of our Apollonia and her brother Michael, there would be another generation of Wolfgang Käfer between the Conrad above and Michael and Apollonia. THIS IS ALL UNPROVEN.
Right now, to me, it tends to confirm that the Blankenbakers, Scheibles, and Käfers were related and that they all originated in Austria. It might be profitable to search in this area.
(17 Oct 2007)
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.