Bird Childs and Goldsmith Janice and her Rothermel ancestors of Hörlebach

Else Ziegler in her late eighties who lived in this house remembered the Rothermels.Her own grandfather left for England around the same time as the Rothermel brothers in the 1870's and settled in Sheffield , her extended family over the years moved to Harrogate and York. She is still in contact with her cousins in England . Many young men left the village around this time as they could not make a living on the family farms. Most walked to Bremen to catch the boat to Hull.
She told us that in the mid 1900's the Rothermels left Hörlebach and moved to Ölhaus a very small hamlet near Ilshofen where they had three houses. Wilhelm Bühringer is now the owner of the grocery in the village and of the Rothermelhouse . Earlier on a family named Hofmann was the owner.
She has provided us with some wonderful momentos and photographs.

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Her grandfather was Johann Georg Ziegler who was born on 13th September 1852 and died on 9th March 1918. He was married twice. His first marriage was on 24th July 1877. I talked to a grandson of him. He thinks it cannot be ruled out that he was in England at a very early age like many others of the area were. If so, however, he must have come back after only a few years as he married in 1877. But there has never been such a rumour in the family.

Johann Georg Ziegler had 5 children in his two marriages, four boys and one girl. Their names were Georg Friedrich, Leonhard, Georg, Wilhelm and the youngest child Lena. (It seems to me that the photo you posted shows exactly these five siblings).

Leonhard was Else Ziegler’s father. Georg Friedrich was her uncle who became a very successful pork butcher and businessman in Wakefield, Georg was a school teacher and died very early, Wilhelm was in England for four years to assist his older brother and then returned to buy his own farm and Lena married in Hörlebach to a man called Kümmerer.

Else Ziegler had two older sisters, Mathilde and Anna. Mathilde married a Mr. Leidig in Hörlebach and as Else never married, she lived in the household of her oldest sister Mathilde Leidig to whose house you were invited to. Anna married a Mr. Raißig of Herboldshausen.

The Rothermel house was taken over by a family Bühringer. The Bühringers had one daughter. She married Erich Hofmann. The Hofmann couple have two boys who are both unmarried. (You told it the other way round).

Now to the Rothermels: Heinrich Rothermel moved from Hörlebach to Ölhaus. His son Karl Rothermel inherited the farm. Karl Rothermel raised three daughters who are still alive. One of them inherited the farm at Ölhaus and married a Mr. Ehrmann. The Ehrmann family still live at Ölhaus. Another daughter married a Mr. Matzka and lives in nearby Eckartshausen. As I didn’t want to appear too curious I didn’t ask about the third daughter.

Karl-Heinz ( Feb 2012 )

See the Ilshofen website click to view

Grt Grt Grandfather Johann Georg Rothermel on a visit to Wellingboro

Janice in Schwäbisch Hall

old postcard

The village in 1911

Rothermels in 1911- Heinrich Rothermel b 7.8.1875 & Family in front of the shop

Village Hall

The Rothermel Haus 1911

The Rothermels house rebuilt on existing foundations 1995

Rear of Haus

The Rothermel land behind the house

The land in 1952

Original outbuildings

The cattle barns today

A poppy in the abandoned garden

The best preserved traditional house in the village

Grandfather Ziegler who left for England (standing left)

ölhaus

das Ölhaus um 1950