My Sundgau Ancestry: A Roman Catholic Twig

My ancestry is overwhelmingly Protestant.  I expected this since my father’s heritage involves Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Quakers, Baptists, and other Protestant denominations, and my mother’s family was primarily Lutheran; she was born and raised in Minnesota.^[1]My mother actually has other Protestant denominations in the maternal side of her tree, especially Baptist and Episcopalian, but French Huguenot and Quaker if you go back far enough.

After 13 years of research, I have yet to find a single direct ancestor in my Father’s tree who was a member of the Roman Catholic faith.^[2]However, my father had one collateral ancestor who converted to Catholicism.  Stanley McMullin (1871-1903) was the baby brother of my great-grandmother Mary McMullin (1858-1952).   Oddly, Stanley … Continue reading

The vast majority of my Mother’s ancestry is also Protestant.  However, there is one specific branch in her tree that is Catholic.^[3]Needless to say, if we go back far enough, practically all Europeans were Roman Catholic before the Reformation.  Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses in 1517.

The Roman Catholic connection is in my Mitochondrial (MtDNA) ancestry, the line that is purely maternal.  My mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother was 3GG Caroline S. Whaley (1831-1888).  She is the featured ancestor in the pedigree tree chart above.  Caroline was born in New Jersey^[4]“Death’s Doings,” Mrs. Caroline S. Miller obituary, The Weekly Herald, 3 January 1889, p. 1, col. 5; digital image, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 22 March … Continue reading and married German immigrant Charles C. Miller in 1850 in Princeton, New Jersey.^[5]“New Jersey, U.S. Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1711-1878,” database, Ancestry.com (accessed 12 March 2018); Mercer County, 1848-1867, p. 213, entry for Gus. Charles H. Miller and Caroline … Continue reading  They moved to Saginaw, Michigan about 1853.^[6]“Death’s Doings,” Caroline S. Miller, Weekly Herald, 3 January 1889.  The Miller family attended an Episcopal church in Saginaw, so neither was a practicing Catholic.  However, Caroline’s immigrant parents, Lawrence and Rose Whaley, were probably Catholic at birth and their predecessors were definitely Catholic going back numerous generations.

The Whaleys were Alsatian.  However, I discovered four years ago that their surname prior to immigration was actually Würhlin.  (See the post here.)  Both 4GG Lorentz Wührlin (1796-1870), later known as Lawrence Whaley, and 4GG Rosalie Rist (1801-1890) were born in the region of France known today as Haut-Rhin.  Haut-Rhin is tucked into the corner that borders both Germany and Switzerland.  It is administratively referred to as Department 68.^[7]In 2021, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin were merged into the European Collectivity of Alsace.

However, Haut-Rhin is only half the Alsatian story.  Alsace traditionally encompassed both Departments 67 and 68:  Bas Rhin and Haut Rhin.

Lorentz was a baker from the village of Hartmannswiller and Rosalie was from the town of Dannemarie, the daughter of a doctor.  Both were born in the early years of the French Republic, just after the Revolution.  Thus, their birth and baptism records^[8]Dannemarie, Haut-Rhin, Alsace-Lorraine, “Etat-civil de 1796 à 1862,” naissances (births), Marie Rosine Rist, 30 June 1801, p. 34. as well as their marriage in 1823^[9]Dannemarie, Haut-Rhin, Alsace-Lorraine, “Etat-civil de 1793 à 1892,” mariages (weddings), Laurent Wührlin and Marie Rosine dite Rosalie Rist, 30 Dec 1823, p. 183-184, no. 11. are recorded in French civil registrations, not Catholic parish books.  However, all their ancestors going back numerous generations were universally Catholic.  In total, I have identified 57 direct ancestors of Lorentz & Rosie who were Alsatian Catholics.  The chart at the top only displays 12 of them.

The Catholic affiliation makes sense because these ancestors resided in the southern part of Alsace previously known as Sundgau.  The boundaries of Sundgau correspond roughly to today’s Haut-Rhin department.^[10]The Territory of Belfort (Department 90) was often included within the boundaries of Sundgau.

Lucia and I spent 6 days touring Alsace, France last fall.  We stayed three nights in Colmar, two in Hartmannswiller, and one night in Ballersdorf close to Dannemarie.  A wonderful time!  The villages of Eguisheim and Riquewihr were especially charming.  Unfortunately, Hartmannswiller was nearly destroyed during World War I, although at least its historic fortified church was saved.

We even met with 9th cousin Elodie Wuhrlen who escorted us on a hike up to the top of Hartmannswillerkopf and introduced us to an authentic Alsatian smorgasbord.  This was arguably the best day of our three-week trip to Switzerland and France!  Thank you, Elodie!^[11]Click this link to read about how Elodie and I found each other.

Hartmannswillerkopf is the small mountain overlooking the village of Hartmannswiller and the Plain of Alsace.  View the photograph below.  Germany is on the other side of the Rhine River, represented by the hills in the distance.

About 30,000 German and French troops are believed to have died fighting over Death Mountain in World War I.  The memorial hall on Hartmannswillerkopf is quite moving.  While hiking to the top, one actually passes through WWI trenches.  I recommend this excellent blog to learn more about the battle: On the Front Blog.

The Alsatian homeland has a long history.  Its roots go back to Roman times when the area was populated by Germans who crossed the Rhine River and lived on its west side.   The word Alsace means Germans who live in another land.  An ancient Germanic tribe called the Triboci (as well as other tribes of the Suebi) were reportedly already settled in Alsace when Julius Caesar defeated a combined German force led by Ariovistus in 58 B.C.^[12]Wikipedia: Triboci.

Several centuries later, the Duchy of Alsace, part of the Holy Roman Empire, was administratively divided into north and south regions – Nordgau and Sundgau.  That was in the 8th century, so Sundgau as a geographic term is very old.  It lasted a millenium!  Nordgau and Sundgau generally correspond in territory to departments Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin.

After the Reformation, the religious affilations of the two regions began to differ.  Nordgau became increasingly Protestant, beginning in 1524 when the City of Strasbourg adopted Lutheranism.  Sundgau, on the other hand, remained staunchly Roman Catholic.   This was due to its political affiliation with the Hapsburg monarchs, who served for nearly 400 years as the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, roughly 1432-1806.  The one exception was Mulhouse, the largest city in Sundgau.  It adopted Calvinism and became an independent enclave.

The name change from Nordgau and Sundgau to Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin occurred in 1790, as part of the many changes wrought by the French Revolution.

This painting below displays typical Sundgau female attire about 200 years ago.  Note the rosary beads.

As mentioned, another important aspect of this ancestral line is its mitochondrial (MtDNA) nature.  Both my mother and I, my siblings, my mother’s siblings, and the children of my sisters share the MtDNA haplogroup H7b4.  This is a relatively rare haplogroup, associated with Helena in the Seven Daughters of Eve book authored by Brian Sykes.^[13]Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001).  Our earliest known MtDNA ancestor is Catherine Hentzross (1650-1691), born in Retzwiller, a small village next to Dannemarie.^[14]The entry is transcribed Ganzelros, but reads Hentzross to me.  She married peasant (rusticus) Johann Jacob Wilhelm (1658-1715) in 1690.^[15]Bea Werner, “Family tree Lars Werner”, database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-lars-werner/I1027.php : accessed 17 June 2024), “Catherine GANZELROS (± … Continue reading  She was married at least once before, possibly twice.

We can trace our mitochondrial roots, in other words, back to Sundgau in the 17th century.

To recap, my ancestry is overwhelmingly Protestant, but my Wührlin ancestry from Sundgau demonstrates there is one Roman Catholic twig on the maternal side of my family tree.  Since this was in Europe, however, I believe we can confidently state that none of my American ancestors was anything other than Protestant.