Buried Roots

When I was nine, my world was rocked when my father died. That loss left me feeling alone and unsure. Not long after that I heard about Michael, Magdalena, George and Caspar for the first time. These four siblings left their home in Alsace to sail across the Atlantic in 1731 to build a new life. While Michel was 22, the youngest Caspar was ten – my age, I was both terrified and excited hearing about their journey.

Through the years, i have all learned more about the legacy of these Debelbesin (Teuffelbess) (DeVilbiss) siblings (many spellings of the last name. There are now fairly complete genealogies form most of them (I am a descendent of George). In more recent years someone has even found traces of their parents in Alsace, France.  

Today I am setting off on adventure to learn more about the world these siblings left behind, the Alsace-Loraine. As I prepared for my trip, I dug into history to get a feel for their world.  Here are just a few key events that happened Gutenberg introduced his printing press in 1450 and the world began to change. In the early 1500s, it helped to spread Martin Luther’s ideas the Reformation in Alsace. No reformer was more adept than Martin Luther at using the power of the press to spread his ideas. Between 1518 and 1525, Luther published more works than the next 17 most prolific reformers combined.

Northern Alsace in particular was more affected by the new ideas of Protestantism, while Southern Alsace remained a part of the Bishop of Strasbourg’s lands, so Catholicism was more prevalent. Ultimately the decision of which religion would be allowed in a village was the landlord’s decision. So, where you lived decided what religion you were allowed to worship.The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was fought primarily in Central Europe between the Protestant princes and the Catholic Emperor over who had the right to decide which religion was practiced on the Princes’ lands. It remains one of the longest and most brutal wars in human history, with more than 8 million casualties resulting from military battles as well as from the famine and disease caused by the conflict. 

Alsace was devastated by the Thirty Years War. After the war only 30-50% of the population of Alsace was still alive and working. So there was a lot of unworked land and quite a lot of opportunity for someone looking for some land to work. Many people  moved into Alsace to take advantage of the available land (mostly Germans and Swiss).  In most of France, there were a lot of people who worked very hard and received little for it. There wasn’t much they could do to change their situation.

During this period, the parents of the DeVilbiss siblings were born. Samuel Teuffelbess was born in 1683 and Magdalena was born in 1685.  It is said that Samuel was a cow herder probably moved around and worked wherever he could. One genealogist said the family probably had a Swiss background. Michel was born in 1709, George in 1715 and Caspar in 1721. It is reported that their mother, Magdalena, died in 1725 and their father Samuel died five years later in 1730. 

So it was that Michel age 22 and Magdalena age 18 led their two younger brothers (George 16 and Caspar 10) on the voyage across the Atlantic.  Their journey took around six months, my journey is less than a day.