1850
In
1850 there were 3,000 kilometers of railways in France. In Switzerland
at that time there were 25 kilometers of track. In the opinion of Monsieur Oberli* there were three probable PLM (Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée) routes,
- Besancon-Dijon-Paris-LeHavre (most likely)
- Mulhouse-Nancy-Paris-LeHavre
- Basel-Strasbourg-Nancy-Paris-LeHavre
1860
Now let us ask a Swiss man, what did the railway network look like ten years later, in 1860?My friend Ulrich Bretscher had this answer for me.
Existing railway lines in 1860:
In April 1858, a rail-connection was completed between Lausanne and Geneva. The Treuthardts would have been practiced in riding the train to Geneva and to central Switzerland.
I can remember the joy of riding the train for the first time in Europe. How much greater that feeling must have been, when the train first arrived in Switzerland! With confidence, I believe that Friedrich was one of the first to ride on it, and that he took his wife and children with him.
As for leaving Switzerland by train for LeHavre, Ulrich states that there was a train station only one kilometer from La Vaux where Friedrich's family lived. It was at Alleman, which is pictured below:
Ulrich suggests this route was the one the Treuthardts took:
Alleman-Geneva-Macon-Dijon-Paris-Rouen-LeHavre
*Note: Monsieur Oberli had found my name online knowing that Oberli was a surname in which I was interested. He was seeking knowledge of his Swiss family history. I told him all I knew about the Oberli's -- it was reliable but little information. However, we never found a connection between our families.
He traveled around Switzerland looking for archival records of the Oberli's, and he sent me PowerPoint images of the forms he located. It was greatly helpful to me for the Geiser-Oberli families. He eventually found information on his own family.
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