52. Review of my blog

In this 52nd post, I review what has been posted since January, 2013.   My introductory posts wandered from topic to topic, the way it was when I started working on family history, with no idea what to expect or whether the venture would be a worthwhile attempt.  Beginning in 1977 with the interview of my Aunt Anna in west Texas, the Switzerland history of the Treuthardts unfolded at last in 2008, when I located a man in Switzerland who worked extensively and generously to help me to expand this history.    

The album of Aunt Anna contained the picture of the Swiss immigrants of Vaud Canton.   They were gathered for a double-Baptism day of two infant granddaughters of Friedrich and Anna Treuthardt in Walburg, Texas.   [See Post #15]  The people in the picture were unknown to me.   Years later, discovery of the book of St. Peter Lutheran Church, Williamson County, Texas commemorating the church's 100th  anniversary introduced me to the French-speaking Swiss community* of 1890 to early 1900's.  Listings of Marriages, Births, and Baptisms indicate that the Swiss immigrants married each other and had families.  

The families had their children baptized into the church.   The Christian acts speak through the ages.   That the Baptisms occurred in the Lutheran church rather than Methodist or other, was due to the diligence, persistence and determination of the early Lutheran missionaries to Texas, from 1854 on.   They did not take lightly that the European immigrants to Texas were without means of divine service and worship, teaching and preaching of doctrine.   [My Grandfather Gottlieb Walter was one of those early Lutheran missionaries, but that is the subject of another family history blog.]   One of many ways that church membership was important, was orderly record-keeping;   this side benefit enabled me, more than 100 years later, to learn how the Swiss immigrants became interrelated through marriage.    
  
In February and March I posted briefly on specific birthdays and deaths of three ancestors, Friedrich and Anna Treuthardt, and their daughter Ida.    I incorporated a few memories from annual family reunions of the 1980's through 1990's.   Our most recent and final large-scale family reunion was held in 2008, with an attendance of 89, at Christ Lutheran Church in Georgetown, TX.   

Sneakily and rather quickly (starting with Post #23) I "departed" from Texas into Switzerland, and we have been there ever since.   We went back to the 1400's and that White Book which originated in Sarnen.   We investigated briefly the legend of William Tell, the iconic Swiss folk hero.   In order to apprehend rural Swiss culture in the early 1800's, I quoted good Swiss literature of author Gottfried Keller, who describes a community theatre "performance" of William Tell, presented in the Zurich area around 1840's.   

With only a few facts to go on, we have been introduced to Treuthardt relatives in Switzerland, beginning with the Kirchmeyer Bartolome and his wife Katharina (married ca. 1770 - only a guess) in Zweisimmen, and continuing with the family of the carpenter and Musikant Jakob and his wife Barbara (married in 1800) in the area of Thun.   The legends of ancient Switzerland could have been related in detail by our distant ancestors;   and perhaps they participated in or observed community events similar to that described by Keller.     

This blog is a mere start to tell the history of the Treuthardt family in Switzerland.   If God is willing, then I am too, to continue relating family facts and events which have come to me over the years.   What I have not learned is to be discovered by some future family historian.  

My Audience -- you may be interested to know that since the beginning, this blog has gotten over 1800 "hits" (as of May 26) most of them coming from the U.S.   I have barely advertised this blog, only to a few key family members in Texas.   Additionally, other countries have discovered this blog.   More than 10% of the hits have come from Russia.   Germany is next, and then Columbia, Switzerland, Pakistan.  Other countries that have checked in are France, Brazil, Canada, Lithuania, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, United Kingdom, Ireland, Morocco, Vietnam, South Korea and China.    The post which has gotten the most hits is #40, the "White Book of Sarnen."   Most of those hits were received in one day.    At times I felt a little overwhelmed about this global publicity, but I won't stop now.   Welcome to newcomers to my blog!   
 

*Note:  the Treuthardts spoke, read and wrote German as well as French and Swiss.