Partying with the Krähenbühls

27 March, 2005. 415 words.

So I was up most of the night last night doing geneology research. So sue me! Anyway, I find it very entertaining and highly informative.

I made a startling realization during this time. I have a copy of the Krehbiel family tree made by J. J. Krehbiel of Moundridge, Kansas in 1900, which lists Jost Krehbiel as the progenitor of all Krehbiels. (Yes, I had to use dictionary.com to look up “progenitor.”)

The problem was, every time I did Internet searches on Krehbiel geneology in the past, they would end up with a Peter Krähenbühl, SON of Jost Krähenbühl, at the top of the chart. Now my family tree does not list any Peter Krehbiels as the son of Jost, so I had always wondered if my family tree was wrong.

Then I stumbled on a couple of geneology pages done by other Krehbiels, which gave me the vital link I needed to put everything together: The Jost Krehbiel on my family tree is actually the SON of ANOTHER Jost Krehbiel. (Jost Krähenbühl, actually, who died in the big Anabaptist revolt thingy over in Switzerland.) The Internet Peter Krähenbühl is my Jost Krehbiel’s brother! Suddenly everything made sense again!

I must point out here that the early Krehbiels were very uncreative in naming their children. If you were female, you were almost always going to be named Anna, Maria, Magdelena, or Katherina. If you were male, you would probably be named Jost, Peter, Jacob, Michael, or sometimes Christian. This may have served them at the time, but it sure makes geneology research very tough on their ancestors.

I also stumbled on a geneology page done by, if I’m not mistaken, my step-uncle (though he is no longer married to my aunt, so I guess technically we’re not related anymore), on which I found a lot of useful information about not only the origins of the Krehbiels but the most recent ones out in New Mexico, which I’ve never kept track of.

One other new tidbit I picked up last night: I have always told people that the Krehbiels came out of Austria, which was pretty much dead wrong. They moved (ie. fled) from Switzerland to Germany to escape religious persecution in the 1600s. Then they scattered about from there. My great-grandfather was actually born in Volhynia, Russia before his father picked up the whole family and moved to Ohio around 1874.

Anyway, it was all very exciting and kept me up way past my bedtime.

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