CHURCHES OF OUR GERMAN ANCESTORS
- These galleries contain my photographs of several Catholic churches of our ancestors who lived in towns and villages in southern Germany. Many of the church structures are much the same as when our ancestors attended the churches, though renovations have been made. And with respect to St. John the Baptist's Church in Oggelsbeuren, the structure we see today replaced the vast majority of the structure existing during our ancestors' time. I have also included a note concerning St. Vitius' Church. Click on the name of the church to see the photographs.
Langenschemmern, Germany
Today, part of Schemmerhofen
The church of the Jacob and Eleanora (Hecht) Braunger family. Jacob and Eleanora married in 1733. Josephus, their oldest child, would move to Aufhofen. Today, Langenschemmern and Aufhofen is Schemmerhofen.
Aufhofen, Germany
Today, part of Schemmerhofen
The church of the Josephus and Magdalena (Hecht) Braunger family. Being a pilgrimage church, they may also have traveled to St. Mauritius' in nearby Langenschemmern for some religious activities.
Emerkingen, Germany
The church of the Johannes and Katharina (Moll) Mayer family. Johannes, a farmer, was born in the first half of the 1700s. Their daughter Margaretha would move to Volkersheim. She married Johannes Benz.
Obermarchtal, Germany
The church of the Jakob and Anna Maria (Fischer) Widmann family. Jakob, a farmer, was born in 1733 and married Anna Maria in 1775. Their youngest child Maria Ursula would marry Kornel Braunger in Oepfingen.
Obermarchtal, Germany
The Jakob and Anna Maria (Fischer) Widmann family may have attended this church for special masses.
Oggelsbeuren, Germany
The successive structure of the church of the Anton and Ursula (Heiter or Haeuter) Fischbach family. Anton and Ursula married in 1791. Anton, a farmer like his father Christian, was Mayor of Oggelsbeuren from 1800-1819.
Volkersheim, Germany
The church of the Jakob and Maria Crescentia (Fischbach) Benz family. They married in 1822 and had 16 children. About a third lived beyond infancy. One who did, Katharina, married Lukas Braunger in Oepfingen.
Oepfingen, Germany
The church of the Kornel and Maria Ursula (Widmann) Braunger and the Lukas and Katharina (Benz) Braunger families. Kornel, formerly of Aufhofen, married Maria Ursula in 1815, and their son Lukas married Katharina in 1850.
Moehringen, Germany
A note concerning St. Vitus' Church in Moehringen, Germany. Moehringen is located in the district of Biberach in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
St. Vitus' (right) in Moehringen is a beautiful church so I wanted to share it with you. Our ancestors Joseph and Elisabetha (Egger) Widmann lived in Moehringen. However, because they lived there prior to the construction of St. Vitus', I did not include a section on it above. St. Vitus' was built from 1863-65. At the time construction began on St. Vitus', Moehringen already had an existing church called Liebfrauenkapelle (The Chapel of Our Dear Lady). It was located in a different part of Moehringen. It was in bad condition and was torn down in 1865.
Joseph and Elisabetha lived in Moehringen in the 1700s. They married around 1730 and passed away long before the construction of St. Vitus' and the razing of Liebfrauenkapelle. Their son Jakob, also a direct ancestor, was born in 1733. He moved to Obermarchtal by the time of his first marriage in 1762. Therefore,
Liebfrauenkapelle, and not St. Vitus', was one of the churches of the Joseph and Elisabetha Widmann family. I was told that it did not have its own priest, that on Saturdays there was one mass, and that people usually went to the church in nearby Offingen (not to be confused with Oepfingen).