Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin (Lower Rhine) is a department in France, located along the German border in an area commonly referred to as Alsace-Lorraine. It is part of Elsass (Alsace).

It is bordered by the French departments of Haut-Rhin & Moselle, as well as the German states of Rheinland-Pfalz & Baden-Württemberg. Today most of its residents speak both French & German, and historically it has gone back & forth as part of France or Germany. Many of its families are ethnically German, though not all – some would identify themselves as French.

My immigrant ancestors from Bas-Rhin:

• Nicolas Übelhör, his wife Barbe (Studi) Übelhör & daughter Barbe Übelhör
  • Immigrated in 1849, approximate ages 43, 36, and 11
    

Barbe Übelhör was born in 1838 in Bas-Rhin & came to America with her parents in 1849.

Nicolas Übelhör & his daughter Barbe were born in Bremmelbach, while his wife Barbe Studi was from a nearby village called Hohwiller. An interesting fact: Nicolas’ father Chretien Übelhör was Mayor of Bremmelbach, as was his father before him (Nicolas’ grandfather) Jean-Adam Übelhör.

A few interesting notes on these surnames. Übelhör is south German in origin, and it literally translates to “evil lord.” It’s typically pronounced either EVIL-hare, or OOBEL-ore. Here’s a fun video on the pronunciation of the surname. Some distant relatives who came to America preferred the spelling Ebelhar in the U.S. Studi, the family matriarch’s maiden name, is a French variation of the Swiss name Studer. It is likely the Studers first came to Alsace-Lorraine from Switzerland after the Thirty Years’ War, as the region was being repopulated.

Me in July 2014 in Bremmelbach, home of the Übelhör family for more than 100 years.

Nicolas Übelhör joined his older sister Catherine (Übelhör) Zent & brother-in-law Philippe-Jacques Zent in America, as they had arrived in Western New York years earlier. The Zents were among the first pioneer families to settle in Williamsville, NY. Nicolas was a Stone Mason. His daughters married into early Williamsville area families, taking on the surnames Sauter, Beaser, Wehrle, Daigler, and Graber.

I am a descendant of the following families from Bas-Rhin, Alsace:

• ALTEBRAND
• BIELMANN
• CHRISTIAN
• DAHLMANN (DALMAN)
• DIETLER
• ERNSIPER
• ESTERMANN
• FEHR
• GRIESBACH

• HEIMLICH
• HETTINGER (HEDINGER)
• HEUßLER (HEUSSLER)
• HUBER
• KINTSCH
• KNÄBEL
• LANGENBRONN
• MEAN

• PFLEGHAAR
• ROEMLER
• SCHILLINGER
• STIESS
• STUDER
• STUDI
• ÜBELHÖR
• WINTER

I have ancestry in Bas-Rhin through my mother’s side of the family.