What's new since the first international Bollschweiler meeting took place in April 2000?

We welcome participants from the following countries: Germany, Switzerland, United States, Austria, Spain (Unfortunately Peru and New Zealand are not represented).

When we met in the year 2000 roughly 1,000 descendants of Georg Bollschweier (the older), who was born in 1585 were known to us. By now we have unearthed more than 2,500 direct descendents. The number increases to 5,000 if you count in those people who married into the family and their parents and to more than 30,000 if you cast the net even wider.
In 2000 we did not know about the following family branches:

- Bushweller in the US, represented today by Brian and Rocky Bushweller from Dover in Delaware, from the Bollschweiler line which lived for the longest period of time in Gersbach.
Johann Jakob Friedrich Bollschweiler immigrated in 1850 with his children to the US. The first called themselves Buschweiler, some of the children changed the name to Bushwaller or Bushweller. They are most closely related to the Heidelberg/Wiesbaden branch of the Bollschweiler family, which today is represented here by
Alexander Bollschweiler, the Schaefflers,
Sigrid Bollschweiler and
Else Müller, neé Bollschweiler.

- The second therto unknown family branch are the:
Bush from the USA. Karl Roman from Lake Ariel in Pennsylvania unearthed the connection: Karl's mother is a Bush. Her ancestor is Maria Katharina Bollschweiler, who was born in Bürchau in 1840.

- Her younger son Jakob Friedrich went to Switzerland, her elder son Johann became an American citizen in New Jersey in 1894 an was known as John Bollschwiler. Johann's son later called himself Charles George Bush. Jakob Friedrich's closest relatives, who are all Swiss, are represented this morning by

Gerhard Bollschweiler with his wife Heidi
Elinor Kirsch neé Bollschweiler
Felix Bollschweiler
Jürg Bollschweiler
Lotti Wagner neé Schaffner and
Annelies Boeschenstein, neé Bollschweiler

Felix' son Alain and his wife Julieta have succeeded in giving the Bollschweiler name a presence in Peru. Unfortunately, they cannot attend this time around but were with us in 2000.

The Bollschweiler branch from Utah that we know for quite some time is particularly reproductive. By sheer numbers this family line is at least twice as large as all the other branches together. From the Utah line are present this morning:
The Thatcher/Ogilvie family with six persons
Diane Hansen, neé Bollschweiler and her husband Gordon.

It was the Utah line of the family who organized the second international Bollschweiler meeting in Salt Lake City in 2002, where more than 200 people attended. Unfortunately only six people from Europe participated, all of which are here today. It was a wonderful event which all of us love to remember.
If you only count the descendants of Howard and Robert Thatcher's grandma Carolina Bollschweiler you clock up more that 250 people. Believe it or not: She got married at last at the age of 33, her husband was 66 and had 12 children with his first wife.

But in Germany we have discovered additional relatives thanks to the research done by Fred Wehrle, whose folk costume group we are meeting today.
On Monday we will visit the farm house in Lütschenbach, which dates back mor that 300 years. It was in this building where Anna Maria Bollschweiler, who was married to Johan Jacob Brändlin, gave birth to six children. One of her great-grandsons is Ernst Trefzer, the present owner of the house. The old farm house that we visited in Oberbüchau in 2000 was unfortunately destroyed by a fire a year later.

The father of Anna Maria Bollschweiler was the innkeeper of the "The Lion" in Vogelsbach, which we visited six years ago. Anna Maria's brother, Johann Jakob Bollschweiler became a publican and baker in Andermatt/Switzerland. He is the ancestor of a large part of today's Swiss side of the Bollschweiler family. This branch is represented by
Alice Bauert (whose mother was a Bollschweiler) and Andreas Lieven.
As an aside please note that Andreas Lieven will show at 6:00 PM tonight a 30 minute video in an English and German version covering the 2000 Bollschweiler meeting.

The Swiss line is represented by some more people this morning:
Robert Bollschweiler
Elsbeth Manser, neé Bollschweiler are present.

Together with her husband Tony, Verena lives in Spain these days. Brigitte and Hanno regularly meet with Verena and Tony and Franz Schaffner, another Swiss descendant, when they are in Spain as their houses are located very close to each other.

This section of the Swiss Bollschweiler line even has a base in New Zealand represented by Doris Bollschweiler who conveys greetings to everybody. Alice Bauert is quiet regularly in touch with her and saw Doris when she and Andreas Lieven were in New Zealand in 2001.

The only ones not mentioned yet are today's Bollschweilers from the homeland turf of the Bolslchweiler clan, i.e. the Markgräferland. These are
Fritz Bollschweiler and his son Kurt from Bürchau and Tegernau
Erika Schneider
Marie Vogel
Another Kurt Bollschweiler who lives in Neuenburg
Uwe Bollschweiler from Lörrach
Waltraud Bühler
Erika Gallo, whose mothers were Bollschweilers
Elsa Rosskopf, whose grandmother was a Bollschweiler and
Hanno Trurnit's wife Brigitte and her brother Horst Bollschweiler

Their father Ernst Bollschweiler was born many years ago in Neuenweg. Horst - so to speak - is the founder of the Austrian branch of the Bollschweiler family with two sons and four grand children.