The names Guckenbiehl, Guggenbühl etc. in Badenia, Germany

For the sake of simplicity, this article does not use the term Badenia in the sense of a political unit, but as a geographical one: roughly to denote the region south of Heidelberg between the Rhine and the heights of the Black Forest. Hence it may be seen as the eastern correspondent of Alsace.^[1]

Up to now, the church records of this region have not been scanned completely for variants of the names Guckenbiel and Guggenbühl; however, the following records have already been found:

• Herbolzheim, district of Emmendingen ([Köbele 1967], p. 254f):

  Blasius Guggenbühl (Guggenbühel, Gugginbühl), son of the baker Christian G. from Schönau im Wiesental was a quarryman. On November 11^th, 1733 Blasius married Anna Maria Wagenmann, born on May, 5^th, 1711. They had three children:

  • Anna Maria, born March 1^st, 1734, died November 13^th, 1736;
  • Johann Baptist, born July 9^th, 1735, died April 3^rd, 1745;
  • Franz Anton, born June 7^th, 1737, died April 17^th, 1740.

  All of the children died early, and their mother Anna Maria Wagenmann followed on July 23^rd, 1739. Five weeks later, on August 25^th, Blasius married Maria Catharina Stöcklin. They also had three children:

  • Alex, born September 9^th, 1740, died December 25^th, 1742;
  • Johann Kaspar, born August 15^th, 1743;
  • Blasius, born September 12^th, 1746.

  Their father Blasius died on March 1^st, 1748, his second wife Maria Catharina on August 25²⁵, 1749.

• Kippenheim, municipality of Ortenau ([Köbele 1979], p. 271):

  Franz Carl Guggenbihl was born on September 4^th, 1726. His parents were Christian Guggenbihl, herdsman in Kippenheim and Anna Dutz.

• Kippenheimweiler, today borough of Lahr, Ortenaukreis ([Köbele 1957], p. 223):

  Ursula Gungbügler gave birth to Joseph Strobel on June 20^th, 1688. She was a catholic and married to the bricklayer Hans Jakob Strobel.

• Mietersheim, today borough of Lahr, Ortenaukreis ([Siefert 1975], p. 96):

  Friedrich Guggenbühler was born on September 29^th, 1904. On August 11^th 1935 he married Elsa Lina Vetter, born January 17^th, 1913. Her son Manfred Friedrich was born on November 11^th, 1935.

• Münzesheim, Kraichtal ([Diefenbacher 1987], p. 70):

  Hans Guggenbühl from Erlenbach, canton Zurich, had settled down in Münzesheim. In 1681 he married. He had two sons: Hans Jacob, who died after two days, and Josua, who had no sons but two daughters. Hans Guggenbühl died at age 40.^[2]

Most of the families mentioned in these records are assumed to belong to the Swiss line of Guggenbühls, with some ancestors migrating down the Rhine valley; but if the Fürstenberg line survived through the centuries, members from that line may have crossed the Black Forest to settle down in Badenia as well.

1. ↑ Up to about 1805 the land between the Rhine and the Black Forest belonged to different political entities, like the margravate of Baden-Durlach, the margravate of Baden-Baden, the episcopacy of Straßburg, the Barony of Lichtenberg or even Austria. After Napoleon Bonaparte had conquered all of the region, he assigned it to the margravate of Baden which was then called "grand dukedom", but was just a satellite state of France.
2. ↑ Information about the children and age at death of Hans Guggenbühl has been provided by Mr. Glaser from the Kraichtal city archive by phone on September 26^th, 2000.