Ifert (Eifert) in Basel-Stadt

[LindaBounce]

I only speak English. My great-great grandmother was born in Thurgau, Switzerland about 1841. It is my understanding from the thread in the Thurgau Forum that the Ifert family are citizens of Basel.

I am looking for contact with a family member to see if they had ancestors who immigrated to Texas.

Maria Anna (Mary Anne) immigrated to Texas about 1852 and married Francois Pierre (Pete) Jecker (immigrant from Alsace, about 1850) and lived in Victoria, Texas.

Mary Anna immigrated at about 12 years old with a sister. Name unknown. I do not know where they came into Texas, and have had quite a bit if difficulty verifying the spelling of the last name. Her father, (Henry?) came to Texas about two years earlier (port unknown) shortly after his wife died. The two daughters came over later.

Spellings I have found: Ifert, Eifert, Eefert, Ufert and Jfert. Most common is Eifert.

Linda
Pipe Creek, Texas, USA

[alexh]

Hello,

I am not sure if this can be of interest for you, but in the village of my ancestors, in Gries, Alsace, can be found a Eifer/Eyfer/Ifer family.
They are in my ascendency too.
They immigrated in the 17th century from the Baden-Durlach margraviate. I could unfortunately not identify the city of origin until now. Documents say "Arglisheim", but such a written name doesn't exist.

Alex

[LindaBounce]

It is of interest. The records we have insist she was born in Thurgau, however I also have a thread here for Alsace. I am a Jecker from Blodelsheim. I will forward your information to others in the family.

We don't seem to be finding any information in Switzerland at all. Nor do we have her mother's name.

I will let you know if we can find anything.

Thank you!

[alexh]

I took a look more in details in the church record book from Gries.

The first member of this family to arrive in the village was Conrad Eyffer (from the so-called "Arglisheim" then). He married a local girl the 16.2.1700.
It seems he was a teacher.
Until 1730, the name is written as Eyfer, Eifer or Eyfert.

A bit later, in 1770, due to the local dialect particularities, the writing evolved and became Iffer, Ifer or Iffert.

Nowadays, there are still several Iffer in Gries (6 in the phone book).

Do you know something about the ancestors of your 2x great grand-mother born 1841 in Thurgau?

[Aspis]

Could "Arglisheim" be maybee Arlesheim in Canton Basel-Land (Basel Country)?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlesheim

[alexh]

This name is indeed very close.
But I am not sure it could match, as I remember having read that "Arglisheim" was located in the Baden-Durlach margraviate.
To be sure, it would be necessary to inspect the original document, which, unfortunately, I do not have.

[LindaBounce]

No, I know nothing of these relatives, other than the spelling of Eefert in her obituary, she arrived at age twelve about 1852, two years after her father arrived, she and two sisters. The mother had died at least two years earlier.

According to the 1880 census in Victoria, TX she listed her place of birth as Thurgau, Switzerland, and both her parents were born in Switzerland. Her father's name here was Henry. I don't know if this was a derivative of something else.

Perhaps somewhere in someone's family tree there is a missing person who went to America and disappeared, and maybe we are them...

[LindaBounce]

Someone has suggested a website Geneanet.org, however, when I went to sign in it mentions that it makes your name public. I don't think I like that.

If that came to me as a private message, I can't answer those. That feature of this page doesn't seem to work for me.

[Aspis]

The Citizenship of the name Ifert is Rümlingen/BL bevor 1800
BL = Basel Country

watch here: http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/famn/index.php

[LindaBounce]

The Ifert family is highly likely to be mine - but the Eyfert-Iffert could also be possible. Her name has been spelled several ways. What usually happened, when someone arrived here, if the people recording arrivals misspelled a name, it often was kept that way by the immigrant.

Also many Americanized their names. My husband is a Laroue , a Magyar Hungarian, but there are letters from Russia. None of us can understand them and the handwriting is difficult. At some point here, the name was changed to Laura.

My father was an Ahlstrom from Sweden, and changed his name to Austin. Probably never made it legal either.

People here could move just a matter of thirty miles and change their name and no one ever knew or attempted to keep track.

[alexh]

If you want, you can send me your russian letters.
My wife will be able to read them. She is a native speaker.

[LindaBounce]

I don't seem to be able to work the email part of this forum. We would have to be able to email directly. I don't think that I should put my email on this page, but it would be fine for the webmaster to give it to you.

[alexh]

Is your e-mail address the one which can be seen on your profile page ? Starting with gs... ?

[LindaBounce]

That should be correct.

What I have right now is envelopes from 1954/1955. I don't have copies of the letters, but if those still exist I can get them.

[alexh]

So you should also be able to see my e-mail address by clicking my pseudo.
You can send your russian documents to it, and it will take a look on it.

[Wolf]

Original von LindaBounce
I don't seem to be able to work the email part of this forum. We would have to be able to email directly.

Quite easy: unless blocked by the member, there is an email button in the left column, just under the name.

[webstube]

Hello Linda
we have found in our database a person named Anna Maria Ifert from Rünenberg, Basel-Land, born 14.1.1840, emigrated to Texas 1852. We also have parents, siblings and grand-parents of her. are you still looking for this informations ?
mfg Karin

Original von LindaBounce
I only speak English. My great-great grandmother was born in Thurgau, Switzerland about 1841. It is my understanding from the thread in the Thurgau Forum that the Ifert family are citizens of Basel.

I am looking for contact with a family member to see if they had ancestors who immigrated to Texas.

Maria Anna (Mary Anne) immigrated to Texas about 1852 and married Francois Pierre (Pete) Jecker (immigrant from Alsace, about 1850) and lived in Victoria, Texas.

Mary Anna immigrated at about 12 years old with a sister. Name unknown. I do not know where they came into Texas, and have had quite a bit if difficulty verifying the spelling of the last name. Her father, (Henry?) came to Texas about two years earlier (port unknown) shortly after his wife died. The two daughters came over later.

Spellings I have found: Ifert, Eifert, Eefert, Ufert and Jfert. Most common is Eifert.

Linda
Pipe Creek, Texas, USA

[LindaBounce]

YES! She is my great-great grandmother. I would love that information.

I have tried to email you directly, I may not have succeeded. I have problems figuring out what to do in German. Please email me directly if you can.

WOW! Thank you!
Linda!

[LindaBounce]

Just an update. The Ifert family found by Karin is indeed mine. Karin has sent enough information to show a match between Texas records and the Swiss county records.

I would love to go onto some of the links mentioned, but I am having a hard time with the language.

I am really impressed with the new (to me!) layout of this web page. I have not been on in quite some time, but it is so much easier for me to follow. WOW.