Genealogy has become a passion. I don't know if it is the mystery, the history, pushing the limits of the computer and internet technology, the hunt, or what. The reason is probably, "all of the above." My mother, Regina Heintz, used to tell me a story that our family decended from Irish, French and German ancestors. That combination always sort of nagged at me because originally I thought, "how could our family have all of those blood-lines? That was the mystery, and genealogical research provided the reasons why Mom's story was a plausable.
So it goes like this: The Celts from Ireland/Scotland around 400 BC conquered and probably settled and intermarried with tribes in what is now Alsace (near the Rhine River between Alsace, France and Germany near Stausbourg. Villages such as Weissembourg, Kandel, Karlsrue, Landau, et.al. were the early homes of our ancestors. Alsace was governed by the French, then the Germans and finally, by the French.
Our validated story begins in the 1500 to 1600's in Alsace when the ancestors of the four families that formed the roots of my personality, skills, looks, and all of the traits my sister and I have today. Our research has filled in many gaps back to the 16th and 17th century. The surname, Ehret (The surname is probably a derivative of Erhardt,Erhard}, can be found in many parts of Alsace and Germany. The first evidence of our direct lineage appears in the official records of Salmbach, the Weissenborg Canton of northeastern region of Alsace.
The records provided information that the 16th/17th century Ehret's were Weavers, probably of wool or cotton, etc. They also state that they were "Burghers". The definition of Burger is -- 1 : an inhabitant of a borough or a town; 2 : a member of the middle class : a prosperous solid citizen. A "burger" was generally prosperous and had to pay taxes as opposed to someone that was not able to pay taxes. Over the years, this description would not apply to our Ehreth family. An uncle's earliest memories are "being poor, real poor."
Katherine the Great (Czarina of Russia), a German herself, played heavily in our family's genealogy. She offered Germans land and help to resettle in Southern Russia. In 1803, our Alsacian-German ancestors immigrated to what is now the Ukraine near Odessa, north of the Black Sea, they faced tremendous hardships; e.g., extremely cold winters, lack of food and housing, disease, broken promises by the Russian Government, and land that had never been tilled. Our family settled in the Odessa region of Southern Russia, Ukraine. Villages like Kandel (Heintz and Hummel), Speier (Ehret/Erhard/Ehreth/Ereth), and Landau (Geiss) appear frequently in the data that I have collected for the our family's genealogy.
Most of our ancestors arrived in America in the 1890's through the early 1900's. The rest of the story appears on the remaining pages.
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- Family of Marilyn & Don Ehreth (915 KB)
Our family has grown over the years.
- Don, Marilyn and our five children (788 KB)
Left to Right:
Front: Don, Marily
Back: Jeffrey, Jean Marie, Joanne, Jennifer, and John
- Naturalization Papers (111 KB)
Scan of the Original Document for Grandpa Michael Ehreth
- Beresan, Odessa, (141 KB)
Russian Village of Speier, Beresan, Odessa, South Russia (Ukraine) and other villages of our Family's ancestors.
- Mom & Dad Ehreth's Wedding Day (12 KB)
Taken at the Solen, ND Catholic Church
- John V. Ehreth (5 KB)
Our dad, John, and son of Michael and Elizabeth Ehreth. Taken in Solen a few years ago.
- Grandma Heintz' Family (12 KB)
Don (me), Isabella, Eileen (my sister), Sebe, Phil, Rose, Grandma, Mom, Peter and Tony's wife, Ann
- Theresia Hummel (Grandma Heintz) (28 KB)
Grandma's brothers and sisters and some spouses. Grandpa Heintz had died earlier.
- Wedding (10 KB)
Mr. and Mrs. Don Ehreth, walking out of the Catherdral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck, ND after the happiest day of our lives
- Wedding Cake Tradition (9 KB)
Marilyn and Don enjoying their wedding cake
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From the Irish Celts to the American Ehreth Family