The Earliest Known Falters There are few Falters known in the early records of Germany. The 
earliest known is Frau Debolt Falter of Alzey, the town which was the equivalent of the "county
seat" of the area in which our immigrant Falter ancestor lived. In 1494 Philipp, the Count of
the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, and representative of the Holy Roman Empire directed a census of
the Alzey area. Listed in this census was Debolt Falter, a woman who had "small children" and a
 wealth of four guilders and one alb. An alb was a white coin (made from tin or other white 
metal) worth 1/26th of a guilder, or six pennies. The 1626 Inhabitant Census taken by the 
Grafschaft Erbach contains the record of a Clas Falter. Clas lived in Ebernburg, less than 25 kilometers from Nack and Erbes-B\'fcdesheim. Additionally, There is a surviving marriage record 
from Armsheim, dated March 1691 of an Anna Barbra Falter, daughter of Hans Michael Falter, 
marrying Hans Georg G\'f6delmann. Armsheim is about 8 kilometers northwest of Nack. Most 
interesting, however, is Wendelin Falter. Wendelin is Latin for Wendell, and the parish records 
were written in Latin. Wendell was born in 1520 at an unknown location and was buried by the 
monastary in Ilbenstadt, Hessen, Germany in 1560, according to the parish records. Ilbenstadt 
is a town in the area known as the "Wetterau." This is an area along the Wetter River near 
Friedberg, north of Frankfurt, and northeast of Nack and Erbes-B\'fcdesheim. Wendell's surname 
was spelled "Valter" in those records. Relationship of Wendell Falter's Wetterau in the 
northeast to Nack in the southwest. The records of the monastery at Ilbenstadt show that there 
was a second, younger Falter, also named Wendelin, who was living in "Wetterau," Hessen, in 
1600, and who was the Probst of the monastery in 1605. A Probst was a monk or other religious 
leader who was responsible for conducting the business of the monastery or major church. These 
businesses often involved the making and selling of beer, wine, bread, cheese, and other such 
items made by the religious order and sold to support it. This Wendelin died there in 1611. Since he lived in the same area, it is possible that he was a descendant or was otherwise 
related to the first Wendelin Falter. There was a third Wendelin Falter who was born in the 
Wetterau area of Hessen about the year 1600 according to the International Genealogical Index 
(IGI). It is possible that he was a son of Wendelin, the Probst. While the Probst was a member 
of the religious order, it is not certain that the members were celibate at that time. At some 
unknown point between 1600 and 1632 another Falter named Wendelin moved southwest from the Wetterau to (or near) the small village of Nack in Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany in the west-
central portion of modern Germany. Since this last Wendelin, or Wendell was known to be living 
in Nack in about 1632, it appears that he could be an ancestor. The earliest verified ancestor 
of Al Falter who was known, with certainty, to be named Wendell was not born until about 1711. 
If this last Wendelin is an ancestor of Al Falter, it is probable that information on two or 
possibly three generations of the Falter family in Nack is missing. The fact that all known 
Falters with the given name of Wendelin (or Wendell) were Catholic, the combination of two 
uncommon names, Wendell and Falter, and residence in the same tiny village which is the proven 
ancestral home of the Seneca County Falters constitutes strong, but not conclusive, 
circumstantial evidence that this last Wendell is related and, possibly, an ancestor of the 
Seneca County Falters, and that the Wetterau and Ilbenstadt Falters are earlier members of that 
 same line. Wendell Falter and his descendants raise the question about the Falters who were 
known to be living in the Nack area (Debolt Falter Clas Falter, Anna Barbara Falter) before 
Wendell Falter settled there. How or if they are related is unknown, but there are several 
possibilities. Chief among them is that the Falters originated in the Nack area, some part of 
the family moved to the Wetterau, possibly to enter the monastery, and subsequent generations, 
 to include Wendell, returned to the Nack area. Unfortunately, the records that could enable a 
search for the missing Falter generations and answer the unanswered questions were lost in the 
widespread destruction of churches and records that occurred during the Thirty Years War. The 
Home Villages of the Falters After the Thirty Years War If our Wendell Falter ancestor moved 
from the Wetterau to Nack during the period of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), it is highly 
probable that the move was a direct result of that war. Tens of thousands of people fled the 
intense warfare in the Wetterau area during the period 1622-1625. The area around Nack and 
Erbes-B\'fcdesheim to which he fled may have escaped early destruction, but the battles to 
drive out or convert the Catholics to Protestantism later raged over and eventually resulted 
in the destruction of almost every church in the area. Entire towns were destroyed, along with 
 all of their records. At the end of the war, Erbes-B\'fcdesheim was like a Catholic island in 
a sea of Protestants. Before the war, the adjacent villages of Flonheim, Bornheim, Nieder-
Wiesen, Bechenheim, Lonsheim, Ensheim, Bermersheim, Spiesheim, Wendelsheim, and Offenheim all 
had Catholic churches. By the war's end, the churches had been either destroyed or converted 
to Protestant churches. As destroyed churches were rebuilt in these communities, many were 
Protestant churches. Only Erbes-B\'fcdesheim had a Catholic church even though Catholics had 
become a minority in the village. The reader can get an idea of the magnitude of the 
destruction that resulted from the Thirty Years War from the local census data. In the local 
1698 census (Oberamptes Alzey von 1698) Nack was not even mentioned and the population of 
Erbes-Büdesheim was quite depleted. There were only 42 families living there. The population 
was composed of 20 Catholic families, one Lutheran family, and 21 Reformed families. Sadly, the Thirty Years War was not the last war that devastated the area. In 1707 the area was again 
attacked and destroyed during the War of Spanish Succession, and in 1756 to 1763 the Seven 
Years War swept over the area. Nack, the birthplace of the immigrant Falter (Philip Johann, 
third generation), is about two and a half kilometers (11/2 miles) from the town of Erbes-
Büdesheim where he later lived and from which he emigrated. This is the area that was later 
known as Rheinhessen, and today is known as the Rhineland-Pfalz. Geographically, Nack is 
located about 50 kilometers west-southwest of the city of Darmstadt. Today Nack has a couple 
of stores, and the Falter Gasthaus. Emil Falter, Jr. heads one of the two Falter families still  
living there, and owns and operates the Falter Gasthaus. A Gasthaus is peculiarly German. The 
term means "guesthouse'' but that English language translation is inadequate. A Gasthaus is a 
combination of a restaurant, bar, and a bed and breakfast or small hotel. In many communities, 
it is the center of all social activities. It is where card games occur on a daily basis, where 
 birthdays, weddings, and baptisms are celebrated, where tourists stop for a good meal and a 
night's rest, and where gossip is exchanged. There is no precise American counterpart to the 
term Gasthaus but "inn," in the 18th century sense, comes close. Emil Falter III (known to the 
 family as Hans Emil) heads the other Falter family.