Firestone/Feuerstein history of Abraham Firestone MarchUpdated September 5, 2000 |
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Abraham (Abe) Firestone March
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As a school project, my son Duane chose to research his family name. The charts he produced stimulated my interest in learning more about my family origins. His work was limited since information about my father had a dark side, and the only living relative who could provide some insight, his great, great aunt, was in her late 80's and her ability to recall had become dim. I was more interested, however in learning about my mother's side of the family and she had given me her maiden name, Firestone, as my middle name. At that time I did nothing to investigate my lineage except to inquire of my mother what she remembered and knew about her ancestry. The inspiration to get started on my research began when I took residence in Germany. Having established and managed an American subsidiary computer company, I elected to remain in Germany when the company was closed, and with time on my hands, I began the search. I learned from my cousin, Jon "Donald" Firestone of York, Pennsylvania, that he had done research about our family history and it was from Donald that I received my first input. Donald had even visited all the cemeteries in the area of Pennsylvania where our forefathers were buried and he had made a handwritten chart tracing our ancestry to Berg, Province of Elsaß/Alsace, formerly a possession of Germany, now belonging to France. The source document that provided the best information available, was written by George Ely Russell, author of "Founders of the American Firestone Family." This was the first document that I had to work with, and it became evident as I continued my research, that there were no books written about the Feuersteins who emigrated to Alsace, from the Bregenz Forest of Austria. Where reference was made, it was a "dark history." Concerning our ancestrial link to Berg, Mr. Russell stated: "Johann Feuerstein, apparently the first of the family in America, .... arrived at Philadelphia on 13 August 1750....It is said that the Feuerstein family was established at Berg in the fifteenth century by Nicholas, Johann and Theobold Feuerstein from the Bregenz Forest, Province of Vorarlberg, Austria. Because of the loss by fire of the Berg Lutheran Church Records in 1720, it has not been possible to trace the ancestry..." Somewhere, I felt, there had to be an answer. Perhaps the reason indepth research had not been made to find the connection between the Bregenzerwald of Austria and Alsace/Elsaß, was that the Firestones in America were content to stop at Berg, as their family origin. Furthermore, perhaps the Austrian authors who wrote about the emigration of Feuersteins to America, were content to mention those who emigrated directly from Austria. Since those who emigrated directly from Austria were predominately of the Catholic faith, and since the Feuersteins who emigrated from Berg were Protestant, I wasn’t sure if any records in the Austrian Diocese would provide information about the Feuersteins of Berg. I decided to begin my search in Berg, but first I had to find it. The local map indicated a town of Berg on the German side of the Alsatian border in Rheinland/Pfalz. Since the territory of Alsace had passed back and forth between France and Germany several times, and that borders had also been altered, I assumed that this Berg may have formerly been located in Alsace. My wife and I traveled there, visited the cemetery, and having found no Feuerstein names, we went to see the Pfarrer (Priest) of the only church in town. He had never heard of the name Feuerstein in his parish, and in a search of his old church records, there was no Feuerstein name. This was puzzling. Births, marriages and deaths during the early period of history, were maintained by the church. Since Ely Russel's document stated that there was a Lutheran church in Berg and that the records had been destroyed by fire, I decided to visit the State Archives in Speyer, Germany, as well as the Protestant Archives also |
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