The Olson's of Michigan
| This is a new project and this data has not been verified.Keep checking back... I am researching the Yoder/Marshall and Bechtel/Schneider from my mother's side of the family.It appears most Yoder's came from Switzerland to Pennsylvania in the 1700's and then migrated to Ohio in the mid-1800's.I have not been able to glean much about the Marshall Bechtel or Schneider's yet. I am researching the Brozovic/Padovic's and Yelinek/? from my father's side of the family.They arrived in the US from Croatia and maybe Yugoslavia in the late 1800's. A bit of Yoder history - All American Yoders whose ancestry is known or suspected trace their lineage to the Joder clan in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. They are a very old family, apparently of Germanic-Swiss stock, yet the name comes from St. Theodore (Theodorus, Theodulus) a missionary monk who in the fourth century crossed the Alps from Italy to bring the gospel to the Valais country in southern Switzerland." (Yoder Newsletter, Vol.1, No.1 - May 1983) Our Yoder ancestors came from the area that is now known as Switzerland. People of Celtic origin were living in the area by the year 500 B.C. These people were called Celts because of the language they spoke, rather than because of the race to which they belonged. The ancient Celts were known for their wit, their love of liberty, and their bravery in battle. The Celts in Europe developed a Gaulish language (a very early form of German). They spread across northern Europe as far west as England and Ireland, but were gradually absorbed by other races or were killed by the Romans and by barbarians who rose to power in Europe. In the year 58 B.C. the Roman armies, lead by Julius Caesar, moved into what is now called Switzerland and took control of the area. They named this Roman province Helvetia and controlled the area until about the year 400 A.D., when two Germanic tribes, the Alemannians and the Burgundians, settled there. The Franks, another Germanic people, defeated these tribes by the early 500's. We can speculate that our ancestors developed from this mix of peoples and that somewhere in this genealogical mixing bowl our "Yoder ancestor" struggled to raise his family and defend his home. A missionary monk, in the fourth century, crossed the Alps from Italy to bring the gospel to the Valais country of southern Switzerland. His name was Theodore (later St. Theodore). He did establish a church in the area, and sometime later, as surnames became needed, a clan of people in the Canton of Bern adopted a shortened form of the name Theodore - Joder - as their surname. The name YODER traces back to St.. Theodore, the first bishop of Octodorus in the Martigny-Valais district of southern Switzerland. Swiss scholars maintain that the name St. Theodulus of mediaeval times, as well as the French Theodule, are but variants from the original Theodorus. Dr. Eugen Gruber of Switzerland stated that in earlier times the accent was on the third to last syllable and the interchange of the l and r was frequently made. This change in accent is the only linguistic shift in the derivation of the name, according to Dr. John Howard Yoder, distinguished theologian of Elkhart, Indiana, and he explained step by step how the evolution from Theodorus to Joder had become a matter of simple normal effect in pronunciation. It may be a surprise to those Yoders who thought their name came from a clan of yodellers in the Alps to discover that the fact is stranger than the fiction, but the Swiss leave no doubt as to the derivation of the name The name "Yoder" has many spelling variations. In Europe it is usually spelled "Joder". In the German language the letter "J" is pronounced like the English "Y". Other spellings: Jotter, Yotter, Yothers, and YODER. | The Olson's of Michigan Updated March 22, 2006 |
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