Looking for Mettler Relatives

Lassie1865 · #1 02.03.2011, 17:04

Hi. I am new here. My husband and I are finally going to visit Switzerland in April this year. We are in our 60's and have always wanted to contact our Mettler relatives in the Herisau area. We are looking for the descendants of Valentin Mettler IV, 1760, begat Jakob, 1792, begat Hans Jakob, 1822, begat Gustav Adolf, 1858. Gustav Adolf left Herisau around 1885 to live in Union City, NJ, USA, where he married Anna C. Mueller of Thaingen in 1888.

Any information would be appreciated.

MacGregor's Daughter · #2 02.03.2011, 18:00

Hi there,

I would really like to help you, but I don't live in/near Herisau. How good is your German? You might start by calling somebody with your name in Herisau. The most valuable resource are church registers, but I don't know what you have to do to be able to have a look at them. Good luck for your search!

Lassie1865 · #3 02.03.2011, 18:12

Thank you. Yes, I was thinking of sending out a few letters to the Mettlers listed in "Mettler" book that we have.

TiMow · #4 02.03.2011, 18:44

Mettler seems to be a semi-common name for Herisau.
A simple phone book search, returned 36 results.
The link to these results, is as follows, if it may be of help. Obviously, these are current residents of that name, and there is no way of determining ancestry. From rough experience, when a name reoccurs many times in the same location, there is a good chance of a common/shared root (but not always traceable).

http://tel.local.ch/en/q/?what=mettl...id=directories

Unless you are able to speak (Swiss) German, and are prepared to call/write (+8hrs from Colorado) these contacts, I don't know how you can use the information contained in the link(?).

But if it helps ....

Good Luck.

Mud · #5 02.03.2011, 18:46

There are 31 Mettlers in the Herisau area

Mettlers

From that site you can search any name to find the address and phone number in Switzerland.

Edit- TiMow is faster!

TiMow · #6 02.03.2011, 18:59

Other points of reference, which may be of help, as a starting point, are:

Gemeinde Herisau (equivalent to civic/community office for village):

http://www.herisau.ch/de/

and St. Gallen Staatsarchiv (archive office for the Kanton of St.Gallen, in which Herisau is situated):

http://translate.google.ch/translate...26prmd%3Divnsm

Depending on your knowledge of German, you may need an online translator (such as Google translate). The second link, I've already run thru' one, but I think it may be difficult to use this resource productively.