On Feb. 11th I got the following e-mail from Markus Fingerle, a student at the University of Hohenheim in Germany. Markus has written Mike and myself several time with wonderful Fingerle/Fingerlin information.

Dear Art, Dear Mike,

I write you in order to keep you up to date to my Fingerle-research here. I found out quite a few interesting things, but I also learned that it not that easy it may look in the beginning.

First, I had a look at a CD-ROM listing all telephone numbers in Germany and I found about 350 Fingerles, about 150 of them in the Esslingen area.

Then I started calling a few of them living next to me and that was when I had to learn that only a few people know more about their ancestors than their grandparents. But I met at least one, Joerg Fingerle, who did regular research about his family. He has a tree reaching back to our "Hans Fingerlin" in 1550, but which includes some branches we didn't know up to then. He told me about a book of an Ulrich Fingerle from Stuttgart that includes a few hundred (!) Fingerles an is available in the local central archive of Esslingen. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to go there up to now.

He also showed me the Fingerle-sign, given to the family by King Maximilian of Wuerttemberg in 1470. Then I went to the state library in Stuttgart to find out a little more about this sign.

I could find out that the first Fingerles approached in Ulm at the Danube river (about 90km from Esslingen) in 1380 (but the Ulm-line died out in 1770), that some of them emigrated to France and that the first Fingerle approaching in Esslingen was a "Vingerlin" in the late 14th century.

Another Fingerle, Siegfried Fingerle (like my father) told me that one of his ancestors emigrated to Switzerland in 1902, so I contacted a Fingerle there that I found in the internet. This one mailed me a telephone-list of all swiss Fingerles (20 persons) and the nice thing is that he is a relative to 9 of them. But he is seemingly no descendant of the Fingerle of 1902 Siegfried mentioned. So the rest of the 20 are likely to live in Switzerland since 1902. But this is not sure and yet to be found out.

Siegfrieds Cousin, Gretel Luik, invited me to a family-meeting of their cousins (11) on April 4th in Esslingen and although I don't know anybody personally I will go there. It surely is a good chance to get more information.

You see there's a lot of family-history going on here and an end is not in sight, but I'm keeping up to it (not with full power at the time due to an exam I have to pass in April),

your "Europe connection" Markus

This is the translation from the book Markus found in the archives of Esslingen It was quite hard to translate, because it is written in a german that isn't used any more and contains many words that have no meaning today. I tried to translate as much as possible, words I couldn't translate are marked by "..." and explained in brackets as far as I know their meaning. The text is from a book called "Die Wappen des Adels in Wuerttemberg, ausgestorbener wuerttemberischer Adel" (The signs of the nobels in Wuerttemberg, died out nobels of Wuerttemberg), that also contains the sign.

Fingerlin

Ulrich F. 1390 of the "Rath"(probably a kind of a city government) in Ulm (city on the border to Bavaria on the Danube river, about 100km southeast Stuttgart).

Bartholomaeus F. (son of the former) of the "Rath", still living in 1484 as "Staettrechner"(straightly translated: calculator of the city).

Veit F., born 1485, became in 1548 main judge, "Geheimer"(str.tr.: secret one, probably a kind of "Rath") and "Kirchenbaupfleger"(the one who looks after churches and buildings of the church), died 1559.

These F. belonged to the "Grautucherzunft"(A Zunft was an organisation of all workers of a certain profession, e.g. butchers, carpenters, etc.. "Grautucher" means "the one who makes grey sheets". "Grautucherzunft" = organisation of the ones that make grey sheets); later they moved into the "Zunft" of the salesmen and married into the "Patriciers"(The P. were a very powerful family).

Johann Daniel F. whose business (I'm not 100% sure if "Handlung" means business here, but it's the best fitting translation) broke down ("verunglueckte" means to have an accident) in 1666, went to Lyon (second biggest city in France).

His son Veit Daniel marries in Ulm on Nov 28th 1699.-The enormously rich company Fingerlin and Scheerer in Lyon was target of a strange robbery in 1785.

Johann Georg F. was the last male of the family in Ulm, dying July 11th 1790.

Written discription fo the sign/crest

Sign from the "Wappenbrief"(Document that was issued by the king and showed which family got a sign) of King Maximilian of 1490 for the brothers Johann, Georg and Jacob F.

On a yellow/golden background, growing out of red flames on the bottom of the shield an arm clad in blue with a pointing finger.

Helmet: a man growing out of flames, suit and sharp hat yellow/golden with blue collar and "Stulp"(collar of an arm), holding a green twig in the right hand, pointing with the left.

"Decken"(the sheets hanging down from the helmet): blue, yellow/golden.

Another Sign/Crest

Johann and Johann Conrad F. salesmen of silver and "Wechsler"(str.tr.:changer) in Augsburg(city about 70km west of Munich), in the "Compagnie"(french word for company) of the "kaiserlich"(of the emperor, probably the one of Austria) "koeniglich"(of the king, probably the one of Bavaria) shop of silver in Guenzburg(city about 40km west of Augsburg, 20km east of Ulm), received from king Joseph II. a "Ritterstands-Diplom"(Document making a persona lord) "d.d."(I don't know what that means) Wien(Vienna, capital of Austria) July 7th 1770.

Sign: yellow/golden,blue "quadriert"(str.tr.:quartered), 1. and 4. "Stammwappen" (old sign), 2. the helmet of the old sign, the small man growing out of flames, 3. four (1,2,1) stars. Two crowned helmets: I. picture of the first field, II. the old helmet. "Decken": red yellow/golden-blue yellow/golden (out of the document).

The french F. received a "Reichsadel-"(the nobels of the "Reich", which was the nation) and "Ritterstands-Diplom" on Nov.9th 1770 and a "Freiherrendiplom" (Freiherren:probably another kind of nobels or lords, Freiherrendiplom: document making one Freiherren) "d.d." Feb.5th 1804.