| Fingerle Newsletter Number 6 |
| October 1996 |
| A Visit to North Manchester, Indiana |
It started on Friday June 28th with a flight from Sacramento to Los Angeles. There I met up with my Father and my sister Kathy. We flew from Los Angeles to Chicago. From Chicago we flew to Indianapolis. We rented a car and drove about 2 hours to North Manchester, Indiana. We arrived in town after dark and went to the Haven Motel. This was an old 1940’s 50’s style motel.
On Saturday morning we were up early and looking for a place to have breakfast. We went to the Hospitality House which was the first hotel in Indiana. We were seated by the waitress and ordered breakfast. The waitress asked were we where from. She then asked what we were doing in town, We told her we were in town for a family reunion. She asked which family. We told her the Fingerle Family and she said she was a Fingerle. Her name was Rhonda Long, her grandmother is a Fingerle. By the way, the breakfast was wonderful
We then decided to tour the town What a beautiful place, the old part of town was old brick buildings. North Manchester has an old covered bridge build in 1872. On the road around town are some beautiful farms, barns, and lawns. I have never seen lawns like these, some as big a 5 acres or more. The temperature was in the low 90’s with a humidity that was higher.
We went to see Paul Fingerle at the Peabody Retirement Community. Another group of great old brick building. Paul was not at home, Many of the Fingerle’s were out of town that afternoon for a wedding. Next to the the facility was the Peabody home, a beautiful brown brick home in the trees on the corner of 7th and Elm.(now owned by a local doctor).
We went to a local cemetery to look for Fingerle’s. We found quite a few in a cemetery on German Baptist Cemetery on State Route 13. We found the stone of Abraham and Elizabeth Fingerle. We found another cemetery at the Eel River German Baptist Church, about 4 miles north of town on Packerton Road. More Fingerle’s were found there. Lots of relatives in both of these cemeteries.
After the wedding we got a call from Elsie (Fingerle) Geiser, and we were invited to come over to their home. There we met Bob and Elsie Geiser, Bob and Gladys Fingerle and Kenneth and Anna Fingerle. We took there computer print outs on the Fingerle’s and the photo album I had. We had a super time going over different members of the Fingerle family. The binders I brought from California weighted about 100 pounds. I had three 2 inch binders with over 500 Fingerle’s, I had a binder which listed the Ancestors and Decedents of Johann Christoph(Christopher) Fingerle and Nancy Root. These make up most of the Fingerle’s in Indiana. Johann was sometimes listed a John C. Fingerle.
Johann’s Great Grandfather (George Friedrich Fingerle) is where our two lines meet in the mid 1700’s. George and this first wife Anna Barbara Fingerle or my family line and George and his second wife Anna Maria (Zaeh) Fingerle is the line to the Indiana Fingerle’s. Michael Dean Fingerle and I found the link after several E-Mail messages in the internet. We now have both families going back to Hans Fingerlin in 1550.
On Saturday and Sunday no matter what store we went to, we were asked were we were from. Then asked why we were in town. We said for the Fingerle Family Reunion. Everyone said the went to school with a Fingerle. It was great to here stories about Fingerle’s.
The only trouble was on Saturday we went to Wabash, In. to look around. I stopped to take pictures of the Court House. We got out of the car and I ended up locking it, with the key inside and running. We got a key from Denney Oldsmobile who happened to be 4 blocks away, this was after the tow truck operator from AAA was unable to open it. My sister said she will not let me forget it. I am looking forward to returning next year with my wife.
Art Fingerle Jr.
| Fingerle Family Reunion |
Everyone started showing up with food and table settings. There was so much food that no one would go away hungry. After everyone showed up a prayer was given and everyone started through line. Michael and his wife Becky from Chattanooga, TN. were there and Michael brought a list of the Descendents of John Christopher Fingerle. He also brought a computer printout of the family tree which came to over 10 feet long.
Jesse Fingerle showed up from Punta Gorda, FL. With my sister Kathy and my father from Thousand Oaks, CA. and me from Elk Grove, CA. near Sacramento, we covered coast to coast.
On the sign in sheet we had names like Burbank, Geiser, Cook, Maloy, Bridegroom, Bowers, Brubaker, Metzger, and Miller. There were two other family reunions in North Manchester on Sunday. Some were going to all three reunions.
From the crowd seemed to number over 100. My sister and father had some of the books at their table and I was at the other table with more books and Michael and his information. There were lots of questions and many people where helping with new info and corrections. Most of the information I had stopped in the 1970’s.
I had a great time putting faces with the names of people who have written me and talked to me in the phone in the past. Bob and Elsie Geiser, Chester and Helen Fingerle, Michael and Becky Fingerle, Jesse Fingerle, and Paul Fingerle.
After returning home I took me several days to enter all the info into my computer. I am already looking forward to next year. The people, the food and the information.
I hope you will be able to make it next year.
| Fingerle Background |
The following information comes from Markus Fingerle in Germany. He has been in contact with Michael Fingerle via E-Mail and Michael has forwarded the info to me. Markus lives in Filderstadt which is about 15 km south of Stuttgart, and about 15 km from Esslingen. He is a student at the University of Hohenheim near Stuttgart
The Fingerle’s are from the Esslingen area, just outside Stuttgart., They all had vineyards and were what one calls simple people. They seem to be strong believing Christians and members of the Lutheran Church. How they came to live in this area can not be said, the family tree reaches back into the 17th century, and at that time they already lived there.
The name Fingerle is quite common in this area. In Esslingen phone book you can find more then 50 Fingerle’s.
The Fingerle’s seem to be a quite old “Suabian” family. “Suabia” is the area in Germany where the “Suabish”, or in german “Schwaebisch” dialect is spoken. thou not clearly defined, it runs from Heilbronn in the north, Augsburg in the east, the Black Forest in the west and the Bodensee (the big lake in the south).
The meaning of the word Fingerle is quite clear. Finger means the same as the english word finger, and -le simply makes it a small finger. So Fingerle is a small or little finger.
Until the 1750’s the name was not Fingerle, but Fingerlin(the old german form).
Markus Fingerle’s E-mail address is fingerle@uni-hohenheim.de
:
| Welcome Fingerlin's |
| A Letter from Sandra in Germany |
Dear Art and Rachel,
Now I’ll tell you why I send you some “onions”:
People from Esslingen tell a story about a devil, an onion and a market woman. You have to know, our nickname is “onion”.
Now I tell you the story:
Long time ago, there were a red, small devil in Esslingen. He made a lot of pranks at the people in Esslingen. Then the people became very angry about him. But he was visiting us. One day it was Wednesday or Saturday he came to the market-place. There were a lot of booths. He was very surprised, when he saw radishes, the garden lettuces, the cauliflowers, the pears, the plums and especially the red apples. He said to the market woman who the red apples belong to: “You’ve got very nice apples there, beautiful lady. Won’t you give a thirsty and hungry man one of your beautiful apples?” But the lady noticed, that it was the devil. She saw his cloven foot. She was a very clever lady, so she said: “You can have one of my beautiful apples, stranger.” She didn’t give the devil an apple, but an onion! He bited into the onion and screamed:”This isn’t an apple, this is an onion! you shouldn’t be called Esslinger, you should be called onion!” Then he ran away angrily. All the people on the market place were laughing. Nobody has every seen the devil again.
Everyone in Esslingen know this tall story. On one house in Esslingen is hanging a small devil.
Your friend
P.S. 3 years ago my class and I had a musical comedy about “The Devil in Esslingen”. We
had one show in the city hall. It was really great!!!
| Fingerle Lumber Co. T-Shirts & Caps |
I talked to John Fingerle at the Fingerle Lumber Co., after being asked by several people wanting to get T-shirt’s and cap’s from the Fingerle Lumber Co.
John said that there would be no problem in selling the T-shirt’s and Cap’s. They do look great. T-shirts come is sizes Large, X-Large, and XX-Large. Cap’s are one size fits all.
T-shirts - $7.00
Cap’s - $5.00
Shipping - $3.00
You can fax you order with a credit card number to:
Fingerle Lumber Co. at (313) 663-0137 and
make it attention to:
John Fingerle.
You can send your order with a money order to:
Fingerle Lumber Co.
P.O. Box 1167
Ann Arbor, MI. 48106-1167.
| Another Fingerle Newsletter |
Sue (Fingerle) Taunton of Joplin, Missouri. sent me a copy of an ad sent to her. It is from The Fingerle Family News from Denver, Colorado It says it has been publishing for 10 years now. It says the Fingerle Family news publishes stories about Fingerle Families of the past and the present. Stories like — The Oldest Fingerle in the World, Fingerle Migration Patterns, “What to name your Fingerle Baby”. The Cutest Fingerle Contest:, etc..
It says it pull information from 15 databases. They are currently putting together a Fingerle Picture database. The say if you send them pictures they will scan them and publish them in the Newsletter. (you will get the originals back)
I am trying to check further into this company. They list an address but no phone number. I called information for Denver, Colorado and there is no listing for them. The publisher is listed as Mountain Pacific News Service. and a Maxwell MacMaster. They also have a booklet out called”The History of the Fingerle Family “A not so serious history of the Family” by Maxwell MacMaster.
As I find out more I will let you know.
Several people have asked me about the “World Book of Fingerle’s. If this is the one I think it is,
it is just information from phone books. Last one I saw was out of date. My info is free why pay for it.
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