This is the farmhouse on Brachbach7, home of my
Zellhoefer ancestors for 150 years.
The farm was owned by Hans Landshuter until his
death about 1695. His widow remarried to Hans Zellhoefer II, and
the farm went into the Zellhoefer name soon afterward.
Photo c.1900, showing the Eberlein family which
owned it at that time.
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Stephan is
at present my earliest ancestor both known and connected, altho I
believe we'll find his father, who will probably prove to be Sebald.
Stephan was born about 1600 in Gresten, Austria.
His son Hanss (Johann)
was born in Gresten abt 1630, and married Elizabetha Keller in
Deitenhofen, Bavaria before 1660.
We'll be trying to learn
now whether Stephan & son Hanss both migrated together during
Exulanten, and whether Elizabetha migrated with him/them from Austria
They must have soon moved
to nearby Lentersdorf, where their son Hanss II was born in 1670.
It appears that Hanss & Elizabeth had a farm at Lentersdorf, which
was not passed on to Hanss, so we have a clue they had older children.
Elisabetha must have died
before 1684, when Hanss I married Anna Kugler.
In 1695 Hanss II married Margaretha nee:Hartmann,
widow of Hanss Landshuter, and they moved to her inherited farm
Brachbach No.7, the farm then going into the Zellhoefer name.
There were 5 children known of that marriage.
The farm passed thru the
generations to Johann Joseph Zellhoefer, who died rather young, the farm
passing to his widow, Anna Margaretha nee:Hofmann. Anna eventually
sold the farm, migrating to America, as did several of the then-adult
children of that household.
The upheavals of the
Lutheran Reformation forced many to leave Austria. Several
Zellhofer's moved to from Niederoesterreich to Bavaria/Bayern
probably 1640-1650 where the surname spelling became Zellhoefer or Zellhöfer. |
