Selzler Ancestry Synopsis 01.23.24
BY ROBERT M. SELZLER (Yakima, WA)
Introduction:
Are you a Selzler, or related to a Selzler? Are you of another surname but have Selzlers in your line?
Do you know or have you heard Selzlers are grouped as “Germans from Russia”?
Ever wonder why there are two “Ls” in the name? Ever wonder about ancestry details?
Well, this may be of interest. And of course it is offered as my research and discoveries, so if you want to chime in, discuss further, or offer corrections or other information, that’s also an objective here. I will be updating this doc and resubmitting, accordingly.
Email dodz.gm@gmail,com
General Edits:
1. In all the documents in this website, where the sur name Waltman appears, the true name is Waldman. This is due to various records errors over time.
2. In all the documents in this website, Strassberg with two “ss” is the way it was spelled in Russia.
Personal History In the Synopsis:
Hello, I am Robert Mark Selzler, aka “Bob” sometimes “Rob”. I am 81yrs at this writing. I was born in Yakima, WA, June 5, 1942. My parents were Markus (“Mark”) and Barbara (born Waldman) Selzler. Although living close to each other on their respective family farms on either side of the North/South Dakota line, they did not meet until migrating to join their relatives in these bountiful Yakima Valleys.
My paternal grandparents were Vinzenz and Margaret (born Margaretha Lacher) Selzler. They were born in the area surrounding the towns of Selz and Strassburg, Selz District, then southern Russian Empire. They were of the 4th generation descendants of the of original Selzler ancestors who emigrated from Alsace, south central Europe, to Russia in the late 1700s. They immigrated to Emmons County, North Dakota ca-1898
My father was Vinzenz’s 12th child. His mother, Margaret, was Vinzenz’s second wife.
(For more details of Vinzenz: first wife (Leonila-Nila Streifel), all children, etc., email the address given above.)
My paternal great grandparents were Sabastian and Johanna (born Kramer) Selzler. They were of the third such generation. They died in Russia. (Through my Dad, I inherited a large framed photo of each (>> Photos, below in this web page). (For Sabastian and Johanna details and children email the address given above.)
My maternal grandparents were Pius and Christina (born Gefre) Waldman. They emigrated (separately) from Russia to South Dakota ca-1902.
Living a lifetime in Yakima, I attended St Paul Elementary, and Yakima/A.C. Davis High School (4-yrs art science, drafting and architectural design). Received a 4-yr/8000-hr Industrial Arts Degree from YVC, while continuing architectural design. In addition, a 3-year internship: on-site training in construction management of large commercial/industrial projects (business/construction law, contract law, science and art of negotiation, and project site civil, structural and production engineering. Separately, later completed courses in real estate science and real estate law, YVC).
If interested, go to my full personal history Page, in this website.
How It Began:
So you think you are of German ancestry… from what is now of the country of Germany?!
Well Germanic, yes… ethnic “Standard” German, I would have to say no.
(Germanic in this article refers to all Germanic peoples, not just those from the country of Germany.)
In my mid-sixties, I finally set out to solve the riddle within information given me in my teens by my paternal aunt Martha: ‘our Selzler family name is as much French as it is Germanic. You will have the education to find out why’. Was it a wish or a commission? The seed was planted… “You don’t know who you are unless you know where you came from”.
By academic study of conventional discipline, so I did find out why, becoming a basic level historian, reading Roman/European history from many versions for years; studying the origins and languages of Indo-European peoples; and so gaining deep context as basis for my ancestral research.
What I Found:
Mainly I found, although generally grouped as “Germans from Russia”, my first-generation-born-in-America parents were not descendants of ethnic Germans, and so did not speak German. When finally realized, this became a watershed of discovery.
Rather, I was proud to discover I was in fact of “full blooded” Alsatian descent, in that both my father and mother’s paternal and maternal ancestral lines, by process of endogamy, trace back uninterrupted to Alsace (al-Saas) of the late 1700s, and beyond. And, this through four generations of Alsatian descendants born in the area around the towns of Selz and Strassburg, Selz District, Southern Russian Empire. The Selz District was in the center of the then Kutschurgan Administrative District, Southern Russian Empire, northwest of the Black Sea, near modern Odesa, Ukraine.
Today the town of Selz is renamed Lymanske, and the town of Strassburg, three miles to the north, is renamed Kuchurhan, Ukraine (>> G-maps, etc.). Of course, Strassburg in Russia was built by the original immigrant settlers and named after the “Capital” of their home-land, Alsace; and Selz the same such and named after the Alsatian town to the north of Strasburg on the Rhine River.
All this was due to a quirk of history, courtesy of Catherine’s The Great’s Manifesto of 1763, which allowed subsequent foreign settlers to Russia special inducements, mainly complete exemption from Russian civil or military service, and the absolute right to retain their culture, religion and language, which in turn created static colonies of homogeneous ethic groups within Russia.
By deep research, anthropologically Alsatians are considered one of the six separate Germanic races. Their language is not a dialect, but rather an officially classified separate Germanic language (such as is Netherlandish, English, Scandinavian, German, and Austro-Bavarian).
So then, not only did my parents speak the Germanic-Romance Alsatian language, but due to its evolutionary path through the closed Alsatian colonies of Selz and Strassburg in Russia, they spoke the ancient version passed forward from the late 18th century.
What’s in a Name:
The “Selzler” name itself strongly infers validation of its land of origin. “Selz” is the Alsatian word for “salt” in English (salz in German, seltz in French), and the suffix “ler” is a typically Alsatian/Romance version of “er” in other such languages. As an anthroponym, “Selz” indicates an occupational origin or alternately as being of or from a place (e.g. the ancient river-ferry town of Selz, west bank of the Rhine, some 30-miles north of Strasburg, or Selz River country close by). (Since Alsace is now part of France (yet again), Selz and Strasburg on the Rhine are now of the French spelling/language, Seltz and Strasbourg.)
I know of more than one instance where a Selzler was about to legally change the name to “Selzer” for convenience. That is until they found how offensive this was to the relatives from the old country. Not only would this have corrupted the proud name, but also would have changed the ethnic identity of being a proud Alsatian; thought to be akin to treason.
My father’s given name was Marcus. His, and such first names as Sabastian, Vinzenz, Aloyse and Antoine, used rarely in ethnic German families, are much used in our family’s history and strongly indicative of the more Latinized Alsatian language.
More Language Clues:
I remember one of the few times my Dad and I spoke about ancestry matters. He always was somewhat sensitive and quiet about such things. Perhaps because he didn’t speak English until he started school in 1st grade. In one of the very few times he ever complained about anything, he told how hard it was for him (and other such six-year-olds of the Dakotas) to have to learn the schoolwork and a different language at the same time; and under a cruel draconian system… physical punishment if caught speaking the “home language”.
Being raised Catholic, with more than a passing acquaintance with Latin, and four years of high school Spanish, by phonology, I finally realized my parents and older family were speaking a more Latinized language. I asked Dad if he spoke German (as I had always assumed) and if the family could read and write German. He answered ‘I can make out the gist of what is being written in the German-language newspapers we had back in the Dakotas, but we don’t speak that “lingo”. (This not being an issue of literacy. My parent had become fairly articulate in English and were proficient in math.)
When my parents would argue it would be in their first language. They understood each other perfectly. And, when Dad and Mom’s families, or certain other in-laws and acquaintances got together in private, they laughed and had a good old time in their primary language, no problems with understanding each other.
All strong inferential conclusion pointing to shared specific language, thus shared Alsatian roots.
Records:
There is a rich source of records available for research in all this, especially in those preserved by individuals and entities in North and South Dakota. In the Alsatian colonies in Russia, the Catholic priests (certainly of and from their own Alsatian communities) were required by the Russian Government to submit a list of all births and deaths once a year. Not only did I find family surnames there, but also the ancestral surnames of kids I went to school with at St. Paul Elementary.
Alsace:
The Rhine River flows north out of the Alps Mountains and through the long Upper Rhine River Valley, then makes an abrupt bend to the west as it continues toward the Atlantic Ocean. With its favorable climate and fertile loess farmlands, the region has been a coveted land of conflict since ancient times. The Rhine has served as a natural border of the Alsace region on its north and east sides; West Switzerland on its south and the Vosges Mountain Range on the west.
“Alsacia” became part of the Roman Empire by military conquest, led by Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars, which culminated in the decisive Roman victory at the Battle Alesia in 52 BC. Over the next centuries, the Romans maintained the Rhine as the natural border between the Empire and the unconquered lands they named Germania, to north and east of the River. (The Rhine, as it ran on westward from Alsacia to the Atlantic was continuation of such border.)
In this, the Romans established military camps in Alsacia along the west bank of the Rhine. Argentoratum was such a large camp. Later in history, Germanic tribes conquered and settled the region. The camp had grown into a town. It was renamed “Stratisburgum” (eventually, Strasburg, future Germany > today Strasbourg, France).
(Argentoratum is believed to be the birthplace Vercingetorix, the chieftain king of the Gauls, who united tribes across Gallia (future France) to lead them in battle against Caesar, in defense of conquest by Rome, 52 BC.)
By the mid-300s AD, the Alemanni, a powerful confederation of Germanic tribes, and what had become a main branch of the Germanic peoples, were in control of Germania just across the Rhine, to the east and north of Roman Alsacia. In 406 AD the Alemanni led an invasion across the River to defeat and drive out the Roman garrisons. They took control of and settled Alsacia completely.
(Over time, there would be three subdivisions of the Alemanni: the Suebi (modern Swabians), southwest modern Germany; Alsace, modern France; and the West Swiss. While the modern languages of Swabian and West Swiss are Germanic dialects, Alsatian is officially classified as a separate Germanic/Romance language.)
Clovis 1, first king of the Franks, a fierce Germanic people (Netherlands/Belgium), narrowly defeated the Alemanni at the Battle of Tolbiac 496, to incorporate Alsace into the Frankish Empire. (This would be the basis of issues of possession continuing to this day in Alsace.)
After Charlemagne’s death, his son Louis divided the Carolingian Frankish Empire between his three sons, agreed to at the Treaty of Verdun 843. In this, Alsace became part of the middle kingdom, with the Rhine being the natural border with East Francia (eventually becoming, Kingdom of Germany > Country of Germany 1861.)
Through endless conflict and war, Alsace has passed between French and German control five times since 1681; the last time was in the settlement of the Second World War, when the Allies assigned control back to France. (Sometime in the history of all of these settlements, the north border of Alsace has moved about 90-miles south of the original/natural border created be the westbound Rhine.)
In a pivotal point in this discourse, in 1799 a French army came to take back Alsace from German control, and to re-establish the northeastern border of France at the Rhine. The Alsatians fled east by the thousands across the Rhine into present-day southwest Germany. When things settled down, they attempted to return to their properties, only to find French settlers and military had moved in and confiscated them.
In this situation, hundreds of Alsatian refuge families accepted Catherine’s earlier invitation to migrate and settle in Russia. Although the invitation was somewhat dated and Catherine had passed, the Russians welcomed the Alsatians, being known as advanced in farming, crafts, manufacturing, and coming with a full complement of professionals… A ready-made society to pioneer the wild empty steppes of Russia.
With characteristic orderliness and detail, these people organized agents from within their ranks to travel in advance to the available destinations, select the most viable, and manage preparations and legalities. Other agents would manage the trip and wagon trains. Over 300 Alsatian refuge families were in the original migrations of 1802 to 1804. Others would come in 1808 to escape the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars.
Migration/The Dakotas:
When Catherine’s great great grandson, Czar Alexander lll, revoked their special rights, the fourth generation-born-in-Russia Alsatian colonies again organized their agents to find migration destinations and manage travel and settlement; to get out of Russia while they could. (Alexander lll had instituted his “Russification Policy”, to make Russian military service, language and religion universal in all of the Empire.)
Treasuring their own proud identity and culture, many groups immigrated to South America, and due to recent enactment of the “Homestead Act 1862” in the USA, a majority of the Alsatians colonies from Russia settled the ‘Plain States”, especially North and South Dakota. They came in organized waves.
In one aspect of the Alsatian legacy, there are three places in North Dakota named after places in old Alsace, carried forth through Russia by succeeding/migrating generations. The original name of Strasburg North Dakota was Stanford, until the name was changed by a vote of the new immigrants; inferring a majority presence of Alsatians in North Dakota.
Also in this, there is today the hamlet named Selz in North Dakota, named after ancient Selz on the Rhine, by way of Selz in Russia. (Selz in Alsace is the west side landing of the ferry that has served as a main Rhine River crossing since Roman Times.)
In the early 1900s, there was another hamlet named Selz in southeast North Dakota. It eventually was absorbed into surrounding communities.
Future Research:
There is no doubt that the Selzlers (and Gefres/Waldmans) trace back to Alsace, but there the written record becomes thin if nonexistent. Here is where a main method of the researcher is inferential conclusion, taking diverse findings and stringing them into the most logically probable theory.
So, what are the Selzler’s roots in Alsace, and back beyond? Where did they come from? By what path did they get there?
With years of related study, I have two main theories in this. One I call the “Franconian Path” and the other “The Gothic Path”. Overall, as I have time I will be pursuing the more probable (and being the more interesting, my favorite).
Within The Gothic Path there are two paths, both end with migrations of Germanic/Gothic people who arrive in the Alsatian population through or as the Alemanni. One of these paths is migrations from the south, and the other from the east.
Around 750 BC, an Indo-European/Germanic people called the Gots migrated from present-day southeast Sweden and the Island of Gotland southward across the Baltic Sea, and into what is present-day Poland. What prompted the migration is unknown, but given the northern latitude, a mini ice age may have been the cause.
Over the centuries, the Gots continued their conquests and slow expansions southward from Poland. In this, the “south path” expanded around the slopes and steppe-lands east of the Carpathian Mountains. Eventually these Gots encountered the more advanced Greeks, and with this developed a large kingdom spanning from southern Poland to the Black Sea and Danube River Valley.
They eventually came into fateful contact with the Roman Empire. The Romans called them the Gothi. The Gothi further divided into the Visigoths (West Goths) and Ostrogoths (East Goths). At separate times in history, each of these Gothic groups would contribute a portion of what would become the overall migration from the south to the Alemanni.
While the history of the “south path” was taking place, an “east path” of Gots was expanding out of Poland, around the north end of the Carpathian Mountains and into the future-named Great Hungarian Plain. In time, this would become the migration from the east to the Alemanni.
In the ‘east path” some of these Gots stayed in the Hungarian Plain while others, ever searching for opportunities and conquest, migrated on to the west. In this, the theory is that these people either became the Alemanni, or became one or more of the confederated tribes of the Alemanni; either of which becoming the roots of the Alsatians.
Resuming with the “south path” to the Alemanni, the Visigoths, over a span of history, continued to migrate around the south end of the Carpathian Mountains, across the Danube, and in time into what is present-day northern Italy. They went on to sack the City of Rome in 410 AD. Leaving Rome, they migrated into northwest Italy (with the US equivalent of about a trillion and a half dollars in plunder from Rome.)
Here they stayed, raiding the region briefly. The great majority of these Visigoths went on to establish the Great Visigoth Kingdom that comprised almost all the land area of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain). However, a small faction stayed behind in northwest Italy where the raiding was good. A plea for help went out to the burgeoning Frankish Kingdom. A Frankish army was sent to chase out the remaining Visigoths, and in the process, some of these defeated Goths fled north over the Alpine passes. Which naturally led into the upper Rhine, and to the Alemanni and Alsace.
In the late 400s AD, following the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths established a vast kingdom in the collapsed Western Roman Empire; encompassing all of present-day Italy and Sicily, Austria and the Balkan States, with Ravenna as its capital. In 551, the Byzantines (remaining Eastern Roman Empire) defeated the Ostrogoths, and in the chaos some of the defeated Ostrogoths were dispersed north across the Alps, and to the Alemanni and Alsace.
In totality, this theorizes the possibility that Selzlers may be Alsatian of Gothic descent.
In this, as an obvious first method, being one of the last of “pure blood” that can be traced directly back to Alsace of the 1700s, I intend to have real medical DNA testing, which would be substantial in indicating “The Gothic Path”, and the deeper roots of the Selzlers.
Photos:
Paternal great grandparents, Sabastian and Johanna (born Kramer) Selzler
Paternal grandparents gravesite, Strasburg, Emmons County, North Dakota:
My maternal great grandparents, Anton and Margaretha (born Klotz) Gefre, and family. The couple standing top left is my maternal grandparents, Pius and Christina (Gefre) Waldman and family. The child in white is my 2yo mother, Barbara Waldman:
My Maternal grandparents, Pius J. and Christina Alise (born Gefre) Waldman, and family
Bott Row L – R: Harvey, Pius, Ramon, Christina (Gefre), Jerome
Mid Row L – R: Adele, Hilda, Rita, Barbara (Mom), Gwen
Top Row L – R: Tony, Peter, Albert, Willy