Christoffel von Rodels GR

[scummerow]

Hallo,

Ich suche Informationen nach meinen Urgrossvater, Luzius Christoffel. Er wurde in Rodels im Jahr 1838 geboren. Er war katholisch. Er wanderte nach Cincinnati, Ohio die Vereinigten Staaten bis zum 1868 aus. Hat jemand irgendwelche Informationen über Luzius?

Verzeihen Sie bitte meiner armen Reichweite der deutschen Sprache.

Vielen Dank für jede mögliche Hilfe.

Hello,

I am searching for information about my great grandfather, Luzius Christoffel. He was born in Rodels in the year 1838. He emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States by 1868. Does anyone have any information about Luzius?

Please forgive my poor grasp of the German language.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

Sandra Cummerow

[Peter.D]

Hello Sandra,

I suggest you contact the State Archives in Chur. Since your great-grandfather emigrated not before 1860, he and his family should be listed in the Family Register (Bürgerrodel) of Rodels, which was started shortly after 1860 and should be available on microfilm in the State Archives.
In addition, there's also an article on the Christoffel family from the Heinzenberg area in the "Bündnerisches Monatsblatt 1930, S. 37ff", which is also available in the State Archives.

Peter

[scummerow]

Hello, Peter -

Thank you for your helpful response. I will Contact the State Archives in Chur as you suggest. I have my great grandfather's Heimatschein indicating that he was an unmarried male resident of the Domleschg. Can you tell me the purpose of this document?

Thank you again for your help.

Sandra

[Peter.D]

Hello Sandra,

The Heimatschein shows the origin of the family, the community where they are officially registered. The Heimat is a pivot element for Swiss citizenship. Attach a scan of it to your inquiry to the State Archives in Chur.

Peter

[Wolf]

It would be interesting to see this Heimatschein also in this thread. You state he's mentioned as resident - what is the German word (is he mentioned as resident or citizen)? I am asking as Domleschg is not a community (candidate for place of citizenship) but a region, which includes Rodels.

I am not sure about Graubünden and the 19th century - but e.g in the Toggenburg (St.Gallen) before 1800 there was no citizenship with single communities, people there were "Landleute" (in a wider sense the equivalent of citizenship) of the Abbot of St.Gallen in his Toggenburg territory. Citizenship with single communities in the Toggenburg was introduced in the 19th century.

Another possibility: would he be a resident (or whatever) of Sils im Domleschg? This is another community in the Domleschg region - carrying Domleschg in the official name of the community (because there is another Sils im Engadin) ... and it also is another place of citizenship for Christoffel.

Now ... what is the purpose of a Heimatschein? This document was issued upon request if needed to prove things like citizenship (e.g. to get a passport) or marital status (e.g. when someone wanted to get married not in his original parish).

[scummerow]

Hello, Wolf -

I received the Heimatschein in rather poor condition and hope to have it restored. I scanned it (in two parts since I cannot adjust the size of scanned items on my printer at home). If you would advise me how to upload images to this site, I'll try to do that today.

It is interesting to me that this document could be used to get a passport. There is a gap between when Luzius obtained the Heimatschein (July, 1864) and the date of his U.S. citizenship (September, 1876). My mother told me that Luzius left Rodels to become a papal guard in the Vatican, before emigrating to the U.S. I am hoping to determine if that is in fact the case.

Sandra

[Wolf]

Hello Sandra,

uploading images is fairly simple: when you enter a new contribution, just scroll down a bit to a field with a search icon ("Durchsuchen" in German - not sure what it says in the English version) to search for the file on your hard disk. Below that is a text field for comments - and then just click on the upload icon.
There are some less easy to describe size restrictions. Especially as you have it in two bits, if you send me your original files, I'll try to combine them and re-format to fit the requirements. Being a moderator, I can then upload the resulting image to your contribution. I'll send you my mail address via PN.

You mention the Swiss Guard in the Vatican: it makes sense that a Heimatschein could have been required to join them - to prove that you were a) Swiss and b) not married - both being necessary to join the Guard.

[scummerow]

Hello Wolf,

I will try to post the upper and lower halves of the Heimatschein with this post. I saved the scans on the "appropriate for web" setting. We will see if this works.

Sandra

[Wolf]

Hello Sandra,

as you can see, I have merged your scans and uploaded the combined image: click on the image to get a larger display. What do we learn from the Heimatschein?

It confirms, Luzi[us] Chistoffel was citizen of Rodels in the district of Domleschg.

He is named Luzi[us] de Christ[oph] Marti[n] Christoffel - which I would interprete as Luzius, son of Christoph Martin Christoffel.

He is 25 years old in 1864 - fits your information of 1838 as year of birth.

The document explicitely excludes to use for a marriage - it just confirms that he will be accepted as citizen of Rodels again after being abroad.

You write that he had emigrated to the USA by 1868: to apply for a Heimatschein 4 years prior to emigration seems to me to be unusual - so he either emigrated well before 1868, or went somewhere else first, which could have been somewhere in Switzerland or e.g. the Vatican to join the Swiss Guard. Rodels was catholic - so this would be plausible.

Unfortunately no church records of Rodels seem to have survived. As has been suggested before, I would recommend to contact the Chur State Archive to enquire about other sources for further research.

[scummerow]

Hello, Wolf

Thank you for merging the document! The information is very exciting to me. I had run into a dead end with Luzi, so it is helpful to know that the church records have not survived. It is also helpful to know that the Heimatschein suggests that his circumstances may have permitted him to become a papal guard. My great grandfather was said to be fluent in German, Romansch, and Italian. I will follow up with the Archives of Chur. I also intend to contact the Vatican through its website to see if they can confirm his status as a papal guard. Interestingly, he became the Braumeister for a popular brewery in Cincinnati, and held this position until he became ill with tuberculosis and died in 1901.

I will post what I learn from the Archives at Chur as soon as I receive a response.

Sandra

[scummerow]

Hello Wolf and PeterD. -

I followed your suggestion, and e-mailed an inquiry to the Archives at Chur with Heimatschein attached. I have already received a very helpful response that will allow me to go further in my search:

There was a record of the birth of "Lucius" Fidelis Victor Christoffel in the church book for Tomils. The birth date matches that of my great- grandfather. His parents are listed as Christianus Martinus Christoffel and Anna Maria Ragutt. His grandparents were listed as Joannes Jacobus Christoffel (from Rodels) and Anna Teresia Henzli (?) (from Bonaduz); and Joseph Antonius Ragutt and Anna Maria Tschup (both from Paspels). In addition, they found that that my great- great grandparents had another child, Joannes Joseph Christoffel, in 1841. The record for Joannes Joseph was found in the church book for Almens.

I had seen the last name "Ragut" associated with the name Christoffel in records for Kanton Graubünden available through the LDS Family Search files, but I was not able to connect them in any meaningful way. I will begin work on a Family Tree and post it on the GeneaNet site.

Needless to say, I am grateful and very excited.

Sandra

[Peter.D]

Hi Sandra, that's really great! Do you know if they also searched for an entry of his family in the Family Register (Bürgerregister) rather than 'only' in the parish records? In the Family Register, if it exists for Rodels, you would also see the filiation and very often remarks on emigration and the like.

Furthermore, I suggest you contact the Association of the former papal guards and ask them about the old records of enlistments.

Peter

[scummerow]

Hello. Peter -

I believe that they searched only in the church records. I will contact them to see if they can find any information in Bürgerregister. Thank you for that information and for the link to the Association for former papal guards. I was not aware that such an organization existed. I have received so much valuable help from this forum!

Sandra