My ancestor... German war prisonner in 1792 !

[Claude AUSSAGE]

I am looking for the city of birth of Johann Tihl (or Dihl...) born in december 1773. Help from a german speaker would be a great help for me !


My ancestor has been among the german prisonners at one of the first battles of the coalition war in 1792... and married a french woman 8 years after, near Chartres in France.

The indications I have are mainly taken from his marriage act of 1801 in France :
(my own translation) "Born in Milhau, principality of Schonisberg, Germany". He was a beer brewer.

Names have been transliterated probably not so well by the french civil officer, including my ancestor's surname.

The long story is : his son François THIL said 26 years after (at his own marriage) that his name on his birth act was incorrect (not DINL as it was written but THIL - looking more east french surname in fact !). However Johann signed clearly his marriage act in 1801 and birth act of his son François as Johan (or Jan) Dihl or Tihl or Dirl...

Name of birth place and principality is uncertain as well. I didn't found any principality in Germany named Schonisberg in 1773 in the principality list on Wikipedia. Only one named "Schonburg".

I tried to find a "Milhau" in germany : I found none. It doesn't seem to be so german, so perhaps it is "Mühlau", the pronunciations of both could be very close for a french ear...

There are a few Mühlau located near a Schonberg or Schonesberg place in Saxony and Bavaria, but they are very small places except one Schönberg a little bigger near Regensburg. Is it possible a principality would have been called Schönesberg from so small places ?

So I am looking for help from a german speaker to find possible places from historical or geographical sources. If you have information about military conscription in the german (or austrian ?) armies at the time, it could be helpful also...

if you are able to help me in this thrilling enquiry, contact me, I will send you the scan of orignal acts. I could help, reciprocally, for searches in France.

Thanks a lot...

[Wolf]

I have checked the Bavarian Ortsverzeichnis of 1876 - no Bezirk Schonisberg or similar. But then this compilation is for a time frame after Napoleon had reorganised Bavaria.

Have you tried the ShtetlSeeker – Town Search? It finds similar spellings and lets you display all other locations within a 10 mile radius: very useful if you are not sure about the spelling. Covers all Eastern and Central Europe.

[Nico]

Bonsoir Claude,

Je ne trouve qu\'une seule principauté dont le nom ressemble à celui que tu cites:
La principauté Schönburg .

Tu trouveras ici un lien entre cette principauté et le village de Mühlau.

Bonne soirée
Nico

[Dagmar]

perhaps it means Schömberg in the Blackwood forrest and Mulhouse in Alsace ?????