This tour will introduce you to the mountain valleys where Edelmann lived in the Odenwald 1500 - 1800 and probably after that. We will begin our tour in an airplane high above Heidelberg. First we will look to the north and northeast. Click this line to load an artist's sketch of that view and then press the BACK button of your browser. Notice the Rhein River running up the left margin of the map from Ludwigs-Hafen northward to Mainz. Notice Darmstadt a little northwest of the center of the map. The Neckar River runs across the bottom from Mannheim eastward to Heidelberg and then to the northeast. Notice how the Neckar river runs exactly northeast to Eberbach and then turns exactly 90 degrees and flows southeast. Katzenbuckel, highest point in the Odenwald is labeled on the map and lies 2 miles east of Eberbach. Fix your attention on Eberbach where the river makes the 90 degree turn. [Press the FORWARD button of your browser to jump to the map; press the BACK BUTTON to return to this page from the artist's map]. That valley running north from the Neckar just west of Eberbach is Gammels Bach (creek). Follow that main valley 12 kilometer northward and you come to Beerfelden which is a town in a mountain pass that is broad and gentle enough for a large town. Beerfelden is marked on the map, but is hard to see. Both William H. Eddleman and I began our search for Eddleman in the Odenwald in the Evangelical Church of Beerfelden in March 1957. But neither of us knew about the other, unless they told him a soldier was here last Saturday. Since I was there two weekends that month, I came within day(s) of meeting him. Village names in red have been home to Edelmann families.
Now direct your attention to the mountain valley paralleling Gammels Bach but lying 1.3 miles west. That is Finken Bach. From the Neckar River as you walk northward along Finken Bach you come to Hainbrunn then on a high hill to the east Rothenberg, then on up the creek is Finkenbach, up a creek to the west is Hinterbach. If you continue up Finken Bach, you come to Falken Gesass with its 6 water mills, and continue up the creek to Airlenbach. It was in Airlenbach that I enjoyed a Sunday dinner with Helmut Edelmann, biology teacher, on my second visit to Odenwald Bach. There is one particularly nice view that I would like you to see. It may have been taken in this area.
Lets go back to Eberbach [take time to visit Eberbach if you wish]on the Neckar River. The main stream in Eberbach is Holder Bach. Follow Holder Bach southeasterly out of Eberbach 3 miles and a rise of 1200 feet and you come to Oberdielbach. Turn north and climb another 100 feet and you come to Waldkatzenbach. For a wonderful view, hike one mile northwest and 400 feet up to the top of Katzenbuckel (elev. 2070 feet). If you look west and just a little north you can see the hill 5.3 miles away that rises just enough (elev 1650 feet) to keep you from seeing Rothenberg on its northwest slope. Rothenberg has sheltered many Edelmann families.
Now let us drive again up Gammels Bach valley to Beerfelden in the mountain pass. In the south edge of Beerfelden we pass out of the watershed of Gammels Bach and at the north edge of Beerfelden we begin decending the valley of the Muemling watershed. Six miles north of Beerfelden we come to Erbach where Peter Eddleman family of Surrey NC came from. Perhaps he actually lived in Erlenbach 2 km southeast of Erbach. Traveling 2 miles further we come to Michelstadt the most northern town having Eddleman. No known Edelmann lived between Beerfelden and Erlenbach. Half the trip from Beerfelden to Michelstadt is cleared farmland, but no known Edelman lived in this better farmland. Perhaps the Edelmann liked the narrow mountain valleys or could afford to live in them. It must have been very hard to earn a living there.
The above tour introduced you to the mountains and valleys where many Edelmann lived in the 17th and 18th Centuries.
Within a week, I will place a tour here on the Bergstrasse to show you the Wentz Edelmann region south east of Darmstadt
Now organise the trip on bergstrasse
Material below line is being used to write this page
> lived 1540 and some came to Amerika 200 years afterward. They lived > among the steepest mountains of the Odenwald on Finken Bach (creek) > Gammels Bach, and Itter Bach. http://www.fh-diburg.de/dieburg/dib-ung.htm > > Now we have a day of free time before the big Eddleman Reunion on the > OdenWald Chat. http://www.odenwald.de/chat/
Before then I suggest you look around the Odenwald. Go back to the map > and click on Dieburg at the bottom and find your way to Berstrasse and > visit all those towns. You will see 30 pictures that give you a good > idea of the more heavily inhabited western part of the Odenwald. The > Bergstrasse is a wonderful drive, be sure to tarry in all the little > towns. There is a whole list to click or just follow the arrows. > About Monday or Tuesday, we will begin the Seminars on Edelman > families in the region we just saw on the map. > In a few months we will have a .jpg online of the topographic map I > used to guide you today.
The chief authors of this page are Edward Ewbank and Harold Eddleman, both are visited the Odenwald.
--------below is to be depleted for the above page.
I may make EG500-599 The European orgins of Eddleman
500 and 501 indexes 502-510 history of Europe with links to old maps
511 first page of Odenwald being and story index. give towns and a map they can call up
516 - This is a 13 page document of Eddleman in Finkenbach and Rothenberg in Odenwald
Dear Cousins in Eddleman-L@rootsweb.com
I have not been able to upload any files to the Eddleman Genealogical Library since early August due to problems at the Disknet server. This e-mail is a copy of an EGL page which will be revised and then used to introduce the families that been found in the Church Records of the Odenwald.
The text in blue is comments and translations by Harold Eddleman. The text in black is verbatim from a document in the William H. Collection. The original does not state the author or date. I am fairly sure it was prepared by Dr. F. H. Weber, 51 Osannstrasse, Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany on commission from William H. Eddleman. About 1957 to 1961.
German General Staff maps of 1937 show Rothenberg as a town __ meters above Finken Bach (creek)on the crest of a rounded hill that is cleared of trees and surrounded by farmland having about 5% slope. The cleared farm land extends 500 meters upward from the town and then pine trees upto the peak 40 meters higher than the town. (one meter = 3.3 American feet), show a church and 20 homes in Rothenburg, but no watermills because the town is 3/4 mile from Finken Bach (creek) on a hill 655 feet above the creek. This map shows Finkenbach had 28 homes and 4 watermills, but no church. Finkenbach streches 1.3 miles along Finken Bach with 4 watermills and 28 homes, but no church. If one travels up Finken Bach 2 miles, he comes to Falken Gesass (31 homes and 5 watermills; no church. A mile further up Finken Bach is Liedenbach and a mile further he comes to Airlenbach where FinkenBach forks. Notice that Finkenbach is a village on Finken Bach, a fast moving stream which drops from exactly 400 meter elevation in upper part of Airlenbach to 125 meters, 13 kilometers downstream where it empties into the Neckar River at Hirshhorn. The forested hills rise to regularly to 475 eters on each side of Finken Bach and two prominences rise to 510 meters elevation. For a view in the Odenwald LINK. I will eventually have links to maps here. The Edelmann lived in the valleys of the highest part of the Odenwald. Perhaps these communities survived on logging, sawing boards in watermills and what wheat and hay for cows they could grow on the steep hillsides (average = 15% slope). The rounded hilltop on which Beerfelden and its church were built had only 1/3 the slope of most cleared farm land in the area.
Stammfolge
der Sippen
E D E L M A N N
zu
Finken Bach und Rothen Berg i. Odenwald
(Versuch einer Rekonstrucktion)
-----end of Title page (page 1)
A.
Die Sippe Edelmann zu Finkenbach
Uebersicht
Zeichenerklaerung:
[F.] = Finkenbacher Stamm
[A.] = Airlenbacher Ast
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[F.] I
[F.] II
[F.] III
[F.] IV
[F.] V -------> [A.] VIa - VIg
[A.] VII
[A.] VIIa - VIIIe
-------end of page 2
Stammfolge
(Versuch einer Rekonstruktion)
[F.] i Velten Edelmann zu Finkenbach (1)
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MThe Odenwald is a region of beautiful forested ridges of low mountains. The conifer covered peaks are 470 to 575 meters (1500 to 1800 feet) elevation. Today it is a favorite vacation area of Germany, but it must have been difficult to earn a living there when many Eddleman left there in the 1700s for America. I have been describing the area where Eddleman lived. Fifteen miles to the west the hills end and ten miles of flat lands border the east bank of the Rhien River. That plain is 330 feet above sealevel.
This page is based mainly on the papers of William H. Eddleman. The WHE collection is available daily for study at the Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, 100 Locust Street, Philadelphia PA USA. I did not know of William H. Eddleman and his work until a few years after his death, but it happens we both visited the Protestant Church records in Beerfelden the same month, March 1957. Letters in the collection indicate he had known about Eddleman from the Odenwald at least 2 years earlier. I had learned of these Eddleman from Richard Menges a stone sculpter I had visited frequently for five months. He had traced his family roots to the 15th Century and his professional genealogist friend told me Beerfelden was the only place Eddleman had lived in Germany. On learning about Eddleman in Beerfelden, Herr Menges, his son Karl, and I microfilmed church records the following Saturday. The pastor was very helpful and I remember the friendly talk clearly.
Many of the people in the records were from Airlenbach, a dorf (village) 2 miles to the northwest. When the church office closed, we went to Airlenbach. Herr Menges asked the first person we met if any Edelmann still lived in the dorf. The neatly dressed gentleman replied, "Ich bein einer Edelmann." I was thinking great, but he said he was the only Edelman in the dorf.
Twenty miles to the west level farming
Heidelberg lies at the southwest corner of the forested mountain areas of the Odenwald (O dayn wahlt).