Kornthal Families sailing on the ship NUREMBERG

Several families who settled around Kornthal Church arrived in New Orleans Mar 23, 1861 aboard the ship NUREMBERG sailing from the port of Harve, France. These families were all from the village of Weingarten and had attended the same Evangelical Reformed church in Weingarten. The church records were preserved in the Protestant Church Archive in Speyer and a microfilm copy is available. These families include Bernhard, Duerkheimer, Foehr, and Sauerbrunn. They were related through marriage in Weingarten and some of their descendants intermarried in America.
  


A note on spelling of the names- in the church records Bernhard and Sauerbrunn are spelled the same as we spell them now. I have not found the Bernhard surname spelled Bernhardt when referring to our ancestors. There are many unrelated families who spell the name with "dt", but I have not found links between them.

In the German records Duerkheimer is spelled with an "umlaut u" - Ü - making the German spelling Dürkheimer. This spelling is difficult to pronounce for most non-Germans so it led to the large number of different spellings found in American records. Substituting "ue" for Ü is common and accepted practice in Germany. That is how  Duerkheimer came into common use in Union County.

Similarly, the name Foehr was spelled Föhr in Germany and was pronounced "Fair", thus leading to some records showing the name as Fehr. Substituting "oe" for ö is common and accepted practice in Germany.



Weingarten Evangelical Reformed Church where our ancestors worshipped, married, had their children christened, and were buried, viewed from the north

 Weingarten is located on the left (west) bank of the Rhine River about 10 miles (16 km) west-southwest of Speyer.  Weingarten translated means literally "Wine Garden" and is translated as "Vineyard".  While researching Weingarten I discovered that there are at least five villages in Bavaria and Baden so named. It was confusing at first but once the correct names were found, it became obvious which was the correct village.

Arms of the village of Weingarten

Part of the confusion came from stories I had heard that Weingarten was in Bavaria. Bavaria is located in the mountainous south part of Germany, east of the Rhine River. Our Weingarten is WEST of the Rhine. It turns out that the Kingdom of Bavaria controlled the area around Weingarten from about 1800 to 1874, but it was never a tightly integrated part of the Kingdom. Many laws and customs were different west of thew Rhine in what is called the Pfalz region.

List of Kornthal immigrants from page 7 of the passenger manifest of the ship Nuremberg, arriving at New Orleans from Harve, France 23 Mar 1861:

167	Durkheimer	Daniel	38
168	Durkheimer	Eva	38
169	Durkheimer	Jacob	16
170	Durkheimer	Valentin	9
171	Durkheimer	Peter	4
172	Hellmer	Joh.	26
173	Sauerbrunn	Jacob	45
174	Sauerbrunn	A. Maria	44
175	Sauerbrunn	George	16
176	Sauerbrunn	Eva	15
177	Sauerbrunn	Thomas	14
178	Sauerbrunn	Fred ^c	12
184	Fehr	Fr ^k	42
185	Fehr	Elise	42
186	Fehr	Peter	19
187	Fehr	Eva	17
188	Fehr	Marie	15
189	Fehr	Cath.	10
190	Fehr	Elise,	7
194	Sauerbrunn	Val ^n	27
195	Sauerbrunn	Ch ^ana	27
196	Sauerbrunn	G ^ge	4
197	Sauerbrunn	Thomas	2
198	Sauerbrunn	Val ^n	3 mo.
201	Bernhard	Peter	55
202	Bernhard	Suzanna	39
203	Bernhard	Michel	28
204	Bernhard	Adam	10
205	Bernhard	Peter	9
206	Bernhard	Jacob	3