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Bratzler
is not a very common name. The first known written record of the name is
on the label of a schnaps
bottle (Pertl
Stierwascher Bauernschnaps) from Salzburg, Austria!
 The
label commemorates the 1525 peasant uprising, lead by KASPAR BRATZLER,
against the archbishop of Salzburg. The peasants, joined by miners
from Gastein (now Bad Gastein), were protesting the way they were
treated and listed
12 grievances that they wanted addressed, many of which were not
religious in nature. The peasants took temporary control of
Salzburg by force and successfully negotiated the creation of a "diet"
(parliament) as part of the local government. The archbishop
regained power but the diet never met and the status quo was
reestablished. Many of the leaders of the uprising were executed.
 I
speculate that the Bratzler family migrated westward from
catholic-controlled Austria to protestant-ruled Württemberg in Germany
to avoid religious persecution. The next oldest written Bratzler records that I have
found are the protestant baptisms of the sons of Joannis Bratzler, Jacobus
Bratzler in 1589 and Bartholomeus Bratzler
in 1591, both in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany.
Given no further mention of Bratzlers in the Ulm church records
has been discovered, I suspect that Joannis Bratzler and family left Ulm and moved
further west to
either Gochsheim or the neighboring village of Oberderdingen (also known as Derdingen), Württemberg.
 The Bratzler family name is next found recorded in the early 1600's
in the church records of two small villages (Oberderdingen, Gochsheim)
and in the 1700's in nearby villages (Menzingen,
Münzesheim,
Unteröwisheim), all located near
Karlsruhe, in what is now called
Kraichtal, Baden-Württemberg (Baden
history;
Württemberg history), Germany (Bratzler Baden
Villages).
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My paternal great-grandmother was
Eva
Josephine SCHADT (1838-1928). Her Schadt family goes back
to the late 1700's in Unteröwisheim. She, as with my
great-grandfather, also was born in, and emigrated from, Unteröwisheim
to Algonquin, Illinois, married him in Elgin, Illinois, and, after he
died, lived in Algonquin until her death with my grandparents on the family farm that
she helped to homestead.
The only other Bratzler lineage I know about
originated in Gochsheim, Württemberg with
Jeremias BRATZLER (ca. 1620-?).
Gochsheim was a "castle city" starting in 1682 with a Duke living there
into the 1700's. One of the
earliest maps of Germany
dating to 1665 shows the prominence of Gochsheim as a "castle city" and
home to Württemberg royalty (see
Gochsheim history).
 Most of the US Bratzlers are descended from Jeremias Bratzler of
Gochsheim. I speculate that
Jeremias BRATZLER and my ancestor, Andreas BRATZLER, were related to
each other (brothers? cousins?) as they lived but 5 km distant from each
other. Unfortunately the church records for Gochsheim and
Oberderdingen do not cover the late 1500's and early 1600's (the
Gochsheim church was burned to the ground by French troops in the
Palatinate Heritage War of 1689) so I have
not been able to confirm any connection between the two Bratzler
lines.
Bratzlers around the world live primarily in the US,
Germany, and France. Emigration from Germany took place mainly in the
1800's. The Bratzlers that came to the United States, starting in
1839, settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, Algonquin,
Illinois, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Paris, Illinois, Clinton, Missouri, and Lawton, Oklahoma.
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I
have traced two distinct and separate Bratzler family lines. As
far as I know, all of the Bratzlers in the world are descended from one
of these two lines, the
Oberderdingen line or the Gochsheim line. My great-grandfather,
Johann
Jacob BRATZLER (1831-1905), descended from the Bratzlers of
Oberderdingen (Andreas BRATZLER,
ca. 1614-1654).
The Oberderdingen Bratzlers moved by the mid-1700's in
successive generations to two neighboring villages, first to Ruit and
then to Unteröwisheim where my
great-grandfather
was born and raised.
 He, his brother and sister all emigrated separately
as adults (they were in their 20's) to the US around 1848-1852 and each homesteaded farms in Algonquin, (now
Barrington
Hills)and Barrington, Illinois. Interestingly, each of the 3
Bratzler siblings married, after arriving in Illinois, another person
who had also immigrated from Unteröwisheim to Algonquin/Barrington.
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Today there are more Bratzlers listed in the US
telephone directories (whitepages.com) than in the German or French directories.
People with the surname, Bratzler, and their addresses as listed in
local telephone directories:
United States Bratzlers,1999;
United States Bratzlers, 2010
German Bratzlers in 1999;
German Bratzlers in 2010
French Bratzlers in 1999;
French Bratzlers in
2010
Over 40 people with the Bratzler surname are listed
in the US Social Security Death Index:
Deceased Bratzlers who have lived and died in the US as recorded by
the US Social Security Administration.
My
BRATZLER name index
My
SCHADT name index |
