Rottweil-Tuttlingen Genealogy

Last Updated: 16 July 2004

• The Thirty Years War period was from about 1618 to 1648. The peace of Westphalia that ended the war set the religious boundaries between Catholic and Lutheran. (Source: Thomas Koch)
• The records in the Biesingen-Oberbaldingen-Öfingen churches are missing from 1632 to 1651. I understand there are other churches in the area with missing records in this time period. (Source: Fred H. Held)
• There is a similar gap in the Tuttlingen Church registers for baptisms - 1733 to 1767 (Source: Kevin Starkey)
• In Lauffen (Rottweil) there is a gap between 1730 to 1745 and it was written in the "Seelenregister" itself, that this part was lost, possibly due to carelessness. Marriage and Baptism records are beginning in 1695 (those before have burnt down with the church - Heilig Kreuz Kirche - in Rottweil, where Lauffen belonged to). Death records are starting only in 1777 and entries for children start only in abt 1805. There were many villages which had no parish and the priests came from another place and where always changing. Often also the register itself is not complete. If there was no parish and prist came only some few times a year people went to different other churches. I have found by chance or others found them for me entries for baptisms and marriages and deaths in the neighbouring parish of Deisslingen or Rottweil-Altstadt or Rottweil-Heilig-Kreuz. (Source: Rose Schiller)
• There is a gap in the Tuttlingen death records, 1734-1790. (Source: Elsie Saar)
• Would love to know more about the role of the Neckar River in this region's history. It flows from Villingen-Schwenningen north to Stuttgart. Please contact me if you can share more, or point to good links that do.
• History of German Settlements in Southern Hungary (many of which came from the R-T area. [Source: Fred. H. Held]
• Swabia / Schwaben / Suevia is/was an area that overlapped with / or was otherwise close enough to be of interest to R-T researchers.
• Thomas Koch reports a certain fondness for pre-1805 Germany and reminds us that things were not always Baden and Wuerttemberg and Hohenzollern. Germany, or the Holy Roman Empire, was made up of thousands of little, quasi-independent states. Wuerttemberg was one of the biggest in the Schwabian area, but there were hundreds of others. For a couple of examples - Rottweil was an imperial city, and thus independent of Baden and Wuerttemberg. Weigheim was also an independent village ruled by a religious group - the Johanniten order. It is now a suburb of Schwenningen. Durchhausen, Gunningen, Seitingen, Oberflacht and Wurmlingen were also part of a religious "state" - ruled by the Bishop of Konstanz. Wurmlingen was the local capitol and thus administratively different from Tuttlingen although within walking distance of Tuttlingen, which was in Wuerttemberg.  Of course, all that changed in 1805 when Napoleon consolidated things. (Napoleonic wars 1811-1815).
• Villingen was acquired by Baden (from Austria) only in 1806. This was a result of the Peace of Pressburg on 26th December 1805, which through France's victory over Austria brought an end to the Holy Roman Empire (and rewarded French allies Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden with huge increases in land area). Although Bavaria and Württemberg became kingdoms as a result of this treaty, Baden only became a grand duchy. [Source: Christian Carey]
• Pertaining to the historic changing borders of the four Kreis: "The terms Neckarkreis, Jagstkreis, Donaukreis and Schwarzwaldkreis were abolished in 1924. They are no more used since a long time. Nobody in Germany today (unless the historians) has an exact idea of the area described with these antiquated terms." [Source: Martin Koepple, B-W List]

Religion & Genealogy Concerning Rottweil & Tuttlingen

The historical border between Baden and Wurttemberg ran right down the middle of what is now Villingen-Schwenningen. Historically, Villingen belonged to Baden and was predominantly Catholic; Schwenningen belonged to Wurttemberg and was predominantly Lutheran. Today, these two towns have merged into the single city of Villingen-Schwenningen.

Experienced researchers of this region indicate that marriages between Lutherans and Catholics were rare in the early years. (This was not universal throughout Germany, however. For example, I have Lutheran ancestors up in Rheinpfalz who frequently married Catholics; apparently it was a big deal back then, but a lot of people did it.)

Related Resources

• Baden-Wurttemberg Web Page (companion site to the B-W mailing list).
• History of Kreis Tuttlingen (in German)
• Donauschwaben in the Banat

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