My German Ancestry
My German ancestry can be traced back to a town named Bahlingen in the southwest corner of Germany, in the region known as the Black Forest, or Schwarzwald, about 12 miles north of the city of Freiburg. The full name of this town of about 4000 people is Bahlingen am Kaiserstuhl, meaning that the town lies at the foot of a volcanic formation named the Kaiserstuhl (the Emperor's Chair).
When my Adler ancestors emigrated from Bahlingen, Germany was not a country but a confederation of independent states. Bahlingen was in the state of Baden, a monarchy ruled by Grand Duke Leopold.
The surname Adler is German for "eagle." The eagle has been a popular symbol for centuries. It was used on standards that were carried into battle by Roman legions, and later as the symbol of the Holy Roman Empire. It is on the coats of arms and flags of many countries today, including Germany. The eagle was also the symbol of Saint John.
Perhaps in medieval Bahlingen there was a house with an eagle painted over the door, and the family living in that house came to be known as the Adler family.
Bahlingen as viewed from the Protestant Church.
The Protestant Church has overlooked the town since the middle of the 16th century.
Front entrance of the Protestant Church in Bahlingen, where my Adler ancestors were baptized, married, and buried for centuries.
The Adler Mill in Bahlingen has been grinding flour for centuries and still uses water power to drive some of its equipment.
There is no record of the mill being founded by someone with the surname Adler. The eagle may just have been chosen as a desirable symbol.
Martin Adler 1778-1848
My great great great grandfather Martin Adler came from Bahlingen. He comes from a line of Adlers in Bahlingen that appears to go back at least six generations. Martin was born on September 12, 1778, and baptized the following day in the Protestant Church. On January 30, 1816, at the age of 37, he married Anne Marie Fohr. They had three boys: George in 1816, John in 1818, and Leonard in 1826.
In 1832 the entire family emigrated to America--arriving in Boston. Martin was 54, Anne Marie 43, George Martin 16, John 14, and Leonard 6. In Boston, Martin pursued his trade as a blacksmith. Four years after their arrival, Anne Marie gave birth to another son, William, at the age of 47, and then died of consumption five years later. When Martin died in 1848 he left his estate to be used for the care of William, then 12 years old; the three older sons received just a symbolic shilling each, according to Martin's will.
Martin and Anne Marie are both buried in the South Boston Burial Ground in Roxbury.
Martin was buried in Tomb 126.
Anne Marie was buried in Tomb 110.
Like their father, Martin's sons all took up skilled trades: George as a nailmaker, John as a cabinet maker, Leonard as a shoemaker who eventually opened a shoe store in Hyde Park, and later William as a cigar maker. Perhaps George and John learned their trades in Bahlingen.
Jacob Wirth began serving German food in Boston in 1868. Perhaps John Adler and his brothers dined here.
John Adler 1818-1894
John Adler, my great great grandfather, was born in Bahlingen on November 22, 1818, and emigrated with his family to Boston in 1832 at the age of 14. In 1848 at age 30, he married Elizabeth Leonard, also the child of a German immigrant and blacksmith. (However, Elizabeth was born in Switzerland and her mother was Swiss.)
John is listed as a cabinet maker, varnisher, or piano factory worker in Roxbury in various censuses and business directories from 1850 to 1880. According to the 1870 census, John was employed at a piano factory--probably the Chickering Piano Factory on Tremont Street, built in 1853. Photo: Wikipedia
The Chickering Piano Factory is now the Piano Craft Guild, providing living, work, and exhibition space for artists, musicians, and craftsmen.
Sometime after 1880, John and Elizabeth moved to Newark to be near daughter Elizabeth, who lived with her husband Monroe Haring and their children at this address: 369 Summer Avenue, Newark, New Jersey (the gray house on the corner).
Elizabeth died in 1889. John, then living with his daughter and her family, died in 1894. John and Elizabeth are both buried in the Fairmount Cemetery in Newark.