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Michael, the oldest ancestor of
the Griesser line known so far, had two sons: Johann Georg (1706-1752) and Mathias (1708-1778). Mathias is our
ancestor. He married Maria Veronica Heinrich "of Egeri ex Helvetia" on February 12th, 1736, in Bühl in Klettgau.
Her parents were Johann Franz Xaver Heinrich and Maria Genoveva Letter, probably from Aegeri too. This village, located at the lake by the same name, is approximately 70 km from Bühl. Both witnesses to the marriage came from
Bühl: none were relatives of the bride. The first child of the couple was born just 5 months after the wedding:
the son Johann Baptist (1736-1810) who is next in the line of our ancestors. Perhaps Maria Veronica had come to Bühl as a maiden, and therefore the wedding didn't take place in her home village. It's also possible that the
trip to the "Grossherzogtum Baden" was too far away for her relatives. Another explanation comes from Bruno J.
Nussbaumer of St. Gallen: since 1720 Joseph Anton Letter from Aegeri in Switzerland had been a priest in Bühl.
He may have been a brother of Maria Veronica's mother.
In the general county archive in
Karlsruhe, I found the "inheritance of Zug", how I call it jokingly, an extensive correspondence directly
concerning our "Heinrich" ancestors. So far I have only transcribed a small part of these documents (Archivalien/Film 229/15466), which are
extremely difficult to decipher. Here is a summary:
In 1791 Mathias Griesser had been
dead for 13 years. His widow Maria Veronica Heinrich was about 75 years old. Their second son Franz Xaver was a
53-year-old teacher. On the 23rd of April 1791, in his mother's and other relatives' names, he asked the
authorities in the canton Zug for help. He wrote a letter to the Mayor and Governor of Zug, explaining that,
several years ago, two sisters of his mother Veronika Heinrich, named Paula and Collata, from Unter- and
Oberegeri in canton Zug, Switzerland, had died, leaving a considerable fortune. Dominik Bessmer of Oberegeri,
who was in charge of the distribution of the inheritance, still owed them some 20 odd "Gulden". Last February,
another sister of their mother, named Dominika, had died and left them an inheritance of 900 and fifty guilders.
Further he explained: They had travelled to Egeri in order to claim the inheritance owed to their mother. They
also wanted to claim the balance of the inheritance of the two sisters Paula and Collata. They found that
Dominikus Joseph Müller of the council in Unteregeri was willing to pay out the amount owed. However they
learned that Dominikus Bessmer of Oberegeri, from whom they claimed the inheritance of the long ago deceased
sisters Paula and Collata, not only refused to pay the outstanding sum, but rather claimed 350 guilders of
Dominika's inheritance. They don't understand the reasoning behind these counter-claims, especially not his
additional claim for 40 guilders.
Regardless of their repeated
demands to Dominik Bessmer himself as well as to the court and even to the mayor, they were not able to receive
details and proof of the claim towards them.
They would ask therefore through
this letter the gracious and mighty Messrs subserviently to support them and write a letter to the mayor
Blattmann in Oberegeri, asking him to prompt Dominik Bessmer to produce details and satisfactory accounts about
the denied payment of the inheritance and counter-claims. They were also considering making a personal visit at
Easter.
This is how far I came with the
transcription of this text, which was really difficult to decipher. Therefore I don't know yet how the story
ended: whether Xaver Griesser (28.03.1738 - 17.10.1810) and his mother finally received the money, or whether we
should re-open the claim. Even today, there are still people by the name of Besmer, Blattmann, Heinrich and
living in Unterägeri and Oberägeri in Switzerland. However, I don't know today's exchange rate of the guilder
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