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Jerry

Six European origins across the Ulcek and Fiedler lines — ranked by how cleanly they fold into the Champagne + Alsace route.
Sides Ulcek / FiedlerOrigins 6 regionsOn the trip +2-day detour
Heritage researchThe Trier / Mosel detour
Wilhelmina Wohlust
On this trip
Mosel & TrierAlsaceSaxony
§ 01On this tripRelationship to the regions
Mosel & TrierPaternal · Maas-Fox

The Maas / Fox (Fuchs) line comes from the Trier–Orscholz–Freudenburg pocket on the Saarland–Rhineland border — a coherent arc between Champagne and Alsace, and a Riesling region squarely on theme. It's mapped as an optional +2-day car-free detour.

TrierMosel ValleyOrscholz / Saar LoopSankt Ingbert
Alsace · Val d'ArgentMaternal · Wohlust

The Wohlust / Becker line reportedly settled in Alsace after Switzerland; the heritage report points to the Val d'Argent around Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines — the documented cradle of Bernese-Anabaptist resettlement — as the highest-probability landing zone, minutes from the wine route.

Sainte-Marie-aux-MinesBernese resettlement
Saxony & Saale-UnstrutMaternal · Fiedler

The Fiedler / Graebner line is from Reichenbach im Vogtland in Saxony; the Wohlust / Becker region near Leißling is Germany's northern sparkling-wine country. Both are a meaningful Tier-2 detour east.

Saxony / DresdenLeißlingFreyburg (Saale-Unstrut)
§ 02Ancestral linesSurname · parish · records
SurnameParishRecordsRelation
Ulčík (Ulcek)Vlčnov, Moraviab. 1879paternal grandfather · Karel
PavelčíkVlčnov, Moraviab. 1882paternal grandmother · Kateřina
Maas / Fox (Fuchs)Orscholz · Freudenburg (Saar)Saarland recordspaternal · Maas-Fox
KnockeLauenberg, Dassel (Lower Saxony)—paternal line
Fiedler / GraebnerReichenbach, Saxonyemig. 1881maternal · Paul Fiedler
BeckerSankt Ingbert (Saar) & Baden—maternal · Becker
WohlustLeißling → Bern → Alsaceto verifymaternal · Augusta Wohlust
Schilstra / OsengaFriesland, Netherlands—maternal · Elsie
§ 03His Europe

Jerry's ancestry, assembled in a purpose-built travel presentation, splits into a maternal side (Fiedler / Becker / Schilstra) and a paternal side (Ulcek / Knocke / Maas-Fox), with six European origin regions across the two (source: Ulcek final PPT.pdf). This page ranks them by how easily they fit the Champagne + Alsace route.

The strongest fit is the Maas / Fox pocket around Trier, the Mosel and the Saar Loop — a Riesling corridor mapped as a +2-day detour in the itinerary. In Alsace, the Wohlust line's Bernese-Anabaptist tail most plausibly lands at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines in the Val d'Argent (source: jerry-alsace.md) — though “Wohlust” itself is not a documented Swiss or Alsatian surname and is likely a corrupted Emmental name (Wüthrich, Wermuth, Wyss…), so treat it as a lead to verify (source: jerry-alsace.md). See Bernese-Anabaptist Resettlement in Alsace (the "Wohlust" research question) and Jerry's Alsace–Saarland Heritage Research (source summary).

Our notesA corridor, not a village

Unlike Mary's single Alsace homeland, Jerry's roots are a string of origins across Europe. Only the Saar/Mosel pocket and the Val d'Argent fold cleanly into this trip; Saxony is a real but eastern detour.

Six origins; two you can actually reach.

§ 04From the family wiki

Jerry is one of the travelers on this trip. His ancestry, as assembled in Christy's research, splits into a maternal side (Fiedler / Becker / Schilstra) and a paternal side (Ulcek / Knocke / Maas-Fox). Six European origin regions appear across the two sides (source: Ulcek final PPT.pdf).

This page ranks those origins by how easily they fit the current Champagne + Alsace route. The trip-relevant German regions each have their own place page; far-afield lines are noted here for completeness.

The branches and where they came from

Maternal side

  • Fiedler / Graebner — from Reichenbach, Saxony, Germany (most likely Reichenbach im Vogtland). Paul Fiedler was born in Saxony and emigrated to the US at age 9 in 1881 (he came with his mother and siblings — Emma 12, Ernst 6, Paul 9, Moritz 5 — departing Bremen, arriving Dec 1881); married Emma Becker in 1897 (a Lutheran record naming his parents and his creamery occupation in Caledonia, WI). Parents Franz Herman Fiedler and Bertha Graebner (her 1923 obituary, d. 28 Dec 1923 at age 79, lists all the siblings and confirms Saxony origin) (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf). Sibling records (brother Ernst's 1900 marriage; sister Flora's death certificate) pin the origin phonetically to Reichenbach in Saxony (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf). See Saxony / Dresden (Reichenbach im Vogtland).
  • Becker / Wohlust — Emma Becker (b. Caledonia, WI) was the daughter of Carl (Charles) Becker and Augusta Wohlust; she married Paul Fiedler in 1897 (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
    • Wohlust line: documented in Leißling (Weißenfels, Burgenlandkreis, Sachsen-Anhalt) — Benjamin Wohlust married Wilhelmine Köhler in 1848 (Mühlhausen garrison parish); their daughter Augusta was born in Leißling 2 May 1851 and emigrated to Wisconsin as an infant that July 1851 (no WI birth certificate — her German record is the real one). Trees push the line back to at least the 1500s at Leißling and Rödgen, then to Aeschlen and Eggiwil, Bern, Switzerland — "a few went to France Alsace" — and Fulda & Eichenrod, Hessen, with an Anabaptist Kauffman/Stauffer strand (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf). See Leißling (the Wohlust / Becker village) and Freyburg & the Saale-Unstrut (Leißling / Naumburg).
    • Verification flag: a heritage-research report finds "Wohlust" is not a documented Swiss or Alsatian surname — absent from the authoritative Register of Swiss Surnames despite the portal indexing comparable "Wohl-" names — and is almost certainly a corrupted/Americanized spelling of a genuine Emmental name (best candidates Wüthrich, Wermuth, Wyss, Wittwer, or Wohlgemuth) (source: jerry-alsace.md). Treat "Wohlust" as a name to verify, not a literal record key. See Bernese-Anabaptist Resettlement in Alsace (the "Wohlust" research question).
    • Alsace landing zone identified: the Bernese-Anabaptist "went to Alsace" tail most plausibly points to Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines / the Val d'Argent (Haut-Rhin) — the documented cradle of the Bernese-Anabaptist/Amish resettlement — with the Sundgau, Montbéliard, and Lorraine as secondary zones after the 1712 expulsion (source: jerry-alsace.md).
    • Becker line: Baden-Baden and Unteröwisheim (Baden-Württemberg); Reinheim (Hessen); Stadel (Zurich, Switzerland); and Sankt Ingbert, Saarland (source: Ulcek final PPT.pdf). See Sankt Ingbert (Saarland).
  • Osenga / Osinga / Schilstra ("Elsie" Schilstra) — from Friesland, the Netherlands. Anton Osinga (a dairy farmer) and Elsie Schilstra emigrated in 1907 on the Holland-America SS Rijndam; their daughter Bertha (Jerry's grandmother, who married Earl Fiedler) was born ~1916 in Franksville, WI. Relatives stayed behind — Elsie had two sisters in the Netherlands and Anton a sister, Geertje Douwes Osinga (1892–1972) — and Osinga roots run in Friesland (Oppenhuizen, Sneek, Indijk, Workum) back to the 1600s (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf). Far from this trip — see Friesland, the Netherlands (the Osinga / Schilstra line).

Paternal side

  • Ulcek / Ulčík — the family's paternal core and namesake, from Vlčnov, Moravia (then Austria-Hungary, now the Czech Republic). Karel (Charles) John Ulčík b. 21 Sept 1879 (Vlčnov house #149, son of Jan Ulčík, domkář); Kateřina Pavelčík b. 8 Nov 1882 (house #205); married in Vlčnov 16 June 1903 (priest Antonín Vávra). Karel emigrated alone in 1910 on the SS George Washington; Kateřina followed in 1912 with children Marie and Josef on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II (Bremen → 1825 Marquette St., Racine, WI). The surname spelling shifted Ulčík/Ulcik → Ulcek with Jerry's grandfather Joseph (b. Vlčnov 10 Jan 1910) (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf, Ulcek Family Tree.ged). Vlčnov was a vineyard village famous for the UNESCO-listed "Jízda králů" (Ride of the Kings) Pentecost festival. Far from this trip — see Vlčnov, Moravia (the Ulčík / Pavelčík paternal core) and "off-route" below.
  • Knocke / Puls — Edna Knocke's (Jerry's paternal grandmother's) line. Her mother Bertha Puls (m. John Maas 1901/1903) was the daughter of August Puls (from Bielefeld/Minden, Westphalia) and Amalia (née Knocke), who came to Wisconsin around 1860 from Lauenburg, Dassel, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) / Hanover (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf, Ulcek Family Tree.ged). Off the route.
  • Maas / Fox (Fuchs) — Edna's father's side, from the Trier / Orscholz / Freudenburg area on the Saarland–Rhineland border. John Fox (Fuchs) Sr. b. 1 Apr 1830 at Orscholz (Saarburg/Trier), d. 16 May 1919 in Mosel, Sheboygan, WI; Anna Maas (Mauss) b. Freudenburg; John Maas (Edna's father) and Anna Fox married 3 Dec 1881 at St. Wendel (Manitowoc, WI). The Catholic Fox/Fuchs and Schmitt forebears were born and died in Orscholz (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf, Ulcek Family Tree.ged). See Trier, Mosel Valley, Orscholz & Freudenburg (Saarland / Trier).

Fit with the Champagne + Alsace trip

Tier 1 — directly incorporable (on/near the NE France corridor):

Tier 2 — real interest, but a meaningful detour east:

Off-route (own pages, for completeness): Vlčnov/Moravia (the Ulcek namesake — and, ironically, the best-documented origin of all) and Friesland/Netherlands (the Osinga/Schilstra line); plus Lauenburg/Lower Saxony (Knocke/Puls). Christy's research pairs the Saxony leg with a "bonus" Saxon & Bohemian Switzerland road trip (Bastei Bridge, Königstein Fortress, Pravčická Gate) — relevant only if the trip is extended deep into eastern Germany / Czechia, where it would bridge toward Vlčnov (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).

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