Haefeli - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

HAEFELI Mary S 1930-2001

t42Bluebonnet — 2013-01-12 16:17:00Z

HAEFELI Mary S 1930-2001

I photographed this gravestone in the Blue Bonnet Hills Cemetery, Tarrant Co., Texas. Feel free to use this picture for your personal records. This is one of the 228,952 cemetery photos free at http://teafor2.com .

If you know more about this person please reply here, instead of contacting me because this is most likely not my family.

Re: HAEFELI / WIRZ

JaniceHaefeli — 2012-07-29 01:57:55Z

Hello and thank you for the inquiry. I cannot say that there is or is not a distant relation here. My father-in-law's grandfather, Benjamin F. Haefeli came from Basel, Switzerland, so I've been told. He was an only child. He married Mary Elizabeth Wirz of Paterson, NJ. I have NO INFORMATION TO DATE of his parents. I am also unable to find any records to date in my research here on ancestry regarding his immigration. I am wondering if perhaps he Americanized his first name when he came to American. I'm still working on this research.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law visited Switzerland and met a man who they thought might be a distant relative but that meeting did not provide any proof of such. However, they did learn that the name "Haefeli" in Switzerland is about as common there as "Smith" and "Jones" are in the USA. I have also learned that "Haefeli" ( and there are many spellings of it) is a common German name. I believe it is probably of German origin. I am going on the premise that since Basel is on the other side of the river from Germany, that at some point in time the "Haefeli's" crossed the river from Germany and settled in Switzerland. I hope that once I can really get into researching my husband's family that I can prove myself correct and find a family origin in Germany.

Doing research here on ancestry.com, I am sure you've noticed how the Haefeli name is spread across the US. There is a book called "The Swiss in the United States" by John Paul von Grueningen which I found here on Ancestry which is a very interesting reporting of how, when and why the Swiss immigrated to the United States. I found it fascinating. I hope you can locate it... you will have to look through the card catalog for Switzerland and narrow it down from there.

I wish you luck with your research ! If you find any interesting information on the "haefeli" name, etc..... I hope that you will share it with me. Apparently the name means "Little Pot" from what I've been told.

Re: HAEFELI / WIRZ

Snarfangel — 2012-07-24 03:33:23Z

Hi, I saw your post when I was pounding away at my family tree again, and I was wondering if our Haefili/Basel roots were linked.

I am from the Rouse side of the family -- my dad's mother was Mary Elisabeth Hafeli (Haefeli), born 15 Nov 1898 in San Diego, and died 1 Oct 1968, also in San Diego. She married my paternal grandfather, Clarence Richmond Rouse (1886-1944).

Mary Elisabeth Hafeli's parents were John Joseph Haefeli Sr. (1854-1930 if my info is correct), born in Switzerland, and Mary Caroline Brunner (1857-1925), born in Basel, Switzerland.

Now, I don't know Mary Caroline Brunner's parents, but one family tree I looked at had John Joseph Sr's parents as P.E. (possibly Philipp Ebel) Hafeli, no birth or death date given, and Mary Elisabeth Brunner (1837?-1923). So at least two generations of Brunners married two generations of Haefelis.

Does this match any information you might have? I hesitate to get my hopes up, because when I was in Basel (back in 1985), there seemed to be about three pages worth of Hafeli/Haefeli/etc (lots of variations!) in the phone book. :D Apparently, it's a lot more common there than here. *** *** (Preview cuts out all of my nice formatting. I hope posting doesn't do the same thing, it makes it hard to read.)

Re: HAEFELI / WIRZ

JaniceHaefeli — 2012-05-21 17:17:20Z

I am happy to say that I have found someone who was able to confirm a Wirz history for me. However, I am still researching the Haefeli history and am looking for information on Benjamin's immigration and his family and life in Basel, Switzerland prior to coming to the United States.

HAEFELI / WIRZ

JaniceHaefeli — 2012-01-16 02:46:44Z

MY HUSBAND'S GRANDFATHER BENJANMIN ALFONSE HAEFELI WAS THE ONLY CHILD OF BENJAMIN F. HAEFELI WHO IMMIGRATED FROM SWITZERLAND IN 1893 AND WAS A MARRIED TO A MARY ELIZABETH WIRZ. THEY LIVED IN PATERSON, NJ. I BELIEVE MARY ELIZABETH'S MOTHER WAS FROM WISCONSIN AND HER FATHER WAS FROM SWITZERLAND. IF YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER FAMILY HISTORY INFORMATION OR THINK YOU MAY HAVE SOME DISTANT RELATION, PLEASE CONTACT ME.