In 1625 the first wife (Agatha Ketterer) of my 9th great grandfather Martin Kern was burned as a witch in Triberg, (Schwarzwald) Germany...13 years later a BRAVE woman married him...her name was ...
Margareta SCHUNHART (my 9th great grandmother)....and that is why I here.
I am searching for clarity on this story, but my inquiry emails to Triberg officials & historic societies etc, received no help. ( Maybe they are embarrassed, and do not want to promote this history).
Do you know if there is a data base or collection of histories for German witch trials etc.?
We are descendants of FALLER Family of the Black Forest. Check Faller Genealogy pages for BF info. http://www.frontiernet.net/~wderoche/faller.html#greet
Agatha Ketterer Martin Kern
"Witches". Letter from EAF Sr. to Richard Faller April 25, 1943:
"A story of the Faller House: Agatha Ketterer, farmer on the Lehmansgrund, was accused of witchcraft; she was thus tortured, in order to bring her to confession, and subsequently burned. (This occurred around 1625.) She is supposed to have bewitched the milk of other farmers' cows so that they would give blue (skimpy) milk, while her own cows would give such excellent butter. She is supposed to have made this butter on the "Ankenbühl" farm. The name Ankenbühl remains the same even today; but she (Ketterer) was not burned at this place; she was taken to the city of Triberg. A commemoration or service for this "witch" was established by her husband. It is still held to this present day. This husband's name was given to be Martin Kern.... he remarried.
"The farmer on the Falligrund (on the upper Fallengrund) was also accused of performing witchcraft. Under torture he did not prove himself as obstinate as Ketterer, but was beheaded. As this farmer was supposedly on the way to the scaffold, he supposedly said to his friends: "If I go where God is, I will ask of him that I am allowed to bring my child with me to him." The five-year-old little boy became ill really immediately and after five weeks was dead...
256 days ago
