Thibaud "DeWald" Küfer, "The Huguenot"

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49879632

Thibaud Le Tonnelier was a native of Paris, France. He became a Huguenot and was forced to leave France. In 1563 he moved to Kettenheim, Germany in the Pfalz and at Alsace he changed his name to Theobald (DeWald) Küfer. He married late in life and had one son, Michael. (source)

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Was a native of Paris, France. He became a Huguenot and was forced to leave France. In 1563 he moved to Kettenheim, Germany in the Pfalz and changed his name to Theobald (Dewald) Kiefer (Cooper). He married later in life and had one son, Micahel.

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When Thibaud le Tonnelier left France in 1563, he crossed into Germany in the area known, by the Germans, as the Pfalz. It is also called the Rhineland Palatinate.

Thibaud is said to have settled at Kettenheim which is a very small village near Alzey, a bit north west of the city of Worms. There at Kettenheim, Thibaud became engaged as a blacksmith, changing his name to the German equivalent, Theobald Küfer meaning a 'barrel maker' in German (Küfer is the correct German spelling). More familiarly, he was called 'Dewald' which was the popular nickname for Theobald.

Theobald married late in life and had only one son, Michael, born abt 1600.

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Thibaud Küfer BIRTH 1540 Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France DEATH unknown Germany BURIAL Unknown Add to Map MEMORIAL ID 49879632 · View Source

Thibaud Le Tonnelier was a native of Paris, France. He became a Huguenot and was forced to leave France. In 1563 he moved to Kettenheim, Germany in the Pfalz and at Alsace he changed his name to Theobald (DeWald) Küfer. He married late in life and had one son, Michael.

Parents Michael Le Tonnelier, 1500 – unknown Unknown Le Tonnelier, 1515 – unknown

Spouse Unknown Küfer, 1575 – unknown (m. 1610)

Children Michael Küfer, 1600 – unknown

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49879632/thibaud-k_fer

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ID: I130378 Name: Michel Le Tonnellier Sex: M Birth: ABT 1470 in Southern France Note: The Keifer/Kieffer/Cooper History: In the later days of the 15th century, about the year 1470, there was bo rn in southern France a male child who was named Michel. Near the tu rn of the century, approximately 1500, this Michel had a son named Miche l. This young Michel came to be occupied as a barrel maker in Orleans ne ar Paris. It was about this point in time that it became the custom for pe ople to take surnames, and as was a popular custom, Michel adopted the na me of his occupation, becoming Michel le Tonnelier, for in France, a 'tonn elier' is a barrel maker.

Around the year 1540, Michel had a son whom he named Thibaud. This Thibaud grew up about the time reformation was taking place throughout Europe, and Thibaud became a Huguenot (French Calvinist Protestant). The name 'Huguenot' is believed to have derived from Bezanson Hugues, a Swiss religious leader. The Huguenots followed the teachings of John Calvin and were identified with the Reformed Church.

When Thibaud le Tonnelier left France in 1563 (nine years before the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre when Queen mother, Catherine de Medicis, allied herself with the Duke of Guise, and together, on August 24, 1572, they slaughtered 3,000 Huguenots in Paris and tens to hundreds of thousands more over the next several months - six days after the wedding of the king's sister to the Protestant Henry of Navarre), he crossed into Germany in the area known, by the Germans, as the Pfalz. It is also called the Rhineland Palatinate.

Thibaud is said to have settled at Kettenheim which is a very small village near Alzey, a bit north west of the city of Worms. There at Kettenheim, Thibaud became engaged as a blacksmith, changing his name to the German equivalent, Theobald Küfer meaning a 'barrel maker' in German (Küfer is the correct German spelling). More familiarly, he was called 'DeWald' which was the popular nickname for Theobald.

Theobald married late in life and had only one son, Michael, born abt. 1600. This Michael, in turn, was the father of three sons, Jacob, Michael, and Dewald who supposedly came to America in 1683 with Francis Daniel Pastorius to help settle Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia. But there is no mention of them in any records of the group who were with Pastorius. They may have been on the sa me ship, but not with the Pastorius party.

They returned to Germany in the spring of 1684. In the year 1688, Kettenheim was in the total destruction area of the French invasion. Everything in the town was destroyed except for one building, known as the 'firehouse' (the 'modern' town of Ketten heim was built up during the 1690s). The Küfers probably scattered to near by communities.

The eldest son of Michael, Jacob, had five sons, Michae l, Valentine, Frederick, Leonardt, and Jacob. Michael and Valentine supposedly emigrated to Canada. DeWald supposedly returned to America in 1689. A ccording to the 'Ohio document', a paper handed down through the yea rs in the Michael Küfer family, DeWald Küfer, the youngest of the three sons of Michael, had four sons, Abraham, Caspar, Martin, and Michael. Church records however identify Abraham and Casper as the sons of Leonardt.

Although the area where our ancestors lived in Germany is now referr ed to as the Rhineland Pfalz, in the days when Thibaud le Tonnelier fir st moved there, it was known as Palatinate. About 1620, this area was sepa rated into the Upper and Lower (or Rhenish) Palatinate. It is the lower Pa latinate, of which Speyer was the capital, which is now the Rhineland Pfalz.

According to historians, great numbers of Palatinates emigrated during t he 18th century to avoid further war, to enjoy economic improvemen t, or to obtain additional religious freedom. Those who came to America se ttled mostly in New York or Pennsylvania, probably because these two stat es were the most like the homeland they had known. At some point in Germany the Küfer pronunciation became Kieffer.

(Johann Casper Kieffer married Agnes Glockner in Waldmohr Pfalz Germany a nd had six children. He came to America with his family on Sept 15, 1748 a board “The Two Brothers” from Rotterdam arriving in Philadelphia and settl ed in Codorus Twp, York Co., PA. Casper's grandson Johan Heinrich Kieff er changed his kid's last names to Keifer (most likely trying to obtain t he correct pronunciation from those around them), but Johan Heinrich's bro ther George, changed his family name to Cooper following the meaning of t he name as was done originally. The Keifer and Cooper spelling chang es of the last name were written in the family Bible at that time and se en later by William Hammond Keifer born in 1857, and he remarked to the re st of the family on what he saw.

The only possible relative guillotined in the French Revolution 1789-1799: TONNELLIER Jacques Louis, grocer and police chief of equipment / weaponry for the Republic's army (resistance), 33 years old, born and lived in Paris was condemned to death as provider of disloyalty / infidel. (marcha nd épicier, commissaire de l'équipement pour l'armées de la République, â gé de 33 ans, né et domicilié à Paris département de la Seine, condam né à mort comme fournisseur infidèle.) http://wc.rootsweb.anc estry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jmkeifer&id=I490

Marriage 1 Spouse Unknown Children Has Children Michel Le Tonnellier b: ABT 1500 in Orleans, France

https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=wream&id=I130378&...

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