During a two-day trip through Alsace I visited the Eichler family in Westhoffen. Their Dettling roots can be traced all the way back to Grüntal. In their private archive I was able to find new information about the Alsace line of the Knights of Dettlingen who, as the so-called „Noble Gentlemen of Dettlingen“ even participated in the Senate of Strasbourg. Jeanne Eichler proudly recited a statement that described the character traits of a certain noble Dettling. She had discovered it accidentally while looking in the Internet, and it reads as follows: “Quant au seigneur de Dettlingen, voici ce qu’il convient d’en dire. Il était beau grand, fort, distingué, courageux, magnanime, généreux, téméraire, fidèle, intelligent.,..“ (Lectures pour tous: revue universelle et populaire illustrée, vol. 16, p. 1176 ).
Translation: Regarding the Gentleman from Dettlingen the following can be said: ‘He was tall, good looking, strong, distinguished, courageous, good-hearted, bold, loyal, intelligent…
Clearly something one likes to hear! We’ll continue to follow the history of this true nobleman and report further news of him.
On the way home I used the opportunity to visit another Dettling family in Bischheim near Strasbourg. Christiane Laurent-Guy nee Dettling and her husband Pierre have been searching for the roots of their ancestors for some time now. Their oldest Dettling ancestor they were able to discover in the church books of the Archbishop’s Archive in Freiburg.
A certain „Joannes Dettling, son of Christopherus Dettling and Katharina Engelhard,“ was born on Dec, 31,.1788 in Dießen near Horb. The reason for his move to Hagenau in Alsace remains to be discovered. His descendants remained in that area and to this day can still be found around the Strasbourg area. Christiane‘s mother proudly showed me some oil paintings in which her grandfather Louis Auguste depicted the beauty of his Alsatian homeland. Following an interesting afternoon in their company, I was very pleased to welcome Christiane as a new member of our Dettling Family Community.
Quelle: Dettling-Magazin 2012