The Neiss family, pt. 1.

I've been working on the Neisz (also spelled Neis and Neiss) side of the family this winter - more specifically, the family before they came over here from Russia. It's hard to know where to start. Parts of this still need verification. Here is the lineage as I am working on it.
Jacob Neisz was Grandma Howards father. Born in the village of Baden in the Kutschurgan colonies in Russia in 1858 to Georg and Francisca Neiss. Immigrated to the U.S. in 1885 and was married four times. (more on this later.)
Georg Neiss. Jacob's father. Born in 1831 in Baden. Married in 1856. Immigrated with his family in 1885 - wife Francisca, and five children and at least one grandchild. (also more later).
Matheus Neiss I believe was Georg's father. I'm waiting to obtain some census records to confirm it - but the researcher who had them indicated that is how it is listed on the census.
Matheus mother's name was Sibilla Neiss. Sibilla was born in 1779 in the Alsace region of France and died in Russia in 1815. In the 1808 census of Baden, she is married to Joseph Kraft and her children from her previous marriage are living there - Matheus, age 17, Valentin, 14 and Maria, 11. No idea yet when or how her first husband died. In the census it says that the Neiss family came from Salmbach in the Alsace region of France.

The Alsace is in the very northeast corner of France bordering Germany. The picture above is of the Alsace region, but of nowhere specific to us - it just seemed to represent the area well. The area includes the Vosgues Mountain on the west border and the Rhine River on the east border. The valley in between is filled with small villages and farms. The German Black Forest is on the other side of the Rhine. Salmbach is on the northern border of the Alsace near the town of Weissenberg. The Alsace area is in France now, but has changed hands several times over the centuries.

During the French Revolution in the 1790's, the inhabitants - and most of all the Catholics - of the Alsace came under fire. The short version is that the revolutionaries in France accussed the inhabitants of the area of helping to try and overturn the revolution. Many of the residents literally fled in fear of the guillotine across the Rhine to Germany and had to remain there for several years. As things calmed downed, they tried to return, only to find in many cases that their property and possessions had been taken. At about the same time, the Russians were offering newly acquired land to people willing to settle there and develop it. Many of the Germans jumped at the chance. In 1808, several Alsatian families, probably including the Neiss', made a grueling trip to Russia and that fall, founded the Catholic villages known as the Kutschurgan colonies. Baden and the other villages sit just northeast of Odessa and the Black Sea.

And that's the history lesson for the day. More to follow.