January 2, 2009

  • The Latshaw Family

    This is a very interesting beginning to my mother's family history.  Hope you enjoy what I discovered by searching various family trees on the internet.

    There are of course various spellings of the name Latshaw that include Latscha, Latschar, Lachat, Lorsch, Lortscher, Latschaw, Leutscher & Lotscher.  It is a Mennonite family name that comes from Lotscher from Latterbach near Erlenbach in Simmental, canton of Bern, Switzerland.

    According to my internet search, I discovered that Hans Lotscher who was born in Latterbach in  1601 was an Anabaptist.  He actually wrote a hymn of 41 stanzas which I cannot read.  (I have no foreign language experience.)  He was also persecuted for his beliefs and died in prison in Latterbach in 1673.   Two of his sons (Hans and Melchoir) and a daughter (Anna) were also imprisoned.  While in prison Hans wrote a letter that included the names of some 40 people who met their deaths in Bern because of their Anabaptist faith.  This letter was carried to the United States and is preserved in Ephrata, PA, in the Martyr's Mirror (E 1129-30).

    Hans two sons escaped from prison but were recaptured and sentenced to galley service in 1671 to 1673.  They returned to claim their inheritance upon their father's death but it was denied them.  Eventually Hans and Melchior were forced to leave Switzerland because of their religious beliefs.  They first went to Maasmunster in Upper Alsace.

    This is as far as I have gotten in reading the history information.  I have traced my family line back to my mother though.  It is really exciting to me to study genealogy.  It is like watching the roots of your family spread far out from you as an individual.  Life moves forward from the farthest root and encompasses a very large tree with many branches spreading out to the sky.  I am but a tiny cell in the structure.  I didn't begin and I won't end it but I am not alone.