How You Can Help

To: Our global cousins and others interested in the history of the extended Krähenbuhl family.

Note: Most of this page was written by Gene Kraybill, the original owner of the World Wide Krähenbuhl website. It is true for all of us who mourned the loss of the original site.

It is my hope that the Home Page of the Krähenbuhl Family will lead to better understanding and appreciation of the rich heritage of our extended family.

Gene Kraybill writes: I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where my Krebiel/Kraybill ancestors lived as part of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" community for 8 generations. We felt a certain affinity with the children's book Heidi and a fascination with yodelling, but otherwise knew almost nothing about our Swiss German origins. Indeed, it wasn't until I was nearly 30 that I learned how my Swiss ancestors spelled the family name.

One of the things I hope will arise from this project is some communication between the European and American branches of the family, that is, between people whose ancestors fled Switzerland and Germany, and those whose ancestors stayed. In the process we may learn more about ourselves and each other, and perhaps even come to realize that through "Uncle Adam and Aunt Eve" we share a common humanity with all.

Interestingly, it is through software technology developed by some researchers in Switzerland that we are able to undertake this experiment in global heritage-based communication. The World Wide Web, that marvel of interconnectivity that has the revolutionary potential of the Gutenburg Press, was developed in Cern, Switzerland, and in a few short years has swept the world and brought unprecedented growth to the Internet.

Some of the pages you will see here have more information about some branches of the family than others. Most pages are incomplete in other ways. We need your help. Here are some things I'd love to know more about:

• What sense of family history is found today among Krähenbuhls and related families in Germany and Switzerland? Is there any recognized common heritage among the different variations of the surname there?
• How did the name evolve into so many different spellings and forms?
• What were the various factors that have prompted the dispersal of different branches of the family over the centuries?
• How many descendants of the Swiss Anabaptist Krähenbuhls of the 16th and 17th centuries are aware of their religious heritage? What does it mean to them?
• What was the German (Palatinate) experience of the Swiss exiles?
• To what extent have old Swiss/German customs and practices lived on in the culture of those branches of the family which have lived outside of Europe for 8 or 10 generations?
• Are Swiss Krähenbuhls interested in their overseas cousins?
• Are there any crows on "Crow Hill"?

By the way, I've used "Krähenbuhl" as the name appearing on the Home Page, because it is the most common form of the name found today in Switzerland.

If you have any information you believe would be of interest to the readers of these pages, please contact me at the e-mail address below.

Home Page of the Krähenbuhl Family

Last modified 12/01/03 by Margaret Crabill Mead
Send e-mail to: patrick.mead@comcast.net