THE STORY OF JOHANNES & MARIA ANNA KÖCHLY
George Cooper With the help of Mary Beth Koechley Cooper & Holly Cooper Whisman May 2016
UNRAVELING A BALL OF TWINE Where should we begin to tell the story? The beginning that starts with Johannes & Maria Anna living in Lutzelbourg, France, or the one that starts all the way back in the 1600s with Jögly Köchy living in Sarmenstorf, Switzerland? What makes the most sense?
One of our distant French cousins, Louis Kuchly, faced the same question when he started telling our family’s story in his book Nos Aïeux Venus d’Ailleurs (1980), a fascinating account of the family history from a French perspective. His storytelling analogy was that of pulling a thread from a ball of twine. It seems to be so full of tangles, it’s hard to know where to start.
Researching and telling our family history is also a bit like mining for precious gems that are so covered with debris that it’s difficult getting at the important details. Regardless, the gems are there for the taking. All we need is patience and perseverance.
It seems appropriate with our Koechley Family Reunion (KFR as the younger generation loves to call it) approaching that we should pick up the story from a damp, rainy June evening in 1982 at Ruggles Beach on the rocky shores of Lake Erie. It was one of the very early KFRs attended by the children of Henry & Elizabeth Koechley. We happened to drop by to find them gathered in the sitting room at the Ruggles Hotel enjoying a quiet evening of reminiscing. Then Uncle Bob Koechley began to tell us about his grandfather, Johannes Koechle. He pulled out a long list of relatives going back to the early 1800s, typed on a carbon-copied sheet of onionskin paper. That started the ball unraveling!
By the way, the title of Louis Kuchly’s book roughly translated reads Our Forefathers Came from Somewhere Else. As odd as the title sounds, our ancestors did come from somewhere else—first from Switzerland, then France. We trust that we won’t leave out anything important. Welcome to the story of our family.
ELIZABETH’S LETTER Perhaps the best place to start is with a letter written by Elizabeth Schott Koechley, Henry’s (or Doc’s) wife. Elizabeth was writing to Doc’s niece, Loretta Koechley Jacobs, daughter of John C. Koechley. Part of her four-page letter is transcribed below. The rest will follow.
September 24, 1955 Dear Loretta,
We are sorry that we do not have the book that you want. [1] We have never seen it. Uncle Louie’s house was so cluttered no one had time to go through the maze of old newspapers, boxes, etc., so the house was sold with everything in it.