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Loretz Family |
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Loretz Family |
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My Loretz relatives originate from the picturesque, mountainside community
of Fanas in the Prättigau Valley, in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland
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The first of my Loretz ancestors to come to America was Christian (Christ) Loretz in 1881. A carpenter by trade, Christ settling first in Minneapolis. He married Maria (Mary) Taverna in Wabasha, Minnesota, in 1887. Christ and Mary moved to North St. Paul where the first two of three children, Christine and Anna, were born. The family then moved to Superior, Wisconsin, where their third child, Mary (Mayme), was born. The family stayed in Superior, where Christ continued wotking as a carpenter.
Tragedy struck the young family in January 1895, when Mary died. She passed away at the home of her father in Wabasha, Minnesota. The Wabasha newspaper carried the following notice about her death:
Mrs. Mary Loretz, of South Superior, died at the home of her father, Peter Taverna, in this City last Wednesday morning of a complication of disease brought about by a severe attack of the grippe. Mrs. Lorez was thirty-one years of age and leaves three children, the oldest being but seven years of age. The funeral will be held from the house today, Rev. Baeder officiating and the remains will be interred in Plainview Cemetery.
After Christ's wife passed, it appeared that the children were sent to live with relatives or went to work for families as servants, while Christ found work in Duluth and then later Alma, Wisconsin. (The 1895 Superior City Directory indicated he had moved to Duluth, the 1900 US Census and the 1905 Wisconsin Census have him living in Alma, Wisconsin, boarding with different families.) Christ was still living in Alma, Wisconsin in 1910 while daughters Anna and Mary were boarding in Wabasha, and eldest daughter Tina living with her grandmother Christina Taverna in North St. Paul.
Daughter Tina married John C. Effinger in 1912 in North St. Paul, and daughter Anna married John's brother Ben Effinger in 1916 at the Cathedral in St. Paul. Anna and Ben moved to North Dakota after winning a land lottery where they had two daughters, however Ben passed away in the great flu epidemic of 1918, leaving Anna a single mother at a very young age. In 1920
, Christ was living with distant relatives in Nelson, Wisconsin, while Anna and children Kathryn and Benedine were living in Alma. Tina and family were living in Indiana in 1920 with sister Mayme. By 1930, the widowed Anna had remarried and was living in North St. Paul. Her father Christ is listed as a boarder with Anna. Tina and family were back in Minnesota, now living in St. Paul; sister Mayme is still with the family. Mayme married Paul Pufahl in 1938 after having lived for years with sister Tina and her family. Christian died in North St. Paul, Minnesota on January 20, 1938--he was buried in Wabasha alongside his wife, Mary Taverna Loretz.
Christ Loretz's parents, who stayed in Fanas, were Christian and Anna, both born in that community. Christian's parents were Ulrich and Margreth Loretz. (Ulrich was born in Fanas in 1792.) Ulrich's parents were Christian and Salome Loretz. (Christian was born in Fanas in 1762.) Christian's parents were Ulrich and Anna Loretz. (Ulrich was born in 1723 in Fanas.) Ulrich's parents were Johannes and Margreth Loretz. Johannes was born in 1690.
To my knowledge, there are no other close Loretz relatives in America, so I would be very interested in hearing from any Loretz descended from Fanas.
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with daughters Tina, Anna and Mayme. |
