| As far as we know by now the roots of our family are based in Switzerland. As early as 1488 Andreas Trüthart is mentioned in this place. Most interesting for us (start of teh family tree line) is Jackob Treuthardt (born about. 1555) from Zweisimmen in the canton of Bern. He married Magdalena Franz in 1583, and they had 10 children. |  |
Note: I'm not an expert in history. I only try to write down what I know so far. If anyone knows more about our family background I will be pleased to add it here or to make corrections to this explanations. |
About a 100 years later one of his descendants, Johann Jakob Treuthardt (1634 - 1705), moved from Switzerland to Palatinate which today is part of Germany (southwest of Frankfurt). It was the time of the so called reformation and religious splitting. Probably Johann Jakob - as many other Swiss people by that time - left home because of his religious opinion or even religious prosecution. They headed for Palatinate because after the 30-years-war (1618-1648) Palatinate needed people to re-build the land. Elector Karl Ludwig called for workers giving them more rights in religious affairs. Johann Jakob and his family settled in Gersbach which is nowadays part of the city of Pirmasens. His name changed to Tritthard (probably just because of the pronounciation, spelling Tritthart or Truithart one can find, too).
Until the end of the 19th century Trittharts lived in the area of Pirmasens. Among others Peter Tritthart (born 1849) and Jakob Tritthart (1863 - 1953) emigrated from Palatinate to America. Jakob moved to New York, Peter went to the west, he died in Camas, Idaho.
In 1872 Johann Treuthardt moved from Zweisimmen to Finland. That's the reason why nowadays many relatives live in Scandinavia (see picture of their family meeting in 1993).
Back to the 18th century. In 1784, Johann Georg
Tritthart, his wife, and three sons went from Palatinate (Hainzenthal,
Sippersfeld) via
Vienna to Galicia¹, which belonged to Austria by that time. Again, poor
farmers, acting in good faith, followed the promises of their rulers. This
time it was to settle more people in the eastern regions of the Austrian
Empire of Josef II. and to hold the borders to the Catholic Poland (that is
why they looked for Protestants from Palatinate).
Johann Georg stayed in Brigidau, his sons lived in Brigidau, too, and in
Josefow (north of Lemberg).
Part of the Family - we know of Johann Trithardt (1847 - 1927) moved even more to the east: to Bessarabia. Early 20th century some emigrated from this place to Canada (spelling Trithart or Trithardt), others were forced to go back to Germany in 1939. This call-back into the Reich was part of an agreement of Nazi-Germany and Russia and affected those Trittharts, too, who had remained in Galicia. They moved back to Austria and to Germany.
 If you are interested: There are several letters written by my grandgrandfather Adam from Josefow to his sons in Austria. Some of them you can read (in German) in the folder 'letters'. You will get a good view into the living in Galicia in the first half of the 20th century. |
 ¹Galicia in this case is not the landscape in Spain - the old Galicia is the area around Lemberg, nowadays Lviv in Ukrainia |