“from Alsace and Baden to Herkimer
and Bear Valley”
The Ochsner Ancestors
The Name Ochsner: With a number of variant spellings, Ochsner is a German name, suggesting keepers of oxen. When it was first used, the ox was an important animal providing transportation and assistance in tilling the soil. The family crest has included a bull, not at all inappropriate since there are still ranchers in the Ochsner family.
Family Origns: The Ochsner family has its roots in Switzerland and neighboring sections of Germany. Some migrated directly to America, others migrated to Russia and from there to the United States, settling in various places including New York, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska, and other Western states. Since then, they have spread throughout the nation.
Dr. Alton Ochsner, the New Orleans surgeon, was particularly interested in the Ochsner family history. He believed he had evidence that in every generation since the 1493 birth of Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim (who later was known as Paracelsus), there has been a physician in the Ochsner family. As the famed Paracelsus once reported, his farther married a girl from the region, a member of the Ochsner family. “They both came from the same Alemannic stock, a sturdy race of hard working people….They were not ‘woven of silk’ but of ‘coarse linen.’ They had the unrest and curiosity common to many mountain people….”
Branches of the Ochsner family in the United States:
One genealogist, Oscar Ochsner of Aberdeen, South Dakota, traced six branches of the family in his book, An Ancestral History of the Ochsners. There were several branches as well, including those who emigrated first to Russia before coming to the United States; they settled in Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas.
Oscar Ochsner identified one group as “the Swiss Ochsners” who emigrated in 1849 and settled for a short while in New York state. Some of these remained in New York but others moved on to Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska. Joseph Ochsner was one of four cousins, the others being his brother, Nicholaus, and Anton and Morris who were brothers. Before leaving New York, Joseph married Mary Ann Rothman. They and their children moved to Bear Valley Wisconsin; that little group provided the forebears of our family.
Click here for the table of Immigrant Ancestors.