Hans FLOHRI (FLORY)

Die Gründe für die Auswanderungen im 17. und 18.Jahrhundert war die noch weit ins 19. Jahrhundert hineinreichenden schlechten Lebensbedingungen der Landbevölkerung. Diese wurden im Wesentlichen durch einen Mangel bzw. ungünstige Verteilung der landwirtschaftlichen Nutzfläche und durch eine zunehmende Überbevölkerung verursacht.

<p>Daher handelt es sich bei den Auswanderern dieser Zeit meist um Personen der ärmeren Schichten wie Heimarbeiter, Tagelöhner oder Kleinbauern.</p>

<p>Auch die Realteilung von Höfen, innere und größere wirtschaftliche Auseinandersetzungen wie Missernten oder Viehsterben waren Ursachen, wie auch nichtschweizerische Krisen oder Kriege. So wanderten Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts über 4000 Züricher in die vom Dreißigjährigen Krieg entvölkerten Gebiete im Südwesten des heutigen Deutschland.

<p>Ab dem 18. Jahrhundert verschlechterte sich die sozial-wirtschaftliche Lage auch in der Schweiz durch steigende Bevölkerungszahlen, Realteilung, geringe Zunahme der landwirtschaftlichen Erträge und Verharren in alten gewerblichen Strukturen.

<p>Fact 1* Was Cantzlerin Hofbauer on May 23, 1655 at Birkenau City Hall.</p>

<p>Fact 2* Was a carpenter called in by town because of lack of carpenters. </p>

<p>Fact 3* His family came from Switzerland.</p>

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<p>Note* </p>

<p>According to a German family tradition, Hans Flohri and his wife, Apollonia, came to the town in </p>

<p>the late 1640's or early 1650's. Birkenau had been devastated by both disease and the effects of the Thirty Years' War. </p>

<p>Accordingly, the mayor sent out for skilled workmen, and Hans came as a carpenter. Despite his skills, Hans is listed as a farmer in town records. That he possessed carpentry skills, though, is indicated by the fact that his descendants became the town's wagon makers. When his great grandsons Johannes and Adolph migrated to America in 1754, they both founded a long line of carpenters and farmers. It is not known how many other children Hans had, but he was the father of at least one other son. In the town of Hohensachsen, which lies about four miles south of Birkenau, the local kirchenbuchlists a marriage there on January 1, 1664 between a Hans George Flori and an Anna Sibilla Westhofen.

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<p>The couple had at least four children, Hans (Dec. 7, 1665), Hans Jacob (Jan., 12, 1668), Philip (Sept. 7, 1669), and </p>

<p>Caspar (July 30, 1671). That this Hans George was the son of Hans of Birkenau is indicated by the church records, </p>

<p>which list one other contemporaneous Flori, Marcus, who may also have been Hans' son. At some point, both </p>

<p>Hans George and Marcus left Hohensachsen for parts unknown, as their deaths are not recorded in church records. </p>

<p>In 1655, Birkenau records indicate that Hans was worth about 200 gulden, about average for the town, but only a little </p>

<p>above poverty level. The relative income situation for his descendants changed very little, and this may have been the </p>

<p>primary reason for his great grandchildren, George, Johannes, and Adolph emigrating to America. The 1994 Birkenau</p>

<p>town history, "1200 Jahre Birkenau. Ein Dorf und Seine Zeit," lists an earlier Flori in Birkenau, a Lorenz Flori, who was </p>

<p>prosecuted in 1561 for stealing meat from a neighbor's wife. there is no other reference to this Lorenz, and the next </p>

<p>municipal record to any Flori in the town is to the 1655 appearance of Hans Flori at a town meeting. A genealogist, </p>

<p>Sabine Schleichert, who researched the Flori family in Birkenau, had access to the original record of Lorenz Flori in the archives of the Baroness of Wamboldt. The reference is not very legible, but Schleichert believes that what was taken for "Flori" was really something like "Bori," so Lorenz was not a part of the family at all.

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