ANNA, OH – Jörg Bertsch, of Scherzheim, Germany, will present a talk on Anna’s German Roots while in the area visiting relatives.

Bertsch will share information and images about the German villages of Scherzheim and Lichtenau and the circumstances that led so many Germans from the Baden and Alsace regions to immigrate to America.

The program is presented by the Anna District Historical Society in partnership with the Shelby County Historical Society and will be held Monday, July 31 at 7 p.m. at St. Jacob’s Lutheran Church in Anna, Ohio. The program is free and open the public.

The presentation will focus on why so many people left the regions of Baden, Germany and Alsace, France during the 1800s to start a new life America.  Beginning in the 1830s, the land surrounding Anna, Ohio became the new home of many German emigrants from the villages of Lichtenau and Scherzheim, Germany.  Many Anna area families can trace their roots to these two towns including the surnames Accuntius, Bertsch, Billing, Eisenstein, Finkenbine, Fogt, Harman, Heiland, Kah, Knasel, Leiss, Losch, Ludwig, Martz, Meyer, Pfaadt, Schiff, Schilling, Stengel, Rohr, Timeus, Wenger, Woehrle, Zimmer and Zimpfer.

For more information please email family@erinpence.com.