Insight
to the Letters,
from Paul Russell
| The letters were written [as far as I can
estimate] by Elizabeth Campbell GROME, sister-in-law of
Rev. Nicholas WERT. She was apparently in Europe for a
few years around c. 1875-82. There is a reference to 'a Canadian lady' who must have been Lady Jane Van Koughnet, who apparently came to Johnstown in the 1880s looking for information on the Coughnuts. She eventually published privately "The Von Gochnats" in Montréal, PQ, 1910 by Messrs. Hatchard. At any rate, I assume that she must have been in Johnstown about 1878. Rev. Wert gave little information, but assumed that what she sought must be European land related, since in 1871, the new German Empire formally annexed Alsace, inviting German citizens who had been dispossessed of their land to apply for restitution. Mrs. Grome agreed to travel to Alsace to investigate in 1880. The letters are very interesting, although the data given is actually from a number of branches of the von Gochnat family. My assumption of the mystery surrounding the castle at Woerth is that in 1794, the last tax collector Von Gochnat was killed by the revolutionaries. |
