Originally from the Haute-Savoie region, some Anthoni family members settled in Blodelsheim in 1705, as witnessed by a record in the parish-church of Sainte-Colombe)

The Anthony patronym comes from the given name, "Antoine" in the French language.

Many Saints had this name, but only two need concern us here, the best known.

The first, Anthony the Hermit, also knwon as Anthony the Abbot, is the patron saint of pet animals, and his Saint's Day is January 17th. He is honoured at Appenwihr, Fellering, Bourtzwiller, Valdieu and Retzwiller.

The second, Saint Anthony of Padua, has June 13th as Saint's Day and in popular belief, he helps find lost objects.

However, to keep this notice as short as possible, we will deal here with the name spelled ANTONY (and its variations) although in Upper Alsace the romance-language form Antoine is quite common, especially in the Orbey valley.

The dialect forms, such as Tenig, Donius or Tony, will be dealt with at a later date.

Certain toponyms carry the prefix Antoni, such as the Antonimatten at Heimersdorf, or the Antoniweglein.

The Haut-Rhine Department topographical dictionary shows that the Antoniweglein corresponds to an old road going from Rixheim to Petit-Landau, passing through the Hardt. At the time there was an "Antonistock" carrying the image of St. Anthony in the forest beside this route, which explains the name given to the track.

The first known mention of the patronym in this village dates back to the year 1705.

André Muller, who was then vicar of the parish of St Colombe in Blodelsheim, blessed the marriage between Jaques ANTHONI and Anne Marie WEISS before two witnesses Jacques WEGBECHER and Jacques DECKERT.

Thanks to this entry in the church register, we know theorigins of Jacques ANTHONI. He was a merchant and came from Nancy-sur-Cluses in the Haute-Savoie area.

Many Savoyards who, because of their trade as merchants or salesmen came to Alsace to ply their trade.

These were seasonal travellers who left their high mountains during the period of bad weather. They often held a small stock of merchandise in thelands they travelled to, in Switzerland, Germany and Alsace. The long distance to return home was sometimes sufficient to prevent this happening, and they stayed.

Reports produced on the subject, in particular by Mr and Mrs Maistre, bring his migratory process to our attention. Usually the process was a three-part process, the first generation being seasonal travellers, the second remains and the third cuts all its ties with the place of origin.

Jacques, like so many of his fellow citizens of Nancy-sur-Cluses, joined this wave of migrants. Between 1706 and 1723 he and his wife had many children in Blodelsheim.

Many Antonis came to Rouffach, where we see the Church of Our-Lady, notably a town -crier and an inspector of the wine-cellars.

The children of Jean-Jacques and Catherine also settled here: Blaise ANTONI married Catherine RIETSCHLEIN in April 1776, Jacques married Marie Anne DIEMART and Joseph married Anne Marie SALTZMANN, whose hometown was Kembs.

Emile Decker, a renowned local historian, sheds further light on this family in his study of the Blodelsheim official notarial registers.

We learn of a marriage contract being drawn up in 1745 when Jean Jacques ANTHONI married Caherine HANCKER. The deed shows that the new husband promised to raise as his own daughter, Marie Barbe, Catherine's daughter by a first marriage to Martin HEMMER.

As was the local custom at he time in Alsace, it was the wife who promised a marriage-gift ("morgengaab", in Alsatian) to her future husband. This dowry amounted to one hundred French Pounds, testifying to the couples relatively well-off financial status.

This marriage contract reveals that Catherine's parents, still living at the time, left the lifetime use of their family house in Blodelsheim to their daughter.

Several weddings involllving man with the name of ANTONI were celebrated at the Church of Our Lady at Rouffach before the French Revolution.

It as in July 1667 that a certain Claude ANTONI married Marguerite SCHROETTER from Rouffach.

The deed drawn-uo in Latin shows that Claude came from "Hornberg ex Lotaringia". This Hornberg is in fact Cornimont, in the Vosges mountains, the name in French being translated into the germanic form.

The slide from ANTOINE to ANTONI is quite logical if we remember that at this time only the Alsatian dialect was spoken here.

In the year 1673, still in Rouffach, Christophe ANTONI, son of Sebastien, burgher of Soultzmatt, married Eve Muré, the daughter of Jacques.

Some years later, Antoine ANTONI, from "Caesare Montanus" (the Latin form of Keysersberg) married the widow Marie Madeleine STEFF.

It was doubtless this same Antoine who in February 1733 was town-crier in Rouffach. In his role, he accompanied Pierre REISSER, head of the so-called Elephant Corporation, in the inspection of he cellars belonging to Marie Catherine RICHSTEINER, the wife of Wendling SPACK, a burgher of the town.

They were mandated to check the quality of the red wine kept in this cellar. Probably they disagreed in their appraisal, since a dispute ensued, which led Marie Catherine to make a statement before the officials of the Bailliff's court in Rouffach. (Source: Former Notarial documents, researched by André GANTER)

On April 15 1684, the inventory and the disposal of the goods belonging to the deceased François ANTHONY, burgher of Cernay, took place. Among the property was a house in Cernay near the Rathstuben, valued at 375 Basel Pounds.

The property was shared between the widow and three children, Jacques, Pierre and Philippe.

Around fifty years later, a detailed breakdown was established between Jean Georges SCHOTT, a burgher of Wittelsheim and the five children of Pierre Anthony and Eve SCHOTT, both deceased. Pierre ANTHONY was certainly the son of the François we spoke about earlier.

Among the five children he had with Eve SCHOTT, we should mention Marie Anne ANTHONY, wife of Georges MIESCH, Madeleine ANTHONY wife of a certain Jean living in Richwiller and whose surname is unknown, and again Michel ANTHONY who worked as a cobbler abroad.

It was in the Collegial Church of St Thiébault at Thann that the wedding were celebrated of several people with this name: Balthasar ANTHONI who married Anne LOTZ from Aspach-le-Haut in July 1629, Mathias ANTHONI who married Marguerite WIGENT in 1640 and again, Jean Jacques ANTHONI who married Jacobée NICA on November 18th 1669 (Source: André ROHMER, archives keeper at Than).

In the parish registers of Sainte-Croix-e-Plaine, the vicar noted the death of François ANTONI, a merchant from Savoy, who was drowned in the Ill in May 1683. He was doubtless related to our Savoyard from Blodesheim.

On foot or on horseback, these itinerant merchants, often heavily laden, waded aross rivers. We can imagine that this accident occured when the river Ill was in flood as the snows melted.

Another merchant from Savoy, Claude ANTONI, died at Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine in 1703. He was the widower of Françoise Cucuat, a typically Savoyard name.

According to the law, as they left no children, their property was shared amongst their families.

The inventory and sharing out of Claude's property are useful to the genealogist, since we learn of the immediate family, in his case Jacques ANTONI from Blodsheim, Pierre ANTONI from Ottmarsheim, François ANTONI a batchelor, and Jacques Cucuat, the son of Joseph, brother of Claude's former wife.

At Ruelisheim, after the death of Philippe ANTHONI at the end of 1720, his will was read and his property shared out. Beneficiaries were his widow Anne Marie WEISS and their seven children, Jean, Philippe, Jean Jacques, Antoine, Anne Marie, Marguerite, Barbe and Catherine.

The register of Catholic baptisms in Colmar, which are consultable at the Family History Centre at Guebwiller, mentions several ANTONI children baptised during the 18th century. These children were born of the marriages of Claude ANTONI and Anne Marie PFISTER and of Jean ANTONI and Barbe DEYBACH.

It will be necessary to count these Savoyards accurately so as to properly reflect their weight in the families of the Haut-Rhin department