Surname Saturday: Domelle

Back in 2010 I wrote a blog posting on the DOMELLE surname.  Since then I've actually made huge progress on what has been a brick wall family line for me for many many years!

Knowing that my Domelle's came from a village whose german name was Triebswetter (now in modern Romania), I was mucking around online late last year and found there were many CDs available that showed transcribed church records for towns in that area. 

There were many ethnic Germans and French that moved south to farm empty land in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire.  So many towns in what is now Romania were actually nearly entirely filled with Germans or French.

Today there are local historians who have gone through the trouble of transcribing church records for these towns.  And I found someone who had done Triebswetter and was selling the CD online.  Now, whether you can trust the information or not was certainly something I considered, but I figured with something that had been a brick wall for so many years, what would it hurt?

So I sent away for the CD and also began an online correspondence with the transcriber.  He recognized my family name and immediately began providing extra information beyond the CD transcriptions that he had in his own genealogy records.  His family line was from the same town.

I had hit the genealogy jackpot!  And so now, just a few months later, I have tons of information going back a few more generations.  I was so grateful to my new online friend because he had gone out of his way to answer extra Domelle mysteries for me.  The only thing I could think of to help him was to ask if he had any people in his family tree that had emigrated to America.  I figured I could research them and give him whatever I found.  I was so pleased to be able to pay him back with information on his tree.  :-)

And so, here is my updated Surname Saturday posting on my DOMELLE family line.


The surname DOMELLE (variants I've found are: DOMELE, DOMMELE, DOMLE, TOMELE, DUMELLE) first showed up in the US at the beginning of the 20th century. The surname also exists in Canada, apparently some family members went straight Canada, but I've been unable to connect the two families, although due to the rarity of the name, it's extremely likely they are related.

The main family members who emigrated to the US (both DOMELLE and DOMELE) listed their birth places as either NagyOsz or Gattaja. In fact, the same person would switch back and forth on which town was listed.  They all spoke both German and Hungarian.

Nagyősz is the old Hungarian name for the modern town of Tomnatic in Romania (Triebswetter is the German name for the same town). Gattaja is the old German name for the modern town of Gătaia in Romania (Gátalja is the Hungarian name).

My DOMELLE immigrants to the US were 4 siblings and a cousin and his family:

Siblings
William DOMELLE (b. NagyOsz, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 04 October 1911)

Nicholas DOMELLE (b. NagyOsz, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 26 June 1907)

Anna Magdalena DOMELLE (b. Gattaja, Hungary, arrival date still unknown, but before birth of first son in Chicago, in July 1911)

Lena DOMELLE (b. Gattaja, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 04 October 1911)

Cousin
John DOMELE (b. NagyOsz, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 30 March 1906)

wife Mary TUNNER DOMELE (b. Visesha, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 30 March 1906)

son Anthony DOMELE (b. NagyOsz Hungary, arrived, arrived Port of Baltimore, 30 April 1910)

son Martin Anthony DOMELE (b. Visesha, Hungary, arrived Port of Baltimore, 30 April 1910)


Most ended up in Chicago, then moving down to Lake Village, Indiana to farm. Both sisters married and ended up in Michigan.

The etymology of the surname DOMELLE has stumped me for a while now. At first glance it looks French to me, but the family stated their ethnicity was German while they lived in Hungary. They spoke German and Hungarian. My family pronounces it "DOM-lee". Family lore also states that the move to Hungary (which appears to have happened in the late 1700s) was from the Alsace-Lorraine region, so we are back to French/German back and forth with that region.  My further research in the past few months confirms the Alsace-Lorraine origin of the name, but no further information on that.

As with the KLEYLEIN's, there aren't a lot of DOMELLE's out there. So if your last name is DOMELLE, it's highly likely we're related!

Here's my updated ahnentafel:

1. Leah KLEYLEIN - Me!

3. Deborah DOMELLE - my Mom!

6. William Adam DOMELLE - my Grandfather! He was born in Newton County, Indiana and grew up there on his father's farm. He moved to New York and met and married my grandmother, Ann MIX.

12. William DOMELLE, born 27 Oct 1882 in NagyOsz, Hungary; died 20 Aug 1943 in Jasper County, Indiana. He met and married his 2nd wife Elizabeth OBENDORFER in Chicago, Illinois. They later moved south to Lake Village, Indiana to farm, along with his brother Nick and cousin John.  William had a wife back in Europe prior to his emigration.  Her name was Magdalena THIERJUNG and they had 2 children, George and Anna.  They did not emigrate.

24. Adam DOMELLE, born Bet. 1850 - 1860 in NagyOsz, Hungary; died 1889 in NagyOsz, Hungary.  He was married to Christina REISER.

48. Baldasar DOMMELE, born 1814 in Glogowatz, Austria-Hungary; died 1894 in NagyOsz, Hungary.  He was married to Maria KLEIN.  Baldasar was a master blacksmith, along with many other members of the Domelle family.

98. Baltasar DUMELLE, born 1790 in probably in Glogowatz, Austria-Hungary.  He married Barbara PFAFF.

192.  Antonius TOMULE, born 1771 in Glogowatz, Austria-Hungary.  He married Regina STROHOFFER.

384.  Paul TOMULE, born about 1721.  He married Maria Anne KLEIN.