| Ellmendingen is one of about 5 towns from
Karlsruhe to Birkenau along what is now Route A5 in Germany that contains Flory families.
The town is very small even today and does not appear on many maps. It
is located between Karlsruhe and Pforzheim, about 30 kilometers south of
Wiesloch, ancestral home of Englehardt Flori. The ancestors of the Flory
families in these towns may very well have sailed up the Rhine and
gotten off approximately where the Rhine bends sharply to the West. It is probable that many, if not all, of these families are related, but
little evidence has so far been unearthed to prove that hypothesis.
The Flori family of Ellmendingen uses the "i" spelling
characteristic of other Floris in the area, a spelling that suggests a
Swiss derivation. Peter Flori was unusual in terms of neighboring Flori
families in that he was Catholic. After Peter and his wife had
four children, it appears that he left the area.
What makes Peter Flori especially interesting is that in the Ellmendingen Church records, Peter's father is listed as Joseph Flory of Seehof in Switzerland. Seehof is also in the region where Joseph Flory, Senn, came from. A description of this Joseph appears on our page "The Search for Joseph's Homeland," as part of our attempt to find the origins of the Joseph Flory who came to America in 1733. Because Peter and Senn Joseph are not all that far apart in age, it is possible that they were brothers. At any rate, while the Swiss origins of many German Flory families have previously been recognized, this is the first instance where we know specifically where in Switzerland a family came from.
The following transcription of the above record was done by Anton Fluri and Konstantin Huber Anno
1715 d.
18.9br, ist Peter Flori, seines Handwerckhs ein
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