Banfe Valley

Banfe is the name of a creek that flows into the Lahn river near Laasphe. Seven villages are situated either along Banfe creek or nearby:

• Banfe and Herbertshausen – prior to 1895 part of the parish of Feudingen.

• Bernshausen – grew out of a gentry farm.

• Fischelbach, Hesselbach and Bernshausen – constitute a separate parish.

• Laaspherhütte – since 1450 part of the city of Laasphe.

• Sohl – founded in 1711 by three farmers.

All seven villages are part of the former county of Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein, which was annexed to the territory of Hessen-Darmstadt in 1806, and to the former Prussia in 1816.

The book »Heimatbuch Banfetal«, published in 1987 by Eckhard Linke and Werner Schmidt, contains a wealth of information about the villages, its buildings and their inhabitants.

The new book lists the owners of about 180 buildings between 1575 and 1875, along with the chronicles of their families – some of them with extensive genealogical information.

This book is titled »Haus- und Familienchroniken Banfetal« and was published in September 2015.

It is written in German and contains 412 pages. It is available for 49,95 € exclusively from:

• Buchhandlung Blöcher, Bahnhofstraße 2, D - 57334 Bad Laasphe, Tel. 02752 - 5925, E-Mail: buchhandlung-bloecher@t-online.de

• Angelika Wied, Antiquariat Bücherkiste Wittgenstein, Bäderborn 48, D - 57334 Bad Laasphe, Tel. 02752 - 1711, E-Mail: antiquariat.buecherkiste@googlemail.com