German & Norwegian Friel(e)'s & Freel
There is a Friele Family History printed around 1927 in Norwegian by a Friele descendant in Bergen, Norway.The genealogy dates go back into the 1600s in Germany.
Our Friele's came to Bergen during the Hanseatic League reign around the early mid-1700s from Germany.
I was able to obtain a copy of the book but have loaned it to a family member and will NOT get it back any time soon so please DO NOT write me.There is a researcher that you can contact through the following website that is willing to help.
http://www.slektsbiblioteket.com/english.htmhttp://www.slektsbiblioteket.com/english.htm
That is where I found out about the existance of this book.
Although I do not know Norwegian I was able, with the help of a dictionary, to figure out the following which is just plain FUN to think about but will most likely NEVER be proven....
According to the introduction in the book... "tradition" has it that the German Friele's were descended and/or related (via brothers) to Johanne Gutenberg the inventor of mass printing and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible. Gutenberg lived back in the 1300/1400s.There are several reasons why this may never be proven... One, there were no set rules governing surnames and Johannes used at least four different surnames in his life... His father was a Friele.
It is not known if Gutenberg ever married.However, there was a scandal of some sort in a neighboring town when he was fairly young and it seems the details are unknown... Was there a woman? Was there a shotgun marriage? He was Catholic and divorce was forbidden, would that be why he never married? Many questions and no answers.Oh well, it's a fun speculation.
Anyway, I haven't found any reference to the German Friel, Friele, Freele, Freel's in this forum AND I also haven't seen much on this forum referencing earlier dates than the 1700s... so I just thought I'd throw out this tidbit for all of you to mull over... even if you are Scottish ... maybe the O'Friel came over from Germany back in the 1400s or something... Just a thought...HAVE FUN!