THE COAT of ARMS, above, is a conjoined version of the coats of arms of the von Fingerlin family. With the granting of the imperial title of Freiherr (Baron) to the brothers Caspar Daniel and Johann Heinrich von Fingerlin by Emperor Francis II on 5 February 1804, the brothers also assumed the predicate Bisching and the reconfiguration of the coat of arms. To see 5 generations of family coats of arms, spanning the 18th Century and parts of the 17th and 19th, click here. For information on the topic of German nobility go to: http://www.genealogienetz.de/gene/misc/nobility_faq.html

The original Coat of Arms was first known to have been granted with a nobility letter/patent of nobility to our family in Ulm (now Germany) from Emperor Maximilian the First in 1490. At that time the family was already one of the richest of that commercial city, as they were originally dyers ("Grautucher") and tailors ("Schneider") and successively moved to the merchant class, occupying powerful positions inside the Ulm city council. Specifically, the patent of nobility was first extended to the 3 brothers Hans, Jacob, and Georg Fingerlin and it - the nobility document - is at the archives in Vienna, Austria. It seems that these patents of nobility get reiterrated from time to time and the next known to receive it was cousin "Johannes Bichin senior, alias dictu de Fingerlin de Lusa" by Emperor Ferdinand the First on 31 October 1542 in Vienna; and again by Karl the Fifth in 1544; by Joseph the Second in 1775; and by Francis the Second in 1804, at which time the title of imperial baron (Freiherr) was also bestowed to Caspar Daniel von Fingerlin-Bisching, his brother Johann Heinrich von Fingerlin-Bisching, and to their heirs, to male heirs in perpetuity according to the general rule of primogeniture.

More information is on the way. There is significance to the symbols and design components of the coat of arms that will be explained. The above version, as well as the above names and dates were sent from cousin Paolo deGasperis in Rome.

Klicken-sie to see the coat of arms in Meerschaum or gold or as a bookplate.

FREIHERR or FREIJHERR is the German title for baron. The female equivalent is FREIFRAU or BARONESS (the daughter of a baron) and BARONIN (the wife of a baron).
VON is German for "of" or "from" and was generally reserved for the nobility who were the wealthy and powerful, or otherwise exceptional and influential citizenry. The equivalent of "von" in countries speaking "romance" languages (i.e, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal) is "de" (also "du," "di," and "da,"), although "de" was also said to be used in northern Germany. In fact, there are documents that give "de Fingerlin" and "-a Bischingen" as the family name.
FINGERLIN means "little finger," though it is an index finger that is raised out of the flames in the above coat of arms. Fingerle is the modern German version of Fingerlin. In historical records, the family name has been variously reported as: Fingerlin; Fingerling; Fingerle; de Fingerlin; a Fingerlin; von Fingerlin; von Fingerlin-Büsching; as well as with several variants of the predicate attachment.
BÜSCHING: Also: -von Büsching; -Bisching; -Bischingen; -Bishington; et al. There has been some scholarly speculation as to the origins of the predicate name and cousin Paolo has located and translated 3 letters written in 1961 about our von Büsching predicate. Additionally, a bookplate found in a volume in the Napoleon Museum at Arenenberg Switzerland, suggests another, geographic origin.

EXCERPTS FROM THE (3) ZILLMAN/HORSTEIN LETTERS - an inquiry as to the origin of the predicate "Bisching"
translated from German by Paolo deGasperis


July 29th 1961 (from Horst Zillmann in Singen/Hohentwiel to the Baron Karl von Horstein of Unteruhldingen):

"...It deals with the following question: to know from which locality Kaspar Daniel Fingerlin has derived his predicate (i.e, Bisching or Bischingen; Paolo's note). During the French revolution he moved to Konstanz and on February 5th 1804 he received the imperial diploma of Freiherr; from then on he was called Baron de Fingerlin de Bischingen. Professor Keyser believes that the attribute Bischingen should indicate somebody native from Bissingen in Swabia. Places with such a
name can be found around Donauwörth on the river Enz, nearby Ulm and Teck. On the contrary, the interpretation of Dr.Kluge inclines to believe that must be considered also the following places in the district of Konstanz and of Donaueschingen, namely Biesingen (in the district of Donaueschingen) and Büsingen am Hochrheim (district of Konstanz). When Dr. Jänich is also concerned, he asserts that he never met in the name of the Baron de Fingerlin.

Perhaps you, much esteemed Herr Baron, can clarify such a dispute; however, I stress that the problem is not urgent at all..."



August 1st 1961 (from the Baron Karl von Horstein of Unteruhldingen to Horst Zillmann):

"...With regard to your question about Bischingen, namely from which locality originated the attribute to the title of Kaspar Daniel von Fingerlin von Bischingen, analogously to the gentlemen mentioned in your letter, unfortunately I also have very little information. For competence, the first place of reference is the General Archive of Baden (nobility-rolls of the former Minister of Interior of Baden) and the Archive of the Austrian Minister of Interior in Wien (Nobility Archive), Wien 1, Wannergasse 4 or 5 (a narrow street parallel to the longer Herrengasse, nearby to the round square of the Hofburg). In August 1956 I worked there for three days. The huge State-Archive is in Ballhausplatz, in a building of the Foreign Office close to the Hofburg, built by the Empress Maria Theresia, whose earlier owner was Prince Kaunitz.

Personally, in Konstanz I heard the name of Baron von Fingerlin or of his son mentioned by some old gentlemen in the years 1893-95. We can ask ourselves if that family is reported or not in the book "v.d.Becke-Klüchtzer, Nobility of Baden". Unfortunately, my copy went destroyed during the raid on Freiburg on November 27th 1944. May it be that family Fingerlin comes from Lorraine, which now designates itself as a French region? It would be a further reason to justify the fact that their baronial title has been granted in Wien. In the case you never derived some information from those archives, I can only advise you to do it. However, for the origin of the name, I think that some locality of Lorraine should be considered, in any case a place related to the starting-point of the family. It seems to me also that the place of Büsingen nearby to Schaffhausen can be definitively excluded..."



August 15th 1961 (from Horst Zillmann to the Baron Karl von Horstein of Unteruhldingen):

"...I am very grateful to you for the basic information of asking to the State-Archives in Wien. Mr. Goldinger has answered to me in a very detailed way and he was also able to give a quite satisfactory explanation about the term "de Bischingen", namely:

On October 31st 1542, Ferdinand the First granted the family coat-of-arms to "Johannes Bichin senior alias dictu (i.e, aka in Latin) de Fingerlin de Lusa" in Ulm (it follows the precise description).

In 1781 brothers Johann Konrad and Johann Georg Bichin Jaquin de Bethoncourt asked to obtain the title of imperial Knight and to rejoin their coat-of-arm with that of the families Jaquin and Fingerlin. On that occasion, they declared that their family originated from the above mentioned Johannes Bichin of Ulm, that they had been admitted in the nobility of the Free County of Burgundy, that the name Jaquin derived from the marriage with a rich heiress of that family, while "de Bethoncourt" was the predicate of one of the latter branches of the family which had settled in Mömpelgard. Fingerlings attested their relationship with Bichins and declared to agree on the addition to their coat-of-arm. Among other considerations, some papers of Kaspar Daniel Fingerlin quoted that their family derived from Hans Fingerlin (the first of three brothers mentioned in the patent of nobility of Maximilian the First in 1490), while Johann Bichin was reported as one of the sons of one of the other two brothers (i.e, Jacob and Georg). After all that, the request of brothers Bichin-Jaquin was completely accepted by granting the imperial diploma dated January 25th 1781. When on February 5th 1804, Kaspar Daniel and Johann Heinrich Fingerlin received from the Emperor Francis the Second also the title of imperial Baron (since they have decided to settle permanently inside the borders of the Empire after that Switzerland had fallen in French hands), they added in a part of their purposely "reinforced" baronial coat-of-arm also the ancient coat-of-arm of Bichins, together with the predicate "von Bisching". Mr. Goldinger concludes his letter mentioning that it can be debated whether all statements reported in those papers are based on real facts.

Hence a clear explanation of the meaning of the predicate "Bischingen", where we can again stress the fact that the names of geographical residences were much rarely appointed as attributes to nobility-titles..."