Origins in Germany.

The first confirmed ancestors of this family are Johann Georg Bühler (1819-) and his wife Angelika Bosch Schmid (1826-) who appear in the photo of the orchard that can be seen below. They were married on 23 APR 1850 in Germany, Wϋrttemberg, Donaukreis, Schalkstetten. They had eleven children of whom we believe that about five boys and two girls survived. ( Information to be confirmed ).

Both their second son and their youngest son emigrated to Chile. Their daughter, Elisabeth Bühler Bosch (1862-1914), married in 1890 in Germany with Jakob Dauner (1859-1909). We hope to make contact with their Dauner descendants.

Most of the official information in Germany comes from www.familysearch.org. The surname Bühler (“from the hills”) and the name Johann Georg are very common in southern Germany. The German custom of repeating both given names for sons has made the task difficult and we have had to make some corrections over the years. We will seek corroboration from additional sources before including earlier ancestors.

The family lived in rural areas of southern Germany, in Württemberg, today the state of Baden-Württemberg. The small towns mentioned in the official marriage records are Geislingen and Gerstetten. Both appear on the map southeast of Stuttgart and north of Ulm, a city crossed by the Danube River.

Our First Bühler in Chile.

Their second son, Johann Georg Bühler Bosch (1856-1911) ,
served in the German army before emigrating to southern Chile, where, in 1879, he married Amalia Kowoll Rau (1859-1917)daughter of a Polish immigrant to Chile.

As of October 7, 2024, we have not identified the exact year nor the ship in which Johann Georg arrived in Chile.

Life in Chile.

We would appreciate any information about the commercial activities of Johann Georg Bühler Bosch in the province of Llanquihue. It is possible that he may have worked in business administration or industry for third parties, as his family lived in several towns in the Chiloé and Llanquihue region. The marriage records of his daughters show addresses in Ancud, Queilén, Maullín (between ca. 1888 and ca. 1894) and Santiago. He died in 1911.

The Bühler-Kowoll couple had twelve children, including four boys. Amalia Kowoll R. helped to raise the García-Kowoll children of her sister Carmen Kowoll (1861-1901)a music teacher, who died at the age of forty.

One of Amalia KR’s adoptive sons, Francisco “Pancho” García Kowoll appears below at Quinta Normal in Santiago in 1914. By then, both Amalia Kowoll Rau and her daughter, Amalia Bϋhler-Kowoll, had been widowed. The mother in 1911 and her daughter at age 23, in 1903, the same year her daughter Yolanda Robles B. was born. We believe that the Bϋhler-Kowoll family had moved to Santiago, because in 1920, Angela Bühler-Kowoll married ¨en casa de la novia¨ at Calle Pedro de Valdivia 2015, Providencia, Santiago.

With a strong sense of unity and family tradition, several of the Bühler-Kowoll sisters, cousins and granddaughters have preserved documents, photos and family stories.

Standing: Hilda Bühler S., Jorge Bühler Briones, Tola Ugarte Bühler, Nana Mujica Bühler, Carmen Bühler B. Sitting: Maruja Ugarte B., Blanca Bühler K, Santiago, Chile, ca 1985.

Alas, until 2024, we have found no correspondence from the Bühler-Bosch siblings with their German family, except for the portrait below, which we believe is of their younger sister Elisabeth Bühler-Bosch (1862-1914) sent from Württemberg to her siblings in Chile, upon her marriage to Jakob Dauner (1859-1909).

Blanca Bühler-Kowoll did the same in Chile with her siblings when she married Heberto Mujca ( -1969).

The Bϋhler-Kowoll Men.

Luis Guillermo Bühler Kowoll (1888- 1949) worked as an assistant to his brother-in-law, Arturo Ugarte Castro, and lived with him in his house in Santiago and in the farms, according to his niece Maruja Ugarte B.

Of the three surviving males (Jorge, Carlos, Luis Guillermo), only Jorge Bühler Kowoll (1882-1942), married to Urbana Briones Searle, had male descendants.

The daughters of Jorge Bühler Kowoll, Carmen and Adriana, generate the branches Lazcano-Bühler and Zeiss-Bühler. Their descendants are in Chile and Spain.

Jorge Bühler Briones (1924-2019) has a son who has no descendants and three daughters, thus originating the branches Bühler-López, Bühler-Ormazábal. His brother, Sergio Bühler Briones (1928-2005), had no children. For this reason, with the generation of the grandchildren of Jorge Bühler K., this branch of the Bühler-Bosch will lose the surname Bühler as first name.

The Bühler-Kowoll sisters.

Outdoor lunch table, Ancud ca. 1900.

Izq: Amalia BK?, “Mateo” BB, X, “Jorge” BB, Ernestine Hott S., Amalia Kowoll R., Y, Victoria, 3 no iD, Elsa BK?.

The Bühler-Kowoll couple had six surviving six surviving daughters and they generate the following branches in Chile.(Information would be welcome!):

Amalia BK (1880-1956 ): Robles-Bühler, in Puerto Montt. Amalia BK was widowed young, in 1903.

Victoria BK (1881-1943): Ugarte-Bühler, in Santiago.

An account of all of her children can be seen here.

Elena BK (1884- ): Quezada-Bühler, in the province of Llanquihue. Married a judge in the South.

Angela BK (1893-1964):García-Bühler in Santiago.

Elsa BK (1896- ): more information?

Clara BK (1897- ): more information?

Blanca BK (1900-1995): Mujica-Bühler, in Santiago

The Second Bühler-Bosch to Chile.

Matthaeus ¨Mateo¨ BühlerBosch (1864-1943), eight years younger than his brother Johann Georg, followed him to southern Chile. Until 2024 we have not been able to find the year of his arrival nor the ship on which he arrived in Chile.

We know that he started working in the brewing industry in the Valdivia area and that in 1893, at the age of 29, he married Ernestine Hott Schencke from a family with important business and political influence in Osorno. His brother-in-law, Federico Hott Schencke (1868-1934), was re-elected mayor of Osorno between 1902 and 1928. His biography is here.

Mateo bought good agricultural land near Osorno which his children have extended by purchases and inheritances. His descendants have remained in the Osorno region where they have played a leading role in the region’s agricultural industry and held public service positions in and around Osorno. An important avenue in Osorno is named after a well-remembered physician of the region, his son Guillermo Bühler Hott (1899-1973).

As of 2018, Mauricio Pilleux’s excellent website published a very complete and well-documented Genealogy of the branch of “Mateo” Bühler-Bosch which can be viewed here.

This space reserved for old family photos of MBB.

Contact Between the Two Bühler Branches of Chile.

Of the six Bühler-Kowoll sisters, three married Chilean professionals or merchants and moved to central Chile. In Pto Montt, the eldest sister, Amalia, became a widow in 1903 and her daughter, Yolanda Robles Bühler, married Ernesto Oelckers S.(1893-1973), a local shipping businessman who served as Intendente of the Llanquihue province.

¨Maruja¨Ugarte Bühler fondly remembered her stopovers in Osorno, at her great-uncle ¨Mateo¨ BB’s house, when she was on her way to Puerto Montt to spend her summer vacation with her cousin Yolanda Robles Bühler.

The contact between both branches was quite close while the two Bühler-Bosch brothers were alive, as can be seen in the following photos. The Bühler-Hott branch of ¨Mateo¨, dedicated to agriculture, remained in the Dept. of Osorno and their descendants have been related, by marriages, to other prominent local families, both Germanic and Chilean, with land, commerce and local political influence.

We believe the photo below includes both brothers and would appreciate your help in identifying the participants.

Reestablished contact between Bühler branches.

In November 2023, descendants of Enrique Bühler Hott (1897-1953), Jorge Bühler Kowoll (1882-1942) and ¨Maruja¨ Ugarte Bühler (1915–2008) re-established the lost contact between the descendants of the two Bühler-Bosch brothers.

In November 2023 the writer made an overnight trip from Santiago to Osorno to expand the contact and get more information about the Bühler branch of Osorno. Little by little we hope to complete the missing genealogical data and, hopefully, explore together our German roots.

Contributors and sources.

We are indebted to familysearch.org and the website genealog.cl by Mauricio Pilleux, among many others. Much of the internal genealogical information has been provided, over many years, by sisters M. Eliana and Paulina BL through messages electronic and phone calls. Maruja Ugarte Bϋhler maintained close contact with his cousins Bϋhler and passed on information obtained by Blanca Mujica Bühler. The photo below shows one of the typical meetings at Maruja Ugarte B.’s apartment in Santiago, Chile, in 2004.

Priorities for Future Research.

1. We are looking for collaboration, possibly in Germany, to confirm and document the ancestors of Angelika Bosch Schmid (1826- )and her husband Johann Georg Bühler (1819- ). We would like to identify the precise location of the orchard shown in the initial photo.

2. We would like to confirm and document the ancestors of Leopold Kowoll Hoffmann (1832- ) and his wife Dorothea Raupossibly in Poland or Germany.

3. We would like to document the dates of passage to Chile and the vessels of both Bühler brothers.-Bosch.

4. We would be grateful for family photos, stories of interest related to ¨Matthaeus Bühler Bosch¨, the Bühler-Hott branch and any information about, or correspondence with, our German ancestors.