The River Running
"Immigrants: we get the job done" -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
The Fischbach Family of Pforzheim
Like Leins, Fischbach wasn't a common or long-lived name in Pforzheim or its surrounding villages. Between 1718 and 1732 there were seven children christened there with the last name Fischbach, all of them the children of Hans Jacob Fischbach and Anna Catharina Sauter. None of the children married in Pforzheim. I have no idea what happened to them.
A century and a half later, on 07 Jul 1883, Friedrich Fischbach married Katharina Friederike Koegel in Brötzingen, a suburb in the western part of Pforzheim. Katharina Friederike was the daughter of Leonhard Koegel and Marie Ramhofer, born 18 Jul 1861. I'm not sure where she was born. She had two younger siblings who were born in Brötzingen in 1880 and 1881, so the family was there by then, but I can't find her birth record or her parents' marriage record.
Friedrich Fischbach was the son of Johann Baptist Fischbach and Barbara Schweizer, born 05 Jul 1854 in Heilbronn. Now Heilbronn's only 56 km ENE of Brötzingen, but the story doesn't end there. Johann Baptist was born in Ehingen, Barbara was born in Geislingen (in Württemberg) and they got married in Esslingen on 22 Apr 1850. The easiest way to explain this is probably with reference to Stuttgart. Ehingen's 75 km SSE of Stuttgart, Esslingen's 13 km ESE of Stuttgart, Heilbronn's 47 km north of Stuttgart and Brötzingen's 45 km WNW of Stuttgart. Geislingen in Württemberg could be any one of four different places, none particularly close to Ehingen or Esslingen and none on the direct route from Ehingen to Esslingen.
What we have here is people on the move. One of the factors involved may be the creation of a railway system in the Kingdom of Württemberg. Construction began in 1844. By July 1850, it was possible to go by train from Ulm, 31 km ENE of Ehingen, to Heilbronn with stops in the largest of the Geislingens and in Esslingen. (Note, however, that Johann Baptist Fischbach and Barbara Schweizer were already married by this time.)
A further example of this mobility is that after Barbara died (sometime between 1861 and 1864), Johann Baptist went back to Ehingen and remarried. He and his new wife, Pauline Nagler, had at least two children that I know of. One was a son born in 1867 in Ulm. The other is a daughter who was born 02 Mar 1871 in Jagstfeld and christened 15 May 1871 in Ehingen. She died 09 Aug 1871 in Bad Friedrichshall. Now Jagstfeld is a village incorporated into Bad Friedrichshall, so essentially she was born and died in the same town, 11 km north of Heilbronn. But for the child's christening she and her parents travelled 129 km SSE back to Ehingen. It's entirely possible that they made most of the trip by rail.
When Friedrich Fischbach married Katharina Friederike Koegel in Brötzingen 07 Jul 1883, it wasn't because his family had roots in the Pforzheim area. If they were rooted anywhere, it was in or near Ehingen. Friedrich's paternal grandfather was born in Oggelsbeuren, 16 SSE of Ehingen - and 13 km NW of Biberach, which is sort of a hot spot for Fischbachs.
Katharina Friederike and Friedrich had four children that I know of, all born in Brötzingen:
They had no daughters named Anna and no sons who survived infancy to marry anyone named Anna. The only related Anna Fischbach I could find was Friedrich's sister Anna Pauline Fischbach born in Heilbronn 06 Sep 1859. She would have been 49 years old when Arthur Fischbach was born 26 Nov 1908. It's not biologically impossible that she was his mother, but it's not likely either.
It's possible that one of Friedrich's three sisters had a daughter born outside of wedlock and named her Anna, but I have no records documenting this. Friedrich's only brother died the same day he was born, 09 Oct 1861. Friedrich also had a half-brother, mentioned above, but said half-brother didn't marry until 1894 and then had a son born a year later. Any daughters born after that would have been too young to be Arthur's mother.
It's also possible that Anna moved to Pforzheim from somewhere else or married someone named Fischbach who moved to Pforzheim from somewhere else.