For more than 300 years, the Fechsers lived in Weikersheim, a medieval town in the Tauber River Valley. While many of our Fechser ancestors for generations were craftsmen, including tailors and shoemakers, the name Fechser has its roots in the grapevines that have been cultivated for centuries in this wine-growing region. A Fechser (or Fexer) is a cutting of a grapevine that is used to plant a new vine.
The association of our Fechser family name with the branch from which a new grapevine will spring, to produce fruit for potentially a century or more, is very symbolic to me. It also suggests that our earliest Fechser ancestors, going back to the 1500s or even before, were likely involved in wine-growing occupations.
Here is the dictionary definition of Fechser, from a German-English dictionary published in Germany in 1765. (Note that the letter “s” looks like an “f” in this old type font.) A Fechser is defined as “a layer of a vine, a provine, or a new fine spring.” Fechser legen oder sencken means “to lay or sink your vinebranches in the ground, in order to let them take root and so to get slips or sets for new vines.”
Buchhandlung, 1765), p. 575. Google Books. (https://books.google.com/books?id=am1pAAAAcAAJ : accessed 31 Dec 2017).
The modern German word for Fechser is Wurzelrebe, meaning “rooted vine cutting. Grapevine cuttings can either be set in the ground to grow into a new vine on the spot, or allowed to lay in the ground until they begin to take root, then transplanted elsewhere as rooted cuttings. A Fechser may also refer to cuttings used to start other plants, including cuttings of rhizomes from hops or root cuttings from horseradish.
Fechser Family History 