The von Trapp family tree, the real family behind the film

The von Trapp family tree begins with August Johann Trapp, a naval officer who was raised to the Austrian nobility with the title Ritter, and his wife Hedwig Wepler.³ Their son Georg was born on 4 April 1880 at Zara in Dalmatia, now Zadar in Croatia.^3,1

Georg followed his father into the navy of Austria-Hungary and commanded submarines in the First World War.¹ On 27 April 1915, in command of the submarine U-5, he sank the French cruiser Léon Gambetta.³ The National Archives says he held the title Ritter and later baron.¹

Agathe Whitehead was born at Fiume on 14 June 1891, the daughter of the British engineer John Whitehead and Countess Agathe Breunner-Enckevoirth, and a granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the torpedo.^4,1 In 1909 she christened the submarine U-5, the boat Georg later commanded.⁴

The sources disagree on the wedding. Her article gives 14 January 1911 at the chapel of the naval academy in Fiume, while the National Archives gives 1912.^4,1 Since their first child was born in November 1911, this von Trapp family tree follows 1911 and marks the year in doubt.

They had seven children, Rupert in 1911, Agathe in 1913, Maria Franziska in 1914, Werner in 1915, Hedwig in 1917, Johanna in 1919 and Martina in 1921.^3,1 Agathe died at Klosterneuburg on 3 September 1922. The National Archives gives scarlet fever as the cause, while her own article says only that she fell ill after the children caught it and never recovered.^1,4

Maria Augusta Kutschera was born on 26 January 1905, at Vienna by the records and on a train to Vienna by her own account.^5,2 In 1924 she entered Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg as a postulant.⁵

In 1926 the abbey sent her to the Trapp house as a tutor to the younger Maria, who was recovering from scarlet fever. She did not come as governess to all the children.^1,5 Georg and Maria married at Nonnberg on 26 November 1927.^5,2 By her own words she was not in love with him at first, and came to love him later.¹

Their three children close the von Trapp family tree, Rosmarie in 1929, Eleonore, called Lorli, in 1931, and Johannes in January 1939, born in Pennsylvania while the family was in America on tour.^3,6

The family lost most of its money when its bank failed in the early 1930s, and Maria took in boarders.¹ A young priest at Aigen, Franz Wasner, taught the musical family sacred music and became their director.^6,1

They were singing at a church in Aigen by 1935, first as the Trapp Family Choir and later as the Trapp Family Singers, and they toured Europe.^6,2 After Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Georg declined a commission in the German navy.³ The family left by train for Italy, since Georg held Italian citizenship through Zara, and went on to London and America.^1,6

The family first toured America in 1938.² Their passenger list on the Bergensfjord to New York is dated 27 September 1939, and that year they settled at Merion, near Philadelphia.^1,2 In 1942 they bought part of a farm at Stowe, Vermont, and named it Cor Unum, one heart.²

Georg died at Stowe on 30 May 1947 and was buried in the family cemetery there.³ The group gave its last concerts in the middle 1950s, and the sources differ on the year, 1955, 1956 or 1957.^2,6 Maria published The Story of the Trapp Family Singers in 1949 and died at Morrisville, Vermont, on 28 March 1987. She is buried beside Georg and Martina.^5,1