Friedrich Froebel (or Fröbel, 1782–1852) inventor of the kindergarten was one of the most influential educational reformers of all time. Today, the use of his methods reverberates throughout the early years curriculum. To Froebel and his followers, the preschool years for children were the most important of all phases of education.

An exploration of the Froebel approach in England reveals a fascinating trail of evidence of value both to the social historian and genealogist. Froebel’s lasting claim to recognition is the work he did in setting up the first kindergarten. The early chapter of Froebel’s life began on 21 April 1782, when he was born in the village Ober Weissbach in Thuringia, central Germany.