Is there a hint about the mother in this entry?
In the entry for Hans Heinrich Kägi's unehelichen son Jacob, christened 24 February on this page:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVK-78R7?i=31&cc=4138674
(It is film # 008125696, image 32) There is writing under the father's name after "auf dem Fischbach" that I can't decipher. Can anyone read it?
Thanks!
Kommentare
-
Right under his name, it says Hürling, a form of the word Heuerling (see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Heuerling), which is a day laborer. Where the mother's name should be, I believe it says Ver. Wolfensperger [Wolfensberger] aus ... Bauma (Bauma is a neighboring parish), and then it repeats "Hürling"--so, they were both hirelings/day laborers. If it does say Ver., that makes her given name Verena; compare with the first child's name on that page.
Searching the FamilySearch records for a child of Hans Heinrich Kägi born 1720-1745 in Hittnau brings up several children of Hans Heinrich Kägi and Anna Kägi; these are not the parents of the (illegitimate) February 1732 child Jacob, because they have a (legitimate) child in December 1731. Ignoring that couple in the results, no other couple includes the name Hans Heinrich Kägi. Removing the town name and searching for Verena Wolfensberger instead, there's a 5 Feb 1740 burial of a Verena Wolfensperger, wife of Hans Rudolf Furrer, in Hittnau, who died at age 26 (i.e., born about 1713-1714); in that record, you can see the name is written much the same. If it's the same Verena, that would make her about 18-19 years old when Jacob was born.
0 -
Thanks for your help. That does look like Verena Wolfensperger was the mother. Since Jacob died just 6 months later, can we seal him to parents? Which ones? Heinrich and Verena--but they never married? or Verena and Hans Rudolf, even though he's definitely not the father and we can't be sure his wife is the same Verena? Or is this a problem for the Millenium? I did search all the birth records 1720-1744 (not just the index) and only found one other Hans Heinrich Kägi as a father. In looking farther at this Hans Heinrich, (who is my 6th great grandfather) it looks like there is always a note after his name, "alt Ehg", and after Zusann's birth (2 June 1737), it looks like "alt Ehegaumer". It would make sense that the Hans Heinrich that had the child with Verena would be a different person, since he was identified as a "Hürling". Do you know what an "alt Ehegaumer" did? Thanks again for all your research and help!
1 -
An Ehegaumer is a Sittenrichter/Eherichter; I found an explanation for the term in an article about moral courts in the "Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz" (https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/007476/). Searching the page for Ehegaumer (CTRL+F brings up a search, or Command+F if on a Mac) brings you to a paragraph about marriage courts Another online site explained that an Ehegaumer is a person who has to watch about religion, morals, and order. In other words, it's a marriage judge, or a judge of people's morals in general. The Geneal-Forum contains helpful explanations too, including the following translated sentences: "The [Ehegaumer] had to watch over the morals of the church members, in particular over married and family life, the observance of Sundays and church attendance. People whose way of life left something to be desired could be summoned to standstill, admonished and - if that didn't work - reported to the bailiff. The number of Ehegaumer depended on the size of the parish and the more important settlements it contained. The Ehegaumer were elected for three-year terms, while the clergymen served until their resignation or death."
The word "alt" means "old"; so the phrase "alt Ehegaumer" sounds like he was an old Ehegaumer, but it could perhaps also mean that he was formerly an Ehegaumer.
As for sealings, the knowledge article at https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/policy-on-sealing-a-deceased-couple-that-were-never-married-nor-ever-lived-together states that "Children who were born to parents who should not be sealed can instead be sealed to their grandparents who were married." How that actually works in the FamilySearch system, however, I'm uncertain, since it automatically picks his biological parents.
If Jacob had survived, he would've been sealed to the parents he grew up with--whether that was found to be his mother and her later husband, his father and his later wife, or an entirely different couple--but since he died as an infant, you could potentially add his grandparents as nonbiological "parents" in the system and then seal him to them, or you could seal him to his actual parents even though they are not sealed to each other (or you could do both); either way, this is likely something that will need to be sorted out in the Millennium.
0 -
"The word "alt" means "old"; so the phrase "alt Ehegaumer" sounds like he was an old Ehegaumer, but it could perhaps also mean that he was formerly an Ehegaumer."
The latter is correct: if "Alt" is preceding a position title this indicates that the person formerly held that position. This still holds today: a "Bundesrat" is a member of the Federal Council of Switzerland - after retiring (s)he will be an "Alt Bundesrat".
1 -
Thank you for the clarification, @WSeelentag!
0