Help with occupations in death and marriage records from Retschow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin
This post is my second question related to the death record that I previously posted for Han Jürgen Range.
Question: Are the occupations for Hans Jürgen Range i.e. Einlinger in the death record and workman in the marriage record for his son (entry 7) similar in meaning? I attached the image for the marriage record because I can't read the word for the occupation of Hans Jürgen Range. I only need the spelling and meaning of his occupation not translation of the entire entry. I appreciate your help! Debra
Comments
-
Hello Debra,
the text is: Hans Jürgen Range, weil[and] Arbeitsmann zu Hohenfelde.
weiland means "former", so Hans Jürgen was a former worker at the time of his son's marriage. [edit: I realize now that he was dead already at this time, so "former" is evident in this case]
Einlieger is not an occupation as such, it just means that the person owns no land or house but lives for rent with somebody and works as a craftsman or Arbeitsmann.
2 -
Thank you for the translation and the meaning of the words Einlieger and Arbeitsmann. I'm very sure that Hans Jürgen Range was the same person in the death and marriage records. Debra
0 -
I read your edit: "former" is evident in this case. Former can mean "having been previously" and I assumed former worker meant that Jans Jürgen Range was deceased when his son was married in 1841 which would make sense because the death record was in 1837. That's how I concluded that this was the same Jans Jürgen Range in the death record and marriage record.
Question: Can I assume that "former" means "deceased" in the context of this marriage record or other records?
Thanks, Debra
0 -
Hello Debra,
a good (and tricky) question! The word weiland (older spelling weyland) is a very old one and has changed meaning over time. Today it is not used any more and seen as outdated.
In church books from the 18th and 19th century you find it very often before a name (mostly abbreviated as weil. or weyl.). In that case it means "deceased" and can be translated into English as "late": weil. Hans Jürgen Range = (the) late Hans Jürgen Range.
The basic meaning of weiland is "former", "earlier", "previously". So when it was used with a function, occupation, role or similar it described a previous (now finished) state. But it did not specify the reason why that state was finished; it could be by death but also because of other circumstances, e.g., weiland König von Spanien = former king of Spain (he has now abdicated), weiland Student = previously student (he has now finished his studies), weiland Schmied = former blacksmith (he has now finished working as such because of retirement).
So, to your question: you should not automatically assume that weiland Arbeitsmann in this entry means that Hans Jürgen Range is deceased. But the probability is quite high; if he still lived and had just changed occupation his new one would have been entered here.
Ulrich
3 -
Hi @Ulrich Neitzel,
I did automatically assume that weiland [former] Arbeitsmann meant that Hans Jürgen Range is deceased because so much of the other information for him found in the death and marriage records was the same or didn't conflict i.e. name, residence, year of death, Einlieger and Arbeitsmann. Knowing now that the meaning of weiland depends on which word or name it is placed in front of, I really agree with your interpretation that it's still very likely that Hans is deceased because the scribe didn't enter a new occupation or state that he was retired. Thank you very much for the information about weiland in old church records and your interpretation of weiland Arbeitsmann!
Debra
0