Question about my ancestor
I have a question. Very simple one but maybe you can give me an idea that I haven’t thought of. I have a line in Schorndorf, Baden-Wurtemberg. The line stops at the birth of one of my ancestors. The parish record goes back another 100 years and so I would love to be able to extend the line.
I have traced the line back to Michael Greiner x Agnes Catharina, but there happens to be two Michael Greiner’s born:
Michael Greiner christened 9 Apr 1610 at Schorndorf son of Hans Ludwig and Apollonia
Michael Greiner christened 14 Nov 1612 at Schorndorf son of Martin Greiner and Christiana
The death records do not extend into the early 1600s and so I don’t know if one of them died. I did find his burial date:
Michel Greiner buried 18 July 1661 at Schorndorf age 53 making him born in 1608.
There is a gap in the marriage record when he marries Agnes and so no help in finding information from the marriage. I’ve checked the witnesses but they don’t seem to be related to the family.
The question is which one is my ancestor other than making a guess. I suspect since the death record puts his birth at 1608 that the one I would connect to is the earlier Michael. Unlike in the Netherlands there doesn’t seem to be any way to tell from the naming of the children although Michael does name one of his sons Hans Jacob. But then again, Hans is so common that I’m not so sure it can be used to identify the parents.
Are there any other records other than Parish Registers that the library has that I could check? Nothing in the catalogue but its possible there are other sources that I don’t know exist.
Thanks, Ira
Answers
-
I also have had frustrating experiences in Schorndorf due to the missing records. In 1634, Imperial troops under Walter Butler almost burned Schorndorf to the ground, and a lot of records got lost.
I also have Greiner ancestors (the name is very common in the region), albeit from Rudersberg, about 11 km north of Schorndorf. I've always wondered about the relationship between the Greiners and Eberhard II "der Greiner", Graf of Württemberg from 1344 until 1392...but I digress. If your ancestor was a farmer or otherwise in the employ of a Lord, you can sometimes find a record of a land transfer or their employment in the records of the Lords of the land. I've done that a couple of times, but it does involve a physical visit to an archive in Germany (or, in my case, in Moravia). I believe the Michael Greiner that died in 1661 was a Kastenknecht, who was responsible for the distribution of the crops. I can't read who he was employed by (perhaps one of the better readers could advise - Schorndorf Mischbuch 1643-1682 Band 2 page 631).
Good luck!
0 -
A few more points - you are correct, the Hans means little, at the time, 8 out of 10 men were named Hans something.
But try to find the profession of Martin Greiner and Hans Ludwig Greiner. In the case of Schorndorf, that means you have the thankless task of trying to find them as witnesses to another baptism (if the witnesses at their children's birth were friends, that's a good place to start), since the witnesses' profession is often given, while the father's is not.
Often, children followed in the footsteps of the parents, and since you know that your Michael Greiner was a Kastenknecht, his father may have had a similar profession...
0 -
Thanks Marcus for that information. That gives me a few more ideas to try. Ira
0