Translation Help Needed

Nancy Carroll Evans Crawford

I'd be grateful for a translation of the birth record for Maria Elisabeth Richter. This comes from Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971. Do you see the year?

Thank You,

Nancy Crawford

Robert Seal_1

Place: Puschdorf.

Birth record number: 44.

Girl: 20 [20th female child born in this place during this recording period].

Father: Friedrich Richter, a farmer.

Mother: Maria Klatt.

Daughter: Maria Elisabeth, born 12 Dec [1776], baptized 15 Dec [1776].

Witnesses: Michel St____sch?, Samuel Ganske?, Fried[rich] Lieb, Maria Richter, Soifa? Klett [or Klatt].

Comments: Note that the records for the year 1777 begin lower on this same page so you can deduce that the year of this birth is 1776.

Nancy Carroll Evans Crawford

@Robert Seal_1 Thank you for translating the record. May I ask your opinion? Maria Elisabeth Richter gave birth to four children. Michael or Johann Michael Babbel is her husband and father to the children. If this birth record you translated is my Maria, she would have given birth when she was 38, 43, 45, and 50 years old. The last birth was a stillborn son. My research shows that it is possible, but rare for a woman to have children after 50 years old. The risk for abnormalities in the child increases. Since the last child was a stillborn, that tells me that it might be because she was an older woman. The location of her birth is spot on. Three of the children's births were recorded in Puschdorf, and another in Norkitten. What are your feelings about this?

Thank You...Nancy Crawford

Robert Seal_1

Hi Nancy,

I am always very wary about any birth when the mother is over 45 years old. However, I am aware that women can have children at age 50. And if everything else matches with the husband and places, I think you have provided a reasonable explanation as to why the child may have been stillborn because of the mother's age. So, based on all the information you have at hand, you can make a reasonable assumption that Maria Elisabeth Richter is the mother of the stillborn son. If evidence turns up later which disputes this, then you can revise this family group accordingly.

Best regards, Robert Seal_1