Translation/Alternative Meaning for "braut Mutter" & "brautsgespiel"?
This is the marriage record of my 8th great grandmother’s sister, Maria Schindler, to Joannes Hoffman on 21 June 1693 in Unterchodau, Böhmen, Österreich. At this time the priest in this town was only recording the names of the brides’ fathers, and we haven’t come across any records in this town around this time that provide the bride’s mother’s name too. But this record seemed to be different: It says that Maria is the legitimate daughter of Michaelis Schindler. Then at the end of the record after listing the witnesses, it says, “Der brautsgespiel ist gewesen Catharina Schindlerin und Walburgis Fischerin braut Mutter beede auß dem Dorff alhier.” My translation is: “the brautsgespiel is Catharina Schindler and Walburgis Fischer the mother of the bride both from the village here.”
I don’t know a translation for the word ‘brautsgespiel’ — I assume that it may mean something like bridal attendant or bridesmaid — can anyone help me with that?
But my big question is about the part that says “Walburgis Fischerin braut Mutter.” This seems to translate pretty clearly as “Walburgis Fischer mother of the bride.” At first I was ecstatic to think that I had learned the name of my 9th great grandmother! But this is where it gets confusing. Why would the bride’s mother be listed with a surname other than Schindler? Was her husband deceased and she had remarried? Or was it listing her maiden name for some reason?
I found the death record for the bride’s father, Michaelis Schindler, in 1698, so I know that he was alive at this time (so that rules out the idea that Michaelis was Walburgis’ first husband & that she may have been remarried to a 2nd man named Fischer in 1693). Also if Fischer was Walburgis’ maiden name, I thought it was a little odd that the priest would have written her name as he did (and not as ‘Walburgis geboren Fischer’).
Unfortunately, this is the earliest baptism/marriage/burial book for this town, and this book only goes back to 1671. The birth record of the bride Maria would have happened before the time period covered by this book, as would the marriage record of Maria’s parents. So I decided to check the death records to see if I could find a death record for either a Walburgis Fischer or a Walburgis Schindler. There is only one death record that seems to be a possible match, and it is for a Walburgis Fischer who died at age 70 in 1720. Unfortunately, her death record did not list her marital status or spouse (which is not uncommon in the early death records in this book). All this makes me think it is unlikely that is Walburgis was the wife of Michaelis Schindler, since she was listed with the surname Fischer in both those records.
It makes me wonder if “braut Mutter” might possibly mean something other than mother of the bride in this case? Could it have been a term for a member of the bridal party? Is anyone familiar with the usage of this term to mean anything other than the actual mother of the bride in any old German or Austrian records? I appreciate any suggestions! Thank you.
Link: http://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30062946/chodov-01_1141-o?x=37&y=389&w=548&h=197
답변들
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Re: Brautgespiel:
I agree with you that it is probably referring to the bride's attendant or bridesmaid. I found only a limited number of examples of this word on the Internet but Google Translate translated the word as " bride play". I found no examples of the word on the online site Wörterbuchnetz. However I did find a German-Italian/Italian-German dictionary published in 1605 which stated the German words "Brautgespiel" and "Brautführerin" when translated meant: the godmother of the bride, who dresses, teaches, and accompanies the bride.
Ernest Thode, German-English Genealogical Dictionary, defines the word "Brautfüherer" as: "bride's male attendant". Note that the bolded word above, "Brautführerin", has an "in" suffix, which makes the word a feminine form of "Brautführer", thus bride's female attendant.
Based on this, it appears "Brautgespiel" and "Brautführerin" mean: bride's female attendant, bridesmaid.
Re: Braut Mutter:
In addition to this meaning "mother of the bride", at the online site Wörterbuchnetz, I found two examples of the word "Brautmutter" (as a single word) with the following definitions:
From Adelung: In some areas . . . married women who prepare the bridal bed the day before the wedding.
From Deutsches Wörterbuch: in some places also the preparer of the bridal bed, if this is not the mother herself.
Hope this helps you with your research.
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FYI: Here is the link to the page in the 1605 German-Italian/Italian-German dictionary which shows the words "Brautgespiel" and "Brautführerin":
Right-hand side, the word highlighted in yellow.
When you translate the Italian to English it says: the godmother of the bride, who dresses, teaches, and accompanies the bride.
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Thanks so much Robert! This is what I assumed the meanings likely were, but it's great to find this documentation. Thank you!
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And thank you for introducing me to woerterbuchnetz.de. This will be a very useful resource in my future research, which I wasn't aware of before.
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You're welcome, Stephanie.
When you are the homepage for either the Austro-Hungarian Empire community or the German Genealogy Research community, the link for Wörterbuchnetz is located in the blue links on the right-side of the each page.
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