Last week we announced that the “Open Thread” series of Fridays would be suspended. But everyone is still welcome to submit diaries to the Community!! I will be posting on Fridays, when I post them. And anyone and everyone is invited to comment on anything — and/or to update us as to how your week is going, or to talk about whatever you’ve been researching lately.
As for me, I’ll be sharing my passion for German genealogy. My “mission” in retirement is to encourage others to research in this area if they have Germanic ancestors (and many of us do — even some who haven’t discovered that fact as yet!). More below the squiggly….
I’ve taught myself, with the aid of several guidebooks, to read the old German script even though I’m not a German speaker. That’s allowed me entry into another “world” of records rich in insight into family origins. Going beyond the church registers that the LDS Church has filmed (when they’ve been made available), I’m now to the point of reading old Saxon court records (including deeds, probate actions and the like) and building a database of names and familial relationships in my town of interest (04442 Zwenkau, Germany!).
I do this because the church books aren’t available for browsing (although rumor has it that they may be placed online, on a fee basis). I figure that the people whom I encounter in the town records may not seem to be related now, but in the future I’ll regret it if I don’t keep good notes. Reading those films a second time isn’t something I’d want to do. Now, I don’t expect every researcher to be as dedicated (or fanatical, depending upon one’s perspective!). But I do take to heart the title of my first guidebook on the handwriting: “If I Can, You Can, Decipher Germanic Records!”
Through my favorite genealogical organization, the Immigrant Genealogical Society (Burbank, CA), I now seek to entice others to begin their own research journey across the pond. I staff the IGS Library weekly, I write “tips” for the newsletter, and I speak on the subject to other genealogical societies. Whenever I encounter other researchers face-to-face or online, I try to sell them on the richness of the records to be found in Germanic areas.
Thus my diaries here will be two-fold in nature. I’ll talk about the subject in general terms of what one can find, and then I’ll make specific references to what’s available at the IGS Library. Should any of you find yourselves in the Los Angeles area, the Library welcomes visitors!
I said I’d start this week by saying a bit about how history and culture (and an understanding of same) have added so much to my genealogical story as it pertains to German ancestors.
Then I said I'd make the case for a "liberal" connection between some of these ancestors (beyond my conservative parents and grandparents) and me, today. Because we are, after all, “Kossacks” here. I can begin this week, but I’ll have to limit myself.
The importance of the history and culture of Germany and its principal regions (or of Switzerland, Austria, etc.) is that they tell you what to make of the records that you do find. To illustrate by way of a negative example, the saddest excuse for a family history I ever encountered was essentially just a relationship report that extended for 167 pages with primarily just the names of individuals and their vital statistics dates — and few place names, much less short biographies, pictures, or sample records! And this was an American genealogy, extending from the Revolution to the present day.
But that’s essentially the limit of what you’ll have if your foray into Germanic records is limited to extractions from the basic elements of the church books you’ll find. The trick is to put your findings into context, using an understanding of history and culture, and to broaden your search to include records other than the basic records of church sacraments.
And so to my Zwenkau paternal-line family….
My father knew the name of this town, and of the town to which my family moved prior to its 1854 emigration to America. He’d heard this from his grandfather, who came to this country as a boy of nine (and for whom this was obviously a formative experience). My father also said that his great-grandfather had fought against the king in the Revolution(s) of 1848, and that the family left Germany out of fear that the sons would be drafted into the Prussian army. And that our name hadn’t changed in the course of coming to America. [There was also a vague claim that we were related to the composer Richard Wagner through the great-grandmother, which is another (false!) story altogether.…] And, because my father had been an only child and wasn’t close to his cousins, there were no other sources of information for me — until I began my research as a young husband and father.
Like most of us, I began by searching census records, moved on to county histories and passenger lists, and then began contacting distant relatives as time permitted. Slowly I gained insight, and then the first big break in the case occurred! I was a university employee whose responsibilities included archiving files for my department. One day the archivist called to say he’d stumbled across my surname in the card catalog for the manuscript collection, and did I know anything about the entry names?
Because I’d already completed my preliminary research, I knew the immediate family names by heart. And the names he gave were those of my immigrant 2nd GGF and one of the older sons! I quickly ordered in the manuscript collection, and when I arrived to view it I discovered a handwritten book of poems in German and a company clerk’s journal from the Civil War. The book was inscribed to my 2GGF by a former comrade-in-arms with a note indicating that the purpose of the book was to encourage him to always “remember the Fatherland.” It was dated from his departure from town, and so (with the date of the New York port arrival) gave me the length of the entire journey. And my ancestor’s name in gold leaf on the cover gave me proof of my father’s claim about our name — the spelling of the name stamped on the cover was the same as my own. Score one for unanticipated, non-standard records!!
But, try as I might, it was impossible to find anything written about the experience of the ‘48ers in Germany that didn’t speak about events in Berlin or Baden or a few other locales. There didn’t seem to be anything about the Kingdom of Saxony, and the history of revolutionary events specific to that one part of Germany. Then a couple of years ago I found myself at a party at the home of a friend whose wife was originally German, and who had lived and taught in Germany as a research scientist. Naturally their home library was split between English and German works; soon I found my way to a history of the revolution in German! By then I’d acquired enough vocabulary from reading church book records pertaining to my other German families that I was able to scan the pages for information about Saxony. And I found it.
In short, the major events had taken place in the capital city, Dresden, in early 1849. A committee of revolutionary leaders called for an armed demonstration against the king and government, and on May 3rd the people stormed the armory. As the king fled, a provisional government was established and a call went out to the citizens of the kingdom to rally with the insurgents. Barricades were erected against the Saxon army, and that army being weak the people’s militia prevailed for a time. But technology was against them — communications technology and transportation technology, this no longer being the 18th century of the French Revolution. The king was quickly able to appeal to Prussia for assistance, which came in the form of Prussian troops delivered by rail. Seeing the odds, most of the militia withdrew, but still six days of fighting ensued.
My father had told me the towns in which my immigrant family had lived prior to their departure, and now I could take pride in the fact that my ancestor had been one of the relative few to answer the call to arms in Dresden from across the kingdom. So I now knew that he had to have been a committed liberal, and not merely one drawn into the fray by accident. But what had never made sense to me was that story of my father’s about the parents being fearful of a Prussian draft. Given that they lived in Saxony, a separate kingdom, wouldn’t they have feared a draft into the Saxon army instead?
The answer to that came from an article in an old “German Life” magazine, a glossy publication found in the magazine racks of the larger big-box bookstores. The article spoke of the huge reaction to the Revolution(s) that ensued in the wake of their defeat(s). There was a reckless suppression of free speech and other liberties, such that political life grew continuously quieter until any hope for liberation from the ruling classes was extinguished. And so the sentiments of the people went underground, to a large extent. The change in everyday life was shown through the shift of the wording of a popular folk lullaby, which had until 1848 begun as “Sleep, little child, sleep; your father tends the sheep.”
Now it became (in one version):
“Sleep, my child, sleep quietly,
Out there the Prussian prowls!
He murdered your father,
He impoverished your mother,
And whoever does not sleep in quiet
slumber, Will have his eyes
closed by the Prussian.
Sleep, my child, sleep quietly,
Out there the Prussian prowls!”
And so, yes, an understanding of how the culture had been radically shaken by the events of 1848 gave me reason to think that there had been something to the assertion of a fear of Prussia. But that still didn’t explain the seeming lack of a connecting factor. How could Saxon men be drafted into a Prussian — a “foreign” — army? And another nagging question: If the fear of Prussia was so great, why had it taken six years for the family to leave Germany? These were not peasants, as father and eldest son were both skilled craftsmen and would have had some financial means.
Again, the answer came by way of my reading. And from an understanding of world events of the time. Once Bismarck’s powers began to rise following the suppression of the revolution(s), it became clear to most that he saw now only two major powers within “Germany.” These were Prussia and Austria, and it likewise became clear that he intended to undermine Austria’s leadership of the German Bund of the central states. Prussia was on the rise, and it seemed natural for it to seek allies in the coming power struggle with Austria. But there were other concerns in greater Europe. The Ottoman Empire was crumbling, and Russia was also looking to expand its influence and power.
By 1853 the focus of its ambition had become the annexation of the Crimean peninsula from the Turks, and in an effort to block this move England and France had engaged Russia in battle — the Crimean War! What was the connection here? Prussia and Russia had been on friendly terms in recent years, and it was feared that Russia would seek an alliance with Prussia to repel the British and the French. If Prussia were to join in the hostilities, where would they find the men to send to the front (given a need to defend its own borders, if necessary)? Well, in a sense, the rulers in other German states whom Prussia had recently aided in putting down revolutions were obvious candidates to “return favors.”
And so what at first seemed strange and out-of-place took on a new context. See how an understanding of culture (the lullaby’s shift) and history (the geopolitics of the time) now begins to complete a previously unsupported family story? We make these connections naturally when we research our ancestors in America. To do so in Germany, or in Europe generally, requires a bit more effort (and luck!). But the payoff can be great, and I urge everyone to give it a try.
If there’s enough interest, I can introduce one or two other examples of how I’ve enlarged the story of my father’s family through a combination of non-standard record sources and the application of historical and cultural insights. And then there are my other German families of 19th century immigrants. But that’s enough for this week!