A couple of months ago I wrote to the State Office for Culture and Conservation Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Northern Germany to see if I could get more information on Andreas Hennig and his family. Earlier this month, Kirsten Schäffner wrote me back. Although she couldn’t help me track them down, she was very forthcoming on where to look.
Because they were from Rosenberg, she stated that Rosenberg, district Danzig belonged to the parish / church of Praust.
She referred me to the German archive : Evangelisches Zentralarchiv in Berlin. A Christiane Hinz wrote me back almost immediately for more information from me. She works in the Kirchenbuchstelle des Evangelischen Zentralarchivs (the church book center at the Protestant Central Archive) in Berlin. This archive keeps the records of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and the Union of Protestant Churches (UEK) as well as their legal and functional predecessors. I sent her what I know and am hoping to gain more insight on this family of nine.
Of course, being that they were Catholic, Christiane may refer me to somewhere else depending on the time frame of the records. But, at least I am on a track.
I’ll keep you posted.
Update: 10/15/2018
Christiane’s colleague wrote me back and stated:
He and his spouse were catholics. So there is no chance to do research in our holdings as we have only protestant church records of the former Prussian State.
The village Rosenberg (Rózyny), district Danzig (Gdansk) in West Prussia belonged in former times to the catholic parish Langenau. That means that sources for further research for example to find the marriage Hennig/Kries or to look for the baptism of their children, are the catholic church records of Langenau. Films of records Langenau are available (see www.familysearch.org). I do not know if records are online as well.
If you need research assistance, do not hesitate to contact me.
Listening to Podcasts and watching some YouTube videos taught me neat tricks with Google, organizational tips, and record-hunting tools.
While “branching out,” see what I did there? I have hit one brick wall after another: the Chapman family of Spotsylvania County, Virginia; the Burns family of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (they married in Hagerstown, Maryland, so maybe I need to pursue that, although the marriage book didn’t tell me much); and the Bauer and Fugina families of Slovenia!
I’ve since ordered some Gottschee marriage CDs from the Bauers and Fuginas areas, so here’s hoping that will give me some insight. My Slovenian group was able to narrow down my search to the Altenmarkt parish and the Nesseltal parish. We’ll see what the CDs bring.
My other great find was a program that helped me find errors in my Ancestry tree. I had some real doozies! Mothers at the age of 10! Thirteen, maybe, but not ten. This analyzer helped me clean up some old “rookie” mistakes and some not-so-old. 😉
And, for the Logans, here is an update on our Clan Logan status from our cousin, James.
Status Report from President James C. Logan San Diego, CA, USA 29th July 2018
During my recent trip to Scotland, I reviewed the status of our Chief Restoration Project with the Chairman of this Committee, John Marjoribanks. John has been making progress on our search and there is now a reasonable chance of success quite soon. I had the privilege to meet our putative Chief and I am impressed that he is likely to be defendable before the Court of the Lord Lyon. He and his wife are a very personable and intelligent couple. And he has the charisma we would like in the Chief of our Clan. I do not know how long it will be before we can submit our application to the Lyon Court – it could be as long as a year or two. There are two key issues to be resolved before we can proceed and we are planning to hire a professional genealogist to resolve these issues. In the meantime, to protect the privacy of our candidate and his family, a full disclosure of his identity will only be made when we are prepared to proceed with the formal process.
No, this is not a reality TV show; we are not the Kardashians. I have been studying hard the last few days, learning about another culture altogether, our ancestry, and our heritage.
On Monday, I searched for more information on Johann Reikowski’s parents, Franz and Josephine (Tesmer) Reikowski. It led me to the My Heritage site, where I have their free, basic tree set up. It listed a Franciszek and Józefina Reikowski (nee Tesmer). An email was listed, so I emailed. Not 20 minutes later, I received a reply. I was in touch with my 4th cousin 1x removed from Warsaw, Poland.
His 2nd great-grandmother, Marianna, is my Johann’s (my 3rd great-grandfather’s) sister (that’s where the “1x removed” comes in). Marianna’s granddaughter married a Ziemann, that changed to Cyman.
Through him, I found that Johann had other siblings unknown to me. More on that at another time. He knew that “many Kashubians went to the USA but had no idea if any members of my [his] family were among them.”. It didn’t dawn on me until a few emails later that he spoke of a people, not a surname. Both the Reikowskis and the Tesmers are Kashubian.
So, does that mean that Reikowski is actually Polish and not German? Not exactly. I have spent the last three days and many emails with my cousin trying to understand. I will try my best to explain without being insensitive to the region, as he told me, “Kashubians and Silesians German heritage it’s still a sensitive topic in Poland.”
Here is how it was explained to me. “Most Kashubians claim to be Polish. Quote: “There wouldn’t be Kashubia without Poland – and there wouldn’t be Poland without Kashubia.”
However, during the “Germanization” period, many people preferred to be perceived as Germans – and some really dropped their Polish/Kashubian heritage for good. Kashubia was a rather poor rural region, and in those times, people being Kashubian were treated worse than Germans.”
Kashubian (Kaszubian) is a West Slavic language belonging to the Lechitic (a language subgroup consisting of Polish and several other languages and dialects that originally were spoken in the area) group of languages of northern Poland and is thought to be a variation of the original Pomeranian language. Kashubian enjoys legal protection in Poland as a minority language, is taught in Polish schools, and can be found on many regional street signs. Source: https://www.inyourpocket.com/kashubia/The-Kashubians_70079f
And, get this. One of the biggest emigration settlements in America was Wisconsin! Yes, the area where our Reikowskis lived!
The Wilno website sites that “the Prussians were systematically pushing the Kashubs to leave the area by discouraging the use of their language, the practice of their religion, and by expropriating their land. Approximately one-third of the Kashub population emigrated mainly to America and Canada.”
The Kashubes are a Slavic tribe who originally settled on or near the Hel peninsula, which juts into the Baltic Sea between 1,100 and 1,400 years ago. Here is a beautiful video of the area today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7nh5sJok2w
According to the Herder-Institut, “West Prussia is an extremely interesting yet problematic region of East Central Europe: National and political affiliations have changed many times between the Middle Ages and the present day, and its ethnic, national and cultural complexity makes this region “between Germans and Poles” a paradigm of complex German-Polish relations.” Well said!
I have found a lot of our ancestors in the Pomerania area. Pommern and Pomerania are Slavic in origin coming from the Slavic word “pomorze” which means “by the sea.” Of course. What else would it mean?
According to FamilySearch.org, “The Kashubians are those Pomeranians (in eastern Pomerania and in northern and western West Prussia) who resisted Germanization and largely retained their native Slavic language and their Catholic religion. The Pomeranians are those who adopted the German language and the Protestant religion. Yet the ethnic origins of both the Kashubians and the Pomeranians are the same. Kashubian is classified either as a language or a Polish dialect.”
From the Kashubian History and Culture; Kaszubi / Historia i Kultura Kaszubów, “for over 1,500 years, the Kashubs have lived along the shore of the Baltic Sea. Their traditional occupations were fishing and farming.” That sounds about right too.
Kashubians are known for their Catholic family values, embroidery, ceramics, weaving, and folk dancing. In Cassubia, a proverb held that “what is Catholic is Cassubian, what is Protestant is German.”
Canada has a huge Kashubian settlement. From the Madawaska Valley Current:
“There is a Polish proverb observing that
“Wherever you go, you can’t get rid of yourself.”
While some things can be lost in translation through decades, it is interesting to see how the values of a simple, hard-working farming life can thrive through generations and prompt others to flourish in a world that needs to be reconciled with God’s simplicity.”
Wilno, Canada, is the first and oldest settlement in Canada. One of the neatest stories I read was about the “Cross Roads.” You can read the whole article at http://www.wilno.org/culture/crosses.html, but basically, when they settled in the Wilno area of Canada, there were no Catholic churches nearby. “To satisfy their strong need to pray to Our Lord, the settlers erected large wooden crosses at the intersections of main roads. This was a tradition they borrowed from the motherland. On Sundays and Holy Days, the pioneers close to each intersection would gather at the crossroads and celebrate their Faith.” These were private prayers, not services.
“Our enjoyment of this great land we live upon today is possible only because of the hard work and the strong faith of our pioneer ancestors. It was their faith in God that kept them going through difficult terrain and even-more difficult economic times. We must do what we can to keep that faith alive.” ~The Wilno Heritage Society AMEN!
My ancestors always amaze me; the more I learn, the more amazed I am. Their faith and perseverance through everything just continue to astound me. We would not have what we have today without them.
My cousin tells me that my “Scandinavian genes could have been transferred to you by your Kashubian ancestors – we had Vikings there and a war against Sweden in XVII century. “
In addition to personality traits, Kashubians are known for having blonde hair and blue eyes, which Father Paul Breza, founder of Winona’s Polish Museum, said can be traced back to the Swedes who lived on the other side of the Baltic Sea. “The Swedes came over and stole our women,” he said. He also said, “Kashubians are known for being polite and reserved; they are also known for their persistent natures and determination.”
Above and Below is the traditional Kashubian dress.
There is also an annual Kashubian fishermen’s sea pilgrimage in Puck, Poland
śledź w śmietanie z bulwami herring served in sour cream with onions and apples, served with unpeeled potatoeszupa brzadowa a soup made of dried fruits (mostly eaten for Christmas)
I have learned a lot since Monday; I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to hearing more from my cousin in Poland and learning more about my Kashubian Reikowski’s and the allusive Tesmer’s.
If you need research assistance, do not hesitate to contact me.
With the help of Luana Darby, who went to the Family History Library in Utah to get this scan of Johann’s death certificate, and the help of Carolina Meyer from my Genealogy Translations Facebook page, I now have a death register on Johann Schwittkowski. However, it leaves me with more questions and speculation. Is this MY Johann? The area seems correct, but it is hard to say with no other names or relations on this register.
Translation:
No. 851
Danzig, 4 April 1883
On written notice of April 3 by the police commissioner Posep from here, it is registered that the laborer [Arbeiter] Johann Schwittkowski, about 40 years old, up until now residing in Muehlhof [Mühlhof] close to Oliva [Oliwa] county [Kreis] Danzig, whose personal and other living conditions are not known, was found dead on 26 March 1883 at 9 a.m. on the field close to Neu Schottland near the Brösener Alley [Brösener Chaussee].
The registrar. Per pro-Kirstein
The whole form was deleted. (means that the form with the printed words was not used. In this case, the form was crossed out) The registrar. Per pro-Kirstein
If my research is correct, Mühlhof is now near where the Historic Water Forge near Oliwa. There was a railway line and a horse-drawn tram connection. Neu Schottland (New Scotland) is now Szkoty, a former railway transport line that is now only used for freight. According to Wikipedia, it was opened in October 1867.
Scots inhabited different parts of Gdańsk and their presence has left significant traces in the city’s topography. Some names connected with Scottish settlements can still be found on the map today. One of them is Nowe Szkoty (Neuschottland, New Scotland) – the name of a district dating back to the second half of the sixteenth century and located not so far from our Institute at the University of Gdańsk. Source: Gdańsk Scottish Studies Research Group
On the map below, I mapped a black line from around where he lived to where he was found in the field on this current day map. The distance of about 4 – 5 miles.
The area would be the right place to find Johann, but because the record does not mention any other personal information, I cannot be certain that this is him. I’ve always shown 1883 death as a source because it was the only Johann Schwittkowski I found then. But I now know there could be others with the same name. More research is to be done.
A gentleman from one of the FB sites wrote me while I was writing this, trying to help me with this record. He found address books where the Schwittkowski’s seemed to have lived. The names seem right; Johann, Anton, Elisabeth. I will now research those a little bit and see what I can find. It seems there were Schwittkowski names in that house until at least 1922!
Update 4:15 pm:
The street name in German is Holzmarkt; he lived in #19 for years, according to the directories. The Polish, current name, is Targ Drzewny in Gdansk.
Was he walking home? Was he taking the tram? I guess we will never know.
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The Archives of Gdansk could not find the birth certificates of Franz and Josephine’s children other than Marianna Anna and Franz Michael, twins. They searched all the years 1839-1867 except 1853, which is missing. Franz Michael was a new relative for me, though I had Marianna Anna. They are siblings of our gggrandfather, Johann P. Reikowski. They were born on 02 Apr 1852. Born in Bissau, Parish of Matarnia, Gdańsk, Poland. Catholic.
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This document was one of the records I received from the Archives in Gdansk. After having it translated by Brigitte Eggerstedt on my Genealogy Translations Facebook Page, I realized this is not the ancestor I hoped it would be. But, this Johann is in the same locale, so it could be a nephew or cousin. I am posting it here to keep for when I hopefully make the connection. What a horrible way to die! Now to the next document…
Translation:
# 43 Lunau December 29th, 1883 The head of the administrative district Liebenhof, certified on December 29th, 1883 following: the laborer Johann Schwitkowski, 29 years old, Catholic religion residing in Lunau, born on November 19th, 1854, in Groß Czersnau Son of the worker Joseph Schwitkowski and Anna nee Michalski in Senslau, on December 24th, 1883, morning at 9:15 a.m. in the “Lunauer Feldmark” – near the viaduct over the Dirschau-Danziger railway – was run over by a railway train and thereby killed signature of the registrar
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The carpenter Franz Schmück residing in Berlin, Schulstraße 24 reported that Anna Barbara Schmück nee Hennig, 67 years old residing in Berlin with him born in Rosenberg district, Gdansk married to the worker Karl Friedrich Schmück residing in Ohra, district Gdansk Daughter of the worker Andreas Hennig and his wife Marie nee Kriese, both deceased and last resident in Rosenberg. died in Berlin, Schulstraße 24 on 11th July 1901 at 11:15 p.m.
Thanks again to Brigitte from the FB Genealogy Translations page and to Ancestry for digitizing the document.
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Katholisches Kirchenbuch
(Catholic Church Book)
Sterberegister
(death register)
Katholisches Kirchenbuch
Rosenberg is the German name for this place. The Polish name is Różyny, a village in Poland located in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. In the 1800’s Różyny was subordinated to the administration of the Prussian partition.
Obviously, this opened up more research opportunities for me. This was an amazing discovery for me and a huge brick wall for years!
Thanks to Family Search and the LDS Library for digitizing these records.
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As I wrote before, Hans de Neus was my 7th great-grandfather on my paternal side. I also wrote about Kunkle’s on the same side, but the maternal line. These families intermarried.
Susanna Neis was Hans’ great-granddaughter. Susanna married Michael Schlonecker, Jr., who is Charles Kunkle’s great-grandson.
Michael’s mother was Anna Marie Heilig. Her parents were Johann Henrich Heilig and Susanna De Wees Rittenhouse.
The Heilig and Rittenhouse families were fascinating to research.
William Rittenhouse (Wilhelm Rittenghausen) was the son of Nicholaus. Wilhelm was born in Broich, a small village outside of Mühlheim on the Ruhr River, in 1644. Today, Broich is a district in Mühleim an der Ruhr in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Adolf and Mathias Vorster leased and ran a paper mill in Broich and came from a family of papermakers. Mathias married Claus’ sister, Ermgard, and they moved to Holland in the early 1660s. As a late teen, Wilhelm joined them in the Netherlands to help them run their papermill. He lived in the Netherlands for over twenty years. In 1665 he married Geertruid Pieters. They had three children, Nicholas (Claus), Gerrit, and Elisabeth. They grew up speaking both German and Dutch.
The Vorster and Rittenhouse family papermaking business was expanding. And, by 1672, they had moved to Amsterdam. Wilhelm moved to Amsterdam as their paper merchant. He learned both the production and marketing sides of the paper industry.
Wilhelm took the citizen’s oath in Amsterdam, signing his name as “Willem Riddinghuÿsen.” He had assumed a Dutch identity. He was also familiar with and converted to the Mennonite faith. He jumped on the William Penn bandwagon and his “holy experiment” to Pennsylvania, USA.
Willem emigrated to America. He knew that no paper was being produced in the British colonies of North America. He also knew he was on to something big. He was rivaled only by the paper that was being imported from Europe.
Rittenhouse knew the “low Dutch” and “High German” languages.
It is believed “that the Rittenhouse family first shipped to New York, based on the work of a nineteenth-century antiquarian who claimed to have seen a family bible that noted the family’s arrival in New York on November 2, 1687, as well as the fact that Claus Rittenhouse married a Dutch woman, Wilhelmina de Wees, in the city on May 29, 1689.” Source: “The First Successful Attempt to Rescue From Oblivion’ the History of the Rittenhouse Family and Their Paper Mills,”RittenhouseTown: A Journal of History 1.1 (2000): 20-41. Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society I, Marriages: Dutch Church, New York, 1639-1801 (1890), 67.
“Willem and Claus were awarded several town lots to grow their papermill in the formed settlement of Germantown, six miles outside of Philadelphia, and on September 29, 1690, Willem leased a twenty-acre lot on a tributary of the Wissahickon Creek and formed a company with several prominent Philadelphia residents to erect a paper mill.” Source: “Rittenhouse Paper Mill Lease, 1706,” “Rittenhouse Family Papers,” Library Company of Philadelphia.
That day, Willem Rittenhouse and his son Claus began their careers as paper makers and business owners in America. It did not take him long to seek out investors. He found three prominent citizens, and a deal was made. Willem bought paper molds from his uncle in the Netherlands.
The demand for paper in Pennsylvania started increasing. One of his partners sold his 1/4 share back to Wilhelm. As payment, Claus and William Rittenhouse agreed to “deliver to sd. William Bradford… ye full quantity of Seven Ream of blue paper, yearly” and let Bradford “have ye refusal of all ye printing paper that they make and he shall take ye same at Ten shillings pr. Ream, As also ye sd. Bradford shall have ye refusal of five Ream of writing paper and Thirty Ream of brown paper yearly… ye writing paper to be at 20s and ye brown paper at 6 s. pr. Ream.” Source: The text of the original lease, now lost, is quoted in Jones, “Historical Sketch,” 323-324. Did you notice the word, ream?
The molds that made the paper were pounded out or reamed out. That’s how you have your “ream” of paper.
Unfortunately, a flash flood around 1700 destroyed the entire mill building. “But, William Penn clearly deemed Rittenhouse’s business a great asset to the colony and, while on his second visit to Pennsylvania, took an active interest in raising support for the reconstruction of the mill.” (Same source as above)
Wilhelm’s health was declining. He “leased” three of his four shares to his son, Claus, for the nominal rent of “one peppercorn yearly.” (a metaphor for a very small payment) Wilhelm died of unknown causes on February 18, 1708. He left no will, and all four mill shares went to his son Claus, who became the sole owner.
Claus continued his father’s practice of raising family members in the craft of papermaking. In addition to his son, William (1691-1744), who inherited the mill in 1734, Claus also taught the trade to his brother-in-law, William De Wees (brother of Claus’s wife, Wilhelmina), and assisted him in setting up a second paper mill in the Chestnut Hill district nearby in 1710.
Until 1729, the Rittenhouse family had a monopoly on papermills in Pennsylvania and the British colonies at large. None of the mills seemed to have survived, but below is the William Rittenhouse homestead built in 1707.
In the rear is a metal plate reading “W C R 1707” for William and Claus Rittenhouse 1707.
The smaller building in the picture below was built 1690 as a residence.
Claus built a third mill in 1734. The mill produced several kinds and qualities of paper, including writing, printing, brown and blue paper, and pasteboard. Watermarks were produced by working a certain wire pattern into the molds;
Sources:Allen, “Rittenhouse Paper Mill,” 119-122; Green, Rittenhouse Mill, 17-19.
Although the Germantown Mennonites started meeting in the house of Jacob van Bebber as early as 1690, it took until 1698 for Rittenhouse and another craftsman, the silversmith Hans de Neus (my 7th great-grandfather!), to be chosen as minister and deacon of the community. Since Rittenhouse was not an ordained bishop, no one in the new Mennonite community was authorized to perform baptisms and communions. Source: John L. Ruth, “A Christian Settlement ‘in Antiquam Silvam’: The Emigration from Krefeld to Pennsylvania in 1683 and the Mennonite Community of Germantown,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 57 (1983): 307-31, here 320, 322.
Wilhelm’s great-grandson is David Rittenhouse (April 8, 1732 – June 26, 1796) an American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman, and public official. Rittenhouse was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the first director of the United States Mint.
Nicholas’ daughter is Susanna de Wees Rittenhouse. She married Johann Henrich Heilig.
The Heiligs are another interesting family. One of my next blogs will be about this immigrant from Germany who made clocks. Do you have a Heilig clock?
As always, let me know if you see any errors or have any suggestions!
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