Part 2 - Neustadt an der Haardt, A Place of Meeting

Neustadt an der Haardt

Maria Carolina Margaretha Werner was born in this city that is nestled up against the Haardt Mountains. Thus the name, Neustadt an der Haardt. This is a place of grape growing and wine making - much like the surrounding area where I grew up. It is also a place of immigrants. People coming from other villages, towns and cities. There were the farmers, growing grapes but there was also the city life including a wide range of craftsmen. My male relations from Neustadt are a linen merchant, three bakers, and a potter.

I encountered several challenges in Neustadt. First, was the intermarriage between those of differing religious backgrounds. Having to check back and forth between the Lutheran and Reformed church records to make sure I didn't miss anyone. Second, was that as I began to trace the family of Carolina Werner, I found that her father and maternal grandparents did not count Neustadt as their place of birth. Requiring more figuring and more work looking for their towns of origin.

Evangelische Kirche (Lutheran) Neustadt built 1400

This is were the "Burgerbuchs" come into play. Most towns that I have researched in Germany have a very slim record selection to search. Usually there are the church records and limited civil records that were microfilmed. Neustadt, on the other hand, has many different kinds of records that were microfilmed. Lucky me! I sort of stumbled onto the Burgerbuchs.

Burgerbuchs are citizenship books. Citizenship books kept a record of those requiring citizenship in the desired town by "foreigners" (those not born in the desired town) and by natives. In each entry is recorded personal information about the person desiring citizenship and the monetary fee that was paid. Each male was assessed a fee and each married woman was assessed a fee as well. I am still trying to get more information on town citizenship's and how they worked - the various fees, various appointed accounts the fees went to, who paid and why and what the money went to, what age/marital status - especially of natives citizenship fees. I think this will be something I will have to study as I finish my degree.

I did find the citizenship record of Carolina Werner's father Johann Georg Werner. He was from Kaiserslautern, a city found 23 miles to the west and a bit north. I also found the citizenship records for Carolina Werner's grandfather Martin Brenner. He came from the Elsass Lothringen area, an area that is now apart of France. The town he came from is Hordt. As a frame of reference, it is just outside of Strassburg. Hordt is about 61 miles southwest of Neustadt. Martin Brenner's second wife Susanna Maria Uberweg - the grandmother of Carolina Werner also had a citizenship record because she was from the neighboring town of Bochingen, 10 miles away. So, a fee had to be paid in her behalf. Of course, she did not have the same citizenship rights allotted to her husband, as she was a woman.

Georg Werner's citizenship record Neustadt

Martin Brenner's citizenship record Neustadt 3rd entry

Susanna Maria Uberweg's citizenship record Neustadt bottom right entry

page 2 of Susanna Maria Uberweg's citizenship record Neustadt top left

(I know that I should take the time to crop these records but my attention is needed elsewhere now.)

As it turns out Susanna Maria Uberweg's father Johann Jacob was born in Neustadt but married, worked and raised his family in Bochingen. But, on the story goes, as Johann Jacob's father was not born in Neustadt but somewhere else entirely. (I am currently deciphering the place name - only recorded once - no Burgerbuchs that early.) As the title of my post says: Neustadt and der Haardt - A Place of Meeting.

Part 1 - Maria Carolina Margaretha Werner

Last spring I began researching my Doll family from Edenkoben, Germany, which I posted about awhile back. They emigrated to the US in 1846 and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The father Wilhelm Doll came to Milwaukee with his married children, their spouses and children, as well as his unmarried children. He was close to 70 years old when he decided to leave behind all that he knew and head for America. What a spirit of adventure. Many people of his time period had already died by the time they were 70 and he decided to start a new life as a farmer in Wisconsin, even though he had worked his whole life as a baker. Back then there was no such thing as retirement. Just work, and more work.

It is tiny to read. But it says christened Anna Barbara, daughter of Johann Wilhelm Doll, master baker and his wife Carolina Werner. Then it goes on to state the witnesses for the christening.This is their 10th and final child.

I have set up the background - now on to the real reason for the post. Carolina Werner, the wife of Wilhelm Doll died in 1844 in Edenkoben. She has been a real mystery for as long as I have been doing genealogy (19 years). No one could ever seem to find her parents because they could not find her marriage record to Wilhelm. Well, I decided to do some careful checking of all of the records that I could find her apart of. I started slowly going through her children's christening records.

I found 3 christening records with Werner's as the witnesses. Carolina's first child born was Johann Georg b-1802 in Edenkoben. The witnesses for his christening were J. Georg Werner and his wife Catharina from Neustadt. Here is the entry below. (One of the Werner's for another christening was Carolina's sister Margaretha).

This entry is in table format. Most all of the entries are in paragraph form like the first image and give a bit more information.

It began searching the church books of Neustadt. There are Lutheran, Reformed and Catholic church books. I began with Reformed because that was the religion of Wilhelm Doll. I did not have much luck at first, so I switched to the Lutheran records. I found Carolina's birth and christening entry.

After many days of searching, I finally realized that Georg Werner and his wife Catharina Brenner each came from different religious backgrounds. Georg was from the Reformed church and Catharina was from the Lutheran church. So, they struck a deal with each other. All of their daughters were christened in the Lutheran church and all of their sons were christened in the Reformed church. This seems normal enough but this was the first time I had come across this mixing of religions. All the other German people I have researched all married within their religion. The Reformed religion were Calvinist. This southwestern part of Germany had many towns with Reformed churches, where other areas of Germany did not have any. Later the Reformed and Lutheran churches were forced to merge.

Carolina Werner was the seventh of nine children. Her father Geog Werner was a master baker in Neustadt an der Haardt which is about 61/2 miles from Edenkoben. Neustadt was one of the larger cities in the area. Many people came from different towns to work there(based on the Burgerbuchs). Wilhelm must of went there to apprentice as a baker and met Georg. Then meeting and later marrying Georg's daughter Carolina. Wilhelm eventually set up shop as a baker in his hometown of Edenkoben where our story began.

I will begin part 2 of the story next time.

Edenkoben - The Doll Family

Where have I been? Well, my vacation from my blog all began three weeks ago, when we had Spring Break and I went backpacking with my husband and kids. Then the past two weeks, well, really the past couple of months - I have been in Edenkoben. I have been deeply entrenched in the kirchenbuchs (church books) of Edenkoben, going back in time, as far back as the kirchenbuchs will let me go.

Let me guess - maybe you have not heard of Edenkoben? It is located in the Pfalz area of Germany, in the southwestern part of Germany. It is located on what is called "the weinstrasse" or the wine road. It is found along a section of country where they grow grapes. It is a beautiful area with rolling hills and moderate summer temperatures - only reaching on average in the mid 70's. It reminds me of the Napa Valley with tourists coming to taste of the wine produced by the locally grown grapes.

How did I end up in Edenkoben? It all began several months ago when I made contact with a distant cousin, who lives in Michigan in the summer and Florida in the winter. Sounds like a great weather strategy - the best of both worlds. He is related to me through my dad's side of the family. He and I share a common ancestor named Johann Wilhelm Doll from Edenkoben, Germany. Wilhelm came to America in 1846, when he was 69 years old. This might not seem too remarkable but many people never lived to reach the age of 69. His wife had died 2 years previous in 1844.

Wilhelm and his wife Carolina had a large family of 10 children. Four of their children died as children. Apparently, they were a close family because they all decided to emigrate to America together. At least three of their children were married with children of their own. The children, their spouses, the grandchildren gathered themselves together - made a plan, worked hard, saved money, traveled to the nearest port, obtained the necessary papers and tickets, and finally, boarded "their" ship to America. This was no small venture for the Doll family but in 1846, they eventually arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - their new home.

The lesson I learned with the Doll family is that you must always do your own research. Many years ago, I had found information about the Doll family done by a man from Florida. I copied the information onto my computer and went onto research other family lines that had not yet been touched.

Now, all these years later, after talking with my cousin, I actually took the time to look at the information I had before I sent it to him. I then realized that there was many incomplete families, some misinformation, and so forth. This invigorated me to begin my own research into my families of "the weinstrasse". My journey down the wine road is not yet complete but many new names and faces that have always been apart of my family - now have been brought to my remembrance.