This is the second of a multi-part series on ancestors in the Rhöne based on a translation of Rhönspiegel: Three Lectures on the Life, Customs, and Language of the Rhön People written by Leopold Höhl in 1881.
Here is the translation of an excerpt describing the religion of people in the Rhöne, as viewed in the 19th century.
This is the second of a multi-part series on ancestors in the Rhöne based on a translation of Rhönspiegel: Three Lectures on the Life, Customs, and Language of the Rhön People written by Leopold Höhl in 1881. Read part 1 on farming here.
Here is the translation of an excerpt describing the lifestyle of people in the Rhöne, as viewed in 1881.
The question of religion in our German ancestors’ time would seem quite strange to the modern American reader. After the Protestant Reformation, most inhabitants were obliged to follow the official religion of their leader, be that Catholic, Lutheran or Calvinist. This is an oversimplification, but the whole picture has been painted in many books and for the purpose of our story here, is unnecessary.
Suffice it to say, where one was from and one’s religion were, for a very long time, linked. And, in the case of the unknown man who died on the roadside between Flieden and Schlüchtern in the 1720s, this distinction resulted in a bit of fortune for the Catholic church in Flieden.
“So, he was a bastard.” This is a reaction I heard when revealing that a person’s ancestor was born out of wedlock. The word stings, and there is a stigma attached to it. Nonetheless, you don’t get to pick your ancestors, and when you go looking for your stories you might be surprised.
This is the first of a mult-part series on ancestors in the Rhöne based on a translation of Rhönspiegel: Three Lectures on the Life, Customs, and Language of the Rhön People written by Leopold Höhl in 1881.
When I found that some of my ancestors lived in a village near Fulda, I decided to do some research on that area. I translated excerpts from a German book on the culture of the area written in 1881, and I’m going to share them with you.
I was recently reading the memoirs of my wife’s late grandmother, and noticed a line that mentioned an ancestor who had fought with Napoleon’s army. Intrigued, I decided to go looking for him, and found a tremendous resource for anyone whose ancestors fought in the French army during the Napoleonic wars, which took place between 1792 and 1814.
Geneanet’s “Napoleon’s Soldiers” is a collection of muster rolls from the period. Considering it’s all in French, I’ve produced a guide to understanding what the columns say, and some clues as to what the handwritten notes within contain.
If you’re a descendent of the Heil family, or of somebody who married into the Heil family in the Fulda district, these marriage records might help in your research. All of these records can be found in the church books of St. Goar in Flieden. In these books you’ll also find further baptisms, marriages, and deaths not mentioned in this post.
From magical bags to escape tricks, Native American sorcerers played a role in the daily lives of tribes in North America, a role that would come into direct conflict with Christian missionaries arriving with European settlers. One of these “black robes” was Fr. Francis Xavier Pierz, a Slovenian-born priest who arrived in the 1830s.
If your German ancestors moved to Minnesota during the mid-1800s, Fr. Pierz may have played a part. He wrote articles in German-language newspapers urging immigrants to settle in Minnesota, which he viewed as one of the best new territories in Die Vereinigten Staaten. He also wrote a book, Die Indianer in Nord-Amerika, to both describe the Native Americans and the land in Minnesota.
In a previous article, I provided a selected translation from a book by Fr. Ferdinand Giessler about the French invasion of Baden in 1796. Now, we have another account of those events from the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Beförderung der Geschichtes-, Altertums- und Volkskunde von Freiburg, or the Journal of the Society for the Promotion of the History, Antiquity and Folklore of Freiburg, published in 1925.
On June 24, 1796, French troops under General Moreau crossed the Rhine at Kehl as part of a three-pronged invasion of the Holy Roman Empire. This came on the heels of an alliance formed by several European powers with the aim of defeating the newly created French Republic. This war is known today as The War of the First Coalition, and it would be the first of several.
Following the first Battle of Kehl, part of Moreau’s army, the southern wing of a larger campaign along the Rhine began a march through “the Höllental,” which translates to Hell’s Valley.
I recently translated passages from Wilhelmiten Kloster Oberried, a history written in 1911 by Fr. Ferdinand Giessler, a priest in Riegel, Germany. The work covers this history of the Wilhelmine monks in Oberried, but the passages I’ve translated highlight the French Invasion, and the subsequent dissolution of monasteries during secularization.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén