Trying to understand where we come from, we may reach our limits: no documents, no archives, no information, no hints concerning any of the Schochenmaiers... We hold officially documentary data on our forefathers from the 1850s in Rohrbach (Odessa, South Russia), we can approximately suggest years of their fathers' birth who might arrive from Germany in 1820s (no direct documented traces but certificates of their marriages or death already from the same Rohrbach!) and we suppose that they stem from Gottlieb Schochenmaier born in Germany in 1800s (no data at all - neither direct nor indirect!).
But there are some indirect methods to be used to dig up our past.
Taking into account the history of Germany, namely feudal disunity up to the 19th century, it's logical to assume that our ancestors would marry a fellow villager, a neighbor, anybody who they could communicate with, who they speak the same dialect with, and who they share a similar background with. It does concern the language, the religion, the traditions and the area as well.
Let's check up if the history of the earliest spouses and life partners can help us to discover more. I am going to localize and map them all together.
1. Well, for
Gottlieb Schochenmaier (ab. 1800, my 5th great grandfather) there is no registered spouse.
2. His first son
Gottlieb Schochenmaier (ab. 1828, my 4th great grandfather!!!) was married twice. On
October 12, 1854 he was married at a registry of Lustdorf (today's Chernomorka, north-eastern district of Odessa) to
Katharina Huber. As we may conclude from the documents she died two years later:
on March 24, 1856. By the way, there were lots of deaths between 1855 and 1856 possibly because of the Crimean War 1853-1856. After she died, Gottlieb married
Elisabeth Korb, the date is unknown.
On my family tree, it looks like follows (click to maximize):
What do we know about those two ladies?
Katharina Huber was born on
June 26, 1836 in
Brücken (Pfalz). It is an
Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a
Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It's here:
As you can see on the map above, it's to the North from Alsace or Lorraine!
Her parents were
Mich(a)el Huber and
Margaretha Blees. They married on May 23rd, 1823 in the same Bruecken. It seems to be that they were Catholics, although it could be explained by the fact that at that time they belonged to Bavaria and Bavaria was always Catholic.
The dialect, they speak in Brücken, is called
Moselle Franconian (German
Moselfränkisch) and it is a group of West Central German dialects, part of the Central Franconian language area. They are spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the course of the Moselle River, in the Siegerland in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, throughout western Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, in the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium and in the neighbouring French département of Moselle (in Arrondissement of Boulay-Moselle).
So, this dialect covers four countries: Germany (f.ex. Trier), Luxembourg, Belgium (f.ex. Arlon) and France (f.ex. Thionville).
Gottlieb and Katharina had only one boy:
Johann Georg Schochenmaier (1855). No info about him...
The distribution map of absolute share of this surname demonstrates that it can be a place to meet lots of Hubers:
Elisabeth Korb was born on
August 15, 1834 in
Rohrbach (Beresan colony, near Odessa, South Russia). Her parents were
Heinrich Korb (1809 - ????) and
Christina Schneck (1817-1901). Heinrich Korb is to be found among the first newborn babies of "Russian" Rohrbach in year 1809!!! His parents were
Heinrich Korb (1777-1836) and
Salomea Elisabetha (maid name unknown,
abt. 1790-1851). They came to Russia from
Gersbach, today's part of Pirmasens.
Pirmasens is an independent town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It is famous for the manufacture of shoes. You can see it on the map:
Wow, it's almost the same area))) It's in 40 km from Brücken where the first wife of Gottlieb Schochenmaier had been born. So, the theory works!!!
The distribution of that surname shows the principal concentrations to be found in Germany:
The parents of Christina/Christiana Schneck (Gottlieb's mother-in-law!) were
John Henry Schneck (1780-1864) and
Katharina Luise Vollmer (1778-1820). John Henry is spelled like that because he immigrated to the New World and changed his name. I suggest he was Johann Heinrich))). He died on May 19, 1864 in Shelby (Richland, Ohio). But he was born in Oberriexingen (Neckarkreis, Württemberg):
It's in 125 km from Pirmasens, for instance, and very beautiful:
His parents had lived at the same place:
Gottlieb Schneck (1735-1798) and
Katharina Margarete Rugart (1741-1816). They married in 1760.
The distribution map of the absolute share of the Schneck family name proves that they did origin from the same area:
On my FamilySearch tree, you can see them all together:
So far for today, it was about Gottlieb Schochenmaier's wives. As you may conclude, there is a sort of spatial continuum between them. They all are coming from the area where Franconian dialects were spoken:
or
The women were born on the territory where the Central (Moselle, Rhine) and or possibly High (South, Upper) Franconian were spoken. If Gottlieb married them, it means they could easily understand each other.
In the next post, after having told you about Gottlieb (abt. 1828), who's my direct bloodline, I will present the wife of Ludwig Schochenmaier (abt. 1830), then that of Christian (abt. 1833) and finally the spouse of August Schochenmaier (abt. 1835). As you know, the descendants of Ludwig and August are not to be found today, either they had only girls or no children. But, for our American and Canadian Schochenmaiers I'd like to say that I have a surprise for them. Spoiler: we are more related than you thought))) Guess why!
Merry Christmas, my dear relatives!!!!!!!!!!!!!
