Happy New Year, my dear Schochenmaiers!!!

Happy New Year, 

my near and remote relatives,

my dear Schochenmaiers !!!

Spouses' ancestors of our earliest Schochenmaiers. Part 1: Gottliebs' wives

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Johann Schochenmajer married on August 9, 1718

Hello again,

I'm still searching for the oldest Schochenmaiers throughout FamilySearch. Last month I stumbled upon a marriage certificate of the 18th century. Therefrom you may get to know that Johann Schochenmajer married to Maria Christina Dobler on the 9th August 1718.

Here it is:

As soon as I found this Johann, I remembered about the post on the second oldest Schochenmaiers where I presented one Johann Schochenmajer who had got a daughter Johanna Christina Schochenmajer. I am still thinking if these two Johanns could be the same person. 

1. Both of them have the same family name spelling. 

2. The wife's name of the first Johann is Maria Christina Dobler. The wife's name of the second Johann is Anna Maria, without any maid last name. Earlier it happened that the first triple name of Anna Maria Christina could be recorded as Maria Christina or Anna Maria. But I'm not sure about it. 

3. The year of marriage for the first couple is 1718, while Johanna Christina Schochenmajer had been born in 1716. On the one hand, these two dates are very close to each other. However, on the other hand, it means two years gap before getting married. The latter may signify that if it was the same Johann, then  he could marry for the second time. 

4. Unfortunately, there is no place-name in the marriage certificate. But, according to the birth certificate of Johanna Christina Schochenmajer, she was born in Kornwestheim - to the north by Stuttgart. Could it be valid for the first Johann? 

5. The wife's maid name of Johann Schochenmajer was Maria Christina Dobler. Her father was called as Johann Conrad Dobler. A very short research on this family name allows to affirm that such a surname was historically to be found throughout the 17th and 18th century to the east of Stuttgart (for example, in Waiblingen).  

 

Well, almost the same time and the same area. It's very possible that those two Johann are the one person only who got married twice. 

If so, we come up to the overlapping of archive documents and get more information on our ancestry. 

The Michael Schochenmaier's farm around 1909

I am so happy to post a new picture of the Michael Schochenmaier (1859)'s farm which I got by courtesy from Lorie Schochenmaier (Longmont, Colorado).

For getting to know her, I'd like just notice that Lorie Jan Schochenmaier is daughter of Erwin Schochenmaier (1921-1993) and Betty Gosh (1928-1996), or granddaughter of Jacob Schochenmaier (1890-1971) and Elizabeth Wuest (1893-1988), or, otherwise, great granddaughter of Michael Schochenmaier (1859-1937) and Christina Winkler (1858-1926), or, going deeper, great great granddaughter of Christian Schochenmaier (1833-????) and Margaretha Korb (1836-????).

What are their relationship to me? 

Christian (1833) is my 4th great grand uncle.
Michael (1859) is my 1st cousin 5x removed.
Jacob (1890) is my 2nd cousin 4x removed.
Erwin (1921) is my 3rd cousin 3x removed.
So, Lorie (1957) is my 4th cousin 2x removed.

I had asked if anybody had any older pictures of the farm than the one I posted of Michael and Christina Schochenmaier and their family in front of the house with a large bay picture window before.  The farm picture you're going to see is of the farm around 1909. We know that  because the barn has a silo by it. Michael was the first to build a silo in a large territory. It was built in 1909. There is a man standing by the door of the house,  we assume it is Michael.  That house is the same house the family picture was taken in front of the big bay picture window.  I know it may be hard to see this picture well, so I am hoping we can get a closer picture later.

Here it is:

And one more time:

It might be looking like that if closer:

Thank you very much, Lorie! Such a picture is priceless for our history. We can see how they established their lives after immigrating to the New World.

Have a good weekend, my dear Schochenmaiers.

How the "Schoch + Maier" theory can be tested

I start to think that the theory of Jacob Schichenmaier (1861) on the origin of our family name can be adequately true. Today I'd like to demonstrate how we could test it. I stumbled upon an example of the origin of another family name whose history looks pretty similar to the our one.

Well, there is last name of the "Schaichmaiers".

Their family history can be traced back to the place where they definitely come from: it's Holzgerlingen.

As you can see, the area is next to places where our forefathers had lived. 

The genealogists are very happy about that family name because its origin had been attested in the town history on the basis of "urbanonyms" (placenames within a settlement like street names, square names, etc.). 

By the end of the 15th century, the first street names can be already found in the town chronicles. Besides, Altdorfer Gasse, Dietzengasse, am Eschelbach, Glemat (= Klemmert), Stauchgasse, Kelter, Bainhus, Siechenhaus, am Kreuzerwasen, a Schaichhof 

can be seen on the street map in 1495 as "Schayen Mayer" that later will be written like "Schaichmaier". I think this alloy of two names is more than just interesting for us. What if our family name had been built in the same way? 

Of course, we don't have any idea whether Schayen Mayer meant "Mayor of Schaich" (occupational surname) or just "Schaich + Maier" (double family name). 

Schaichhof in 1930s

But what about Schaichmaier in the quality of family name? The very first Schaichmaier I found was attested in the 16th century: 

If Johann Christoff Schaichmaier was born in 1596, so his father Hans Schaichmaier should be born in 1570s. 

Let us notice that in 1495 it was spelled as Schayen Mayer and in 1570s we already meet probably one of the first Schaichmaiers. The gap is about 60-80 years only! Thus, I conclude the fusion can happen relatively fast and the same could take place in the case of the Schochenmaiers. 

Puzzle of schO/Achenmaiers solved?

Discussing the difference between schOchenmaiers and schAchenmayrs with Janet Schochenmaier from Canada, I have been motivated to do a sort of new research on the last ones. And I was surprised to find out that there is much more information on them than I previously thought.

Let me explain step by step what I came to.

On Google Books, Janet stumbled upon some Gothic quotations from which we might conclude that any Leonhard Freidrich SchAchenmayr had been mayor in Kempten. It's South-West Bavaria, Allgäu area. But, in my post on "knitted Schachenmayrs" (http://schochenmaiers.blogspot.de/2014/06/on-knitted-schoachenmaiers.html), I presented to your attention a Leonhard SchAchenmayr who had founded a yarn spinning company under his name in Salach. It's about 130 km (80 mi). I asked myself the question if he was the same Leonhard.

I started digging up and several hours after that I found a first link between Kempten and Salach:

So, this Leonhard had been born on 15th December 1791 in Kempten, but he started his "woolen business" in 80 miles in Salach after he married a Marie Catherine Friederike Kolb, daughter of a well-known Bavarian merchant Johann Gottfried Kolb on the 1st March 1824. I am still not sure that that Leonhard was mayor in Kempten from 1824 to 1830 because if he was mayor in Kempten how he could be married in Salach and at the same time be a companion of Mr. Kolb in Salach. But maybe the mayor was his father? As you can see, parents of Leonhard were Leonhard Schachenmayr as well and Sabine Wagenseil.

Reading on the history of Leonhard Schachenmayr and his firm "Schachenmayr and Cie", I found out that his ancestors had been papermakers from Kempten. Then I kept digging down and suddenly I found a pdf file where you can read in German the history of SchAchenmayErs. It's pretty interesting, I will translate it for into English plus I will add pictures willing to illustrate their history.

The pdf file is based on the publication: Wolfgang Petz, Die Familie Schachenmayer in Kempten und Isny vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Schachenmayer Family in Kempten and Isny from the Late Middle Age up to the middle of the 19th century), Typoskript Kempten 2003.

Let's go!

It's titled as: Social rise, on the example of the Schachenmayers.

The social rise possibilities can be shown through the history of paper craftsmen from the Early Modern period exemplified by the Schachenmayer family. It probably traces back to the field name of Schachen in Langenegg:

Langenegg is a municipality in the district of Bregenz in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg.

It's only 55 km (35 miles) up to Kempten:

Some pictures for your imagination:







It had been under the parish Martinzell earlier. It's already in Germany:
 

The very first mention is to be found in 1506 when a prince-abbot

... title for a cleric who is a Prince of the Church (like a Prince-Bishop), in the sense of an ex officio temporal lord of a feudal entity, notably a State of the Holy Roman Empire...

reduced the cost of laudenium (Latin word meaning the payment for the transfer of land that had to be paid by vassals upon entering into an inheritance) for a leasehold manor or land property in Eschach (Parish of Buchenberg) of the widow of hunter Michel SchAchenmayer.

Eschach is in Buchenberg today. But where is it?

It's in 12 km (7 mi) from Kempten and 46 km (28 mi) from Langenegg.

Some pictures of Eschach:






One line of the Schachenmayers, which branched off, is then to be met in the area called Einöde Feigen (Feigen wasteland) by Elmatried (Parish St. Lorenz). It's near Kempten now:

  


where a Hans Schachenmayer in 1531/2  paid fees for his leasehold possession. Around 1556 he was already dead, but his taxes had been abated and weren't given over to his children, as it was being used to do at that time, due to their poverty.

Wolfgang Petz suggests that from that impoverished branch of Schachenmayers descends the future family of famous paper-makers.

The uncertain financial situation of leasehold tenure will be drawn through the family history between the 15th and 16th centuries. Unlike the owners of hereditary fief they had no material basis that would have provided them protection for emergencies, as for instance in the case of loss of the breadwinner. The forced mobility led the Schachenmayer in the city. In 1575, the earliest mention of family members in the Council minutes of the imperial town of Kempten confirms that Hans Schachenmayer, his wife Sara Leutz and two children bought the rights of town citizenship. Hans Schachenmayer, as can be inferred from the record, was at that time not in the city itself, but in Rottach (Parish of St. Lorenz) which represtented a scattered settlement outside the urban district on the lower reaches of the river with the same name.





In the civil recording book his profession is mentioned like that: ain Pappeyrer.

Below some pictures how this job looked like:

 

Here is the example of the first paper making industry in 1502 from Mühlhausen (Alsace): 

 

Very likely he worked on one of the mills in Kottern, where he was testified later.



  

His wife Sara Leutz was Moritz Staiger's granddaughter, daughter of the paper-maker Hans Leutz from Durach, who in his turn had purchased the Civil Rights of the imperial town in 1563. The affinity with the paper industry can be also shown by the fact that one of the two bailsmen of Hans Schachenmayer was his professional colleague Hans Hurrenbain. So, he worked with other prominent paper-makers. However, Hans Schachenmayer hadn't got his own paper mill. At least, in 1583, his names is not to be found among those of owners. In 1593, he was no longer alive, because in a register on the Turkish tax, which started to be taken in that area in this year, mentions his bereaved relatives who still lived in the monastery land.

The Turks before Vienna! In 1529 the first siege began, but as a result of the battle of Kahlenberg the city was again rescued. Yet as soon as twelve years later the Turks conquered Ofen, the current Budapest. The [Austro-Hungarian] emperor Karl V was hard pressed, and asked the German princes for financial support to underwrite a planned campaign. This was granted to him by the parliament at Speyer through a general capital levy. 

In a “General Rescript, a comprehensive plan against the Turks,” Duke Ulrich prescribed a tax surcharge in November of 1529, the so-called Turkish Tax, which brought in about 45,000 Gulden. The tax lists of over 50 district tax offices have almost all been preserved. 

His son, named after him Hans, could take over  a paper making workshop as a tenant at an unknown time point that can be considered as a first step towards independence. It's about that Kottern's mill that belonged to Hans Rist, citizen and butcher from Kempten. It results from a contract of 1608 that the younger Hans Schochenmayer already held a half of the mill for lease at this time. The other half had previously been left to Jörg Frey and was actually occupied by Baltus Mayr (through Hans Rist) from Au (Parish of Sulzberg), who was a monastery paper-miller. It is likely that Hans Schachenmayer had lived in the same conditions as Mayr in his half of the mill: the obligation to pay maintenance for the building, but not for water engineering, consists an annual inventory of money 35 fl. (Florins = Gulden) with a contract period of 12 years.

The Florentine florin was a coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains of nominally pure or 'fine' gold (3.5g, 0.1125 troy ounce) worth approximately 200 modern US Dollars. The "fiorino d'oro" of the Republic of Florence was the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities to play a significant commercial role since the seventh century. As many Florentine banks were international supercompanies with branches across Europe, the florin quickly became the dominant trade coin of Western Europe for large scale transactions, replacing silver bars in multiples of the mark (a weight unit equal to eight troy ounces).

It seems that the younger Hans Schachenmayer had successfully acquired the part of the Hans Rist's mill, because later he managed to own the whole workshop. He also acquired the neighboring paper mill of Elisabetha Staiger, widow of the younger Hans Staiger, another prominent paper-maker of that period. She sold her possession in Kottern for 1,730 fl. This sum was divided into long-term and rising rates. The fact that Hans Schachenmayer dared buying it apparently without capital explained the record of 1615-18 about a small credit he had taken, and about the newly acquired mill which was offered to the creditors as a backup.

The publishing relationship with a Viennese merchant who bereaved the eagle paper (paper with watermark in the form of the eagle) that Hans Schachenmayer produced had not prevented him from expanding its possession. For instance in 1622, ten years after the purchase of the mill, he acquired for the princely sum of 2,300 fl. from the older Hans Greither (born 1559) a dwelling and farmstead on Oberen Steig ("upper walkway") in the imperial town of Kempten, including a small garden which was adjacent to the city wall.

Of the purchase price he met 1,000 fl. in cash and promised to pay the balance in installments annually up to 150 fl.. Hans Schachenmayer managed probably to possess the largest paper mill in Kempten area. In 1623, he became the spokesman of the Kempten craftsmen paper-makers; he seems to have employed at that time especially many fellow guild members in comparison to his colleagues.

The rise of Schachenmayer within two generations from poor rural backgrounds to the position of saturated master craftsmen is certainly hardly conceivable without luck and proficiency. Technical skills, knowledge in the management and commercial foresight were qualities that had to combine a real paper-maker. Of key importance was also the marriage of the elder Hans Schachenmayer to the granddaughter of the wealthy paper master Moritz Staiger, who procured for him the access to network of monasteries and towns' paper making industry. Such careers were certainly not favored in the 16th and early 17th century under the economic circumstances of trade, relative openness of the craft structures and still permeable boundaries between the religious groups. Only insofar can the family history of the Schachenmayers be considered as exemplary only, as it illustrates basic ways that were, however, much more difficult to realize for less favored paper-makers.

Wolfgang Petz pasted the coat of arms of Hans Schachenmayer from 1622:

It's a double-headed eagle with K letter for Kempten on the breast-plate. Below it's noticed
1st line: Hans Schachomair !!!
2nd line Bürger und Papierer (Citizen and paper-maker)
3rd line: zu Kempten (in Kempten)

It's more than just similar with Kempten's coat of arms:

 What I don't understand is the spelling of family name... Why Schachomair? Mr. Petz didn't explain such a considerable modification... I see only one explanation that it was still the time when the last names had not been fixed for ever and the author is so sure that the Schachenmayers and the Schachomairs represented the same blood line that he even didn't mention it at all.

If you google for the Schachomairs, you'll find the examples of their printed play cards or postal cards from the 16th century:

It was made by Georg (Jörg) Schachomair: Sheet of playing cards, Georg Schachomair, woodcut, 1575-1600.

Wolfgang Petz also drew a chart of the Staiger's family whereon you may find both of Hans Schachenmayers:

On another website, I stumbled upon a list of paper-making mills' owners and in general points it repeats the story from above, but there are some new details:

in Kempten:

Schachenmeyer, Lucas
Mayr, Martin Bes 1573
Fries, Jerg 1586
Mayr, Abraham Pm 1586
Sommer, Georg 1594
Heusler, Georg 1595
Mayr, Hans 1595
Hurrenbein, Hans 1596
Ebert oder Ebers
Schachenmayr, Johann 1620
Schachenmayr, Hans 1630
Staiger, Michael 1640
Weißner, Essaias Pg 1654
Staiger, Hans 1670
Staiger, Michael 1695
Herz, Domian
Staiger, Moritz 1550 (Gründer)
Schachenmayr, Marx jun. up to 1730
Schachenmayr, Anna Barbara, widow, 1730-1745
Schachenmayr, Johann Lucas from 1745
Schachenmayr, Marx 1816-1853
Forster, Marquard Mit-Bes bis 1848
Schachenmayr, Oskar from 1853

Does it mean that Lukas Schachenmeyer owned a mill before 1573? Mr. Petz didn't mention any Lucas... Johann from 1620 could be the elder Hans, these two forenames were always mixed up, or it's about Jörg? If not, where is a Georg Schachomair? As you can see, the paper industry was under Schachenmayrs until the 19th century.

in Kottern:

Schachenmayr, Hans, guild fellow member, 1584
Schachenmayr, Marx, 1700
Schachenmayr, Jakob, 1700Schachenmayr, Johannes, up to 1834 
Behringer, Joh. Georg Bes 1840
Weitenauer, Peter Bes ab 1840
Staiger, Moritz 1528-1547
Mair, Martin 1547
Mair, Abraham 1580
Mair, Matthäus 1593
Reiser, Georg 1593
Staiger, Hans 1601
Baschgott, Bernhard
Walch, Bernhard
Kutter, Georg und Elias (Brüder) Bes 1846
Schachenmayr, Johannes

in Stielings:

Schachenmayr, Johannes, from 1855

in Weidach:

Schachenmayr, Magdalena, widow, 1850


Chronologically it looks like that:

Schachenmeyer, Lucas
Schachenmayr, Hans, guild fellow member, 1584
Schachenmayr, Johann 1620
Schachenmayr, Hans jun. 1630
Schachenmayr, Marx, 1700
Schachenmayr, Jakob, 1700
Schachenmayr, Marx jun. up to 1730
Schachenmayr, Anna Barbara, widow, 1730-1745
Schachenmayr, Johann Lucas from 1745
Schachenmayr, Marx 1816-1853
Schachenmayr, Johannes, up to 1834
Schachenmayr, Magdalena, widow, 1850
Schachenmayr, Oskar from 1853
Schachenmayr, Johannes, from 1855



Well, well, well. If everything from above is true, then you found a clear distinction between the Schachenmayrs and the Schochenmaiers.

1. No carriage industry was mentioned, so it's not the history of the Schochs and Maiers according to Jacob Schochenmaier when two families united their children, business and thus surnames.

2. In its turn, the Schachenmayrs stem from the Schachomairs, which had originated from a place-name in Austria (toponymic origin!).

3. The Schochenmaiers can be traced back from the 1620s, although the Schachenmayers are to be found from the 1450s (if Michel the Hunter was already dead before 1506)! Now the time gap is pretty big, about 170 years.

4. The Schochenmaiers had started in Alsace-Baden, while the Schachomairs in Austria-Bavaria.

5. The Schachenmayers were pretty rich but the Schochenmeyers were relatively poor and they were clothes-makers.

Now, I am almost sure that the Schochenmeyers and the Schachomairs were not relatives, if only there had been no mistake in the records when the writers messed up A and O in the last names...