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Distribution of last names schOchenmaiers vs. schAchenmaiers

Today I'd like to compare the distribution of all possible spellings of schOchenmaiers versus schAchenmaiers, in order to see if there are any regularities or interdependences therein.

With the help of German Surnames Atlas program (by courtesy of Prof. Konrad Kunze from the University of Freibrug, as the software is not publically accessible), I could map the distribution of all (SHOKHENMAYER) spellings. It's a dataset with more than 30 millions of German citizens on the basis of their phone lines and zipcodes. Taking into account that there are about 83 millions of people in Germany, we come to the coefficient of 2,9 persons per phone line (what is actually a "normal" German family: he, she and one child). It would be of great interest to get to know how many Scho/achenmaiers are living in Germany now.

All in all, we have the follwoing possible spellings for SchOc?(h/k)enm(a/e)ier: 

Schochenmaier	5 * 3 = 15
Schochenmeier	4 * 3 = 12
Schockenmaier	1 * 3 = 3
Schockenmeier	2 * 3 = 6
Schokenmeier	1 * 3 = 3

The numbers to the right show how many phone lines are to be found in Germany. We multiply by 3 (or 2,9) and we get the approximative number of living with those family names.  As you can see, there are probably not more than 40 persons who write their names with "O".

By the way, there are 40 Schochenmaiers in Germany, about 10 in Switzerland, about 20 in Russia and about 300 hundreds of them in the North America !!!))) Alert! We are dying out here in Europe)))

Well, what about SchAchenm(a/e)(i/y)e?r:

Schachenmayer	9 * 3 = 27
Schachenmayr	16 * 3 = 48
Schachenmeier	15 * 3 = 45

So, there are about 120 of Schachenmaiers. 

And now the map:

What can you see on the map? The dwelling places of Schochenmaiers have almost no overlapping with that of Schachenmaiers (except the Northern Bavaria!) The considerable number of Schachenmaiers is to be seen in the Southern Bavaria, near to Austria.  The Schochenmaiers are to be mostly found in area of Baden and Rhineland-Palatinate. So to say, Schochenmaiers - on your left and Schachenmaiers - on your right. 

We may conclude, that they possibly had a different origin. But, as I have already mentioned, it depences on the origin of the family. 

In the next posting I will present the first theory on the Schochenmaier family name origin. 

Schochenmaiers before emigration. Introduction

I'd like to start to post which Schochenmaiers are to be found in various materials before emigration. Under the emigration I understand not only before the New World but before Russia as well.

The very first mentions of Russian Schochenmaiers can be found in the Odessa Digital Library http://www.odessa3.org/ :

Births:

Deaths:

and Marriages:

Chronologically, the earliest date is September 1852, when Margaretha Schochenmaier was born to Ludwig Schochenmaier. It's interesting to see that she is one and only who has no precise birthday if it was the very beginning or not ordered yet at that time... Nothing (no documents!) earlier of the Schochenmaiers in Russia prior to 1852. The rest of the information is from the file compiled by the Village Coordinators from the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (North Dakota, Bismarck) http://www.grhs.org/index.html:



But where did they get the information about the Russian Schochenmaiers between 1800 and 1840s from? Why have I never asked this question before? I will contact them today.

The Village Coordinators are from the Beresan District Odessa Regional Interest Group

Their names are: Rosemarie Dinkel, Nancy Schroeder, Lucy Simpson, Erwin Ulmer.

So, as promised, I will post on the Schochenmaiers found prior to 1852, mostly in Germany, of course. 

How are all Schochenmaiers related?

Many times I have been asked to explain how all Schochenmaiers are related. I am sure that all of them are remote relatives because I am researcher in family names and I know that such a rare surname as Schochenmaier (doesn't matter how to write) can be of one punctual origin only. But what kind of origin is it? That's the question.

I have some doubts on schAchenm(a|e/i|y)ers (from Bavaria, for example) if they are our relatives but all schOchenm(a|e/i|y)ers are for sure.

Below you'll find my chart of male (sorry, Ladies!) relations among our forefathers and where their offspring are to be found today.

All remarks and comments are welcome!!!

P.S. As for me, I am the offspring of Wilhelm Schochemeier (German flag on the left) who was my great gr. gr. father.

P.P.S. Soviet flag means either there were no children with the last name of Schochenmaier or that family line was shot dead in the purges of 1930s under Stalin.  

  

What is Rohrbach today like?

As I said, after 1944 Ukrainian Rohrbach had been renamed to Novosvetlovka. According to Census 2001, about 1410 inhabitants are living there.

The village has a high school (314 pupils and 31 teacher), a culture center with 550 seats, two libraries with 23.4 thousand books, ambulant clinic with three paramedics, kindergarten with 140 children, seven stores, one eating house, sewing classroom, post office, PBX with 50 numbers and a savings bank.

Some of German offsprings from the U.S. or Canada come here to take pictures and to commemorate their ancestors. Here below you'll find some photos from that blog: http://hin-und-zuruck.blogspot.de/

Typical houses:

The transportation is the same as 100 years ago)))

The Ukranian name of Rohrbach today:

Buildings of the past:

Offspring of German colonists from the USA and the memorial plate on the occasion of 200 jubilee years :

Museum dedicated to German colonists:

Typical German houses which are used till our days:

General view:

German rests:

My heart is beating faster when I figure out how my great grandparents walked and lived there... 

When did the first settlers come to Rohrbach and who?

Let's reconstruct the succession:

1. The original group of settlers in 1809 totaled 26 families, and given its close proximity to Worms, the Colonists from both villages may have traveled together to South Russia.

2. In 1810 an additional 69 families arrived. As in Worms (read "Black Sea Worms"), construction of houses was not completed until 1810.

According to Dr. Karl Stumpp of the 100 plus families that settled in Rohrbach,

• 33 came from Baden, 
• 4 from Württemberg, 
• 12 from the Pfalz, 
• 7 from Prussian Poland and 
• 44 from Alsace. 

Other sources lump the Colonists from the Pfalz and Alsace together since both were French territory.

"The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763-1862" by Dr. Karl Stumpp is often referred to simply as "the Stumpp book." It contains 1,018 pages of history, research, maps, and lists (emigrants, colonies, census, passports, etc.).

3. Additional families continued to arrive in 1813:

• 22 from Prussian Poland and 
• 4 from Württemberg. 

4. Between 1817 and 1819,

• 16 additional families from Baden and 
• 6 additional families from other colonies settled in Rohrbach. 

Among the names of 111 original Rohrbach settlers, the Schochenmaiers are not to be found(((

http://rohrbachrussia.ancestryhost.org/rg6.htm

Joseph S. Height, Homesteaders on the Step, (Bismarck, North Dakota:

North Dakota Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1975) pp. 87-88.

By 1838 the population of Rohrbach totaled 683 individuals, comprising 148 families.

The first Schochenmaier, who was born in Rohrbach (Beresan Colony, Odessa Region), is Margaretha Schochenmaier, born on September 1852, daughther of Ludwig Schochenmaier (about 1830) and Katharina Kuprijahn (or Kuprian) (about 1833). Taking this fact into account, we may conclude that the Schochenmaiers apparently had come to Rohrbach between 1813 and 1852.   

First known Schochenmaier's generation

On the basis of St. Petersburg Lutheran Evangelical Archives (http://russiangenes.com/2011/02/central-state-historical-archive-of-st-petersburg/) at the Family History Center (Salt Lake City, Utah), we may reconstruct who were the first Schochenmaier who had come to Russia from Germany.

Any (GOTTLIEB) SCHOCHENMAIER, who had been born about 1800 and apparently not in Russia, had got the children as follows:

• GOTTLIEB SCHOCHENMAIER, born about 1828.
• LUDWIG SCHOCHENMAIER, born about 1830, Kamenka (?); died 18 Feb 1856, Rohrbach, Beresan, Odessa, Russia.
• CHRISTIAN SCHOCHENMAIER, born about 1833.
• AUGUST SCHOCHENMAIER, born about 1835; died 10 Jul 1855, Worms, Beresan, Odessa, Russia; married to MARGARETHE OCHSNER (31 May 1854, Rohrbach, Beresan, Odessa, Russia).
• KATHARINA SCHOCHENMAIER, born about 1836; died 24 Mar 1856, Rohrbach, Beresan, Odessa, Russia.

So, we may conclude that the family of Schochenmaiers had moved from Germany to Russia between 1810 and 1828.

Let's get started!

Long before I intented to carry out the research on my own surname: SHOKHENMAYER.

The actual "Shokhenmayer" is the translitteration from Russian "ШОХЕНМА(Й)ЕР". I was told that in various documents of my family in the beginning of the XXth century two German versions are to be found:

Schochenmeier

and

Schochenmaier.

Theoretically, there could be more:

Schochenmeyer 

Schochenmayer

Schockenmeier

Schockenmaier

Schockenmeyer

Schockenmayer

Schochenmayr

Schochenmair

Schochenmeir

Schockenmayr

Schockenmair

Schockenmeir

Post by post I will present everything I found in the archives, documents, maps and on the Internet. If you have some ideas, your help will be appriciated a lot!!!