Madison County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting - June 13, 2013
The June 2013
meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville
Public Library on Thursday, June 13, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert
Ridenour, called the meeting to order.
GIFT
MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE
Do you have a
family member that is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A
membership in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very
thoughtful gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift
membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net,
about a gift membership.
June Meeting
On June 13, 2013,
Kathy Wurth presented a program titled German Farm Life and Traditions. Ms. Wurth is
a genealogist, lecturer, and owner of Family Tree Tours, a heritage travel
company. She arranges tours to an area where the participants' families
originated and then day trips from a central location to surrounding areas
where the people can see what their ancestors' lives may have been like.
Throughout Germany, they have what they call private museums, which are living
history museums similar to Williamsburg, Virginia. On her trips, Kathy always
tries to visit one of these private museums so people can see how their
ancestors may have lived.
Ms. Wurth described the farm types and the people that were likely to own
and/or operate each type, as well as inheritance customs of certain regions of
Germany. This information covered from the Middle Ages up to the latter part of
the nineteenth century.
Westphalia
Although Prussia was centered around and mostly east of Berlin,
parts of Westphalia were Prussian beginning in 1670. By 1815, all of
Rhineland-Westphalia was Prussian.
There were three General Classes of People: Royalty and the Church, Farmers,
and Common Folk. There were three classes of Farmers: Personally free and able
to own land; Personally free and able to rent land; Neither Personally free nor able to Rent Land.
During the 1800's, 70% of the people lived in small farming villages. The term Colon (or Kolon) was a generic term for farmer, his farmstead was a Colonat.
Royalty and the Church: Meyer or Meier (related to the English word Mayor
and/or a Schulz (from the "Shuldheiss or debt collector). These were
usually large farms (ten times the size of a regular farm) owned by free people.
Small farmers: Höner was a slightly smaller farm rented by usually free people
but still attached to a Meierhof.
A Kötter was usually not free and farmed only enough land to support his
family. If the farm was on land that used to be communal land, he was a
"Markkötter." A Kotter was obliged to work for the landlord. The word
cottager derives from this type of holding.
A Brinkmann (Brinksitzer, Brinkmaier) rented only enough land for a house and
garden and usually lived on the edge of the Village.
A Heuerlinge was day laborer, i.e., worked on a farm for someone else.
People could only marry and have children if they could provide a permanent,
stable source of income to support a family. In much of Westphalia, the
youngest child inherited the farm. If a woman inherited the farm and married
(or remarried), the husband changed his surname to hers. The children bore the
wife's surname. When the farm was inherited, a sum based on the value of the
farm had to be paid to the owner. This was not an incentive to work very hard.
Rent was paid in money, produce, and livestock and with compulsory labor. On
small farms, the family had to supplement their income with cottage industries,
such as linen weaving, cobbling, and coopering.
Black Forest
Again, the larger farms were owned by the Nobility and the Church
In this area, the farms were usually larger - the home stood in middle of the
estate, which consisted of a belt of land that stretched from the top of the
mountain down through the valley and back up to the top of the next mountain.
So they consisted of each feature of the valley - summer
mountain, valley floor, and winter mountain. Farms ranged from between
50 to 300 acres. Up to three generations would share the home, plus servants or
farm hands, so there may have been 15 to 20 people living on the farm.
Farmhouses in this area were built almost entirely of wood taken from the
forest each farm possessed. Oak was preferred but they also used spruce or fir.
Traditional farmhouses of the Black Forest are multi-purpose
buildings, incorporating the living and storage areas and stalls all
under one huge roof. A striking feature of these houses is the raised entrance
in the roof, through which the horse or ox-drawn carts could drive from the
mountainside straight in to the loft. This is called "Eindachhaus."
Kathy gave a detailed description of an "all-in-one" house on a large
farm, where the single building housed the farmer, his family, the farmhands,
and all the livestock. This description was accompanied by the display of many
beautiful and informative photos.
The main source of farming income in the Black Forest area was from livestock
and forestry. Crops grown were summer rye, oats, spring barley, and, since the
18th century, potatoes. Hardly enough was produced to sustain people and
animals. So the people supplemented their income with cottage industries such
as straw weaving, clock making, and hiring oneself out as a day laborer.
Inheritance
laws:
In the 16th century the manorial lords prohibited the dividing up of farmsteads
in order to ensure sustainable farms. They were bequeathed as undivided, single
estates.
In the Central Black Forest, inheritance used the Borough-English custom;
everything went to the youngest son, the Höfengel (farm angel), or the oldest
unmarried daughter. (The main reason for this was that the current farmer
wanted to control the farm for as long as possible.) The rest of the heirs had
to make do with a reduced settlement and the hope they would be kept on as
farmhands. In the north and southeast, some farms were divided among all
rightful heirs, but, with every generation, farms grew smaller and smaller.
The presentation also included photographs of typical German clothing, both
working clothes and fancier dress clothes for church and special occasions. It
would be impossible to describe the many beautiful photographs used in this
presentation.
This presentation was very well received and generated several questions and
much discussion.
If you are interested in a heritage tour, Kathy Wurth can be reached at info@familytreetours.com. The
website is http://www.familytreetours.com.
This presentation
was very well attended, very well received, and
produced several questions from the audience.