Week 30: The Old Country #52Ancestors
Some months ago, I wrote about the German town where my Glacy (Glaesgen) family originated. This week, I researched Sulzfeld the town where my second great-grandfather, Christopher Götter, came from in 1851.
The second step after you locate the town where your ancestors came from is to consult FamilySearch’s many Wikis. So, for Christopher, I went to “How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Baden-Württemberg” and found a step-by-step guide, including how to write a letter to the local parishes to get the documents you need.[1]
My beginning research focused on U.S. records since I didn’t know where in Germany he originated (your very first and critical step). The manifest for the ship he arrived on only old me that he came from Baden and that he was a locksmith.
A quick reminder about German history: “Germany” wasn’t a country until 1918. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in about 1806, various forms of a German nation-states were formed (i.e., the German Confederation and the German Empire). When Christopher immigrated, he wasn’t from Germany, but rather the Grand Duchy of Baden.[2]
It was surprising to find a 1868 baptismal record for Christopher from St. Rose of Lima Church in Springfield, New Jersey.[3] In my very Roman Catholic family, a baptism at forty years of age was unexpected. It didn’t occur to me that his family was anything but Catholic – as nearly all of my ancestors were. This record turned out to be the lynch-pin for my German research because it told me his father’s first name and his mother’s first and maiden name.
My initial research for Christopher’s parents led me to many Lutheran church records in Germany. Initially mystified, it struck me: of course he must have been Lutheran. He married an Irish-Catholic immigrant and most of their six children were baptized at St. Rose. Not sure why it took him thirteen years after his marriage to convert, but it may explain why I haven’t found any church records of their marriage.
Anyway, Ancestry has indexed many German Lutheran church records, but does not have digital images of the records. For that, I had to go to the Archion website.[4] Based in Stuttgart, Archion is a cooperative project with Evangelical Lutheran and protestant churches in Germany to digitize historical records and provide them (for a fee) to the public. Because I wanted to write about Christopher and his family, I sprung for a month-long pass to access their church records.
Again, it was astounding to see the detail provided by German churches records. Each baptismal, marriage, and burial record provided the names of that person’s parents, sometimes their grandparents, and always their spouse (if married). Many times, you can find three generations identified in one record. Boom!
So, once we can travel again, I’ve got another German town to visit: Sulzfeld, where my Götter and Guggolz family originated.
Sulzfeld a village in the municipality of Sulzfeld in the Karlsruhe district of Baden-Wurttemberg (a state within the Federal Republic of Germany).[5] Its most important attraction is the castle of Ravensburg, first constructed around 930 and last occupied in 1849. Since the 1950’s the remains of the castle have been used for a restaurant and, recently, a wedding chapel. Since about 1252, wine has been grown on the hillsides surrounding the castle and when I go I can visit the Burg Ravensburg both the restaurant and winery. Who’s with me?
[1] FamilySearch Research Wiki, “How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Baden-Württemberg,” rev. 10:32, 26 June 2020.
[2] Wikepedia.org, “History of Baden-Württemberg,” rev. 23:24, 15 July 2020.
[3] St. Rose of Lima (Springfield, New Jersey) Catholic Church, Parish Register, Register of Baptism, Christopher Getter (1868); digital image FamilySearch.org (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 25 July 2018). And one for his brother the following month.
[5] Wikipedia.org, “Sulzfeld (Baden),” rev. 22:10, 3 July 2020. You might note I use Wikipedia a lot. This is not something I would do in a scholarly format, but when I need to get to something in a quick and dirty manner, it is ideal.
The Ravenburg Castle. Photo from the Burg-Restaurant Ravensburg website (https://www.burgrestaurant-ravensburg.de/de/ueber-uns : accessed 3 Aug 2020).