The Hasselbachers of Munchsteinach |
ResourcesMap of Munchsteinach18th Century Hasselbacher ResidentsSchwalm Archives (24 MB pdf) |
Potential Origins of the Munchsteinach HassselbachersIt may be that Peter is descended from my ancestor, Wolf Hasselbacher. For example, Wolf’s youngest son Johannes (with first wife Kunigunda) had a son named Christoph who was named after a godfather. Christoph was baptized in Dottenheim in 1693 which puts him in striking distance to be the grandfather of Peter the Elder. (Some sources state that Peter the Elder’s grandfather was named Christopher, while others say Georg.) It might be that Peter is not a descendant of Wolf, but one of his brothers. For example, brother Andreas Hasselbacher (born c1607) had a son Christoph Albrecht Hasselbacher born June 1664 in Uehlfeld. Uehlfeld is close to Munchsteinach and Diespeck. I have virtually no information about the third brother, Adam, other than he married Margaretha and had a son, Simon, in 1636 before going to Germany. Simon married Anna Christina in 1667. Could Peter be a descendant of Simon? One variation of the above that might explain why a link has not jumped out at me is that Peter the Elder might be a descendant of my 8x Grandfather Paulus the Elder. Paulus (son of Wolf) became a Separatist (anabaptist) in his later life. That meant that he was excluded from the Evangelish church and that some of his descendants might not have been recorded in church-books in the usual manner. In fact, my early Diespeck ancestor, George, son of Paulus the Younger and a contemporary of Peter, may have been handled in that manner. I cemented George's place in the family line with a marriage record and the baptismal record of his son, Johann Kasper. (The actual 18th century baptismal record is magnificent to behold. I wept as I saw it. It is on the index page of this website.) Paulus has a few pages in the history books about his brush with the ecclesiastical law. Not bad for a humble farmer. (I cannot yet read this Gothic printed German text myself but have a general knowledge of what happened. I need a German-speaking friend or relative to help me. If anyone is interested I will post the pages here.) There are other Franconian Hasselbachers from Gresten who were not apparently the sons of Stephan and Anna and who came to Franconia slightly before the three brothers. One such family is that of Johann Hasselbacher, born in Austria in c1615 and who died near Stubach in 1666. He was an Exulant in 1655 along with his wife Maria who died in 1677. The couple had two daughters, Magdalena and Maria who were both born in Austria and who married in Germany. Of interest is that the older sister Magdalena married Peter Osanger (Hosanger) of Unternesselbach. I have no knowledge of earlier male relatives so perhaps this is how the given name Peter crept into the geographically close-knit family. A precious observation that revels itself as I look at these many old family records spread across the Franconian countryside is how the same family names keep coming up. Common between the Purzners and the Hasselbacher families are the names of: Hagen, Popp, Kolb, and Teufel. These people lived together and knew each other two centuries before their descendants reach out to find one another again. A wonderful and sobering thought for me. Peter Hasselbacher, the Younger |
