Life was Fragile in 18th Century Tann

 Life in Hessen in the 18th century was hard for the common people. The healthcare that we take for granted was unknown and people did not understand the effect of unsanitary conditions on their health. As I was transcribing the death records from Tann, the circumstances of one individual seemed to epitomize the difficulties faced by every family in Tann. This is her story:

Anna Christina Vockerod was born in Tann and baptized in the Lutheran Church on 21 January 1703.

When Anna Christina was 23 years of age, she was married to Henrich Bold, who was 7 years her senior. 

Marriage record of Henrich Bold and Anna Christina Vockerod

In due course, they had two sons born to them: Johannes, born on 29 April 1727 and died 6 days later; and Johann Andreas, born on 5 April 1728 and died 27 days later. Her husband, Henrich Bold, died later that same year, on 15 October 1728, at age 32, leaving Anna Christina bereft — a widow at age 25 after just 2 years of marriage.

Two years later, on 10 January 1731, Anna Christina married Johann George Knebel, who was just 7 days her senior. Their births are recorded consecutively. on this page.

Birth records of Johann George Knebel and Anna Christina Vockerod

Marriage Record of Johann Georg Knebel and Anna Christina, widow of Henrich Bold

Together, she and George also had 2 children, Anna Martha, born 26 October 1731 and Johann Tobias, born 18 July 1734.

[Sidebar: Her daughter from this second marriage, Anna Martha Knebell, married Johann David Hoßfeld and had 3 children. One son, Johann Tobias Hoßfeld, married my 4th great-aunt, Anna Dorothea Rödiger (daughter of my 4th great-grandparents, Johann Adam Rödiger and Barbara Elisabetha Bettenhausen). So, this is how I became aware of Anna Christina Vockerod’s story.]

But, Anna Christina Knebell and her second family suffered another series of deaths that typifies the difficult living conditions of 18th century Hessen: On 30 December 1760, Anna Christina died at age 57.

Death Record of Anna Christina Bold-Knebel, neé Vockerod

Three weeks later, on 20 January 1761, her second husband, Johann George Knebell died.

Death record of Johann George Knebel (aka Knöbel)

Four days after that, on 24 January, their son, Johann Tobias died, age 26.

Death record of Johann Tobias Knebel (aka Knöbel)

Three weeks after her brother’s death, on 17 February, Anna Martha, age 29, was also struck down, leaving her husband with two children, ages 4 years old, and 11 months old.

Death record of Anna Martha Hoßfeld, neé Knebel

To put all of this into perspective, Anna Christina lost her first husband and both of their children within 2 years and 4 months of their marriage. Her second husband, and their two children all died less than a month and a half after her own death. And within that 45 day period, 27 other residents of the tiny villages of Tann and Rohrbach also died.

In the church records, there is no mention of the nature of their deaths, nor is there any expression of surprise at the closeness of the times of their deaths to one another. Death was a familiar face in Tann, often the result of disease which could run rampant through a family or even through a village.

As the life of Anna Christina Vockerod illustrates, our ancestors in Hessen often fought a losing battle when it came to raising families. Death by disease ate away at every family. Hopefully, this peek into one woman’s family has given you an idea of the circumstances faced by our 18th century ancestors.

--Stephen

New Information Has Surfaced!!

Before diving into creating new posts I have a little "old business" to take care of.

In my last post (July of 2014) I concluded with a section entitled: "Other things to note."

Within that section I said:

1) Conrad's father was, as far as we know at this point, born in 1797. He married Anna Heyer in 1828 at the age of 30. I almost hate to bring this up, but he could have been married even before his marriage to Anna Heyer and had other children. A more exact translation of the marriage document may confirm or deny such an hypothesis. I'm working on it.

From the records subsequently obtained from the Lutheran Church Archive in Kassel, I can now say with certainty that Johann Conrad Rödiger was born on 7 Sep 1797 in Tann and baptized on the 10th at the Tann Lutheran Church. The exact date of his marriage to Anna Eva Heyer was 7 Apr 1828 also at the Tann Lutheran Church. It is also made clear from his subsequent marriage to Anna Margaretha Eichenauer that he was only married twice, so while my thoughts about a possible earlier marriage was reasonable, it is not true.

I further stated in the last post:

2) Anna Katharina was born 10 months after Johann's marriage to Anna Heyer, certainly making her the first child of that marriage. As she is named in all the family records we have, along with Justus, George and Conrad, it also appears that she was the only surviving child of that marriage.

Appearances can be deceiving. I now know that there was a daughter born to JT and Anna Margaretha Eichenauer which no one in the family seems to have been aware of (see below). So, why not other children from JT and Anna Eva Heyer's 19 year marriage, of which we only know about Anna Katharina. I will explore this more thoroughly when I visit the Archive in April so STAY TUNED.

Catharina Elisabeth Lotz nee Rödiger, daughter of the ??? Tobias Rödiger and Anna Margaretha Eichenauer of Tann, spouse of the ??? Jacob Lotz; born 28 November 1848; died 18 July [1874] at 6 in the evening; buried 21 July [1874]

(I will endeavor to get the difficult words translated, but the ??? marks probably stand for the occupations of these men.)

And lastly I wrote:

3) Anna Katharina married Friedrich Eichenauer (date as yet unknown--but it is on my list. Our records show that Friedrich was born in 1824 in Tann. That would make him just about 3 years older than his wife's step-mother, Anna Margaretha Eichenauer. It is certainly possible that Friedrich and Margaretha were siblings, or at the very least, cousins.

Their marriage took place 5 Oct 1851 in Tann. Friedrich was born 7 Oct 1824 in Niederthalhausen, a neighboring village and baptized there 17 Oct 1824. And it is now certain from Anna Margaretha Eichenauer and Johann Friedrich Eichenauer's baptismal records that they were indeed siblings.