The Eichenauer Geography (pt. 1)

The Eichenauers of Mercer County, Ohio and the Roedigers of Auglaize County, Ohio have an intertwined family history which begins in a small village of about 300 inhabitants in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg District of the German State of Hesse called Tann. While the Rödigers had lived in this village for generations (Henn Rödiger was listed in one document from 1627 as one of 12 farmers in Tann, most of whom had 1 horse and oxen), the Eichenauers were relative newcomers.

It appears that Johann Konrad Eichenauer and his wife, Anna Katharina Jacob moved to Tann after their eleventh child was born on 21 September of 1833 and before their twelfth child was born on 10 September 1836.

My intention in this blog is to show via modified Google Earth Maps (since I can't take you on a personal bus tour) where the Eichenauers came from before moving to Tann and about how long they lived in those locations. Since my research has only been able to learn the birthplaces of Johann Konrad Eichenauer's ancestors back to his grandfather, this shall be a fairly short "lesson." But hopefully you will get a spacial concept that will serve you in further research forays. And, of course, if you have access to Google Earth or even Google Maps, you can follow along in one of those programs and enhance your experience by zooming in on whatever floats your boat.

First, let me show you a map of Germany in relation to her neighbors in Europe:


The individual States of Germany are outlined in blue. Hesse is located almost in the geographical center of Germany. Frankfurt is the largest city of Hesse, so if you find the blue line that surrounds Frankfurt, you have found Hesse.
Sadly, I have been stymied in my attempts to show all of Hesse and and also have Google Earth show some of the midsize cities in Hesse that you might be familiar with. So this next map does show Frankfurt in the south and Kassel in the north, surrounded by the blue line indicating the borders of Hesse. After you have studied it for a few moments you can move on to the next map which will zoom in on the northern area of Hesse indicated by the area outlined in red.

 

The map below is semi-sort-of the area framed in red on the map above, and begins to show some of the smaller towns. Again, I have framed an area in red that will be enlarged on the following map.



Zooming a little closer on the area framed in red above, we can now find Tann on the map below, which is about 4 miles north of Bad Hersfeld.



I am now going to enlarge the area around Hof Trunsbach so that you can see the locality a bit better before I explain it's significance.



As I wrote earlier in this blog, Johann Konrad and Anna Katharina Eichenauer moved to Tann between 1833 and 1836. But before coming to Tann, they had been residents of Niederthalhausen, about 3 miles up the road. Johann Konrad and Anna Katharina were married in the Niederthalhausen church, their first 11 children had been born in Haus 18 in Niederthalhausen and baptized the this church. When I visited Tann, I wasn't aware of the significance of Niederthalhausen to our family history, so never visited there. However, thanks to Youtube I was able to lasso a photo of the church there. If you search for "Evangelische Kirche von Niederthalhausen" on Youtube, you can watch a short video that shows several views of the church and captures the tolling of the bells in the church tower. The link is Niederthalhausen ev. Dorfkirche

The church is located just below the yellow pushpin

Although Johann Konrad lived in Niederthalhausen with his family from 1815 to about 1835 when they moved to Tann, he wasn't born there. He and his 7 siblings were born at the Hof Trunsbach, which I wrote about in a previous blog. If you refer back to the map image just before that of the Evangelische Kirche, you will see that the Hof was located about 3/4 mile SE of Niederthalhausen. Johann Konrad Eichenauer's grandfather, Johann George (1727-1822) had come to the Hof Trunsbach with his family to become its "Conductor" in 1794. Succeeding generations of Eichenauers held that position for almost 100 years (until 1888).

But of course, only one person could hold that position, so other members of the family found it necessary to find other positions either on the Hof or elsewhere. In a future blog, I intend to show where some of the children and grandchildren went from the Hof and what occupations they pursued.

[On 1 Feb 2020, I reviewed this post and was startled to discover several factual errors in this paragraph. Please see my post from 2/1/2020 for corrections and additions to this paragraph--SRR] I now know that Johann George Eichenauer, the first Eichenauer who held the position of Hof Trunsbach Conductor had at least three sons by his wife, Anna Catharina Schäfer who was born in Angersbach. The first two sons were born in Grebenau, where their father was born. 1. Johann Heinrich (1764-1813) was Johann Konrad's father. It appears that Johann Heinrich inherited the Conductor position when his father died, but about this I am not 100% sure. 2. Johannes  Eichenauer (1773-1836) married Barbara Elisabeth Sunkel from Reilos and had 9 children, two sons and seven daughters. 3. Konrad Eichenauer, about whom I have learned very little because the church records from Grebenau are not yet available online. I do know that he was living in Angersbach in 1823 (his mother's hometown) because of the baptismal record of a niece who was named after his wife, Anna Margaretha Möller. It may be that Konrad was already married and settled in a career in Angersbach when his father moved to Hof Trunsbach with the other two sons. Hopefully, sometime soon those records will be available to solve this little mystery.

From the above paragraph, I revealed where this branch of the Eichenauer clan lived prior to 1794. But look at the map below to gain some perspective:



First note the distance between Grebenau (where Johann George Eichenauer was born) and Angersbach (where his wife was born). [I subsequently have learned that Johann George Eichenauer, his wife and four of their five children were born in Angersbach. They moved to Grebenau between 1770 and 1772 where their fifth child was born--SRR] It looks to be about 10-12 miles as the crow flies. These two towns are located in a different district from Tann and Niederthalhausen which are in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg District. The District that Grebenau and Angersbach is in is called Vogelsbergkreis which is outlined in light green.

Now note the distance between Hof Trunsbach and Grebenau. It calculates out to be about 24-25 miles. I am not sure how to measure the significance of the distance between these two locations, but if they left family behind in Grebenau or Angersbach, it would certainly limit the number of times they would visit one another. Perhaps we will never learn the reasons behind making such a move but it prompts me to ask myself questions: Was the opportunity of being the manager of the Hof just too good to pass up? Were there limited economic opportunities in the Vogelbergkreis that forced them to seek work further from home?

Hopefully the following diagram will be legible. It provides the basic information that I have been able to learn about Johann George Eichenauer and Anna Catharina Schäfer's children and grandchildren. I believe this is all included in my ancestry.com tree "Rödiger Family Tree" and there, where possible, I have provided citations in the descriptions of each event. As a reminder, the NW Ohio Eichenauers descend from Johann Konrad Eichenauer, son of Johann Heinrich Eichenauer, son of Joann George Eichenauer.
And finally, just to ramp up your curiosity, I would draw your attention to the second son of Johannes Eichenauer (second column), Heinrich Eichenauer who died in 1899 in Lancaster Twp, Butler County, PA. Had you heard of Pennsylvania cousins?

Frohes Neues Jahr!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROHES NEUES JAHR!

I am so behind on everything. I managed to buy Christmas cards but didn't get them sent out. So, don't feel snubbed if you didn't get one. I guess this means I have a head start on Christmas 2018, if I don't lose them between now and then.
I also don't usually do New Years Resolutions, but there are a few things on my list to accomplish. Here in the blog, I will just mention a few pertaining to my research on the Rödigers and Eichenauers.

But first, I would like to give a quick shout-out to the Big 10 football teams, who thus far have captured 7 of 7 Bowl games this season.
Iowa over Boston College 27-10
Purdue over Arizona 38-35
Michigan State over Washington State 42-17
Ohio State over USC 24-7
Northwestern over Kentucky 24-23
Wisconsin over Miami 34-24
Penn State over Washington 35-28

and now that we are in post season play I can even bring myself to root for that team up north, so
GO BIG BLUE, beat SC  (Today at noon on ESPN2)

Here are my New Years Resolutions for my Genealogical Research:

1. to be more consistent in blogging
2. to complete my indexing of the Niederthalhausen Church books between 1686 and 1890. (I am about 2/3 of the way through them now)
2. to figure out the connection between the Eichenauers in Niederthalhausen and Oberthalhausen and the Eichenauers in Mühlbach, Breitenbach and Lüdersdorf
3. to upload the myriad of facts that are on my personal genealogy program to ancestry.com, where they will be available to all

4. And if, perchance, Archion.de manages to digitize the records from Tann, Rohrbach, Meckbach and Mecklar, I plan on diving back into the Rödiger side of things again

And if you have questions or clarification on any of this research, please, please, please be sure to ask. It is my joy to educate my extended family on our common roots.

Got to go. The MU/SC game is on in 5 minutes

Mit freundlichen Grüßen (best regards),
Stephen Rödiger

The Mürer the Merrier

Today, I am taking you to the tree top. That is, as far as my Stammbaum (family tree) has grown to date. If you look at the progeny chart I presented at the end of my last post, you will find Johann Henrich Eichenauer (1764-1813) on the second line. Use him as a reference point for what I am presenting today. On 10 January 1794, Johann Henrich Eichenauer was married to Anna Christina Mürer in the Evangelische Kirche (Lutheran Church) in Niederthalhausen. (If you have been paying attention to past posts, you should know where that is located now.)

Johann Henrich's father had just arrived in this area to take up the position of Conductor of the Hof Trusbach (again--see the last post for more info). But Anna Christina Mürer's family had been residents of Niederthalhausen (the closest village to the Hof) for at least two previous generations.

Below is Anna Christina's baptismal record from  the Niederthalhausen Evangelische Kirchenbuch, 1776.

I will now endeavor to transcribe and translate for you:

Sept 15--Anna Christina, Michael Mürers et ux. Anna Margretha geb. Georgin, Töchterlein, nat. d. 14, h. 8 mat. Gevatterin: Anna Christina, weÿland Martin Brauns nachgelassen ehel. Tochter

By way of explanation, it should be understood that most Lutheran church records during this period were written using both the Latin and Deutsch languages and were written in the Gothic script which differs significantly from our Roman script. 90% of Germans today cannot read these documents because when Adolph Hitler came to power in the 1930's, he instituted a reform of the written language which was more Romanesque. And while the old script was taught in schools for a number of years, most who learned it as children have passed on or have not used it for decades.

There are several Latin abbreviations in the above record:

et ux. -- which stands for "et uxorem", meaning "and wife"

nat. -- which stands for "nativus", from which we get the word nativity, meaning "birth"

d. -- stands for "dies", meaning "day"

h. -- stands for "hora", meaning "hour"

mat. -- stands for "matutinum", from which the French got matinée and we borrowed from the French, but means "morning". So I guess if you go to a matinée, it should be in the morning. But all the ones I have ever been to were in the afternoon. Go figure.

There are a couple of German abbreviations as well:

geb. -- stands for "geboren" meaning "born" and in this case, refers to the maiden name. In English we often use the French word "née" in the same way.

ehel. -- stands for "eheliche" (fem.) or "ehelicher" (masc.) and has the idea of "legitimate"

and though it doesn't appear here I will throw in for no extra charge the abbreviation--

unehel. -- which you have no doubt already figured out means "illegitimate".

Since I am on this instructive kick, I may as well mention that:

1. German does not use an apostrophe to show possession

2. Sometimes a woman's last name appears in the feminine form, which means that "in" is added the the end of the surname.

3. "lein" or "chen" are diminutive suffixes which when attached to the noun conveys either the idea of smallness or intimacy or endearment. "Tochter" means "daughter" but in the record above, "Töchterlein" means infant daughter.

So, to finally get around to the translation:

Sept 15--Anna Christina, Michael Mürers et ux. Anna Margretha geb. Georgin, Töchterlein, nat. d. 14, h. 8 mat.

Gevatterin: Anna Christina, weÿland Martin Brauns nachgelassen ehel. Tochter

"[baptized on] September 15 [1776] -- Anna Christina, born on the 14th at 8 in the morning, infant daughter of Michael Mürer and his wife Anna Margretha née Georg,

Godparent: Anna Christina, the legitimate daughter of the deceased Martin Braun"

So, from this record, we glean some information which will help us in climbing a little higher in the family tree. And with this information, I was able to find Anna Christina's parent's marriage record.

This record is also from the Niederthalhausen records from the year 1775.

And says:

Mart. 5 -- Michael Mürer, Witwer, weÿland Johann George Mürer nachgelessener ehelicher Sohn,

mit Anna Margretha, weÿland Lorentz Sielens zu Mühlbach hinterlassener Witwib geb. Georgin"

This entire record is in German, except for the date, which again uses an abbreviation for the Latin word "Martii". If it had been German, it would have been "März" but both mean March.

Thus, "5 March 1775 -- Michael Mürer, widower, legitimate son of the deceased Johann Georg Mürer, with Anna Margretha, née Georg, surviving widow of Lorentz Siel of Mühlbach" [I haven't seen a surname anything like Lorentz's in the Tann or Niederthalhausen area but a cursory look at the Mühlbach records shows a surname of "Siel" cropping up now and again, so I am going with that for the time being]

From this record I learn that: 

1. Michael Mürer and his bride are both widowed.

2. Anna Margretha's late husband is named, as is the village where they resided. You can look up this village on Google Maps, just type in "Mühlbach-Neuenstein, Germany" into the search space (if you don't know how to make the umlaut over the 'u' try typing it as "Muehlbach." It is the same difference.) What you will find is that Mühlbach is a tad over 7 km walk southwest from Niederthalhausen.

3. The father of the bridegroom is named, thus reaching back one more generation.

Unfortunately, the Lutheran records in Mühlbach only go back to 1770, and between that date and the date of Anna Margretha Georg-Siel's marriage to Johann Michael Mürer in 1775, there is no marriage record for the Siels which might provide her father's name, no death record for Lorentz Siel which might confirm the spelling of her first husband's surname, nor any record of children born to them during that five year period.

If you are only casually interested in the Eichenauer genealogy, you may wish to get off the bus here because I am about to explore the first marriage of Johann Michael Mürer. And because this does not have a direct bearing on the Eichenauer ancestors, some will find this information superfluous.

However, I like to pull on every thread that is hanging out. You never know when you might unravel something really useful.

--------

OK, so now only the really, really dedicated family researchers are still with me, right?

We know that Joh. Michael Mürer was a widower when he married Anna Christina Mürer-Eichenauer's mother in 1775. So by digging a little deeper, I found a marriage record for Johann Michael Mürer in Niederthalhausen in1761:

"den 30ten Julÿ ist der [unidentified occupation--looks like "Jungefell"], Joh. Michael Mürer, und Anna Margretha, Simon Stippichs Witwe Copuliert worten(?)."

I have written to Regina, whom I have mentioned before, to get some clarification on his occupation and the correct spelling of the last word, but the gist of the record is clear:

"On the 30th of July [1761], Johann Michael Mürer and Anna Margretha, Simon Stippich's widow, were married."

There are three questions that pop into my head at this point:

1. What was Anna Margretha's maiden name?

2. Did they have children?

3. When did she die?

To answer the first question, I went back to the marriage records in Niederthalhausen. I didn't have to look far. The answer was on the same page:

"den 24ten 7br. Simon Stippich [unidentified occupation or marital status], ist mit Anna Margretha, Johann Henrich Reims Tochter auß Oberngeis Copuliert worden(?)"

Regina has been asked about this one as well. Maybe the next blog will contain her insight in these two records. The unidentified occupation or marital status is "Witwer" meaning widower.

But I do know what 7br. means. The first time I saw this, I jumped to the conclusion that it meant "July" because after all, July is the seventh month of the year. But further research revealed another Latin link. In fact the last four months of the year are often written in this manner.

Dec-ember 10br.

Nov-ember 9br.

Oct-ober 8br.

Sept-ember 7br.

Do you see the Latin numbers that begin each month? Now, I am not sure why the Roman calendar was off by two months from ours. Rachel, if you are still reading, I'm counting on you to comment on this. But Dec would be 10br, Nov would be 9br, Oct would be 8br and so of course 7br is September.

So, the translation is "On the 24th of September, Simon Stippich, Widower, and Anna Margretha, the daughter of Johann Henrich Reim from Oberngeis were married."

Interestingly (at least to me) is where Oberngeis is located. Although it appears with this spelling on a map from 1849, somewhere along the line it dropped the "n" and is now spelled Obergeis. If you looked up Mühlbach, then from there a 4.5 km walk southeast along Rt 324 would get you there.

On to question 2, "did they have children?"

The short answer to that is , yes, there were at least four born between 1762 and 1768. If you want to know more, you have to pay double what you have been paying. Seriously, I won't go into the details. Superfluous can only stretch so far.

And question 3, when did Johann Mürer's first wife die?

And the answer is ...

"21 Jul [1771] ist Anna Margaretha, Johann Michael Mürers Ehefrau 18t. ej. abends 10 Uhr gestorben begraben worden Alt 38 Jahre"

Another Latin abbreviation: "ej." stands for "ejusdem" which means "the same"

Translation is "Buried on 21 July 1771, Anna Margaretha, Johann Michael Mürer's wife, died on the 18th of the same month, age 38 years"

Well, I think since you hung in there with me, I will provide a portion of the 1849 map that shows the area that has been a part of this discussion as a reward. The fact that both of his wives came from some distance over the hills from Niederthalhausen makes me ponder the why of it. Most marriages took place between couples who lived within spitting distance of each other. Not that they would ever do that, but, I'll leave you to do the speculating about that--the reason for getting his wives from elsewhere, not the spitting thing.

Niederthalhausen is in the upper right. Oberngeis is in the bottom center and Mühlbach is just above center on the left. Hope it is legible for you.

'til next time, SRR

The Book Has Arrived

I received the book 650 Jahre--Nieder- und Oberthalhausen (1327-1977) today. And while it was disappointingly small--less than 3/8 of an inch thick and 134 pages as compared to the book about Tann which is over an inch thick and 409 pages--there is a chapter on the history of Hof Trunsbach which I found interesting. After I have a German acquaintance proofread my translation I will share what I have learned.
But for now, you will just have to be content in having a photograph of Hof Trunsbach that I lifted from the book and one fact to whet your appetite.

This is the Farm Estate of which Johann George Eichenauer (1727-1822), my GGGGG Grandfather, was Conductor. And his sons, Johann Henrich (1764-1813) (my GGGG Grandfather) and Johannes Eichenauer (1773-1836) also held this position. In fact, the book states that Eichenauers held this position generation after generation for nearly one hundred years (1794-1888). Way cool!

You may not be sure how you are related to these men, so this is the way it stacks up:

Johann George Eichenauer (1727-1822) was the father of
Johann Henrich Eichenauer (1764-1813), father of
Johann Konrad Eichenauer (1794-bef 1852), father of:
1. Anna Margaretha Eichenauer, second wife of Johann Tobias Rödiger, and together, parents of:
1a. Conrad Roediger (emigrated to Ohio in 1881)
1b. George Roediger (emigrated in 1888)
1c. Justus Rödiger, whose son John Henry Roediger emigrated in 1893.

2. Johann Friedrich Eichenauer, who married Katharina Rödiger, Johann Tobias Rödiger's daughter from his first marriage and who had four sons and one daughter who emigrated to Ohio:
2a. Tobias Eichenauer (emigrated in 1867)
2b. Conrad Eichenauer (emigrated in 1880)
2c. Adam Eichenauer (emigrated in 1880)
2d. Justus (Gustav) "Gus" Eichenauer (emigrated in 1883)
2e. Anna Elisabeth "Lizzie" Eichenauer (emigrated in 1896)

Assuming that you, as a reader of this blog are a descendant of Johann Konrad Eichenauer, this should hopefully help you to see where you fit in. If it is still not clear, just post a comment and I will be glad to help you pin it down.

Another Resource

I was corresponding with Regina, my German contact--cf. my last post-- to see if she knew of any 18th or 19th century map resources that might show the villages and with the house numbers. Because villages were very small, they simply assigned a number to each house. Church records often included the address in baptism, marriage and death records. This is helpful when trying to connect loose ends with known family members and I think having a map of the proximity of the various households would be interesting.

She gave several suggestions and then told me of a book that might include a map. The name of the book is _650 Jahre, Nieder- und Oberthalhausen_. This was a nice surprise! As you may remember, I have a book about Tann with a similar title and have been wondering if a book had been written about any of the other villages in the Rohrbach valley. I had asked my cousin, Jürgen, about it a month or so ago but he had been unable to find out anything. The book about Niederthalhausen could provide more discoveries about the Eichenauers who resided there from about 1794 until today. 

So, after learning that there was such a book, I did a google search and discovered a copy for sale at Abebooks.com. I have ordered the book and now anxiously await its arrival.

Of course it is more than likely that the map that I was originally asking about is not in the book. There certainly isn't in the Tann version.

So I will try to contact some of the people she suggested to me and see if that bears any fruit.

In the meantime, I continue to index Niederthalhausen Churchbook records for more Eichenauer relatives. I am currently working on the baptismal records in the late 1700s. I am nearly always finding at least one new relative on every page. I will continue this process until 9/21 when my access to Archion.de runs out, then decide whether to renew right away or to begin to enter the results obtained thus far into my Ancestry.com tree. So much to do, and so little time!⌚️

Ain't the Internet Great!

About a week ago, I was cruising Ancestry.com and saw that a particular tree (by a German woman) had a specific date for an Eichenauer's birth that I only had a guesstimate for. Out of curiousity I contacted her and asked if she has a source for her information. She not only provided me with the source for that one, but for several others. Additionally, she told me of three websites in Germany where records are archived. Two are free and have most of what can be found on ancestry.com and familysearch.org. They are civil records, none of which go back further than 1878 when civil records began.

The 3rd site charges for viewing and downloading files. 

I took three days off of work this week and decided to get a 30 day pass that allowed unlimited viewing and 50 pages to download. I have only 7 pages left on my pass.

From somewhere I hear a voice whispering "choose wisely, Grasshopper."

So, I have now achieved what I never anticipated: more records than I can keep up with.

But while I am assimilating as much as I can, I will pass on to you an observation about the Eichenauers in Germany. 

I think I already mentioned that the Rödigers were pretty much stuck in Tann for centuries. Our line of Eichenauers came to Tann between 1824 and 1826. Before that they lived at Hof Trunsbach near Niederthalhausen. But while looking at the Niederthalhausen records, I noticed that there were no records pertaining to Eichenauers there before the 1790s.

With the help of the German woman's tree I discovered that Johann Friedrich Eichenauer's (1824-1881) great grandfather, Johann George Eichenauer died in Niederthalhausen in 1822, but was born in Grebenau in 1727. His death record says that he was the "Conductor" of the Hof Trunsbach. I am guessing right now, but from old maps, Hof Trunsbach looks to be a large farm estate. And apparently the owner hired a manager to run the place. I am hoping that someone has written more about Hof Trunsbach.

So, where are Hof Trunsbach, Niederthalhausen and Grebenau in relation to Tann?

Time for you to pull out Google Maps. Hof Trunsbach still exists. If you google map "Hof Trunsbach, Ludwigsau, Germany" it should take you right to it just off of the L3254 (Road). If you follow the L3254 SE less than 3 miles (4.4 km) you will arrive in Tann where the Rödigers and Eichenauers met. If you follow the L3254 NE 1.6 km you will arrive in Niederthalhausen. Or if you feel like walking there is a more direct path that is 1.2 km and would be about a 15 minute walk. Anybody want to do that? I'm up for it. Anyway, Niederthalhausen was the closest Lutheran church and that is why the records are found there.

Now let's take a look at where Grebenau is located. Just google map "Grebenau, 36323, Germany." If you get directions from Grebenau to Hof Trunsbach you will see that it is about 40 km (24 miles). About a 40 minute drive on today's roads. That was a fur piece back in the day. Somehow Johann George Eichenauer heard about, and was able to secure the Manager job and moved his family there.

After I finish perusing the Niederthalhausen records, I plan on heading over to Grebenau (figuratively) and finding out how long the Eichenauers resided there.

There is a Method to my Madness

Since returning from Europe, I have been working on indexing and transcribing the 250 pages that were purchased. Thanks to you who helped with the copying expenses. That turned out to be much more than I expected, but I think that once the records have been transcribed, the knowledge gained will make it all worth while.
I thought I'd take a few minutes to assure you that these records are being processed, even though I haven't posted much to substantiate that claim, and to give you an idea of how I am processing the information.
I want to reiterate that I have never had any formal training in either the German language, nor in the old Gothic script that is used almost exclusively in these records, but I keep learning as I go along.
And I have found that the record keepers also throw in a little Latin now and then, just to make things interesting.
I have started keeping a vocabulary list gleaned from these church records and categorizing them based on their usage. I have ecclesiastical terms (usually in or based on Latin), place names, occupations, relationship terms, etc.
I also have a surname list which includes all the names of all the people found in the records which were purchased (which I have been able to read or make a good guess at). The purpose for this is two-fold. First, it gives me a database to pull from when a new surname is discovered. For instance, I have learned that Johann Heinrich Rödiger's mother's maiden name is Bettenhausen. Now, I can look through my index of surnames and find other Bettenhausens and see if there are other relationships that can be connected to our family.
Second, many of the names are difficult to read and certain letters (at least to me) look almost identical. Capital B and L are similar, lower case n and e and u are similar, f and h, and d and final s are a few examples. So, to use Bettenhausen as an example, the first time I ran across it, I had to determine if it was Bettenhausen, Buttonhausen, Buttonfausen Letten..., Lutten... etc. By looking at a number of families with that name it becomes easier to determine which is correct. And occasionally a scribe will actually write it very legibly or use Roman style script (which is like that which we learn here in the States).
I have also started keeping a spreadsheet for each of the four types of records which the church kept: birth/baptism, confirmation, marriage and death. I am beginning with the records of people I know to be related (and how they are related). I start by transcribing the Gothic script into typewritten German and then translate it into English. This process leads me to find other relatives that I did not know about: brothers, sisters, spouses. Even the baptismal sponsors/witnesses/godparents provide clues. They will sometimes tell us that the child's mother's sister was one of the "Taufpathen" and name her, for instance, as "Catharina, wife of the miller, Heinrich Böttner." This opens up a whole new avenue of exploration at some point.
After I have entered the information about people I "know" I will go back and pick up on the clues that I have found and look at the people who have surnames that are the same as those whom I have already identified. There are times when the relationships found just beg to be explored further, and I can't resist the temptation. I think you can see this process going on in my last two posts.
While, initially it appears that I may have found only about 100 records of any import to our family history, the reality is that in the final analysis many more will come to light.
Realize, that many of the records are spread across two pages, so perhaps in reality there are only 150 pages of records. However, on each of those pages there are 4 to 10 individual records. I haven't added them up yet, but I would estimate that there are 800 to 1000 individual birth/baptism, confirmation, marriage and death records obtained in this last treasure hunt. And because this is such a small, relatively stable community, the chances of inter-relationships existing  between the individuals in the majority of these records is extremely high. On one particular page I found the marriage records of three of Friedrich Eichenauer and Anna Katharina Rödiger's children.
I am determined to mine as much information from these records as possible so as to discover as many of the relationships as possible.

So far, I have made my way through all of the birth/baptism and marriage records and have begun on the death records collecting people's names and pulling out the ones I know to add to the database, It is a long (and tedious) process and on a number of occasions I have called upon people with more knowledge of the language or script to help me pry the info from these records. So please be patient. I will try to post information from the records that I have figured out so that you can update and add to your records.
And I will also try to keep the Eichenauer:Rödiger ratio as even as possible, knowing that some of us are more of one than the other.
Wow. This ended up much longer than I intended. And sadly I have no interesting images to go along with this blog. Hope you made it this far.--Steve