[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Vergissmeinnicht booklet

[Debbie]

After I re-read my email, I had one of those "Duh!" moments.  Funny how you
get something in your mind and then don't even question it when evidence
otherwise is right in front of your face.

I had always just assumed that my great-grandfather did this family booklet
as a school exercise because the information was contained in a school essay
book and the book was dated 1876.  Well when I re-read my email, I realized
it obviously couldn't have been a school exercise, because he wasn't married
and didn't have children until after he got out of school!  Ah, duh!
Sometimes I amazed myself that I can be so, well, stupid! :-)

Debbie Beick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Debbie" <beektabeek at msn.com>
To: "Ancestors" <ancestors at telusplanet.net>; "SGGEE Messages"
<ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Vergissmeinnicht booklet


> Dwayne,
>
> Interesting.  My great-grandfather who was originally from the Rhineland
and
> who migrated to the Crimea has a similar booklet, but it appears that he
> started the booklet with his wives and family.  It includes births,
deaths,
> and marriages.  The entries are written out in longhand, similar to the
> entries in the old church books before the days of printed columnar books.
>
> I thought this was just something my great-grandfather did as a school
> exercise, but perhaps it is some sort of tradition.  On the cover of the
> booklet is a sticker that states, "Auefsatzheft fuer Christian Scheid,
> 1876."  From the dictionary, (so this may not be entirely correct,) it
> translates roughly to "Essay Writing Book for Christian Scheid, 1876."
> Inside the front cover is written, "??egonnen den 4 September 1876 in
> Sarata, Christian Scheid."  Christian attended the Werner School in
Sarata,
> Bessarabia and 1876 would have been the year he graduated.  Perhaps he was
> just making use of an essay book that never got used at school to record
> important information in.
>
> There appears to be a few pages missing at the front, then the first entry
> is the death of his first wife.  Then a number II Ehe. appears in the
middle
> of that same page and it records his marriage to his second wife,
Katharina
> Eckstein and continues on to record his wife's baptism information, then
the
> marriage to his second wife, their children's baptisms, the death of his
> second wife.  Then in the middle of the same page is written III Efe, the
> information on his wife's baptism, and the record of his marriage the
> marriage to his third wife, and their children's baptisms.
>
> Someone continued writing in the book after my great-grandfather died, as
> his death in 1915 is recorded, as is his son's marriage in 1916, and the
> birth of his first grandson, in 1917.
>
> After the family history, there are some pages in what appears to also be
in
> Robert's handwriting, a page dedicated to each of the children listing
money
> (gold) and goods given to each child.  The first page is the information
for
> his eldest son by his third wife, Robert, and is dated 1915.  The second
> page is for his daughter by his third wife, Emma and is dated 1919, the
> third page is for my second son of his third wife, Arthur, and is not
dated.
> The fourth page is for his eldest son by his first wife, and is dated 1910
> with two entries for 1911.  After checking the dates, it appears that each
> of his children received some type of "inheritance" from their father at
the
> time of their marriage.  The exception is the daughter, who received her
> "inheritance" in 1919 and didn't marry until 1925.  However, the daughter
> would have turned 18 in 1919, so perhaps she was given her portion when
she
> turned 18.
>
> What I found interesting on the list of inheritance items was what appears
> to be money given for the sale of eggs, and other farm income.  Each child
> was given "geld" or gold, and each was given land, which was listed in
> "morgens" rather than acres.  The monetary values for each item was listed
> next to it, and a grand total for each child at the bottom of the page.
>
> After these entries, the booklet continues on with birth, deaths, and
> marriages for the family after the date of Christian's death, and the
> handwriting differs from entry to entry.  At some point, someone started
to
> use the book as an address book for their German relatives in Germany.
>
> The last two pages are in the handwriting of the daughter, Emma and she
> recorded the death dates of her parents, her husband's parents, and then
the
> deaths of the various brothers, sisters, and what would have been her
nieces
> and nephews.  The booklet is in the possession of the daughter, Emma's
> family, who kindly allowed us to make a photocopy, although the book is
now
> very fragile.
>
> Since the numbers in the book seem to refer to my great-grandfather's
wives,
> it would appear that he began this booklet with information only on
himself,
> but after reading about your grandfather's book, one must wonder how many
> pages are missing  from my great-grandfather's book and if the entries
> started with earlier family information...
>
> Debbie Beick
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ancestors" <ancestors at telusplanet.net>
> To: "SGGEE Messages" <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 7:32 PM
> Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Vergissmeinnicht booklet
>
>
> > A relative mentioned a booklet that was in the possesion of his aunt. He
> > thought that the origin was his grandfather's. In it there were birth
> dates of
> > ancestors going back several generations to 1810. Does any know if this
is
> a
> > normal custom among Germans that lived in Russia? Have others seen this
> type
> > of booklet before? I would be interested in hearing similar stories.
> >
> > Dwayne
> >
> > http://www.geocities.com/ancestors/Volhynia
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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