Ahhh..... when one dives into German research, step one is finding the ancestral town or village of your ancestor. From the book, Freidstadt and the Lutheran Immigration published by the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church of Freistadt, Mequon, Wisconsin about many Old Lutherans who settled near Milwaukee, Martin Taute's place where he was from is listed as Magdeburg, Langensalza. I do not believe that Magdeburg and Langensalza are part of the same place but rather two separate places. In 1956, Langensalza became Bad Langensalza. In 1815, Langensalza was part of Saxony. Today, Bad Langensalza is located in the state of Thuringia and the district of Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis. Today it has a population of approximately 18,000.
Magdeburg on the other hand is, east of Berlin, Germany and north of Bad Langensalza. It is in the state of Saxony-Anhalt and in the Urban district. In 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, Magdeburg surrendered to French forces. Today it has a population of approximately 230,000.
My best guess from the information that I have seen, Martin was born in Langensalza and later moved to Magdeburg before immigrating to the United States in 1839. The above mentioned book states that his parents were Philipp Taute and Balatte Exold. I believe that I have found a birth or baptism record for Martin Christoph Daute 5 March 1799 in the church books for St. Bonifacii in Langensalza. Joh. Philipp Daute is listed as his father. The "t" and "d" in German can be interchanged. Also, spellings circa 1800 were not set in stone as they are today. There are several other listings that indicate that Martin had brothers. Unfortunately, the books from this time frame do not name the girls nor are the mothers listed. In the duplicate books, the date is listed as 7 March 1799. I did not find either the name "Daute" nor "Exold" in the family book film. However, I did find the name "Ewald". There are more films to research and hopefully, there will be answers.
The search continues as well as the struggle reading Old German Script!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment