September 1999

9/15

I had another hard look at the Biesingen church book microfilms today. I was specifically looking for the birth records for the children of Hans Held and Anna and the sponsors at their baptism. I found one birth record where the mother was specifically identified as Anna Sultzmann, the child listed as born 19 Feb 1660. The first 9 children had the same sponsors: Michael Held, Georg/Jerg Held, and Anna, w/o Hans Kientzlin. Starting with the 10th child the sponsors are: Jerg Held, Lorentz Sultzmann, and Agatha, w/o Jacob Schwartz. At the 14th child the sponsors become: Lorentz Sultzmann, Johannes/Hans Held, and Agatha, w/o Jacob Schwartz. There is a seven year gap between the 9th and 10th child where the first change of sponsors is made. There was also a notation behind the father's name on many of the records that usually indicates the occupation. I could not determine what it was and I did not note if it was the same or different on the various records. I will have a look at that again.

9/22

I had another hard look at the Hans Held and Anna Sultzmann family of Biesingen. There are potential problems with these data. They show that Hans and Anna had children starting on 18 Dec 1651, very near the restart of the data in 1651. The family register plus the couple missed entries shows there were 17 children born over almost a 40 years span, with the last on 03 May 1690. The last 6 had a strange notation. I asked several learned researchers, including the pastor in Öfingen, and no one seems to know what the notation means. A couple of the names are duplicated in the group, which is not strange if the child died. However, in this case the duplicated children with the same names got married and had children of their own. My guess is that this is actually two or more families, all with parents named Hans (Johannes) and Anna, and there is no way to separate them. I have searched for a marriage record for a Hans (Johannes) Held and Anna throughout this period and found none in the B-O-Ö church books. One clue is that on one birth/baptism entry where the surname of the bride was uncharacteristically given. She is in what might be defined as the first group of the family and is identified as Anna Sultzmann. Also, on all of the entries for the later group one of the sponsors shown is a Lorentz Sultzmann, which would lead me to believe that the latter Anna was Anna Sultzmann and Lorentz Sultzmann was her brother, uncle, or father. However, this does not fit with other assumptions and facts. A couple more likely possibilities are that Lorentz is the brother of the Anna in the first group or that the second Anna was also an Anna Sultzmann. Perhaps, if I can find where Anna Sultzmann came from I may find the marriage record and possibly separate the families. I will make the assumption this is two separate families.

We now have some additional information from a relook at the Sersheim records. There are three Helds in Sersheim in the 1700-1750 time frame: Michael, jung Johannes, and Hans (assumed alt Johannes). There were none prior to this time.

I had previously assumed that the entries for Johannes Held in the Sersheim records was a brother of my Michael from Biesingen. I have since found the Sersheim wedding record for Johannes which clearly states that jung Johannes is from Biesingen and gives his birthday which corresponds with the last child of Hans Held and Anna. Old Hans married an Elisabetha Barbara Werber on 22 Nov 1704 in Sersheim. However, there is no father for Hans identified on the wedding record, which is usually the case. I found the death record of old Hans on 05 Sep 1735, which states he was 84 years 3 months and 9 days. This would put his birthday near 28 Jun 1651, just prior to the restarting of the records in Biesingen. Since jung Johannes was less than 10 years old at the time the three Helds would have traveled to Sersheim, it is very possible that alt Hans is the Father. If he is the father the following is the possible family group:

1   Johannes Held, AKA Hans Held, b: Abt. 28 Jun 1651 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden d: 05 Sep 1735 Sersheim Vaihingen/Enz Würtemberg
.. +Anna ? b: Abt. 1655 m: Abt. 1675
.. 2   Michael Held b: 19 Dec 1676 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden d: 14 Mar 1678 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden
..2   Maria Held b: 11 Aug 1678 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden d: 22 Aug 1679 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden
.. 2   Michael Held b: 15 Sep 1679 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden d: 12 Mar 1746 Aurich Vaihingen/Enz Würtemberg
.. 2   Veronica Held b: 03 Feb 1682 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden
.. 2   Catharina Held b: 21 Nov 1683 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden
.. 2   Heinrich Held b: 07 Jul 1685 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden
.. 2   Anna Maria Held b: 11 Aug 1688 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden d: 09 Oct 1688 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden
.. 2   Johannes Held b: 03 Mar 1690 Biesingen Donaueschingen Baden d: 15 Mar 1755 Sersheim Vaihingen/Enz Würtemberg

9/25

I received an email today from Doris <Adodge74@aol.com>. She says she is from Lomersheim (a couple miles from Vaihingen/Enz) but now lives in Ohio. She says her brother-in-law is from Aurich. She sent messages back that someone is interested in the Helds of the area. In later messages she indicated that the Helds may have moved from Aurich to Lomersheim. She had seen some of my messages on the Baden-Wuerttemberg message board. She had also read my contribution to "Missing Links."

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