Aide, Wondering about something you wrote below about Military Service, Marriage and Births. Sometimes I notice in church registers that a woman gives birth to a child who is noted as illigitamet. At a later date, it appears a Father's name was added and illigitamet is crossed out and ligitamete added. Would this be likely one of those times when the Father was away with the military? Would adding a Fathers name in such a situation happen fairly regularly? Speaking of Military Service. In peace time ( was there any? ), what was the requirement of males to military service? Did they ALL have to service or was it voluntary? Thanks again, Elaine in Maine -----Original Message----- >From: Aida Kraus <birchbaylady@gmail.com> >Sent: Feb 13, 2012 5:39 PM >To: german-bohemian@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Multiple marriages or concubines in 1700's in Bohemia? > >Mary, there is hardly any likehood that our very Catholic families who were >living so close to the Abbey of Tepl were polygamous. What you are >encountering is this. The Utschig were a HUGE family. Every family had >many children, They became each others sponsors at birth and so the same >first names come up again and again. If the births were only 3 or 7 months >apart, then you must look into the names of the father and mother, and even >there you may encounter the same names. So, since no house nunbers are >given, you have to diagram your family members with their birth dates. >Eventually you will find out into which families they could they fit it. >This is just your guideline. > I had a similar situation where three brothers had children and >all of them used the same first names over and over again. And then, the >children of the NEXT generation were given the exactly same names by their >related sponsors, which of course were family member, brothers sisters, >cousins, and still - to this day - that whole clan is somewhat of a puzzle >to what family they belong; but it was not unusual that a woman gave birth >to 19 children.... one every year until menopause.. That does not mean that >they all survived, but they are, or course, listed as births in the church >register. So go then to the death register and see who was listed there >and there they also give the names of the parents. It will help you to >sort out the families. If you compare birth register to death register you >will find more clarity. > Go back as far as you can and write down the names of the couples >(meaning families of siblings). Then, write down the names of their >children and next to it the birth date and if you find a death entry as >well...... >And then see, how they fit. >And this is the way you can sort it out. > Good luck. >Birth of 18 children is absolutely possible, we have found that many times >and from the same couple. Thre are also multiple marriages, but forget >polygamy in the Egerland, they were far to religious. Pre marital birth of >children are possible, because the men were not able to marry while in >military service and could not wait that long. They usually married >immediately when they were released. > As far as children born to a family goes, my own grandmother on my >mother's side gave birth to 13 children in the late 1800, of which 7 lived >through their childhood diseases which killed many of their siblings. The >causes were mostly Scarlett fever, Diphteria, whooping cough, "Pocken" >which is smallpox and disentery. >They solely relied on herbal medicines then. > Aida > >On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 1:35 PM, Mary Read <maryutschig@yahoo.com> wrote: > >> I was wondering if there were men who had more than one wife (polygamy) in >> the early to middle 1700's in Bohemia, or concubines? (I understand in >> Germany there was polygamy at one time because of the lack of men, so many >> having been killed in wars.) >> >> I have 18 children born to an Anton Utschig, with the wife as being Anna >> Catharina. I found one marriage (Oct 1728 to Anna Catharina Pichl/Büchl), >> but cannot find the other marriage, if there were two separate marriages. >> Or he had a woman on the side, also named Anna Catharina who born him many >> children. >> >> There were three children born to an Anton and Anna Catharina before the >> 1728 marriage I found. This is important to me because my 3rd great >> grandfather belonged to one of the Anton's and Anna Catharina's. >> >> These early records do not tell you much--no occupations listed like in >> the later records. No haus numbers, no names of parents. Two children >> born 3 months apart, another two, 7 months apart. The rest of the children >> are spaced out so that they could belong to either Anna Catharina. >> >> I have also looked to see if there was a death for the first Anna >> Catharina but could not find one. Yet the children mentioned above who were >> 3 and 7 months apart were in 1729 (Aug and November) and the other in 1739 >> (Apr and November) (with lots of children in between). So my theory on the >> death of an Anna doesn't hold up. Too many children born in between 1729 >> and 1739. >> >> Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I hope this makes sense. >> >> Mary >> >> German-Bohemian Heritage Society web site http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/ >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >> the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >German-Bohemian Heritage Society web site http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/ >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message