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 >