GGG-Grandfather Johann Schäfer, RIP

Sometimes it's hard to describe my genealogical journey. When I "discovered" Udenhausen in 2013, that knowledge and subsequent visit to that place seemed more than enough. We had found our Schaefer family origins, which was information lost to us for three generations. My mind and heart were full, and at that time I couldn't want more.

But with the time since 2013 comes experience that is colored by changing technology, which further enables access to clues that fire my curiosity. Remote DNA matches leading to databases of digitized records leading to online translators leading to German genealogists who still don't mind helping an American who wants to know more. This time I have the good fortune to find a German who's been doing genealogy over 20 years and knows all the local resources where records of our family history might be found. He called the local civil registry to inquire about records, he went to the copy center to scan a marriage certificate for me, he used his membership in the West German Society for Family Studies, and he contacted a local author of several familienbuchs in the area to make inquiries. All to help a stranger in America investigating one particular Schaefer family to whom he is not related. German generosity continues to both humble me and inspire me.

Thanks to these exchanges, we're learning about the parents of our ancestor, Peter Schafer, Johann Schäfer and Margarethe Gipp. Who were they? Johann was the son of a cow and pig herder (supposedly, research is ongoing), and we have record of him living in Udenhausen up through 1834 as a day laborer. But I've not been able to find any record of what happened to the Schaefers after that. Now it appears that Johann and Margarethe may have followed the path of their son, Gerhard. Gerhard was ordained a priest in 1853 in Trier. He was a chaplain at Speicher in 1855, and subsequently a pastor at Biersdorf (probably Biersdorf am See), Nohn, Retterath, and Illerich. After Udenhausen, we have now found record of Johann residing at Nohn, Retterath, and Illerich, places where Gerhard was pastor. In this last place, Johann had an apartment where he laid ill for six months before he died on 30 January 1880. He was apparently a widower by that time, and his age was thought to be 80. He was buried at Illerich, as was his son Gerhard, who later died in 1884.

But there is more subtle evidence about the life of our ggg-grandfather. On the 1869 marriage certificate of his daughter, Anna Maria, Johann Schäfer signed his name.

Johann was born at a time when Rhineland had been annexed by Napoleon. From the time of his birth until Napoleon's defeat in 1815, Johann Schäfer was a French citizen living in the French department called Rhin-et-Moselle. Napoleon effectively dismantled the ecclesiastical rule, implementing civil administration and a legal system for the first time. Equality under the law included compulsory schools. Johann was likely the first generation of Schaefers who learned to read and write, as did his children, three of whom were involved in teaching.

The French evacuated Rhin-et-Moselle on New Year's Eve 1814 when the Russians and Prussians moved in. In 1815, the area was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia. Under Wilhelm I and his chancellor Otto Von Bismarck, Prussia was involved in multiple wars fought by all Prussian males ages 17-45 who were compelled to serve. But does that mean all Prussian males did serve? It could be that many Rhinelanders did not serve because they were considered too short!

Nevertheless, the wars involving Prussia took staggering tolls. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 resulted in over 900,000 soldiers of both sides killed, wounded, or captured, and 250,000 civilians killed including 162,000 Germans who died from a small pox epidemic brought by the French. By that time, three of Johann's younger children were in America — Anna, Philip, and Peter, and five years later they would be joined by the youngest in the family, Joseph. It seems nearly certain that these new German-Americans never saw their parents again.

So let us dedicate a moment to the memory of our ggg-grandfather, Johann Schäfer. He bore witness to so much during times that challenged the souls of humanity. May we continue to carry on with as much faith.