The Journey

I am recently learning a great deal about early German culture in the Rheinland thanks to extremely informative articles posted by blogger Kathi Gosz.  I am also reading Kathi's book, House of Johann, which is a novel incorporating facts Kathi has discovered about her Rheinland ancestors and their lives.  I recommend these sources highly, and you will see me pointing to links of Kathi's work more than once.

With that said, I turn to the 1866 emigration application that was recently discovered.  Peter Schaefer was noted as Schreinergeselle, Schreiner indicating a joiner, and geselle indicating a journeyman.  Kathi's article provides an excellent introduction of Gesellen on der Walz.  We learn that the journey meant leaving the home village for three years and a day, and not being allowed to be within 30 miles of the home village during that time.  The journey meant wearing a uniform of sorts in order for the journeyman to be recognizable as such.  The color of his clothing and even the number of buttons on his vest and coat conveyed information about his trade and his available work days/hours.  He had no money, and so walked from place to place with his carved cane (Stenz), a small pack of work clothes, and a satchel of his tools.  He worked for free room and board wherever he went, and he was not allowed to be in any one place more than a few days.

What's most fascinating to me is that the journeyman also carried a Wanderbuch.  The book gave instructions for a journeyman's conduct, and served as a sort of passport, containing a description of the journeyman to help identify him to local police who had to be sure the stranger was not a beggar and was free of disease.  The Wanderbuch also served as a diary which recorded the dates and places of the journeyman's apprentice labor, and any comments from a master about quality of work.

So now let us imagine our Peter Schaefer.  He likely started to learn the trade when he was 14 years old, about 1857.  Who did Peter learn his trade from?  I have a feeling it was from somebody on his mother's side of the family.  I say this because the civil marriage record between Johann Schäfer and Margarethe Gipp in 1824 told us that Margarethe's father, Ludwig Gipp, who had died in 1805, had been a master carpenter.

Peter's initial trade training would have lasted 3-5 years. So let's say he started his trade journey in 1861 when he was 18 years old. But what about Peter's military obligation? Thanks to the Krümpersystem which was developed by the Prussians during the Napoleonic Wars, compulsory service was reduced to three years, and recruits were quickly trained and then sent to the reserves so more recruits could be trained.  Perhaps Peter received his military training, and then being in the reserves, embarked on his trade journey.  Perhaps the trade journey was interrupted by the Second Schleswig War in 1864, and most certainly by the Austro-Prussian War in 1866.  Perhaps, as with Kathi Gosz's ancestor, Peter determined that prospects for becoming a master joiner in Prussia were not promising. Peter's father, Johann, was apparently not a landowner, and so inheritance was likely not a factor to be considered in Peter's future. All these variables probably led Peter to extend his journey to North America.

Which leaves me with the unanswerable question:  Did Peter leave his Wanderbuch behind in Prussia, or did he bring it with him to America?  He would have had no use for it in America except perhaps as a resume and recommendation of his work.  If he brought it with him to America, what became of it?  If ever found, what more would it tell us about Peter Schaefer's incredible journey?

Sources:

• Tidbits Tell a Tailor's Story by Kathi Gosz
• Journeyman Years, wikipedia
• The Wander-Buch of Wilibald Koch by Peter Biggins
• German Journeymen and Wanderbuchs, Family Tree Tours
• Germany Occupations, familysearch