There exists a Tax List for Trupbach for the year 1566. This is quite early, about 150 years before the departure of a number of people for America. Only seventeen households or units are recognized. We were looking recently at the ages of the houses and few of them, if any, went back to 1566. Surnames were in use by that date, but many people are identified by their relationship to another person.
The surnames mentioned are:
| Meisswinkel | Schneider | Zimmerman | Herman |
| Michel | Zimmerman | Demuth (no surname, a single female farm laborer) |
Barben
(Heinrich's son) |
|
Hofmann
of Heinbach |
Rupelin
(Hannes' son) |
Treina (no surname, but Joerg’s holy widow) |
Johannes
(Heiten's son) |
| Becker | Hanns of the Weiss | Leineweber |
Heyman
(only name) |
| Schneider |
Of these names, we recognize immediately the Schneiders, who continue to have a presence in Trupbach. All seventeen of the households had at least one cow, which must have been regarded as a necessity. Fifteen of the households had swine. The breeding of pigs was probably in the hands of a few people who sold young piglets to their neighbors. Eleven of the households had sheep. Only four of the households had horses (another had a colt). The cows were used by most of the people as their draft animals (oxen). This practice continued well into the period of photography, as several pictures in the book, Trupbach Ortsgeschichte , show. The cow was a more fundamental animal than the horse, as it was a source of food and a working animal. From the tax list we see that one cow was worth two heifers or four pigs or eight sheep. A horse was rated at several times the value of a cow.
Meadows were rated highly, even above fields. Most of the places had a garden, and some were taxed for an orchard. Fourteen of the units had an interest in a hauberg * , which was valued highly.
Another eleven had an interest in forest land. Two of the families (one Schneider and Heiten’s son) were well enough off that they seemed to have held bonds, probably against money they had lent.
The highest taxes were paid by Herman Schneider and Henn Schneider. Herman’s taxes were more than twice the average. He was taxed for a house, barn, grounds, tree farm, meadow, fields, garden, hauberg, forest, colt, 2 cows, a heifer, and 6 sheep. His most valuable possession was the meadows, followed closely by the hauberg. Each of these was more than twice the house, barn, grounds and tree farm taken together. The lowest tax was applied to Demuth, the single female farm laborer, who was taxed for "all her goods" and one cow. Her possessions were only 1/30 of the value of Herman Schneider’s.
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*
To read other Notes on this website concerning "
Haubergs
", you may click on the links below. There are also some links for German web sites that explain what a "Hauberg" is in detail, and have some photos and drawings.
Be sure to read on down the Notes pages referenced above, since "Hauberg" is discussed in several places in those Notes. GWD-Webmaster)
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(11 Jul 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.