When Johann Georg Utz married Anna Barbara, the widow of Michael Volck of Wagenbach, at Hueffenhardt, the pastor of the Hueffenhardt church made a note that the banns had been proclaimed in Mosbach. This was an intriguing reference because Mosbach is a larger village not far from Hueffenhardt, though it is across the Neckar River. So this Mosbach comes to mind immediately; however, there is another Mosbach which might be the intended one. This second one is in Bavaria, just over the line from Wuerttemberg. It is of interest because so many of Utz family have records in the church in the Mosbach near Wuerttemberg . There is a series of about four villages around Mosbach where the Utz family lived. Two or three of these villages had no church and the residents went to church in Mosbach. This raises the possibility that this second Mosbach (near Wuerttemberg) was the one intended as the reference in Mosbach.
I assumed that the Mosbach closer to Hueffenhardt was the intended one and did a search in some of the closer villages to see if I could find any mentions that would bear on the marriage of George Utz and Anna Barbara Majer Volck. In particular, I would have expected some mentions of Majers. The search was unsuccessful. What amazed me was that the names to be found in the registers were so un-Germanna like. It was as though I was in a different country. While I did look at several villages, it was not an exhaustive search. Now I am wondering if the Bavarian Mosbach might be the one intended.
In the year 2002, Eleanor and I visited these villages for a few hours. (Incidentally, the general setting is very pretty.) At Berngerzell, where Johann Georg (Hans Jorg) Utz was born, I asked a man if there were any Utzes there. He laughed, went into a local tavern, came back with a local telephone book, and showed me a page-full of Utzes. [Pictures of these villages are shown in our CD, the Photo Essay of Germany and Austria.]
On the way from Gemmingen, where we had stayed, to Bavaria, we stopped at the villages Willsbach and Waldbach, where the Wielands were from. Then a little farther along we visited Schaibach where Johann Christian Schultz was born. He was the man who ordained the John Caspar Stoevers, father and son, and performed the wedding of the son. Schaibach is a very small village with a lovely but very small chapel. Then we went on to the five villages in Bavaria where the Utz family has a history.
We next proceeded a short distance to Illenschwang which has the church which Andreas Gaar attended. We stayed a couple of miles away in Wittelshofen, where my sixth cousin Friedrich Gaar lives.
This is one of the things that I love about Germany. It isn’t far from one thing of interest to another one.
(01 May 06)
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.