The last Note closed with a question. Why did so many children die in a short period of time? The answer goes back to the Thirty Years’ War, which raged from 1618 to 1648. The area hit the hardest was southwestern Germany, which includes, of course, Boennigheim and Grossgartach. Most of the deaths that occurred during this war were not from bullets but from disease and starvation. Or, as it said in the death register, “Pestilence”. The Thirty Years’ War was the big event of the Seventeenth Century in “Germany” and its impact was to be felt for a hundred years after the end of the war.
I take up the family of Hans Anberger (#4) who seems to have been a shoemaker. He was born 4 Sep 1617 and he died 31 Jul 1688. He married, first, on 16 Aug 1642, Sara Weller, who was born 13 June 1618 and died 25 Nov 1672. She was the tochter (daughter) of Conrad Weller of Boennigheim. (Her step father was Georg Vetter of Boennigheim.)
There are some widely used abbreviations that it is good to know when reading German genealogies. The letters, “T.d.” mean daughter of. The letters, “S.d.” mean son of.
The family by the first marriage was:
1. Rebecca, * 2 Feb 1644 (she lived and married)
2. Hanns Conrad, * 23 Sep 1646 (#2 in the Ahnentafel)
3. Sara, * 2 Apr 1649, (she lived and married)
4. Hanns Thomas, * 15 Mar 1654
5. Barbara Catharina, * 27 Sep 1655 (she lived and married)
6. Matthias, *27 Aug 1658, + 5 Sep 1658
7. Hanns Simon, *16 Aug 1663
8. Unnamed child + 24 Aug 1663 (was this #7?)
Hans Anberger married, secondly, on 29 Apr 1673, Anna Maria Schweickardt, the widow of Christoph Schweickardt. There were children in this family:
1. Hannss Conrad, * 5 Mar 1674
2. Anna Maria, * 28 Feb 1676 (she married and was named as a stepdaughter of Hanss Anberger)
3. Barbara Catharina, *19 Oct 1677 + 15 Dec 1762 a single person at the age of 80
4. A stillborn child, * 15 Jan 1682, + 15 Jan 1682.
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.