Catharina or Katharina Gockeler was born in Schnait, Germany on October 9, 1612, to Hans Gockeler and his wife, Katharina, whose surname is unknown.

(Update – her parents were Wolff Gockeler and wife, Barbara, not Hans and Katherina. See the Wolff Gockeler article.)

For some time, Katharina’s surname was recorded as Lenz. She did marry a Lenz man, but in a small German village, it certainly wouldn’t be unheard of for the bride’s surname to be the same since families had resided in that area for generations. Martin Goll, the local historian, discovered that her surname was Gockeler, not Lenz, and provided me with updated information. A HUGE thank you to Martin for this and all of his other research which he has generously shared.

Katharina’s Childhood

Photo courtesy of cousin Wolfram.

Katharina’s parents and godparents stood beside the minister at the baptismal font before the alter in St. Wendelin Church as baby Katharina was baptized.

Hans Lenz, the baker, would have been attending church that day too. He lived where the red star is located, just a few feet away, across the market square from the church in Schnait.

Hans Lenz had a son, also named Hans Lenz, who was born on January 24, 1602. Hans the younger would have been ten years old at the time and was likely attending church with his parents. During Katharina’s baptism, he was probably squirming and fidgeting in that hard wooden pew, the way 10-year-old boys do, not very patiently waiting for church to be over.

I wonder if Hans remembered being present at Katharina‘s baptism. If Hans was a normal boy, he was probably either annoyed at having to stay late for the baptism, or distracted by a bug, leaf, or some such. However, 23 years later, Hans Lenz would marry that baby girl.

A lot would happen during that 23 years, though.

Schnait

Schnait, shown here in 1685, was a beautiful, quaint, village, nestled between hills, just a block or two in either direction.

Most residents were vinedressers, tending the vineyards on the rolling hillsides outside town, except for the obligatory butcher, baker, and candlestick maker in every village, plus the minister, of course.

The Gockelers had family in neighboring Beutelsbach, as did most families in Schnait, according to early records. Prior to 1570, Schnait was too small to have its own church, so the families in Schnait worshipped in Beutelsbach and were quite intertwined.

The War Begins

In 1618, the 30 Years‘ War changed everyone‘s life – causing terror for the next three decades. Nothing would ever be the same.

Of course, when the war began, no one knew how long it would last, or if Schnait and this part of Germany would be directly involved.

Katherina would have been six years old. Perhaps her parents tried, at least at first, to shield her from what was going on so she wouldn’t be afraid. Soon enough, though, everyone knew. And everyone was afraid.

Unfortunately, the war came to their doorstep and barged into their homes as an unwelcome guest. Catholic and Protestant Princes faced off against one another, their armies battling for decades on German soil. Wurttemberg was a central battlefield of the war, with its population declining by 57% during that time.

Starvation, illness, displacement, and the actual war itself, of course – all took a terrible toll.

The Plague

In 1626, a plague swept through the region, fueled by military conditions, battles, troop movements, and the behavior of the soldiers. Plague and illness were rampant in the camps, and the soldiers moved from place to place, marching across the countryside, again and again.

Celebrations and rituals of normalcy would have been most welcome.

Daydreaming

It’s likely that, a few years later, Katharina attended the wedding of Hans Lenz the younger when he married the Schnait church minister’s daughter, Agnes Eyb, about 1627. The girls certainly knew each other, even though Agnes was older than Katharina by 11 years. Perhaps Katharina looked up to Agnes as the Reverend’s daughter. They had known each other all of their lives and may have been related in one way or another, or many.

At 13, Katharina may have sat during weddings imagining herself as the beautiful blushing bride, one day marrying the love of her life.

God willing, and the war didn’t interfere, one day, it would be her turn.

The war, and thoughts of the war, permeated everything. Even a young girl’s daydreams.

That damned war.

Beutelsbach

Hans Lenz, the baker, and his bride settled up the road in Beutelsbach, while Katherina continued to live in Schnait with her parents.

Infant mortality hovered around 50% during normal times when a war was not taking place, but lack of food, marauding soldiers, pillaging, burning, and the destruction of homes and sometimes entire villages caused the infant mortality rate to rise steeply.

The war dragged on, with soldiers coming and going, taking whatever they wanted, and laying waste to wide swaths of the countryside. Everyone was in danger, all of the time, no matter which side the soldiers were on.

Pressure began to build leading up to the horrific Battle of Nordlingen, arguably the most important battle of the war, fought in September of 1634 not far from Beutelsbach, involving 58,000 soldiers.

Someplace between 12,000 and 16,000 were killed, mostly Protestants, with another 4,000 Protestant soldiers taken captive. How does anyone even begin to bury that many bodies?

The Protestant troops lost that battle, soundly beaten, routed, defeated, making the situation infinitely worse for the German Protestant towns, now occupied by angry, emboldened Catholic soldiers in direct, daily conflict with villagers.

What could possibly go wrong in that pressure-cooker?

By 1634, soldiers were quartered in Beutelsbach. After the Battle of Nordlingen, citizens and village authorities alike were reduced to either begging or bribing soldiers NOT to burn their homes – meaning that in most cases, the pitiful residents had literally nothing of any value left, and no food. Soldiers on both sides took everything.

Until that time, because Hans was a baker and vintner, his property was probably spared because the soldiers enjoyed eating and drinking. Armies run on their stomachs. In other words, Hans was useful to them, but after Nordlingen, that wouldn’t matter anymore.

Fire!

On December 6, 1634, three months after Nordlingen fell, the anger boiled over, and their greatest fear was realized.

Beutelsbach was torched by the soldiers. Anyone who resisted was brutally killed.

Katharina would have watched from Schnait, a mile or so away, as flames rose up and licked the sky. Black smoke billowed over the landscape, for hours, and pretty much everything, save the walled and fortified church, was consumed.

Residents in both locations were cousins probably hundreds of ways. In other words, there wasn’t anyone you weren’t related to, and often, closely.

There was nothing they could do in Schnait while Beutelsbach burned, except to gather as safely as possible, probably in the church, pray, and prepare to shelter any survivors.

God, let there be survivors.

The Schnait minister’s sister was Hans Lenz’s wife, Agnes, living in Beutelsbach.

Agnes was severely burned and was brought to her brother’s home in Schnait. Three days, later, on November 9th, she died and was buried in the Schnait churchyard the following day after her brother preached her funeral. Her brother scribed an agonizing entry in the church “Book of the Dead“ about his “dear sister“ who was burned in the great fire set by the soldiers. His grief-stricken entry is how we know what happened, and when Beutelsbach burned.

Agnes left behind her husband, Hans, and probably young children, if any survived.

Agnes and Hans had been married about seven years, so she would have given birth to at least 3 or 4 children in Beutelsbach, where they lived, although Beutelsbach church records don’t exist for this timeframe.

It’s likely that Hans and Agnes’s children either died as babies, children, or during that horrific fire.

It’s also possible that one of their children outlived Agnes. Martin Goll believes that Georg Lenz (1627-1663), who became a barber-surgeon in Beutelsbach was their child.

If that’s the case, then when Katharina Gockler married the widower, Hans Lenz, sometime about 1635, she would have raised her friend, Agnes’s child or perhaps children as well.

Katharina Marries Hans

As Katharina sat in the church watching Hans and Agnes exchange wedding vows when she was 13 years old, never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined for one minute that SHE would one day marry Hans.

In fact, if Katharina were dreaming about someone as her eventual groom, it would have been some cute boy closer to her age, sitting a pew or two over, thinking about frogs, not a man a decade older at 23.

Yet, it would come to be. Rising from the ashes.

A few months after the fire, sometime about 1635, Katharina Gockler married the widower, Hans Lenz. Again, we have no church records.

Given the circumstances when they began their married life, they did surprisingly well. The war was in its 17th year, give or take, and must have seemed “normal” in a terrible way. They had known nothing else as adults, and war had been a fact of life for most of Katharina’s lifetime – since she was six years old.

Katharina moved to Beutelsbach, where Hans was the baker and vintner, and, as a team, they started over.

Martin believes that a good portion of Hans Lenz‘s wealth came in some way from his wife, Katherina. During his lifetime, Hans built a new house at Siftstrasse 17, pictured above, which still stands today. Additionally, he had at least eight vineyards with just under one hectare, or about 2.5 acres. Most families made do with about one-tenth of that, or a quarter-acre vineyard.

Children

We know that Katharina had four children, based on either records after the war or their church death records as adults, where her name is spelled both Catharina and Katharina. We have no records of children who were born and died during the war, except inferences by silent, vacant spaces in the too-large gap years between births of known children, all of whom were born and died in Beutelsbach. If they died elsewhere after the war, we have no record of them.

• If Hans and Katherina were married about 1635, they would have had about five children, every 18 months to two years, before having the first child who lived. How soul-crushing for Katharina. I wonder if she dreaded each pregnancy, fearing the death of yet another baby.

Finally, finally, a son was born and survived. Katharina must have been ecstatic and held her breath daily, praying for the best, but fearing the worst.

• Hans Lenz, my ancestor, also a baker who became a vintner, was born in 1645, during the war, and died on January 22, 1725. He married Barbara Sing in 1669 in Beutelsbach and had 11 children, 6 of which survived to adulthood. Barbara was living for the births of her first six grandchildren, which must have brought her immense joy.
• Daughter, Katharina Lenz was born on October 26, 1646, and died on October 13, 1689, outliving her mother. She was described as “simple“ in the church records. After her parents’ deaths, she lived with her brother, Hans, who utilized her share of their inheritance to care for her.
• Another child would have been born in 1648, the year the war finally ended.
• Maria Lenz was born on January 5, 1650, and died a week later. Another small wooden cross in the churchyard.
• Another child was probably born in 1652.
• A daughter, born on March 9, 1654, was also named Maria. She died in 1677 at the age of 23. Martin Goll found no spouse or children for her.

By 1654, Katharina would have been 42. Her childbearing years were over.

Only one of her children would live to reproduce. Lucky for me!

After the War

After the war ended in 1648, Katharina and Hans did quite well for themselves. By the time Hans died 19 years later, in 1667, he had accumulated a significant legacy to leave to his children and grandchildren – a total of 5 houses, ten vineyards, and over 15,000 liters of wine in his cellars. No, that’s not a typo.

Katharina died in Beutelsbach on October 25, 1677, outliving Hans by two months shy of a decade.

Given that her daughter, Maria, died in the same year, although we don’t have a date, I wonder if the plague or pestilence, as epidemics were then known, savaged Beutelsbach once again. Katharina’s granddaughter was born on July 27, 1677, and we have no further entry. I wonder if she died as well. Two additional grandchildren, ages 6 and 7, died two days apart in July of 1678.

This war was with an unseen organism, a germ of some description. One they couldn’t see and probably didn’t know how to fight.

Final Rest

Katharina would have been laid to rest just a few feet from their home in Beutelsbach, probably in the churchyard following her funeral service inside, near her husband and children. Hopefully, it was a beautiful fall day.

Early graves always surrounded the church, but this 1825 map shows that a second cemetery was in use by then, a block or so away from the church and where Katharina Gockeler lived for more than 40 years.

The Beutelsbach church cemetery had been in use since at least 1321 and probably since about 1080, when we know the collegiate church was formed. Given the early date, many regular and plague burials existed in the churchyard. Were graves being reused in Europe at that time, or would villagers have been unwilling or superstitious about digging up plague or smallpox victims, perhaps?

Was the new cemetery utilized because the old one was full, or maybe there were just too many people to bury at one time at some point – like possibly the 1634 fire?

Red stars mark the churchyard, the home where Hans and Katharina lived, and the cemetery. Martin Goll’s red border shows the properties owned by Hans Lenz at his death that were inherited by his son, Hans.

The individual “farms“ and garden plots adjacent to homes are marked with tiny trees, so it’s easy to miss the subtle crosses in the cemetery if you don’t look closely. It appears that today, the cemetery is expanded as needed where those trees used to stand.

As you can see on the map above, the cemetery on the 1825 map is still in use. It’s unknown exactly where Katharina rests, in that cemetery or the churchyard, but we‘re within a few feet, either way.

I can’t help but look at those two burial locations, and in my mind’s eye, view bits of my DNA dotting the landscape, like twinkling stars, if the DNA of those ancestors that I carry today could fluoresce.

Part of me is there with them, and I carry part of them in me today.

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Barbara Eckhardt was born about 1614 in the quaint winemaking village of Beutelsbach, Germany to Johannes Eckhardt and Elisabetha Baurencontz.

Barbara was the fifth child born to her parents, but only the second one to live. Her older sister, Anna Maria, born in 1611, was three years old when Barbara was born. Those two girls must have been quite close, given their proximity in age and that they were the only two daughters that survived.

I suspect that a child was born between those two girls, and went to rest in the churchyard, within the protective walls, where no gravestones remain today.

In 1615, another child was born to Barbara’s parents, and died, buried in the churchyard where generations of family members rested.

In 1618, the 30 Years’ War, a religious conflict between Catholic and Protestant states in the Holy Roman Empire erupted in Prague and spread like wildfire, with Germany bearing the brunt of the devastation during the next three decades. Three decades – that’s an entire generation. Before it was over, 8 million would perish in brutal warfare and its aftermath. Some parts of Germany were entirely depopulated.

Barbara’s mother had another baby in 1618. Nothing more is known of that child, but we can well imagine his fate.

In 1619 and 1622, two more children joined the family, and miraculously, survived. I suspect that another child was born in 1620, but after the war began, the church records were destroyed, and the only way we know about survivors was if they later died in Beutelsbach, after the end of the war. Records partially resumed in 1646.

Barbara’s schooling was assuredly disrupted, if she had any education at all, given that soldiers on both sides were pillaging and robbing all of the villages in this part of Germany. Barbara would have been unable to read or write.

In 1626, after the Battle of Nordlingen, a resounding defeat for the Protestants, soldiers garrisoned in Beutelsbach, where they remained for years, taking whatever they wanted. As bad as things were, they got even worse in 1634.

FIRE!!!

By 1634, the war had been raging for 16 long years, and the soldiers had been quartered in Beutelsbach for 8 years. Barbara would have been 20 years old on that cold, tragic day, in the late fall or early winter.

Beuteslbach town elders had been bribing the soldiers not to burn their village, but for some reason, that was no longer effective. Maybe the soldiers wanted more money than existed or could be raised. Maybe someone was angry. Tensions were constantly high, like a wire stretched taut, and nerves were ragged, so who knows what snapped.

The soldiers burned Beutelsbach, killing anyone who resisted. We don’t know if every home in Beutelsbach burned, or just most of them. We know the church was spared, but again, the church was fortified behind a wall.

People died, although with only a few exceptions, such as Agnes Eyb, wife of Hans Lenz, we don’t know exactly who died that day. Beutelsbach church records don’t exist from this time period.

As the flames began consuming the village, Barbara would have smelled smoke. Soon, blood-curdling screams would have been audible everyplace in town – agonizing screams as people and animals burned and were murdered.

Sheer terror.

Barbara would have heard the roar of the fire and homes collapsing, all around her.

Thoughts raced through her mind, like a mad scramble.

What should she do?

Resist?

The soldiers were killing anyone who resisted.

Try to assist the injured?

Could they be helped?

For God’s sake, they are family members.

Barbara had known everyone in the village for her entire life.

Or should she run?

Where would she go?

Was anyplace safe?

Could anything be saved?

OMG where’s my mother, brother, grandmother…

The residents must have wondered why God had foresaken them.

Barbara, along with her parents and older sister, Anna, probably rushed with their two younger siblings, Johannes Eckhardt, 15, and Cyriakus (Ceyer) Eckhardt, 12, from wherever they lived, racing up the church steps through the gate into the fortified churchyard and on into the church itself.

The doors slammed shut and were bolted.

If necessary, Beutelsbach citizens who made it that far would defend the church together, the last stand, or all die together trying.

They would have been protected, at least to some extent, from the soldiers who were slaughtering anyone who resisted, but they would have heard the carnage around them.

Was that someone’s voice they recognized?

They would have begged for God’s intercession – for him to save them, their family members, and their village. They would have bargained their life in exchange for someone else’s who was missing – not among them in the church.

Prayers and beseeching God for a miracle lasted for hours as the village burned.

Finally, the horror of the fire and wailing outside the church would subside to a whimper, then an eerie silence.

It was over, but was anything left? Whoever wasn’t in the church was probably dead or horribly injured.

They emerged to witness a nightmare scenario.

Could they even have funerals, or was a mass grave dug and hasty prayers said under the mocking eyes of the “victorious” soldiers?

We don’t know what happened in the aftermath of the fire. The residents would have had to find shelter someplace. Many, shellshocked, would have walked to a nearby village where they had relatives.

What else could they have done?

We do know, thanks to historian Martin Goll, that the number of Beutelsbach residents declined by about 50% during the war instead of growing as would normally have been expected. It was even worse elsewhere.

Martin reports that the Plague followed the fire, and people starved.

Yet, love somehow blossomed.

Wedding Bells

A war might be raging, and the village burned, but love found a way.

In 1636, Barbara Eckhardt would marry the butcher, Hans Sang (Sing) who lived up the road a mile or so, in the next village, Endersbach.

Barbara’s family may have sought shelter there after the fire, which would have allowed the young people daily proximity to each other to court.

Perhaps Hans helped Barbara’s family, or maybe her family even sought refuge with his. Regardless, they assuredly would have seen each other in church.

Barbara Eckhardt and Hans Sang, after saying their vows, settled in Beutelsbach. It’s likely that Beuelsbach needed a butcher after the fire.

Barbara and Hans set up housekeeping in the house adjoining the steps into the churchyard. They probably built this home, shown with the small red arrow in the drawing, below, literally on the ashes of whatever was there before. Perhaps it was where her parents had lived before the fire.

In this Beutelsbach drawing from 1760, 130 years later, you can see the circular church gate into the churchyard, and the adjacent building where Barbara lived with her family.

Family

Barbara had 7 children, well, that’s 7 that we know of. There are a lot of gaps between the children we know about that assuredly equate to children who died.

Barbara’s first child was probably born about 1637, following her 1636 marriage, and could have been Hans.

• Hans Sing was noted in the church record as a “simpleton, with weak intellect, but he can repeat prayers.” He died in 1687 in Beutelsbach, which is how we know he existed at all.
• Michael Sing was born in 1639 in Beutelsbach, married Anna Maria Schilling, and died on March 7, 1725, also in Beutelsbach. He was a butcher, like his father, as was his only surviving son, Johann Georg Sing.
• Hans Georg Sing was born in 1640 in Beutelsbach, married Margaretha Ziegler in 1665, and died on January 21, 1676, in Grosheppach. He, too, was a butcher.
• At least two children would have been born, likely in 1642 and 1644.
• Barbara Sing, my ancestor, was born in 1645 in Endersbach, married Hans Lenz, a vintner, and baker, and died on July 10, 1686, in Beutelsbach. The fact that Barbara was born in Endersbach causes me to wonder if the family had to shelter again outside of Beutelsbach.
• Another child was probably born, and died, in 1647
• Anna Sing, also my ancestor, was born on March 6, 1648, in Beutelsbach, married Bartholomaus Kraft in 1666, and died on March 6, 1728, in Beutelsbach of a stroke.

In October 1648, the 30 Years’ War finally ended. For the first time in her life, Barbara was finally able to relax. She didn’t have to constantly be on alert for the smell of smoke, meaning that the town was burning again.

• Her next child was probably born in 1650.
• Martin Sing was born on May 15, 1652, in Beutelsbach and died early.
• Another child was probably born in 1654.
• Jakob Sing was born on April 30, 1655, in Beutelsbach and died there on July 17, 1713. Martin found no records of a spouse, nor of any children. Jakob would have been born when his mother was 41 years old, so it’s possible that he too suffered from a disability.

Plague

From 1682-1684, the Plague once again swept through Europe. Barbara, “hausfrau of Hans Singen,” died on April 7, 1684, followed by her husband, Hans, eleven days later, on April 18^th.

An incredibly sad time for her family, many of whom were probably ill themselves.

At Barbara’s death, she had five living children and 12 known grandchildren, although there were likely more, specifically by the son who settled in Grossheppach, or other children who may have moved away.

Barbara’s Presidential Legacy

There was one child, though, that would secure Barbara’s place in history, and no, it wasn’t one of her sons.

• Daughter Anna Sing (1648-1728) married Bartholomaus Krafft (1643-1713.)
• Their son Johann Georg Krafft (1767-1724) married Anna Catharina Ritter (1673-1701.)
• Their daughter Maria Margaretha Krafft (1700-1747) married Johann Martin Wolflin (1690-1745.)

These couples, above, are also my ancestors. I’m doubly descended from Barbara through both of her daughters, so Anna Sing is my ancestor too.

However, my ancestor, Johann Ludwig Wolflin is Johann Conrad Wolflin’s brother, so our common lineage bifurcates here.

The Presidential line continues:

• Johann Conrad Wolflin (1729-1794) was born in Besigheim, Germany, immigrated in 1750, and died in Middletown, Dauphin Co., PA, where his surname was spelled variously, including Woelfle and Wolfle, then became Anglicized to Wolfley, which is how it must have sounded. He married Anna Catherine Shockey (1783-1803) in Pennsylvania and served in the Revolutionary War with his sons John and Jacob.
• Their son Ludwig Wolfley (1766-1822) married Anna Maria Toot (1786-1841.)
• Their son George Wolfley (1807-1879) married Nancy Perry (1812-1894.)
• Their son Robert Wolfley (1834-1895) married Rachel Abbott (1835-1911.)
• Their daughter Della L. Wolfley (1863-1906) married Charles Thomas Payne (1861-1940.)
• Their son Rolla Charles Payne (1892-1968) married Leona B. McCurry (1897-1968.)
• Their daughter Madelyn Lee Payne (1922-2008) married Stanley Armour Dunham (1918-1992.)
• Ann Dunham (1942-1995) married Barack Obama I (1935-1982.)

Their son, Barack Hussein Obama II, became the 44^th President of the United States and served two terms, from January 2009 through January 2017.

I’m incredibly grateful to Martin Goll for his research and paper (in German) on President Obama’s line in Beutelsbach, and for connecting the dots to his immigrant ancestor. I benefitted immensely, given that this is my lineage too.

You can view President Obama’s detailed genealogy, here.

Of course, this means that Barack Obama is my cousin, and we share multiple ancestral lines.

After signing in, using WikiTree’s Relationship tool, above, I determined that Barack and I are 7C1R.

All of my Lentz Cousins are related to President Obama as well. So are all of my closer cousins who descend from Margaret Elisabeth Lentz, who married John David Miller, whose daughter Evaline Miller married Hiram Ferverda, and gave birth to my grandfather, John Whitney Ferverda.

This pedigree chart shows my Lentz line back to Jacob Lentz, who married Fredericka Ruhle, the immigrants in our line, from whom my American Lentz cousins descend. Johanna Fredericka Ruhle, shipwrecked on the way to the US in 1818/1819, was the granddaughter of Johann Ludwig Wolflin whose brother immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1750 and established Barack Obama’s line.

How cool is this! Barbara Eckhardt’s legacy, and indeed that of many Beutelsbach families (and ancestors,) is American President Barack Obama.

_____________________________________________________________

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• Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books

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• Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Hans Sang (Sing) was born in 1614 in Endersbach to Johannes Sang and Anna Enssle.

He was assuredly baptized in the former Collegiate Church, which still stands. The tower was constructed in 1729.

Hans would never have remembered a childhood without warfare.

In 1618, when Hans was only four years old, the Thirty Years’ War erupted, devastating this part of Germany. More than two-thirds of the residents perished, succumbing to warfare, starvation, plague, and other opportunistic diseases like dysentery and cholera.

Hans, however, was one of the lucky survivors.

Hans would one day become a butcher, which means he had to apprentice with someone. We don’t know his father’s occupation, which could have been a butcher as well.

We don’t know when Hans’ parents died, according to this genealogy based on church and civil documents, but based on the fact that his last known sibling was born in 1625, it would appear that both of his parents were living for at least the first 11 years of Hans’s life.

Records from that time are scarce to non-existent. What the soldiers didn’t burn, they destroyed or stole. It’s a miracle that the church itself wasn’t burned. The rest of the town may have been. For all we know, the minister may have died or been killed, with no replacement. In other words, there may have been no one to record anything.

The war raged around Hans. Perhaps the fact that he was a butcher’s apprentice saved him. Armies had to eat.

In 1634, Hans would have been 20 years old. In German culture, not quite of age to marry, but living in a warzone would have changed the norms of the day.

Endersbach, with her church marked by a red star in the center of town, above, was a mile or so down the road from Beutelsbach, her center marked with a red pin.

In fact, the families of the two towns intermingled regularly and had likely been related for centuries. Endersbach is first found in records in 1278 as Andrespach, so had been in existence for hundreds of years, as had Beutelsbach – both settlements along the Rems River.

Soldiers had been quartering in Beutelsbach for some time, and probably in Endersbach too. Pillaging was a given, but town elders, as well as the citizens, paid the soldiers as much as they could come up with to protect the town from burning.

Apparently, the payment either wasn’t enough, or something else happened, because in the late fall or early winter of 1634, neighboring Beutelsbach burned to the ground. The church was fortified, so it’s certainly possible that at least some of the residents took shelter within the church walls, inside the church, which held.

Would Endersbach burn too?

Did Endersbach burn?

The Endersbach church was also a walled church, built between 1468 and 1491 with the intention that the residents would all shelter within the church that could be much more easily defended than individual homes, clustered in the village. Homes also served as farms, with a barn, livestock and fields stretching out directly behind the house. Houses abutted each other for protection.

Fortified churches were built as defensive structures and incorporated military features, such as thick walls, battlements, and embrasures probably initially constructed to withstand the Ottoman invasions of the 1400s and 1500s.

By Silesia711 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62263490

You can see portions of the remaining Endersbach church wall in this contemporary photo.

When Beutelsbach burned, the Endersbach residents likely filled their leather fire buckets with water, shown below, gathered their families, and quickly ran to the church.

Probably a lot of praying occurred that day, not just for their own protection, but for their neighbors and relatives whose homes they could see burning in the distance as thick, acrid smoke drifted over the vineyards on its way to Endersbach.

There was never any doubt who was in charge during a war.

Following the torching of Beutelsbach, the local residents would have had to take up residence someplace else, at least for a while. Some probably sheltered with family and friends in Endersbach.

Heartache and disease accompanied them, with unsanitary conditions causing illness and death among those who didn’t burn or die defending their homes.

Perhaps that’s when Hans Sang or Sing took a shine to Barbara Eckhardt whose family was from Beutelsbach. Did her family seek refuge in Endersbach?

Hans and Barbara married sometime in 1636, in Beutelsbach, where Hans became a citizen.

Two years after that devastating fire, I’m sure Beutelsbach was still trying to recover and rebuild – still in the midst of a war. Regardless of everything else, life had to go on in some way. People still married, began families, and shepherded the next generation into the world.

We don’t know if every house burned, but we do know that Beutelsbach lost about 50% of its residents, perhaps more.

If the local butcher was one of those who perished or was burned out, Beutelsbach would have encouraged Hans, the butcher’s apprentice from neighboring Endersbach, to take up residence. Of course, Barbara’s attention would have sweetened that deal and made Beutelsbach look very attractive to Hans – a win-win for everyone.

Even though Beutelsbach church records weren’t kept again until after 1646, we do know something about Hans and Barbara’s children who survived and remained in Beutelsbach. Their death records often give an age, therefore revealing at least the year they were born.

After their marriage, life became at least somewhat normal, as normal as life can be during a war that has lasted your entire lifetime. Children were born, and some died. Everyone went to church on Sundays. Birthdays accumulated. Christmas was celebrated, and candles lit the church beautifully.

Hans did quite well for himself as the Beutelsbach butcher. His home and butcher shop was right at the base of Beutelsbach’s fortified church wall at Marktplatz 8.

Source: Own work of Silesia711 https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Marktplatz8-10_Weinstadt-Beutelsbach.jpg

The seam in the roof, just to the right of the red car, divides Marktpfalz 8, at left, from Marketpfalz 10. As you can see, it’s actually a small residence, snugged up against the church wall on one side.

Hans and Barbara lived in the last house before the church, or the first house when leaving the church. It was easy to pick up meat on the way past.

All homes were clustered in the center of town, their barns and field stretching out behind, as you can see on this 1832 Beutelsbach map. Vineyards, tended by the citizens, were located on the hillsides.

Unfortunately, in 1832, Marktpfalz 8 no longer existed, unless the numbering has shifted. The space is vacant on the map, so has apparently been rebuilt. It appears that the neighboring property, Marktpfalz 10, remains the same with a recognizable footprint.

However, it’s probably not the marketing and retail opportunity that made this location so desirable to Hans.

If Beutelsbach was to be attacked or burn again, all Hans and Barbara needed to do was grab their kids and literally run outside their front door and up the steps to be inside the wall.

Attribution by qwesy qwesy. You can see the number 8 on the grey door.

No one was closer to safety. We don’t know how many times they sheltered in the safety of the church, but we can say with certainty that they did during the first dozen years of their marriage as the war continued, day in and day out, swirling around them.

No wonder Hans and his bride set up housekeeping in Beutelsbach. Opportunity among chaos.

When the 30 Years’ War finally ended in 1648, Hans was 39 or 40 years old. He would have seen literally generations of soldiers marching through both Endersbach and Beutelsbach, up and down the roads, pillaging as they went. It didn’t matter which “side” the soldiers represented; no one was safe. Fear and running for safety was the only life Hans had ever known. The war was finally, finally, over.

I can only imagine the celebrations throughout Germany.

This print from Nuremberg shows a fireworks display celebrating the end of the war.

Martin Goll, a historian, and descendant who lives in Beutelsbach today, tells us that by the time Hans died, on April 18, 1684, he was a wealthy man, at least compared to other Beutelsbach residents.

Hans Sang or Sing had defied the odds. He lived through a brutal war that lasted three decades and took two-thirds of the people living in this part of Germany. He managed to not hurt himself badly enough as a butcher to perish of infection, didn’t starve to death, evaded or survived the plague, dysentery, and typhoid, well, right up until he didn’t.

Against incredible odds, Hans lived to be 70 years old – and then, and then – he died from the Plague. He wasn’t alone. Eleven days earlier, his wife, Barbara, died as well.

Ironically, this would be the Plague’s last stand in most of Europe for many years before it would rear its ugly head again.

I’d wager that many people in Beutelsbach died in the days and weeks surrounding Hans and Barbara’s deaths. Many more were probably quite ill, but recovered.

Did the minister survive? If so, was he well enough to perform funerals? Were the dead buried, then the funerals following at a later time?

Were Hans and Barbara’s funerals combined?

I’d love to hear what the minister had to say at Hans’s funeral before he was buried in the churchyard, inside the wall, just a few feet from his modest home that he shared with Barbara for nearly half a century. Surely, they were buried side by side, Hans joining Barbara a few days after she departed this life.

Those early graves aren’t marked in the churchyard today. We simply know that they are there, silent sentries to ensuing generations.

But wait, that’s not the end of Hans’ story – there’s more. There is something else that would cement Hans Sing’s place in history – just not in his lifetime. Hans never knew about this, because it hadn’t happened yet.

Hans Sing is the ancestor of a United States President. And yes, that means that President is my cousin.

I’ll tell you “the rest of the story” when I write about his wife, Barbara Eckhardt.

_____________________________________________________________

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Hans Lenz was born on January 24, 1602 in the small village of Schnait, (Weinstadt) Germany to Johannes Lenz and Margarethe Vetterle.

Schait was a small village alongside the Rems River, nestled between hillside vineyards with a central church built about 1570, and maybe 40 houses. This drawing from 1685 in Andreas Kieser’s forest register book shows Schnait, with the Protestant church as its heart.

While Schnait looks peaceful and idyllic, a lot transpired in the years between 1602 and 1685.

Truthfully, Hans was lucky to have been born at all. In 1595, the plague swept through the region. Had either of his parents perished, Hans would never have existed.

Plague and warfare were a constant threat, not to mention dysentery and various illnesses that swept half the children away from their parents, and that’s in good times.

Hans was the firstborn child of his parents, arriving the year after their marriage. He probably had several siblings, but we don’t know who they were.

We know little about Schnait in the years between 1602 and 1618, but it’s likely that Hans was confirmed in the church when he was 12 or 13 years old, in about 1614 or 1615.

The minister who confirmed Hans was probably his future father-in-law.

In 1618, the 30 Years’ War began, which was both dynastic and religious, and would devastate Germany over the next three decades.

By Straty_ludnościowe_po_wojnie_30letniej.PNG: Mix321derivative work: Schoolinf3456 – This file was derived from: Straty ludnościowe po wojnie 30letniej.PNG:, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18755096

This region, marked with a red star on the 30 Years’ War Depopulation map above, saw massive declines in population. All locations in this part of Germany saw population reductions greater than 66%. Some villages were entirely burned and abandoned, their residents murdered.

It’s difficult to refer to anyone who lived in Germany during this time as fortunate, but comparatively, Hans Lenz was.

Hans Lenz was a baker.

Schnait was not burned to the ground during the war, so it’s possible that the “old bake house,” shown below, is the original baker’s home.

Historical bakery in “Haldenstraße 7” By Silesia711 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67028703

The baker was only located just a few steps from the church at Haldenstrasse 7. Perhaps people stopped and picked up baked goods on their way to and from church.

A village only needed one baker, and a baker’s oven would have been very specialized and expensive to construct. This was most likely where Hans either lived or apprenticed.

Generally, sons apprenticed with their father and stepped into their professions as adults. Of course, given the surrounding vineyards, everyone was involved in the wine culture.

What goes better with wine than bread!

Today, vineyards growing specialty grapes still surround Schnait which remains a small village. This satellite image only shows a total of about 2-3 miles across. The ancient vineyards follow the contours of the hillsides.

As an adult, Hans Lenz relocated to Beutelsbach, just a mile or so to the north. Perhaps they needed a baker. Those two villages were very closely associated.

Prior to 1570, Schnait was too small to have its own church so all of the Schnait residents attended church in neighboring Beutelsbach, just a short walk up the road.

Historian Martin Goll lives in Beutelsbach and also descends from the Lenz family. His primary language is German, and his correspondence is translated into English. I’m extremely grateful for his in-depth research on these families and the history of both villages.

Martin tells us that Hans Lenz “was one of the rich people in this time. He married the daughter of the reverend. Usually, a Reverend belonged to the upper class. It was impossible to marry in[to] such a family, if you have not been a member of an upper class family. So, Hans Lenz must have [had] parents which were coming from the upper class.”

But all was not peaceful in the Rems Valley.

In 1626, when Hans was 24, another epidemic broke out before the Battle of Nordlingen, pictured above, which occurred about 55 miles away on September 6^th and was catastrophic for the Protestants.

After the battle, Beutelsbach became an army camp for the fortified town of Schorndorf.

By the time Hans married, in 1627, everyone was probably sick and tired of warfare.

In 1627, Hans was 25 years old and married Agnes Eyb, the daughter of the local reverend in Schnait. They were probably married by her father, or her brother who became the pastor after their father died.

Their only surviving child, George Lenz (1627-1663), was born later that year.

At some point, the young couple moved up the road to Beutelsbach, perhaps shortly after their marriage.

Perhaps the bakery protected the family, at least to some extent, for a little while.

Soldiers routinely raided farms and homesteads, but they might not have been so willing to burn the bakery. Everyone needs to eat.

However, their good fortune did not last.

In 1634, Beutelsbach was plundered and set on fire. Anyone who resisted was killed.

Martin tells us that “Agnes Eyb died during the 30 Years’ War. She left Beutelsbach before she died and went to Schnait, where her brother was the reverend at this time. She died in Schnait three days after she arrived, because she was injured when the house in Beutelsbach was burned.”

At the time Agnes died, her brother, Mathias Jacob Eyb was the pastor in Schnait and writes of his sister’s death in the Book of the Dead, “Young Hans Lenz’s wife, Agnes, died, who had been my dear sister, on December 9, 1634 and then was buried on the 10^th.”

War is Hell.

Hans and Agnes had moved to Beutelsbach – and their home burned when the soldiers torched the town. People could probably see Beutelsbach burning for miles in every direction. It would serve as a warning to anyone else who considered resisting.

Unfortunately, we have almost no information about their children, with one exception. Martin reports that “The only son of the pastor’s daughter, George Lenz, becomes a surgeon in Beutelsbach, which was almost an academic degree by the standards of the time.”

Surgeons were the barbers of the day, plus they “bled” people as needed.

Given that Hans and Agnes were married from sometime in 1627 until her death on December 9, 1634, it’s likely that they had either 3 or 4 children. I can’t help but wonder if those children died when the town burned too, or had they already perished? Was Agnes pregnant or did she have a babe in arms when her home was set aflame? Was it burned at night when people were sleeping? Did she make the “mistake” of resisting, or was she simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?

How did Hans survive? Maybe he was gone, or fighting. Or did they, along with other residents, seek shelter inside the church walls?

Who took Agnes to her brother’s in Schnait?

Nearly everyone in Schnait and Beutelsbach was related, probably many times over. They would have watched Beutelsbach burn in horror, wondering if the soldiers would burn Schnait next.

A peasant begs for mercy in front of his burning farm; by the 1630s, being caught in the open by soldiers from either side was tantamount to a death sentence.

After Beutelsbach was plundered and burned, the next challenge was famine and plague, which spread easily because people were hungry and ate anything, down to and including sawdust and acorns, which proved fatal.

I can’t even imagine the level of desperation.

Martin’s research indicates that even with the horrors of war, Beutelsbach and Schnait fared better than most. By 1650, the population of Schnait had only declined by about one-third, and in neighboring Beutelsbach, by about half.

Let that sink in for a minute. They were the lucky ones because “only one-third” and “only half” of the residents perished.

By comparison, about one-third survived in neighboring towns, meaning two-thirds died. Both Schorndorf and Waiblingen were burned completely, with the exception of a few houses that somehow escaped, with a maximum of 20% of the population surviving.

It was a horrific time.

Martin says that there were no Beutelsbach church records that survived between 1620 and 1646, having been stolen or destroyed by the soldiers.

In 1634, when Agnes died of her burns, Hans Lenz would have been left with his surviving small child, who was 6 or 7 years old, to raise, and a bakery to rebuild, but mostly, he had to find a way to simply survive.

Update: The next paragraph is incorrect. Katharina’s birth surname was NOT Lenz. I am leaving the original text in case others find the same erroneous information. I am working with Martin Goll to publish the correct information in Katherina’s own article.

The next year, in 1635, Hans Lenz married Katharina Lenz (Note update – her surname is not Lenz,) also from Schnait.

For the first decade of their marriage, from 1635 to 1645, Hans and Katharina had no children that survived, which might well have been related to the ongoing war.

Martin tells us that Hans had another problem too. His bakery was repeatedly pillaged. It’s unclear whether Hans was able to come up with enough money to prevent his bakery from being burned or if that’s what happened in 1634 when Agnes died. He must have passionately hated the soldiers.

In order to avoid the torch, community assets had to be handed over to soldiers, and if that was not enough, the local authorities had to confiscate tangible private assets.

According to Martin, “In Beutelsbach, the man in charge was the custodian Johann Jakob Schmierer (1593-1660). He demanded this money, violently and brutally if necessary. Apparently, he was also thinking of himself and his own advantage. Because of this, Hans Lenz had trouble with soldiers in the quarters who claimed that Schmierer had sold them wine but had not delivered the amount paid to Lenz. This information shows that Hans was not only a baker but also ran a wine trade. The monastery custodian “ruled” the wine in the monastery cellar. He probably had Hans Lenz as his “negotiator” and got him into trouble by delivering too little, so the soldiers certainly had the upper hand.”

Soldiers always have the upper hand.

The Thirty Years’ War is considered to be the most destructive war in European history. While many civilians didn’t perish in direct warfare, they were by far the most frequent victims, with 4.5 to 8 million deaths, mostly from the effects of the war. Another source places the reduction of the population of the Holy Roman Empire by 7 million people, but that may also include those who left. People died from military action (3%), starvation (12%), bubonic plague (64%), typhus (4%), and dysentery (5%), plus unrecorded causes of death.

Hans would survive to see the end of the Thirty Years’ War, in 1648, and live another 19 years beyond.

Hans would have been 46 years old when the Peace of Westphalia treaties were signed in Munster after weeks of negotiation.

The difference in dress between the nobles who were both the instigators and beneficiaries of the war, and the people living in the countryside is telling.

Here’s the Dutch envoy arriving in Munster for negotiations. Contrast that to the farmer begging for his life and the houses of villagers burning, leaving them with nothing if they survived.

The residents of Schnait and Beutelsbach, along with the rest of Germany, must have rejoiced as soon as the word reached their ears. The horror was finally over. Hans had lived his entire adult life either amidst the fighting or fearing it. Soldiers quartered in his village and business, his home was pillaged several times and burned at least once, and his wife perished. Who knows how many family members he lost, directly or indirectly, in addition to his first wife.

In some way, Hans was able to acquire several vineyards. Martin speculated that perhaps Katharina’s parents were wealthy and the vineyards escaped destruction during the war, stating, “Hans was able to rebuild his property which was damaged during the 30 Years’ War. When he died, he owned 5 houses and 10 wine yards, much more than the average.”

Hans’ only son with Katharina, Hans Lenz (1645-1725), would build upon that fortune. In addition to his father’s houses and vineyards, the son built a new house and died with more than 1500 liters of wine in the cellar and a net worth of almost 15,000 guilders.

Martin marked Hans’ property on the Beutelsbach map, above, in red.

The lower buildings still exist today.

From 1650-1659, Hans was listed as a bread examiner, viewer, or inspector on the list of citizens. Who knew there was such a thing?!

Hans Lenz died on Christmas Eve, 1667 in Beutelsbach.

In the German tradition, the family would have gathered to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, either at home or at church, or both. I wonder if Hans had been ill, or if he died suddenly, either at home during the festivities or in church during the services.

Perhaps Krampus, the Christmas demon, visited and stole Hans away!

Hans was 65 years old and left three living children from his marriage with Katherina. His son George had already died four years earlier. It’s unknown whether or not Katharina was still living.

If Hans was buried at the traditional time, his funeral service would have been held on Christmas Day, and he would have been buried inside the walled churchyard, just a few feet away from his home at 17 Stiftstrasse and the bakery he rebuilt after the war.

Perhaps Hans is resting within the very walls that saved him.

_____________________________________________________________

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Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

• FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
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• DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
• DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US

Genealogy Books

• Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books

Genealogy Research

• Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research