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Emperor Charlemagne
By coincidence I was able to trace an ancestry back to Charlemagne. He therefore currently appears 29 times in my ancestor list, for the first time in generation 40 with the Kekulé number 1,686,967,297,612. That's not even that unusual, since he lived around 1200 years ago and therefore most Europeans alive today are likely to be descended from him. It is rather unusual that one can actually prove this descent.
Catharina Schenck zu Schweinsberg
Catharina Schenck zu Schweinsberg was born between 1530 and 1535 and died on 30 Apr 1576 in Dagobertshausen. Schenck zu Schweinsberg is the name of a family belonging to the Hessian aristocracy, which still belongs to the Old Hessian knighthood. She is my ancestor in generation 13 with Kekulé number 12,569. Her tombstone pictured here is in the west wall of the St. Martins Church in Michelbach near Marburg. Their ancestors can be traced back through the lower nobility and high nobility to the German emperors of the Middle Ages.
Common Ancestry with
Prof. Hermann Staudinger
The well-known chemist and Nobel Prize winner Hermann Staudinger (1881-1965) is my 8th half-cousin 4 times removed. Interestingly, I am related to him through the same person through whom my common ancestry to Goethe is based. Our last common ancestor is therefore also Daniel Lyncker (around 1528-1598). He bears the Kekulé number 12,568 in my ancestry list and the Kekulé number 540 in Hermann Staudinger's ancestry list.
Welcome to our genealogy page!
I took the birth of our daughter in 2006 as an opportunity to get serious about genealogical research.
As it turned out in the meantime, almost all of my ancestors came from the Upper Hesse region (Middle Hesse).
This quickly proved to be a great advantage, since the ancestral lines could be narrowed down to a few places. Most of my ancestors lived in the area around Homberg (Ohm) and in the communities of Mücke and Gemünden (Felda) in what is now the county of Vogelsberg. Most places of residence can be roughly narrowed down to the area between the towns of Gießen and Schwalmstadt. The main places are
Bleidenrod,
Weickartshain,
Nieder-Ohmen,
Elpenrod,
Ober-Gleen and
Maulbach.
The most common surnames can be seen at the bottom of this page.
The local church books were mostly only started in the 17th century, so that there are hardly any sources for earlier times.
Since Upper Hesse is a very rural area, most of my ancestors were farmers.
But there are also some typical trades, such as carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, bricklayer, tailor and weaver, as well as some shepherds.
Since my wife comes from Zeitz in Saxony-Anhalt, completely different places and names also appear here.
Her ancestors come from Upper Silesia, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Bohemia and Moravia.
Have fun browsing our site
Sven M. Berg
P.S.: We are always grateful for corrections, additions or suggestions to the data published here.
Notes on display:
As a rule, all dates correspond to the Gregorian calendar that is valid today, which was officially introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.
However, since Upper Hesse is a predominantly Protestant region, the Julian calendar was still in use here until 1700. In order to distinguish itself from the papacy, the so-called Improved Calendar was introduced in 1700, which had the same date but a different calculation of Easter. In 1700, the ten days between February 18 and March 1 were simply omitted. Therefore, all information up to February 18, 1700 still refers to the Julian calendar that was valid until then. February 18, 1700 was immediately followed by March 1, 1700, so that all information from this date onwards corresponds to the Gregorian calendar. It was not until 1775 that the official change to the Gregorian calendar was introduced, since in 1724 and 1744 Easter was celebrated on different days in Protestant and Catholic areas.
As usual in genealogical research, all persons have always been recorded with their birth names.
Privacy:
For privacy reasons, no data from living persons is displayed. Only the term "Living" appears there without further information.
Common Ancestry with
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I am related to the famous poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) through a common ancestor. More specifically, he's my 6x half cousin 6 times removed. Our last common ancestor, Johann Daniel Lyncker (about 1528-1598), bears the Kekulé number 12,568 in my ancestry list and the Kekulé number 250 in Goethe's ancestry list. Daniel Lyncker's first wife was Catharina Schenck zu Schweinsberg (see left). However, she does not belong to Goethe's ancestors, since his ancestor is Daniel Lyncker's second wife Ursula Weigel.
Common Ancestry with
Prof. Harald Lesch
I almost expected that I was related to the well-known astrophysicist Harald Lesch, since we both come from Nieder-Ohmen. Turns out he's my 7th cousin. Interestingly, however, our last common ancestors Matthäus Lein (1718-1795) and his wife Anna Helena Becker (1728-1793) did not come from Nieder-Ohmen, but from Bleidenrod. They bear the Kekulé numbers 416 and 417 in my ancestry list and the Kekulé numbers 396 and 397 in Harald Lesch's ancestry list.
Common Ancestry with
Prof. Max Planck
Through the Orth family, I am related to the well-known physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Planck (1858-1947). Since he is my 11th cousin 3 times removed, you have to go back as far as the 15th century to get to our last common ancestors. These are the married couple Johann Orth (1460-1533) and Adelheid von Endebach (* around 1470), who even appear 17 times in my ancestor list due to numerous Orth ancestors. Their lowest Kekulé numbers are 17,616 and 17,617 in my ancestry list. In Max Planck's ancestry list they bear the Kekulé numbers 4,544 and 4,545.
