In late July, we heard from a gentleman in Zurich by the name of Torsten Skoetz who is researching his family, too. He'd googled the name Schalwig and found our Catherine Schalwig here on Hesch History. Need a reminder who she was?
Evidently, Torsten is related to us thru Catherine's mother Elizabeth Lakotta, the wife of Carl Schalwig. Here's what he wrote:
"yesterday i found a real possible connection, that makes us something like 5th or 6th cousins...i found a birth registration of catherina schalwig from guschwitz, but the date is different...also i found her marriage registration from 1853 in przychod, upper silesia...in both registrations her fathers name is carl schalwig....(and in that churchbook in that times they are the only catherina schalwig and carl schalwig)....
even that i am a direct descendent from christopherus schalwig from guschwitz, we - you and me - seem to be connected via her mother, elisabeth lakotta, who was a niece of my 5x great grandfather stephan lakotta/ lakota....
her father carl schalwig was the son of the farmer florian schallwig from tillowitz".
Yes, he sent pictures of the church books, look: first, the record from 1725 of
marriages on January 16, 24, and 28. The priest used a weird mix of Latin and German, written in Suetterlin, I think. Anyway, the writing is fairly legible-yay! (See? Each entry has the word "copulari" meaning "marriage", then the name of the groom and his parents, then the bride and her parents, and the name of their village. Torsten labeled this page
HEIRAT_JOANNE_KUDER_JACOBUS_KUDER_ROSINA_SCHALWIK_CHRISTOPHORUS_SCHALWIK
If you've been following our how-tos, you might be able to decipher some of the names for yourself. Keep in mind that hyphens weren't discovered yet, so, for instance, the first line of the second entry ends with 'Joan' but the rest of the name is on the next line..."nem Kuder, Jacobi Kuder filium cum v. Rosina Christophori Schalwik filia ___ Martina Blewka(?) Bartholomaus Kuder, oef de Guschwitz".
(As a challenge, find the name Gregorius Nowak in the third entry...see how easy it is? ☺)
This is Torsten's translation, BTW:
And here is the marriage of Anton Otremba and Cathrina Schalwig, in early 1853...by now, the church was using columns, see? Very efficient: date, first name, last name, age, religion (probably), then village, parents etc. Click the pic to enlarge, ok?
Yes, Torsten sent churchbook pdfs of the links back thru the years, but these are the most interesting pages regarding Hesch history, I think.
. Many thanks to cousin Torsten ☺!
That was an exciting turn of events.
ReplyDeleteHello i am Jayden Wassmuth, we are related through Catherine Schalwig where exactly is Guschwitz and what is it a town or a concentration camp. many thanks bye
ReplyDeleteHi, Jayden, try the little search box on the top of the page here--above the title, on the left: type in "Guschwitz" and all the info we've found will come up.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, the town was not a concentration camp, and surely not before they left for America.