This branch of the Austrian Hesch family is descended from Johann Hesch and his wife Marya (Schlinz) Hesch, who came to America from Oberschlagles, Bohemia with three sons: Paul, Mathias, and Anton. +++Johann & Marya settled in Buffalo County, Wisconsin but moved to Pierz, Mn in about 1885. .+++Mathias settled in Waumandee, Wisconsin and moved to Pierz in 1911. +++Anton never married but farmed with his dad in Agram Township, where he died in 1911.+++And Paul, my great grandfather, settled five miles away, in Buckman, Minnesota. He died there in 1900.

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Monday, January 20, 2014

The Omega/rainbow symbol mystery

Here's a symbol used in the land owners' books in Bohemia.  This one's from 1694, and we found it in the 1700s too...not so much after 1800.  Out of curiosity, I wrote to SRA Trebon and asked if they knew what it meant.  No one did.
Sometimes, there was only one arch, sometimes two, sometimes three.  This one was the fanciest one I found.  
We see it as the last letter of the Greek alphabet (liturgically, "the alpha and the omega", the beginning and ending), so maybe it signaled the end of something.  But then, why the difference in the number of arches? 

It seems like they used the 'rainbow' symbol early on, or perhaps it was that particular scribe's peccadillo.  The pages below are from 1760 and they're all single omega signs.  No, it doesn't stand for someone's death, as that's what the little cross meant (second circle, right).  Might it have mean a debt, paid back, or a change of houses, or equipment loaned or sold to the serf?  
It had to be something fairly common, but significant enough that it made a difference to the landowner. 
Can YOU think of anything?  Brainstorming works, ya know--leave a comment ☺.
Thanks!
 

1 comment:

  1. Maybe it meant it was time for McDonalds.
    Or maybe it meant the person was difficult to deal with - a real pain in the arch.

    16 days!

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