Wow--Polish Church Books

OK!  Here's your big chance to help Larry and me find relatives' records.  The site we've linked to often, Family Search, has digitized church records online from our relatives' area of Silesia (Poland).  To jump into the books, starting with births from the last day of 1826 , click HERE.  

  

Oh, and Family Search works best if you create an account and sign-in first.

Here're most of the names to look for....and yes, the book was printed in German, with entries written in Suetterlin like those in Bohemia, but most of these people were ethnic Poles. Anton Otremba was born in Groder on June 13, 1828, and his wife Catherine Schallwig was born in Guschwitz April 26, 1827.  I'm not sure if this book is the right one, but it's a good place to start.

(Hey, if novices like Larry and me can figure it out, so can YOU!)

The St Michael Painting--a followup

I was in Buckman on Sunday for Aunt Jeanette's 85th birthday party and took the opportunity (Hey, I was EARLY!) to get better photos of the painting of St Michael the Archangel.

If you click the link, you'll read what our tentative conclusions were last spring.  Now, of course, we have new and more info, thanks to further research from Larry as well as these new angel pics.

Oops--wait, that's the grandkids on Christmas.  It's ok,  they qualify as my angels.

(And yes, they think I'm a hoot).

OK, the new photos are closer-ups of parts of the 4X9 foot painting--especially the figures in the "sky" above Michael.  We thought (when we couldn't see them well) that they were St Ann and her daughter BVMary.  

Now, however, we can see that they're Moses, with tablets, and Jesus.  THAT didn't make any sense to me either, but Larry knew the biblical basis of those figures.  Honest, the man's a marvel!  

He said it's  "the Archangel Michael contending for the body of Moses", since Moses is one of two humans in the old testament who were supposedly taken into heaven without dying (The other was Elijah, he said).  Larry said there's an old Jewish writing about Satan being pissed that Moses had it so easy, so he fought Michael for the right to it.  Wow.

Anyway, the whole painting works better now, EXCEPT for the majorly odd stuff.

We think the painting was commissioned from an artist in St Annasburg, Poland, very near where our Otrembas, Rauschs, Schmolkes and Mischkes came from.  This might also be wrong, but we're going with it till a better answer shows up.

Now, is the thing in Michael's hand...an upside down flame?  A hank of hair?  Pouring red paint, or blood?  Traditionally Michael holds a sword in that hand--why paint something so ambiguous?  Also, Michael the Archangel is usually painted standing firmly on Satan--but this Michael's legs seem to be in a deliberately weak position.  Why, when most of the painting seems directly copied from a holy card?  We have no answers, just speculation.

However, there's some very INTERESTING info available on where the painting came from, and that'll be tomorrows topic!

Prussia, Silesia and Otrembas

 My great grandfather Paul Hesch arrived in Buckman Minnesota around 1873. He found a lovely Polish girl  named Mary Otremba   and they were married 10 November 1874.  Paul was born in Bohemia, and Mary was born in Silesia, below.  See the east section there, and the part labeled Niesse?  Just NE of Niesse is Falkenberg, where Mary was born in the village of Guschwitz.  (Niesse, BTW, is where Frank Hortsch owned a gasthaus in...Larzensdorf. Thanks to Larry for remembering that.).

You can see where the above map fits on the one below--just under the word 'Prussia' on the larger yellow section.  The country we know as Germany didn't exist till much later.  All these little kingdoms and empires wanted more of their neighbors, and were willing to fight for them.  In the meantime, our folks LEFT. 

(Note: If you came here to research Otrembas, see the left side of the page--and click the name).

Lower map  source.