The Household at Thran and Kirchbrak, 1832 to 1852
George’s father, Heinrich Christian Ludewig Wesemann, was born at Linse on 22 December 1805 at ten in the evening and baptized on 29 December, the son of “the miller Ludwig Wesemann” and Justine Marie Küster of Delligsen, aged 25. His godparents were Heinrich Kramer, a second innkeeper(?) (Nebenkrüger); “the miller Heinr. Brünig,” probably Heinrich Brünig of the Linse upper mill; the wife of a miller Dempewolff, of Thran, Tuchtfeld or “at the bridge” (the place reads three ways); and the wife of Heinrich Küster of Delligsen. Like his father he went by Ludewig. He was probably the “Ludewig Wesemann, bachelor,” of Linse who stood godfather on 21 April 1822, aged 16, beside Heinrich Halbrock of the Halbrodt mill.
His bride had known him since they were young. Johanne Caroline Wilhelmine Brand was born at Linse on 16 July 1809 at ten in the evening and baptized on 19 July, as Hanne Caroline Wilhelmine, daughter of the half farmer Christian Brand and “Caroline Charlotte Sporleder of Linse, aged 26”; a later hand added “† 1852”. In 1827 and 1828 “Caroline Brand, half farmer’s daughter,” stood godmother at Linse beside “Ludewig Wesemann, miller’s son,” probably George’s mother, at eighteen or nineteen, beside her future husband.
They married at Halle on 16 July 1832, after banns on 8 and 15 July. The Linse register names three generations of the line in one entry: “Heinrich Christian Ludewig Waßemann, lawful son of the master machine-miller Georg Ludewig Waßemann at Linse and Marie Justine born Küster, prospective master machine-miller and leaseholder of the Thran mill near Linse, and living there,” and “Johanne Caroline Wilhelmine Brand, lawful daughter of the half farmer Heinrich Christian Brand and Caroline born [Sporleder] at Linse”. He was 26.
The word leaseholder (Pächter) matters. His father held the middle mill by hereditary right; the son took the Thran mill on lease, as a tenant of its owner, and no record shows another Wesemann ever holding it (see The German Mills). Thran was not a village. It was a mill and its holding, eighteen and a half Morgen at the mouth of the Lenne on the right bank of the Weser, with an overshot wheel driving grinding, oil, fulling and tanbark gears. It belonged to Linse parish but stood about 900 meters downstream, outside the village, and the description of 1803 lists it as a separate place in the Lower Börde of the district of Wickensen, between Heyen and Kemnade. A child born at Thran was born in the mill house.
The couple had six children over ten years, in three parishes.
| Child | Birth | Death | Married |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hanne Caroline Wilhelmine | 4 October 1832, six in the morning, Linse; baptized in an emergency 6 October | 6 October 1832, aged two days | |
| Wilhelmine Dorothea Luise | 9 October 1833, two in the afternoon, Thran; baptized 20 October at Kemnade | ||
| Wilhelm Christian Ludewig | 4 February 1836, eight in the evening, Thran; baptized 25 February at Kemnade | ||
| Georg Wilhelm Ehrenfried (George) | 30 July 1838, two in the afternoon, Thran; baptized 2 September(?) at Kemnade | January 1896, Philadelphia | Fredericka Bauer, 1866 |
| Wilhelmine Luise Karolina | 24 September 1840, eleven at night, Kirchbrak; baptized 18 October | ||
| Carl Ludwig Wilhelm | 4 March 1842, three in the afternoon, Kirchbrak; baptized 24 March | Johanne Dorothea Louise Hengst, 24 April 1872 |
The first child came less than three months after the wedding and lived two days. Hanne Caroline Wilhelmine, born on 4 October 1832, “received emergency baptism” (Nottaufe) at home on 6 October, entered as the daughter of “Wasmann Ludewig, master machine-miller,” and “Caroline Brand, twenty-three years old,” with one sponsor, “the wife of the half farmer Christian Brand, Caroline born Sporleder, grandmother of the child.” She died the same day. An emergency baptism was given at home when a child was not expected to live, which explains the single sponsor.
The next three children were born at the Thran mill and baptized not at Linse, the household’s own parish, but at Kemnade, a chapel congregation that stood under the Halle church superintendent and was served by the clergyman of Bodenwerder. Wilhelmine Dorothea Luise’s sponsors in 1833 were Wilhelmine Brand of Linse, “the mother’s sister,” and Dorothea Wachsmann(?) of Linse, unmarried. Wilhelm Christian Ludewig’s in 1836 were “the master miller Ludewig Wesemann of Linse,” his grandfather; Wilhelm Wewerke(?), innkeeper at Buchhagen; and Christian Brand, farmer at Linse. George’s baptism of 1838 is told below. These are the only baptisms of the household between October 1832 and September 1840.
Between July 1838 and September 1840 the family left Thran. By September 1840 Heinrich Christian Ludewig was “Heinrich Christian Ludewig Waßemann, mill leaseholder at Kirchbrak” (Mühlenpächter), eleven kilometers up the Lenne, at the baptism of his daughter Wilhelmine Luise Karoline. She was born on 24 September 1840 and baptized on 18 October, her mother “Johanne Wilhelmine Karoline born Brand, thirty-one years old”; the pastor noted that by date of birth the entry belonged under the next number. Her godparents were “Wilhelm Waßemann, journeyman miller from Linse,” probably George’s uncle Heinrich Wilhelm; Heinrich Brand, large cottager at Linse, the mother’s father or a brother; and Luise War[n]ecke, daughter of the innkeeper Wilhelm Warnecke of [?]hagen, probably Buchhagen. Carl Ludwig Wilhelm was born on 4 March 1842 and baptized on 24 March, the father again mill leaseholder at Kirchbrak and the mother thirty-two; his godparents were the innkeeper and private forester Wilhelm Sagebiel and Louise née Müller, wife of the cantor Friedrich Möhring, both of Kirchbrak. Which of Kirchbrak’s two mills he held is not known; the The German Mills section gives the reasons the upper mill is the more likely.
Three losses came within about two years. The Thran lease ended, the middle mill at Linse passed out of the family, and the son who had held Thran was working another man’s mill upriver. He was still a miller there in April 1847, when “Ludewig Waßmann, master miller at Kirchbrak,” stood first godfather at Linse to Luise Dorothea Ludewine, daughter of his sister Dorothea and her husband Heinrich Friedrich Christian Brand, in an entry whose margin reads “the names are duly documented”. That godfather was probably George’s father: the name he went by, the trade and the village are his. So the household was probably still at Kirchbrak in April 1847, when George was eight. No other record shows where George grew up between 1842 and 1852.
No child was born to the couple after 1842 in any of eleven parishes around Linse; that they had no more children is probable. The elder two Kemnade children, Wilhelmine Dorothea Luise and Wilhelm Christian Ludewig, share forenames with the Kirchbrak children of 1840 and 1842. In these families a name given again most often meant the earlier child had died. Neither of the elder two is among the Wesemann confirmations indexed at Linse, so they probably died young, though their burials have not been found.
The family was back in the Linse district before March 1852, sometime after April 1847, and by then it held no mill at all. On 12 March 1852, at five in the morning, George’s mother died at Linse of dropsy (Wassersucht). The register calls her “Hanne Caroline Wilhelmine Waßemann, born Brand, wife of the lodger and miller Heinrich Christian Ludewig Waßemann of Linse,” and gives her birth as 16 July 1809, matching her baptism to the day, forty-three years later in another parish. She was buried quietly on 14 March. George was thirteen.
His father was now a lodger (Häusling): landless, living in rented rooms, though still styled a miller. That is the last certain record of him. A “lodger Ludwig Waßmann … from Halle” who stood godfather at Linse in January 1859, beside Ludwig Meyer and August Meyer, was probably another man. The child was the illegitimate son of Wilhelmine Justine Caroline Meyer, born at Halle in 1834, daughter of the Linse master tailor Heinrich Christian Ludwig Meyer and his first wife. The godfather was probably Karl Ludewig Wasmann, of the separate Halle Wasmann family, a cowherd and lodger born on 1 March 1804 who died at Halle in January 1863, and kin of the child’s grandmother, Hanne Wilhelmine Sophie née Wasmann. That the godfather of 1859 was George’s father is unlikely, and has never been shown.
Where and when Heinrich Christian Ludewig Wesemann died is not known. His burial is not in the registers of the parishes where the family lived: Linse, Halle, Kirchbrak and Kemnade. A Kemnade weaver entered as “Waßmann, Heinrich Christoph Ludwig,” born on 1 March 1800 and buried on 30 January 1863, was someone else. Whether George’s father was alive when George left in 1860 is not known.
One more record touches the household in these years. A note dated 21 March 1847 in the Linse register, beside the birth in November 1832 of an illegitimate child to Caroline Thiele, has “the former journeyman miller, now cottager, Johann Heinrich Christoph Ludewig Krause of Linse” declare himself the father. He had been a journeyman miller at Linse in the 1830s, which means he worked for one of the two milling households there, and the Wesemanns were one of them. The note also names the Thran mill, but two of its clauses, one about the mill and one that may record a later marriage of the parents, have not been read.
References
- Halle Kirchenbuch “Taufen Beerdigungen 1800–1814” (04-03075, churchRegister 390649, 188 images) and “Trauungen 1800–1808” (04-03076, churchRegister 390650), Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer. Also: Trauungen, Jg. 1804, Nr. 3 (Brand–Sporleder); Begrabene, Jg. 1803, Nr. 36 (Bild 167, written p. 310, the Brünig child) and Jg. 1800, Nr. 24 (Johanne Marie Brand); Begrabene, Jg. 1804, Nr. 27 (Bild 170, the Mittelmüller infant); Taufen, Jg. 1805, Nr. 21, Jg. 1809, Nrs. 16 and 17 (Bild 96, written p. 187), Jg. 1810, Nr. 36 (Bild 110), Jg. 1812, Nr. 20 and Jg. 1813, Nr. 36. The volume has no surname index of its own; images 185 to 188 run to an Ende marker. Also Begrabene, Jg. 1805, Bild 172, Nr. 18 (the Leibzüchter Johann Heinrich Waßmann, 29 November 1805, aged 76). Also: Trauungen 1800–1808, Bilder 3–20 (every entry), Bild 14, p. 22, entry 1 (the 1803 marriage of Ludewig Wesemann and Justine Marie Küster) and Bild 18, p. 31, entry 5 (the 1807 marriage of Friedrich Wilhelm Brand and Caroline Louise Wesemann); Taufen, Bild 87 (1808), Bild 109, no. 33 (8 August 1810) and Bild 143, no. 31 (20 November 1813). Also: Trauungen 1800–1808 (390650), 1804 no. 3; Begrabene, Bild 167, 1803 no. 35 (Georg Ludwig Sporleder); Taufen, Bild 100 (1810 nos. 1 and 2) and Bild 129 (1812 no. 20); the baptisms of August 1809 – 1814 (about Bild 94–152).
- Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Abteilung Wolfenbüttel: NLA WO, 13 W Nr. 1690, Aufn. 045–046 (the valuation of the commune of Linse, 6 December 1811), and 13 W Nr. 1747, Aufn. 0282–0287 (the land-tax roll of the Canton Eschershausen, 1812, Commune Linse), Arcinsys online viewer.
- Linse Kirchenbuch 1815–1853 (signature 04-03142, churchRegister 390716) and Linse Kirchenbuch 1854–1875, Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer. Full variant-name sweep of images 2–90 of the earlier volume, producing 29 hits and the bound-in W surname index at image 89; high-resolution reading of the 1832 marriage and baptism, the 1855, 1858 and 1861 death entries, and the 1857 baptism, 30–31 August 2026. Transcriptions:); the 1832 infant death (Verstorbene, Jg. 1832, Nr. 2); the 1838 stillbirth (Geborene, Jg. 1838, Nr. 10 and the unnumbered row following, Bild 27, written pp. 46–47); the 1846 marriage (Proclamierte und Copulierte, Jg. 1846, Nr. 1, Bild 58, written p. 149); the 1847 deaths (Verstorbene, Jg. 1847, Nrs. 1, 3 and 4); the 1852 death of Hanne Caroline Wilhelmine Waßemann geborene Brand (Verstorbene, Jg. 1852, Nr. 1, Bild 81, written p. 194); the volume’s own alphabetical surname index at written p. c. 197, Bild 83, B section read in full; and, in the 1854–1875 volume, the 1855, 1858 and 1861 deaths (Bild 46, 47 and 48, written pp. 215, 217 and 219) and the 1858 Leßing marriage (Trauungen, Jg. 1858, Nr. 3, Bild 35). Also, in Linse 390716: Bild 6 (1817 no. 3, the godparents of Dorothea Louise Friederike Wesemann), Bild 9 (1820 no. 2), Bild 10 (1822 no. 1), Bild 30 (1841 no. 6, the godmother Amalie Lüders née Küster) and Bilder 48–57 (the marriages of 1815–1841). Also, in Linse 390716: Bild 4–11, written pp. 2–15 (the baptisms of 1815 – January 1823, with 1815 no. 4, 1816 no. 2, 1818 nos. 2 and 4, 1821 no. 2 and the margin note of 5 September 1852 beside it, Bild 10, p. 13, and 1822 no. 2); Bild 14–19 (the godparents of 1827–1832); Bild 30 (1841 no. 8); Bild 33–46 (the baptisms of 1843–1853), with Bild 38 (1847 no. 3), 40 (1848 no. 2), 42 (1850 no. 1) and 46 (1852 no. 5); Bild 50–62 (the marriages of 1824, 1836, 1838, 1843, 1851 and 1853); Bild 64 (1817 burials, no. 1, written p. 161); Bild 66 (1822 no. 3 and 1823 no. 2, written p. 164); Bild 76–81 (the burials of 1847–1852, with the 1852 death re-read on enlarged crops). In Linse 390717: Bild 36 (1859 baptisms, no. 1); Bild 46–57 (the burials of 1854–1875, with 1855 and 1856 no. 2, Bild 46–47); the volume’s W index. Also, in Linse 390716: Bild 69 (the burials of 1830, no. 1, written p. 171). In Linse 390717: the marriage section of 1854–1875, read entry by entry.
- G. Hassel and K. Bege, Geographisch-statistische Beschreibung der Fürstenthümer Wolfenbüttel und Blankenburg, vol. 2 (Braunschweig, 1803), pp. 308–311, Amt Wickensen: no. 26, Linse, and no. 31, the Thran. Read in the Google Books text layer.
- Kemnade, Kirchenbücher (Taufen) 1815–1843, 1838–1842 and 1843–1868, Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirche Hannovers, Kirchenkreis Holzminden-Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer. Read and transcribed 11–12 September 2026. Yielded the baptism of Georg Wilhelm Ehrenfried Wesemann (1838, Bild 5, Nr. 9), the two older siblings of 1833 and 1836, the Brand and Wesemann sponsors from Linse, and the 1863 pastoral correction signed by Berkenbusch. Also Kemnade Kirchenbuch 1843–1868 (churchRegister 390699): the births of 1843–1851 (Bild 4 to about 46); the burials of 1852–1868, form IV, Bild 195–224, with Bild 214 (1863 no. 3, written p. 480); the alphabetical register, Bild 223–242. Also Kemnade Kirchenbuch 1815–1843 (churchRegister 390697): the burials of 1834–1836 (Bild 150–151).
- Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch, Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer. The Kirchbrak Mills memorandum names Archion 390703 as the Kirchbrak register searched. The 1840 and 1842 baptisms stand in Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch 1831–1848 (churchRegister 390709): Bild 53, no. 14 (18 October 1840) and Bild 59, no. 11 (24 March 1842), both re-read on enlarged crops; also Bild 60–65 and 65–94 (the births of 1843–1848) and Bild 163–171 (the burials of 1847 from no. 15 and of 1848), with the alphabetical burial register, Bild 182–183. Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch 1849–1863 (churchRegister 390710): the births of 1849 – January 1852 (Bild 4–25) and the alphabetical burial register (Bild 172), with Bild 143 and 152. Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch 1862–1875 (churchRegister 390711): the alphabetical burial register (Bild 199), with Bild 172. The marriages of 1853–1875 in 390710 and 390711, every entry.
- Wesemann_Comprehensive_History_v8, George’s American arrival, service, marriage, will, death, and [name withheld]’s 2016 research.
- Kemnade Kirchenbuch 1869–1875 (churchRegister 390700), Archion. Cited in this chapter for the 1872 marriage at Bild 36, Entry 4, re-read at the viewer’s maximum zoom, and for the baptisms of 1872–1875, read in full.
- Landeskirchliches Archiv Hannover, Bestand D 25, Ephoralarchiv Bodenwerder (Börry-Eschershausen), 1522–1998, c. 60 linear metres, deposited 1999, catalogue and fonds history in Arcinsys Niedersachsen Bremen, arcinsys.niedersachsen.de, fonds id 9256. Cited here for the Spezialsuperintendentur Halle of 1569 and its chapels Dohnsen, Linse and Tuchtfeld; the pastoral supply of the Klosterbezirk Kemnade from Bodenwerder; the re-erection of an inspection seated at Halle in 1759; the 1818 enlargement of the Halle supervisory district by Kemnade, Hehlen, Ottenstein and Hohe; and the item-level entries Gen.Esch.332-0/Ib (Konfirmandensachen, 1820–1829) and Gen.Esch.151 (Generalsuperintendent, 1808–1948).
- Halle Kirchenbuch 1815–1844 (churchRegister 390651) and Kirchenbuch 1869–1875 (churchRegister 390653), Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer: 390651, the births of 1843–1844 (Bild 78–86); 390653, Bild 19 (1873 no. 2) and the burials of 1869–1875 (Bild 50–63), with p. 647 (1873 no. 7). Also 390651: the marriages of 1830–1844 (section III, Bild 99–113) and the combined alphabetical register (Bild 150–156); 390653: the marriages of 1869–1875, every entry.
- Halle Kirchenbuch 1845–1868 (churchRegister 390652), Bild 96, the 1848 marriage naming Karoline Küster, wife of the Bodenwerder innkeeper Heinrich Christian Ludewig Lönig.), Bild 22 (1849 no. 21) and the burials of 1852 – early 1868 (Bild 131–148), with p. 353 (1863 no. 1). Also the marriage lists of 1845–1852 (Bild 93–101) and of 1853–1868, every entry; the volume’s layout, sections I (baptisms), III (marriages) and IV (burials), with no confirmation section.
- The baptisms of 1843–1851 read for a child of Heinrich Christian Ludewig Wesemann and Johanne Caroline Wilhelmine Brand, Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirche Hannovers, Archion online viewer: Bodenwerder Kirchenbuch 1842–1852 (churchRegister 390581, Bild 3–59); Pegestorf Kirchenbuch 1822–1847 (390741, Bild 60–72) and 1848–1852 (390742, Bild 4–21); Eschershausen baptisms 1843–1846 (390614, Bild 4–33) and Kirchenbuch 1847–1862 (390616, Bild 5–54); Dielmissen Kirchenbuch 1831–1849 (390597, Bild 76–115) and 1850–1867 (390598, Bild 4–17); Hehlen Kirchenbuch (390664, Bild 12–58, 1842–1851); Grave Kirchenbuch 1843–1873 (390632, Bild 4–29); Hajen Kirchenbuch 1818–1852 (390641, Bild 66–84); Ottenstein Kirchenbuch 1841–1860 (390736, Bild 25–41, 1843 – mid-1844 only). Screen reads, mostly from screenshots. Also Bodenwerder 390581, Bild 27, nos. 49–50 (twins born 28 December 1846 and baptized 10 January 1847 to Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Hengst, Bürger and Tischlermeister, and Johanne Louise née Schmidt).