Wife: Barbara Hutzli
Jakob and Barbara were Friedrich's grandparents.
They are my great-great-great-grandparents.
Both Jakob and Barbara were born at Zweisimmen. Jakob's parents were the Kirchmeyer Bartolome and wife Katharina (Tritten) Treuthardt (see post #35). It is probable that Jakob was named after an ancestor. Creative naming for babies was an unknown thing, parents being limited in those days to using those names that had been used before, as by and for grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Jakob was baptized on December 2, 1779, a Thursday. He may have been born a day or two previous. Godparents were chosen this way: the parents of an infant boy picked two male sponsors and one woman sponsor. For an infant girl, parents chose two female sponsors and one man sponsor. Often these sponsors were relatives.
Maybe infant Jakob cried at his Baptism to prove his vocal aptitude to the Choir Director.
Jakob's Godparents or Baptismal sponsors were
Chorrichter Christian Jauss
Jakob Jaggi, beide von "hier" (Zweisimmen)
Barbara Tritten von St. Stephan
Both men were Zweisimmen originals (it was their Heimat) and probably lived there. The Choir Director Christian Jauss certainly encouraged Jakob, as he grew, in his singing skills. Jakob Jaggi was distinctive in that the child was given his name (and the baby boy shared his name with a number of other Jakobs as well). Sponsor Barbara Tritten, who was from the nearby community of St. Stephan, may have been Jakob's aunt or cousin (sister or niece of Katharina).
During his childhood, Jakob learned a lot about the church, as his father Bartolome was the Kirchmeyer. The family's life revolved around the church. Music had an important role in Jakob's life.
Historical U.S. note: On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress of the United States at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was only three years before "our" Jakob was born, and he was eight years old when the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787. Though world news was slow in traveling around the world, these Swiss people would have been following it.
(to be continued)
Very interesting post today. I didn’t know Barbara was an old name. In fact if you hear of two people named Barbara & Jacob (I changed the spelling), you would assume Barbara was born in the ‘50's and Jacob in the 80's. And until I read a little further, I assumed your reference to Jakob’s crying at baptism was for the amusement of today’s choir directors, but it was really for the choir director who was his sponsor.
ReplyDeleteIt makes you wonder if Jakob gave any thought to the new country of the U.S. At that time I guess going to the U.S. would be a very brave idea. Maybe that’s why once people got there they stayed.
Barbara as a name goes far back. It is from the Latin word "barbarus" meaning "stranger" or "foreigner," as in "not-Roman." In the 1940's the girl's name Barbara ranked #3 (see babynamewizard.com). It can be a man's name, according to baby-name websites; that practice peaked in the 1930's and died out. The Old Testament name Jacob means "supplanter," and it achieved this, having supplanted all other boy's names in the 2000's, with a #1 rank.
ReplyDeleteWe can imagine that Europeans were curiously watching the developments taking place in the new United States, which had declared its independence from Great Britain, the old country which was, after all, great. The Founding Fathers in America were risking their lives to gather and plan a new government. Many people were fighting and dying in the Revolutionary War. Despite the dangers, the draw of Liberty and Freedom was already pulling immigrants across the ocean. Europeans were the first to arrive.
The Treuthardts however, waited it out another 100 years.