(Continued from post 44)
Jakob I and Barbara lived at Zweisimmen and their six children were born there, between 1801 and 1810. Their children were Jakob II [who is our ancestor], Johannes, Barbara I,
Barbara II, Samuel, and Elizabeth Magdalena. The first Barbara died, either at birth or within her first year. Another daughter followed, and she was named Barbara to retain the name in the family. Thus, they had five living
children (born between 1801 and 1810) including three sons and two daughters. At Elizabeth's birth her father was 31 and her mother was 33 years old.
Since the father of Jakob I was the Kirchmeyer, and Barbara's father was the
town scribe, I surmise that the Treuthardt and Hutzli children including Jakob I and Barbara, were
literate. Their five children too would have learned to read and
write. It is not far-fetched to say that basic education was important even in these early times.
Sometime after the birth of their sixth child Elizabeth Magdalena, Jakob I and Barbara moved to Thun, a large, bustling and industrious place with a long history. Apparently he found better work and better pay in Thun. This theme of "better opportunity someplace else" is how families disperse.
Jakob I and Barbara lived at "Schertzligen" (a district[?] of Thun) on Frutigenstrasse, a long, wide street
nowadays. Today this is a center
of
traffic and activity, near Lake Thun, where the River Aare
flows into the lake at the far eastern end of Thun.
Jakob I lived in the Thun area only about twenty years. On the 1830 death record of Jakob I are two notations, where we learn his profession.
Jakob I was a Schreiner,
which by definition is "Carpenter, woodworker, one who makes things out
of wood, joiner, craftsman who works with wood." Maybe Jakob
was employed building boats, or maybe he handcrafted furniture or built cabinetry or houses.
A Schreiner would certainly have apprenticed in his vocation, beginning about age 12-14 years old. Was Jakob I apprenticed in Zweisimmen, or was he sent to Thun to apprentice with a relative or friend? We don't know how Jakob I learned his trade.
Jakob I was also a
"Musikant," which by definition is "Musician, performer, one who plays a
musical instrument professionally." (Jakob I might have crafted his own wood instrument, or perhaps he was an organist.) From an infant who perhaps cried at his Baptism to impress his Baptismal sponsor the choir director, Jakob I earned and deserved a concise descriptor on his death record. We may believe that he was taught music well from his early childhood, considering the connection with the church through his father Bartolome the Kirchmeyer.
Jakob I barely lived to be middle aged. He died on January 19, 1830 at the age of 49.
The Treuthardts of our branch never returned to Zweisimmen, other than Jakob I's
wife Barbara who moved back to Zweisimmen after her husband's death. Barbara died
at the age of 72 on March 22, 1850.
[Grandfather]
Jakob I died four years before his grandson Friedrich Treuthardt was
born. Barbara lived in Zweisimmen and would have known Friedrich, who
was 16 years old when his grandmother died.
You
can find Frutigenstrasse on Google maps. The exciting way is to search first for
Lake Thun, to view the beautiful expansive lake. Find the city of
Thun, at the northern end of the lake. Zoom in right at that tip
where the lake narrows. Look to the left of the lake, and you will
see the big street Frutigenstrasse. Around Frutigenstrasse are also
the Eisenbahnstrasse (Railroad Street) and Schulstrasse (School
street). There was no railroad in Thun until 1859. Railroad
street was not so named at that time. On the other hand, School street
might actually have had a school on it in the early 1800's.
A
search for Kirche Schertzligen, Frutigerstrasse, Thun, Switzerland,
brings up a church near the lake. On the Internet are some postcards of
"Kirche Schertzligen, Switzerland" depicted around 1900, when the
church was still a church. We drove past this church in 2009 on
a beautiful September Sunday afternoon. That day at the old church
were a great number of people visiting a special art exhibition. The parking situation looked formidable and we did not stop.
Why does it matter to know where the individuals lived? Because a
death record from the Heimat, or "home base" of a person may not have as
much information on it as the death record from the person's residence
and place of death.
The facts in the town registers were researched by Hans Joder in 2008 for Annamarie.
About Barbara's return to Zweisimmen, Mr. Joder suggested, "Maybe she lived with
relatives there. Or maybe she made use of her citizen-rights there,
where a Swiss city is committed to care for" its natives.
Beyond the bare facts that are revealed by the registries of the towns, the above expanded, extended version of the history of Jakob I and Barbara is the opinion (through evidence and extrapolation) of Annamarie.
Look
again at the Google map and locate Sarnen. From Thun, draw the arc of
the lake, and follow it to the right as it makes a smile, past
Interlaken, Brienz, and Lungern, and you will find Sarnen.
Barbara lived to an old age didn't she, to live to age 72. Somehow she survived without antibiotics,vaccines, cold weather, and illnesses. And she must have been good at adapting to situations also, since Jakob died at age 49. That was practically a lifetime without her husband. Her children, and the society in which they lived, must have helped her in her old age, and I can imagine her spending her days sitting on a couch doing some type of needlework to keep herself busy.
ReplyDeleteShe did survive a long time without her husband. She would more likely have sat in a wooden rocking chair than a couch. She probably did sew, if her eyes were good. Already in those days, the Heimat had the responsibility of taking care of its old people, in a place probably called something like an "Old Folks Home." One wonders how many old people were cared for at one time. We hope that it was not an unhappy place. Barbara's children in Zweisimmen might well have taken care of their mother.
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