46. Treuthardt, Bartolome, how old was he in 1810?

Harkening back for a moment to the Kirchmeyer Bartolome, whose birth and death dates are unknown to me, let's consider a note on the 1810 birth record of his granddaughter Elizabeth Magdalena.    Her father Jakob I is listed as the "Alt Kirchmeyers Sohn," which is the "son of the old Kirchmeyer."   By 1810 Bartolome had impressively acquired the adjective "Alt," which certainly did not apply to most people in those days.   It is a title of respect and honor.

How old is "Alt" in 1810 in Zweisimmen?    It makes me wonder whether Bartolome had recently died, and that this was one last fond reference to him as the Kirchmeyer of Zweisimmen.   An ordinary gravedigger would not have been immortalized this way.   If he was born circa 1740 and died circa 1810, which are my tentative guesses, he would have been about 70 years old.

Bartolome was a dedicated father to give opportunities for his children to receive educations.   As the Kirchmeyer it would have been important to Bartolome to teach his children to read and write.   Bartolome and Katharina taught their own children, either by themselves or by sending them to school.   His three sons would have apprenticed for vocations, whether in Zweisimmen or some other place, as for instance, Jakob I apprenticed in carpentry work.    Jakob I received an adequate music education to have earned the title "Musikant" by 1830, only twenty years later.   I maintain that a music education would have required an early childhood start, previous to the apprenticeship.   That could only have been accomplished by parents, whether taught by them or others.    Jakob's siblings had the opportunity to train in music as well, if they were talented and interested.

Was Bartolome's death the precipitating factor that encouraged Jakob I and Barbara to move to Thun?   If Jakob I were responsible for his parents in their old age, and if Katharina, Bartolome's wife, had already died, and if Bartolome died around the time of Elizabeth's birth, Jakob I may have decided to depart from Zweisimmen after the death of his parents, after his sixth child was born.

These are points for future research.  

(See also my post #35.)