Inherited Craziness
A place to share all the nuts found on my family tree

Showing posts with label Donaueschingen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donaueschingen. Show all posts

Monday 26 June 2023

Wilhelm Kritzer and Flora Wilhelmina Gleichauf

The Catholic parish church of St. Johann in Donaueschingen, Germany. The building with a double tower façade in the Bohemian Baroque style was built from 1724 to 1747 to a design by the Prague architect František Maxmilián Kaňka. Photo H. HelmlechnerCC BY-SA 4.0.

Wilhelm Kritzer (b. 10 Jan 1844), son of Michael Kritzer and Maria Agatha Hall, married Flora Wilhelmina Gleichauf (b. 26 Jan 1851), daughter of Johann Nepomuk Gleichauf and Waldburga Baur, on 26 Jun 1873 at the Katholisch (The Catholic parish church of St. Johann, consecrated to John the Baptist) in DonaueschingenVillingenBaden, Germany. 

Wilhelm and Flora Kritzer had five children, all baptised in that same church:
  1. Amalia Kritzer b. 7 Oct 1873, bap. 19 Oct 1873
  2. Julius Kritzer b. 18 Aug 1874, bap. 23 Aug 1874
  3. Karl Kritzer b. 3 Nov 1875, bap. 14 Nov 1875
  4. Josef Kritzer b. 30 Oct 1877, bap. 11 Nov 1877 
  5. Wilhelm Kritzer b. 10 Mar 1879, bap. 23 Mar 1879,
    but who sadly died on 14 Sep of the same year.

Eldest son Julius Kritzer of 26 Karlstrasse, Donaueschingen, Germany died on 12 Feb 1925. (Karlstraße, appears to be the town's main street.) Probate was granted, however, in 1929, in England, to Mortimer Rooke, solicitor, attorney of Justina Kritzer, widow. It seems strange to have probate granted in England, unless they also spent time in the UK, but I can find no record of either of them having done so and no other record of Julius, nor Justina.

The three other surviving siblings certainly came to Britain to work in service in some very distinguished households and were in the UK at the outbreak of the First World War, where they found themselves at the epicentre of the anti-German hysteria and Spy Feverincited by the press of the time

The parallels with the present day are many.

Source of the Donaubach in Donaueschingen (historically considered the source of the Danube)
Donaueschingen, in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) near the confluence of the two sources of the river Danube, close to the borders with Switzerland and France, is postcard perfectThis video gives us a look around the town today and the pronunciation of Doe-now-ess-shingen. 

Wednesday 26 April 2023

Michael Kritzer and Maria Agatha Hall

Interior of the Catholic parish church of St. Johann, Donaueschingen, Baden, Germany. 
H.Helmlechner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Michael Kritzer (b. 28 Sep 1805), son of Sebastian Kritzer and Rosina Drescher, married Maria Agatha Hall (b. 29 Mar 1822), daughter of Johann Hall and Brigitta Engesser, at St. Johann, Donaueschingen, on 26 Apr 1841.

Michael and Agatha (as she appears to have been known) had five children, all also baptised at Donaueschingen's Catholic church of St. Johann.
  1. Rosina Kritzer b. 12 Mar 1842, bap. 14 Apr 1842 
  2. Wilhelm Kritzer b. 10 Jan 1844, bap 14 Jan 1844
  3. Wilhelmina Kritzer b. 8 May 1845, bap. 18 May 1845
  4. Anna Kritzer b. 6 Jun 1849, bap. 10 Jun 1849
  5. Augusta Brigitta Kritzer b. 19 Aug 1858, bap. 29 Aug 1858
Michael Kritzer died, aged 61, in Donaueschingen on 1 Apr 1867.

Anna Kritzer and three of the children of Wilhelm Kritzer came to England. Rosina Kritzer married Josef Johann Baptist Seemann, in Donaueschingen, on 30 Sep 1869 and Wilhelmina Kritzer married Carl Emil Boll, again in Donaueschingen, on 29 May 1873. This last couple had at least seven children, giving the potential for further family still remaining in the area. There are no further records showing up for Augusta Brigitte Kritzer.

There is evidence of baptisms and marriages of this family, in this parish, right back to the 16th Century (then in a previous church building, clearly).
The German surname Kritzer, it is said, is derived from the Old German word "Kretscham," meaning "inn." The name was most likely first borne by an innkeeper. An alternative suggestion is as a South German occupational name for a coiner, from krüzer Kreutzer. 

Wednesday 12 January 2022

Mark King and Anna Kritzer

London : Kensington - Hyde Park Gate
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Lewis Clarke - geograph.org.uk/p/2112989

The three siblings, children of Wilhelm Kritzer and Flora GleichaufAmalia KritzerKarl Kritzer and Joseph Kritzer (who married my great-grandmother's half-sister), came to England to work in service, being employed in some very distinguished households. However, they were somewhat eclipsed by their aunt, their father's younger sister, Anna Kritzer (b. 1849), who could well be the inspiration for them coming to London to pursue these careers.

In 1881, Anna Kritzer (31) was Lady's Maid in the household of Hermann de Stern, described merely as a Merchant, from Germany at 4, Hyde Park Gate, Kensington. Baron de Stern (1815–1887), a member of the Stern family, originally from Frankfurt, was a German-born British banker and senior partner of the firm of Stern Brothers and one of the wealthiest businessmen in nineteenth-century Britain. His wife was Julia Goldsmid.

In 1891, Anna Kritzer (listed as 32, actually 42), was still a Lady's Maid at Hyde Park Gate. The head of the household is listed as Emily A Stern (76). However, I feel sure there are errors in this listing and that this is Hermann and Julia de Stern's daughter, Emily Theresa de Stern, born 1846.

In 1901, Anna Kritzer (47 with rebate), from Donaueschingen, Germany, was Lady's Maid to Lady Sherborne (38 - er, nope, she was 55) at Hyde Park Gate, who was Emily Theresa de Stern (1846–1905), daughter of Baron Herman de Stern, who had married Edward Dutton, 4th Baron Sherborne in 1894.

By 1911, Anna Kritzer (60 ish), now of independent means (retired) and listed as a Naturalised British Subject - for which I can find no evidence, the only record being for her nephew, Karl - was still living in South Kensington.

Then in the 3rd quarter of 1916, at 67, Anna Kritzer married, Mark King, a Bricklayer from Oxfordshire, widower, whose first wife, Elizabeth, had died in 1912. (The Kings had lived in Seymour Place, Kensington, since the 1880's.)

In the previous couple of years, Anna's nephew, Karl Kritzer, had been the butt end of the anti-German press, her other nephew Joseph had been interned as part of the mass internment of registered Enemy Alien men. Her niece, Amalia Kritzer, then in her early 40's, probably wouldn't have wished to pursue such an option, since marriage would have meant giving up her career, but I can see why Anna would find a gentleman to give her a non-German surname and, potentially, the British nationality that she was making claim to, but didn't have. Then Mark King died in early 1920, aged 68.

In 1921, there was an Annie King, Widow, claiming to be 66, but having avoided listing any birthplace whatsoever, working as a Housekeeper in a household at 60, Porchester Terrace, Paddington, London. Head of the household is a visitor, Max de Elin (70) followed by another visitor, Adda Merenberg, who was from Wiesbaden, Germany. This is just such as situation, I feel, in which we would find Anna King (née Kiritzer). 

Anna King died, aged 75, in the 1st quarter of 1925, in Kensington.