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

Showing posts with label Gleichauf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gleichauf. 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.