Christina Feuerhak - Corrections & Additions Wichmannsdorf

NEW JULY 2021

Christina Feuerhak -- Corrections and additions -- Wichmannsdorf Genealogy

By Fred Strickert -- july 2021

Christina Feuerhak of Wichmannsdorf in the Uckermark region in the

Brandenburg Province north of Berlin was my Great Great Grandmother.

She was born 27 January 1801 and then married Johann Strickert from

the nearby village of Weggun in 1828. They raised a family of one daughter

and five sons—one of which was my Great Grandfather Friedrich Strickert.

Christina and her family emigrated from Germany in 1856, settling in

Logan, Perth County, Ontario, Canada where she died at the age of 90

on 9 September 1891.

For the past months, I have been researching the Church Record Books

from Wichmannsdorf. Perhaps I might say that I am revisiting the

Wichmannsdorf records after a little over two decades, but I will explain

that later. The records are contained in four books beginning in 1682:
Kirchenbuch 1682-1777
Kirchenbuch 1778-1807
Kirchenbuch 1808-1864
Kirchenbuch 1865-
So, I have learned a lot that is new to me.

Twenty years ago, when I started researching the Strickert family by way

of church records on microfilm at the Church of Latter Day of Saints in

Waterloo (ordered from the library in Salt Lake City), the records for

Wichmannsdorf included only the years 1853 to 1874, similar to Weggun

1850-1874. These are still the same dates available on Ancestry.com.

So, what might I learn about Christina Feuerhak, her birth, her parents,

her family members? By 1853, 52 years had passed since her birth, 25 years had passed since she had married and moved to Weggun, and her parents would have to be at least 70 years of age, if still alive—life expectancy in 1850 Germany for all births was 35 years for men and 38 for women. However, for those who did reach 30 years of age, they could expect to live another 31 years or so. So, it was possible.

I had luck on my side. On my first afternoon on the microfilm reader, I found two individuals who could have been her parents. CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK, who died on 25 Sept. 1860, had his age recorded as 88 years, 10 months, and 14 days. That would place his birth on 11 Nov. 1773—28 years of age at CHRISTINA’S birth. He certainly qualified as a candidate for father of Christina, the only candidate in the 1850-1874 church records book.

How about her mother? There was also a reasonable candidate. Under the year 1853, there was the listing DOROTHEA ELISABETH GEB. HEISE FEUERHAK. The letters GEB. are an abbreviation for geboren, meaning born. Her maiden name was HEISE. Her married name was FEUERHAK. The date of her death was 9 June 1853. Her age at death was 88 years, 6 months, and 22 days, which made her birthdate as 18 Dec. 1764. See the 1853 photocopy of record below—second entry.

It seemed like fortune had smiled on me. MARTIN and DOROTHEA must have been the parents of CHRISTINA. It made sense, but it wasn’t proof. Without earlier church books, I had no evidence that this older couple had married. I had no actual record of CHRISTINA’S birth. But it seemed reasonable. Besides, my sister’s name was also Dorothea, and names do continue in families. But I did overlook two significant items on DOROTHEA’S record. First, she was nine years older than Martin, possible, but not common. Second, there was a notation that JOHANN FEUERHAK was the informant concerning her death. Why didn’t they mention MARTIN’S name? Nevertheless, I entered into my published family tree the names MARTIN FEUERHAK and DOROTHY HEISE as parents of CHRISTINA FEUERHAK, not to revisit the matter until two decades later.

Before I report on new data from the records, I need to include another errant assumption. In the St. Peter’s Lutheran church cemetery in Brodhagen, Perth County, Ontario, Canada, CHRISTINA FEUERHAK STRICKERT’S grave is located next to the grave of DOROTHEA HOPPENRATH GEB. FEUERHAK (born 18 July 1812, died 26 Dec. 1890, her maiden-name Feuerhak). German emigration records note that her family was also from Wichmannsdorf and that they were emigrating in 1856, the same as JOHANN STRICKERT and CHRISTINA FEUERHAK. My assumption: DOROTHEA and CHRISTINA were sisters. If the dates were correct, DOROTHEA GEB. HEiSE FEUERHAK would have been 48 years old when she gave birth to Dorothea Feuerhak Hoppenrath.

There are clearly questions with the Feuerhak section of the Strickert Family Tree that I presented two decades ago. Now that the Evangelische Lutheran Kirche Archives has made available the entire church records for Wichmannsdorf in digital form, the evidence is available to correct mistakes. The result—I was half right with regard to my great great grandmother Christina.

Her birth record is included as the second entry below:

The names in the middle of the right side of the page for her parents are MARTIN FEUERHAK and SABINA HEISE. I would soon learn that her father was indeed the Martin Feuerhak (born in 1773 and who died in 1860). However, her mother was Dorothea Elisabeth Heise’s younger sister Sabina Heise (1772-1810). Unlike Dorothea’s longevity, Sabine died at the age of 38 when Christina was only nine. MARTIN would remarry and live another 50 years. As for DOROTHEA FEUERHAK (who married a HOPPENRATH), she was not CHRISTINA’S sister, but a cousin. Her father was MICHAEL FERERHAK (1776-1848), brother of Martin. Her mother was DOROTHEA SOPHIA FEUERHAK.

At this point, I want to go back to the earliest records of the FEUERHAK and HEISE families in Wichmannsdorf. Church records are now available in four volumes for the village of Wichsmanndorf, as well as the smaller neighboring villages of Jacobhagen and Claushagen, including baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and death records. However, in the earliest days, the records include only the basics often in the nearly illegible handwriting of parish pastors in the old German script. The records begin in 1682, and it is not an exaggeration to say that there are hundreds of entries for the Feuerhak name, less for the name Heise. When it comes to first names, there is a lot of repetition (Martin, Michael, and Christian for men; Maria, Dorothea, and Christina for women) adding to the confusion of identities.

The first appearance of the name FEUERHAK shows up on the first page of the first Wichmannsdorf church book. After only three records in total for the year 1682, the name MARTIN FEUERHAK appears as the first entry for 1683 recording the birth of a son MICHAEL in the village of Jacobhagen. It soon became obvious that the name MARTIN FEUERHAK would be central to building my family tree. The name MARTIN FEUERHAK occurs 12 times in the first 36 years of church records (1682-1718). The first seven entries all are connected not to Wichmannsdorf, but to the smaller village Jacobhagen. The next five entries are connected to Wichmannsdorf. Although we know nothing about the Feuerhaks before record-keeping began, the pattern seems to be that the Feuerhak first settled in Jacobhagen, and then later a segment of that family moved to Wichmannsdorf.

Those first seven records all followed the same pattern as birth records, roughly translated—

MARTIN FEUERHAK IN JACOBHAGEN, A SON BAPTIZED

WITH THE NAME MICHAEL

The entries are grouped by year. Only 25 years later are the months and dates given. This pattern was repeated for MARTIN’S seven sons—MICHAEL (1683), JOHANN (1685), LUDWIG (1688), SAMUEL (1693), TOBIAS (1695), CHRISTIAN (1698), and HEINRICH (1703). As for the age of Martin, one can assume date some 20 years or so earlier than his oldest child. To give a round number, it’s best to say he was born about 1660. What is most striking is that the mother’s name is not given in these early birth records. So, we don’t know the name of Martin’s wife because their marriage would have likely occurred before the records began in 1682. All seven births are male, although it would be possible that there were daughters born prior to the beginning of these records. Only with the last of these, Heinrich, is there an added note concerning the death of this child. With the high infant mortality rates of that period, one would expect more.

After a gap of seven years following the birth and death of HEINRICH in 1703, the next entry of a MARTIN FEUERHAK occurs on 10 October 1710 when MARTIN FEUERHAK was married to EVA HEISE—that’s the same family name of the mother of CHRISTINA FEUERHAK STRICKERT.

A search back to the early years of the Wichmannsdorf church books produced EVA’s birth in Wichmannsdorf in 1786, along with her father’s name JOACHIM, who had been married in 1785 in Wichmannsdorf. After two decades of no Feuerhaks in Wichmannsdorf, a MARTIN FEUERHAK is tied to Wichmannsdorf. Only, this is not the same MARTIN FEUERHAK mentioned in all those earlier records from Jacobhagen, but his son of the same name. Why is there no record of his birth? My assumption is that the second Martin was born before the Wichsmanndorf (and Jacobhagen and Claushagen) church records began. As the oldest son, he was taking the name of his father, a common practice of that time. In this case, I was fortunate to find another source, this time on Ancestry.com from the Sprung family tree which also traces their ancestry to Wichmannsdorf. They traced their roots to MARTIN FEUERHAK, born in 1681 (one year before the first records), and then to his father MARTIN FEUERHAK, born in 1660.

So, it was the Heise family that brought this member of the Jacobhagen

Feuerhak family to Wichmannsdorf. Four birth records follow in the

next 8 years with this second MARTIN FEUERHAK as father:

CHRISTIAN (1711); CHRISTIAN again (1713) likely after the death of

the first child; MARIA (1715); and SOPHIA (1718).

In this way, the Wichmannsdorf Feuerhak family story began. MARTIN

FEUERHAK (born about 1660) was my Great x 7 Grandfather (great, great,

great, great, great, great, great) and MARTIN FEUERHAK (born 1681)

was my Great x 6 Grandfather.

For these previous paragraphs, I have focused only on 12 church records connected directly to the Martin FEUERHAK family. Are there other Feuerhaks that might be closely related to Martin even though an entry doesn’t include his name? There is a MARIA FEUERHAK who married a young man named Joachim in Jacobhagen in 1696. There is also an ANNA FEUERHAK married a young man name Christian in 1700, also in Jacobhagen. Assuming that they might marry at about the age of 20, the births of these two women would have been in about 1676 and 1680, both before the record keeping began, but within the time frame of Martin Feuerhak’s family. Possibly, or some might say probably, they were daughters of the first MARTIN FEUERHAK.

On the other hand, two entries concerning a CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK in Jacobhagen must be excluded from Martin’s immediate family. In 1703, this CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK married MARIA LOGGANIS. In 1704, the two of them had a daughter ELISABETH. Since first Martin Feuerhak had a son Christian in 1698, and his son MARTIN had a son CHRISTIAN born in 1713, their relationship to yet another CHRISTIAN FEUEHAK in 1703 must be considered as more distant. One other Jacobhagen record is ambiguous—a death record for PETER FEUERHAK in 1692. Since there is no birth record for him, it is more likely that he may have been Martin’s father or his brother.

There are yet other Feuerhaks in the village of Claushagen, which we can bypass at this point in the family tree.

The year 1718-1719 was a critical time the MARTIN FEUERHAK familyin Wichmannsdorf.

21 Jan. 1718 – Sophia Feuerhak was born
7 Feb. 1718—MARTIN FEUERHAK’S wife (SOPHIA’s mother) EVA HEISE FEUERHAK died.
11 Dec. 1718—MARTIN FEUERHAK and MAGDALENA EREDMUTH KOLOFF gave birth to child (JOACHIM)
19 May 1719—MARTIN FEUERHAK married ERDMUTH KOLOFF.

1718
21 Jan. MARTIN FEUERHAK
(Tochter) daughter
Baptized named SOPHIA
Witnesses: PETER HEISE
ELISABETH SOND__IR_____
REGINA SCHULTZE

7TH Feb.
MARTIN FEUERHAK’s
Wife EVA buried

Following the childbearing death of EVA HEISE in 1718, MARTIN FEUERHAK had one more child, a son named JOACHIM FEUERHAK. Joachim plays an important roll as great x 5 grandfather in my family tree. However, there are a couple of unusual details. First, Martin did not remarry until 15 months after Eva’s death, even though he had a newborn child, Sophia, a three-year old daughter, Maria, and a five-year old son, Christian.

19 May 1719
MARTIN FEUERHAK
and
ERDMUTH KOLOFF
consummated

marriage

Second, JOACHIM’s name does not appear in a 1718 birth record. Yet we know he was born in 1718 because of his death record on 5 Sept. 1784 with the notation that he was 66 years old at the time of his death. The entry on 11 Dec. 1718 does not follow the typical birth pattern for this period. As we saw with the birth records from 1683 (Michael) through 1718 (Sophia), the father’s name was written first and the child’s name at the end. By the 1750s, both parents would be listed along with the child. However, in this 11 Dec. 1718 record alone, the pastor wrote Martin’s name first, Magdalena Erdmuth Koloff’s name at the end, but there is no name for the child.

11 December 1718
MARTIN FEUERHAK

reports birth with MAGD ERDMUTH KOLOFF.

See the later note at the bottom!

This refers to JOACHIM who died in 1784

on 5 Sept.

The reason—My assumption is that JOACHIM’s name was not included because he was not baptized at this time because MARTIN and MAGDALENA ERDMUTH had not yet married. Later in the 1780s, the Wichmanndorf parish began to baptize children born out of marriage, and the records reported the names of mother and child. So, can we be sure that this record reflected the birth of JOACHIM? An affirmative answer is confirmed because a later pastor added a note to this 1718 entry, written in Latin in neat smaller letters stating that this entry referred to JOACHIM who died on 5 Sept. 1784. Six months later on 19 May 1719, MARTIN and MAGDALENA ERDMUTH KOLOFF were married. Why did they wait this long? No answer is readily available. Following their marriage, there are several birth records under the name of MARTIN FEUERHAK during the years 1721-1724. His death is recorded in 1732, MAGDELENA ERDMUTH KOLOFF’s death in 1742.

Family tree update—
Martin Feuerhak (b. Abt 1660) great x 7 grandfather
Martin Feuerhak (b. 1781- d. 1732) & Magdalena Koloff (b. 1795- d. 1742) great x 6 grandparents
Joachim Feuerhak (b. 1718-d. 1784) great x 5 grandfather

JOACHIM was married twice. SOPHIE JOGAN (b. 1720) married in 1743 and died at the age of 31 on 7 April 1751, in the midst of a 14-month long span when three of her young children also died. However, it was her firstborn CHRISTIAN, who carried on my family tree as my great x 4 grandfather. On 2 Dec. 1751, Joachim remarried MARIA FEUERHAK. Yes, a Feuerhak married a Feuerhak. Maria was born in 1721 in Jacobhagen, the daughter of ANDREAS FEUERHAK and CHRISTINA SCHROEDER. Unfortunately, there is no record of Andreas’ birth, we know the date in 1692 because his death record in Wichsmanndorf in 1768 states that he was 76 years old. Likely, Andreas’ father was a brother to the first Martin Feuerhak (b. ABT 1660). So, Andreas would be Martin’s nephew, and Maria, Martin’s grand- niece, making JOACHIM and MARIA second cousins. This second marriage of Joachim was also faced with a number of infant deaths, her only child to live to adulthood was MICHAEL FEUERHAK, born 27 Feb. 1758. He married SABINA HEISE’s sister, DOROTHEA ELISABETH, on 20 Nov. 1788. They had a son, JOHANN FEUERHAK (1790 – 1857). MICHAEL lived to the age of 60 dying in 1818. DOROTHEA ELISABETH HEISE, who was born 4 Nov. 1764, lived to the age of 88, dying in 1853. JOACHIM lived to the age of 66, dying on 5 Sept, 1784. MARIA lived to the age of 75, dying on 3 Feb. 1797.

1784
JOACHIM FEUERHAK,

Bauer (farmer) died

66 years old on 5 Sept. (1784)

and was buried on 8 Sept.

Family tree update—
Martin Feuerhak (b. Abt 1660) great x 7 grandfather
Martin Feuerhak (b. 1681- d. 1732) & Magdalena Koloff (b. 1695- d. 1742)          great x 6 grandparents
Joachim Feuerhak (b. 1718-d. 1784) & Sophie Jogan        (b. 1720—d. 1751) great x 5 grandparents
Christian Feuerhak b. 1744 - great x 4 grandfather

For the second consecutive generation, we have a case of a Feuerhak marrying a Feuerhak spouse. CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK, the oldest son of Joachim Feuerhak, married CATHARINA ELISABETH FEUERHAK on 20 Nov 1771 in Wichmannsdorf. By this time, the record keeping included the names of both parents and both grandfathers. The father of CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK was listed as JOACHIM FEUERHAK. The father of CATHARINA FEUERHAK was listed as CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK. The problem is in identifying this CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK among the many with that name. On 13 Dec. 1738, a baptism record identifies a CHRISTIAN FEUERHAK as the father of a girl named CATHARINA. This record included the names of several witnesses including a woman named CATHARINA FEUERHAK, who, I am inclined to believe, may have been her mother. This would make the younger CATHARINA six years older than her husband. However, the marriage record gives her age as 23, and Christian’s age as 27. Christian’s age is accurate, his birth in 1744. But, if Catharina was indeed 23 years old, her birth would be in 1748, not 1738. Is it possible that the pastor made a mistake writing 23 rather than 33? The answer may come from her death record on 11 Nov. 1795, when she is identified as CATHARINA ELISABETH FEUERHAK, spouse of CHRISTIAN, age 61. This gives her birth in 1734, not so accurate, but closer to 1738 than 1748.

CHRISTIAN and CATHARINA had seven children between the years 1772 and 1788. By this time, both the father and the mother’s names were included in the Baptism record. Three of their children died as children. For two of the children, it is difficult to connect later because their names were so common—DOROTHEA ELISABETH and MARIA ELISABETH. Two sons lived long productive lives. MARTIN FEUERHAK (11 Nov. 1773 – 25 Sept 1860)—Martin plays a key role in my family tree, as we will see--and MICHAEL FEUERHAK (12 Dec. 1776 – 9 Oct 1848).

MICHAEL married twice. In 1802, he married DOROTHEA ELISABETH RIEZEN (b. 1779 in Claushagen). However, she and her infant son both died in Dec. 1803. Michael remarried on 26 Jan. 1804 to DOROTHEA SOPHIA FEUERHAK (b. 1786). The two of them had nine children, three who died in childhood. Among them was DOROTHEA ELISABETH FEUERHAK (b. 19 July 1812), who married (25 July 1841) CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH WILHELM HOPPENRATH and together emigrated in 1856 (The same year as Christina Feuerhak and Johann Strickert to settle is Logan, Perth County, Ontario, Canada, where she would die on 26 Dec. 1890. Michael and Dorothy lived until mid-century, Michael dying on 9 Oct. 1848 and Dorothea on 21 Oct. 1850.

Michael’s mother CATHARINA died 11 Nov. 1796. However, CHRISTIAN’s date of death has yet to be determined. As mentioned earlier, the name Christian appears frequently in the Feuerhak family, and none of the death reports fits this Christian Feuerhak.

Family tree update—
Martin Feuerhak (b. Abt 1660) great x 7 grandfather
Martin Feuerhak (b. 1681- d. 1732) & Magdalena Koloff (b. 1695- d. 1742) great x 6 grandparents
Joachim Feuerhak (b. 1718-d. 1784) & Sophie Jogan        (b. 1720—d. 1751) great x 5 grandparents
Christian Feuerhak (b. 1744 - ) & Catharina Elisabeth Feuerhak (13 Dec. 1738) great x 4 grandparents
Martin Feuerhak (b. 11 Nov. 1773 – 25 Sept 1860) great x 3 grandfather

On 26 Jan. 1797, MARTIN FEUERHAK married SABINA HEISE, born in Wichmannsdorf on 9 May 1772, the daughter of Christian Heise and Dorothea Meyer. Sabina’s birth record in German script follows:

Unlike the following to records, Sabina is not given a middle name, nor is she in other records. She is known as SABINA HEISE. The text gives her father’s name, CHRISTIAN HEISE, followed by his Ehefrau (wife), DOROTHEA MEYER, then at the end of the first line, “9th”, and at the beginning of the second line “May geboren,” then the date “13th getauft” (baptized). The three witnesses are

PETER HEISE (the same name as Sabina’s grandfather, he would have been 82. The last word before the number 2 does look like it could be grossvater. However, Perhaps this may refer to another relative
Euphrosyne Meyer, Ehefrau of Friedrich Bade
Dorothea Elisabeth Klewen, Ehefrau of Johann Meyer (Sabina’s uncle).

Notice also that Sabina’s family name is written here with a final “n” as HEISEN- the same as with her name in the baptism record for Christina Feuerhak and also for her death record (see below). However, the name is written more often as HEISE, as is the case here for her father Christian HEISE and the witness Peter HEISE.

It was SABINA HEISE who gave birth to my great great grandmother, CHRISTINA FEUERHAK, the link to the STRICKERT family.

Just as with Sabina Heise, so Christina Feuerhak, has no middle name, even though that practice has become very common by this time. Within several decades it would be common for German men and women to have four names. However, Christina is baptized simply as Christina. In the right-hand column, the pastor wrote her parents names as Martin Feuerhak, first, and then Sabina Heise (here written with a final n), born on 27th of January (1801) and baptized on 5 February. The baptismal witnesses:

JOHANN HEISE – probably Sabina’s brother b. 1769- d. 1833.
MICHAEL FEUERHAK and his wife born Heise—this would have been Martin’s uncle Michael (b. 1758- d. 18--) and his wife DOROTHEA ELISABETH HEISE (1764- 1853), Sabina’s older sister.
Meyer—no first name is given, and his wife’s maiden name is uncertain. Probably a cousin of Sabina whose mother, Dorothea Heise geb. Meyer had died 6 years earlier.

On CHRISTINA’s 26th birthday in 1827, she married JOHANN STRICKERT, in the village of Weggun where they would raise one daughter and five sons. In 1856, they would emigrate to Canada. Sabina gave birth to five other children. Three died as young children—MARIA ELISABETH (1799-1804); CHRISTIAN (1803-1804); and a second MARIA ELISABETH (1806-1806). An older sister, DOROTHEA ELISABETH, was born on 18 Sept. 1797, and married GOTTFRIED EIKMANN on 18 Nov. 1823. Her youngest sister, DOROTHEA SOPHIA, was born 23 June 1807, although nothing is known about her after this date. When Christina was only nine years old, her mother, Sabina died on 20 Oct. 1810.

In the church record of SABINA’s death, she is named in the first column of names: Sabina, born Heise (once again the final letter “n” appears). This description suggests that she was well known and familiar, at least to the pastor/record keeper, that she didn’t need to be identified by her married name. Clearly, a second, distinctive hand added above the original entry her married name Feuerhak (not the usual spelling). The typical death record is much shorter than what appears here. That typical form includes the place of death, the name of the closest relative, the age of the deceased, the date of death, then at the very end, the date of burial. In this entry, the common information appears at the end of line one, all of line two, the beginning of line three, and finally line nine. Basically, it states that Sabina, wife of Martin Feuerhak, died at the age of 38 years and 4 months on the twentieth of October (the German word for 20—zwanzig made into an ordinal number by adding ‘te’). . . and was buried on 24 October (1810) in Wichmannsdorf. The rest for the most part appears to be scribbled German script which would need an expert to decipher the meaning of the text. Totally unique for death records is a Biblical citation at the end of the text—the Prophet Isaiah 54:8-9—' I have hidden my face a little from you in the moment of anger; but with eternal grace I will have mercy on you, speaks the LORD, your Savior.' This seems to be related to the young age of Sabina—just 38—at the time of her death. We have seen that some mothers in the Feuerhak family tree died in relation to giving birth. This was not the case with Sabina whose last childbirth occurred in June 1807. Perhaps it was some other illness or a tragic accident.

Sabina’s husband, Martin, remarried on 22 Nov. 1810 to MARIA CHRISTINA NEDOMS, born 23 May 1787; died 16 Dec. 1851. Maria gave birth to seven children – Christina’s half-sisters and half-brothers—between 1812 and 1829. Three children died as infants—MARTIN (1812-1813); WILHELMINE FRIEDERIKE (1824-1824); and DOROTHEA SOPHIE (1827-1827). For three other children—JOHANN MARTIN (b. 2 Nov. 1813); MICHAEL (6 Feb. 1816); and CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH CARL (5 April 1822)—we do not have further information. One daughter, WILHELMINE FRIEDERIKE FEUERHAK (b. 2 Nov. 1829), married JOHANN DANIEL GOTTLIEB RATHMAN (b. 1822) in Wichmannsdorf on 17 Feb. 1853). MARIA CHRISTINA NEDOMS died on 16 Dec. 1851 at the age of 64 and MARTIN FEUERHAK died on 22 Sept. 1860 at the age of 86 years, 10 months, and 14 days.

Family tree update—
Martin Feuerhak (b. Abt 1660) great x 7 grandfather
Martin Feuerhak (1681- 1732)            & Magdalena Koloff (1695- 1742)       great x 6 grandparents
Joachim Feuerhak (1718-1784)           & Sophie Jogan (1720—1751) great x 5 grandparents
Christian Feuerhak (1744 -      ) & Catharina Elisabeth Feuerhak (1738-1796) great x 4 grandparents
Martin Feuerhak (1773–1860)             & Sabina Heise (1772-1810) great x 3 grandparents
Christina Feuerhak (1801-1890) & Johann Strickert (1806-1895) great x 2 grandparents.

While it is traditional for the family name—in this case Feuerhak—to be passed on through the males of the family tree, Sabina’s heritage is no less important, going back to the early days of record keeping in Wichmannsdorf. We have seen a number of the Heise family married to Feuerhaks including Eva Heise, Dorothea Elisabeth Heise, Johann Heise, as well as Sabina Heise. Several of the Heise family have served as witnesses for Feuerhak baptisms such as Peter Heise for Martin Heise’s daughter Sophia in 1718. The first Heise mentioned by name in the Wichmanndorf records was Eva Heise who married Martin Feuerhak in 1710, and so, was possibly born before the church records began in 1682.

As for the line of Sabina, PETER HEISE plays a central role as her grandfather (and therefore my great x5 grandfather). He was likely born about 1790 (and perhaps the brother of Eva.) On 2 Dec. 1715, He married SOPHIA SCHULTZE. However, she died about seven years later. Peter remarried on 21 Oct. 1723. A year later, CHRISTIAN HEISE was born 3 Sept. 1824.

The above record gives the birth of CHRISTIAN HEISE in 1824, a good example of the difficulty in reading old German Script. The last two words in the first line are the name Peter Heise. The second word of the second line is the German word Sohn (son), followed by Tauste (baptized). Then the last word of that line is the name Christian. Lines 3-5 give the baptism witnesses. The 1823 records do not include the marriage of PETER HEISE and MARGARETA GOTSCHEN (probably because it took place in another town). So, a later pastor added a note identifying Christian’s mother and the date of their marriage.

The CHRISTIAN HEISE named here married DOROTHEA MEYER in 1755, Sabina’s parents. In addition to Sabina, they had eight other children: MARTIN (b. 1756); CHRISTIAN (b. 1759); MARIA ELISABETH (1761-1771); EUPHROSYNE (b. 1763); DOROTHEA ELISABETH (1764-1853); JOHANN (1769-1833); DANIEL (1775-1844); and CHARLOTTE (1777-1778).

This brings to conclusion this summary of the Feuerhak-Heise family context for CHRISTINA FEUERHAK, my great great grandmother. It is by no means a complete record of all the Feuerhaks and Heises in Wichmannsdorf. There are many others.

My source has been the church record books for Wichmannsdorf, available online from the Evanglische Lutheran Kirche Archives in Berlin. In addition to my “Fred Strickert Family Tree”, I have created a “Christina Feuerhak Wichmannsdorf Family Tree” on ancestry.com for the material described in this paper. I have documented each entry under a simple system illustrated by the code used for the birth entry for Christina Feuerhak: Book B – Bild 106. The 4 volumes are identified by the letters A, B, C, or D as follows

Kirchenbuch 1682-1777 -- A.
Kirchenbuch 1778-1807 -- B
Kirchenbuch 1808-1864 -- C
Kirchenbuch 1865- -- D

The German word Bild (meaning picture or image) reflects generally the equivalent of page number.

Strickert Family History