Jakob and Melchior: What's Known from the Banat Side

Summarizing families and movements of Jakob and Melchior and asking questions.

After jumping over the brick wall of my Johann Stumpf (born 1838ish in Kathreinfeld), and I mean jumping over as in the wall remains, I put together hundreds of Stumpf families. Read about my descent into madness in How It Started and How It's Going.

The progenitors of my group of Stumpfs were Jakob and Melchior. They might have been brothers. This blog post is to summarize what I have gathered on these two men.

Where I Found the Pieces of the Puzzle:

Sources that shed light on Jakob and Melchior include Wilhelm & Kallbrunner's Quellen zur deutschen Siedlungsgeschichte in Südosteruropa [Sources for the History of German Settlement in Southeast Europe], the Stader series Sammelwerk Donauschwäbischer Kolonisten [Collection of Daunbe Schwaben Colonists] and family books for the villages of Kolut, Gakowa, Grabatz, Stefansfeld, Kathreinfeld, and Lazarfeld. I hit the jackpot this past year when I found Stumpf entries in a Kolut online family book by searching the Verein für Computergenealogie (compgen.de) website genealogy.net with their online village family books! (All the sources used are listed below in a Works Cited list after the footnotes.)

What I Have Learned and Deduced:

Sketching a Timeline

Based on these sources, here’s a timeline of Jakob and Melchior’s movements:

September 1764 & September 1765 Residence in Gakowa

Heading for the section with Jakob and Melchior, from Wilhelm & Kallbrunner's Quellen zur deutschen Siedlungsgeschichte in Südosteruropa, page 14 (FHL film 897413, image 442)

First appearance is on the Batschka Settlers List (Batscher Ansiedlungsliste) 1763 - 1768 (Wilhelm & Kallbrunner, 16). Both are listed as being residents of Gakova [1].
Melchior is listed with the date September 1764 and Jakob with September 1765.

Subheading for the village of Gakova (Gakovo), from Wilhelm & Kallbrunner's Quellen zur deutschen Siedlungsgeschichte in Südosteruropa, page 15, (FHL film 897413, image 442)

Jacobus Stumph [sic] and Melchior Stumpf on the list, from Wilhelm & Kallbrunner's Quellen zur deutschen Siedlungsgeschichte in Südosteruropa, page 16, (FHL film 897413, image 443)

Immigrants from southwest Germany, western France (Alsace and Lorraine), and even Luxembourg to the Hapsburg-held lands in Hungary were asked to register in Vienna, where they would be assigned to a village and given means to start a life in a new home.  Many immigrants for various reasons did not register in Vienna.  When I first found Jakob and Melchior in this work, I thought it was telling me they registered in Vienna on these dates. Upon further reflection while translating and pondering over the footnotes, I think this is actually a list of residents of Gakowa and not a Viennese registration.

Feb 1765 Marriage in Kolut

The Kolut online family book lists a February 1765 marriage of Melchior to Anna Maria Forvitt. Kolut is next to Gakowa. This was especially exciting because no where else in the other family books is her last name or their marriage date listed!

1764 & 1766 & 1767 Births in Gakowa

The online Kolut family book lists Jakob and Anna as having children born in Gakowa:

1. Margaretha in 1762
• Margaretha is probably born elsewhere, including before they immigrated
2. Johann Adam in August 1764
• Johann Adam was baptized in August 1764 in Kolut
3. Martin in 1767
• Martin was born approximately in 1767, but cited from a Status Animarum and not a baptism record

Melchior and Maria Anna have one son listed in the online Kolut family book and one son is listed in the Grabatz family book and church records:

1. Lorenz (born June 1766 in Gakowa, baptized in June 1766 in Kolut)
2. Johann Adam (born approx. 1767 in Gakowa from his death entry in 1775 in Grabatz)

Gakowa Family Book lists:

• Jakob with wife Katharina and the three children (other sources list Jakob's wife as Anna)
• Melchior and wife Maria Anna with no children
• Eva Elisabeth, with unnamed parents, born about 1754; perhaps a sister to Jakob and Melchior?

1769 in Grabatz

The Stumpf families had moved to Grabatz by August 1769 when Melchior’s daughter's baptism is recorded in the church book. Jakob is noted in the Grabatz church books with his marriage to Sabine in 1772.

Stader’s Sammelwerk notes that Melchior is on the Grabatz settlers list in 1770 as 1 man, 1 woman, and 1 child age 11-17. His living sons, Lorenz and Johann Adam would have been 5 and 4 years old, respectively. Perhaps they didn’t count the little ones? Not sure if he had older children?? Perhaps not his child, but a foster or servant? But really, his estimated birth year of 1742 would eliminate him from having a child between the age of 11-17 in 1770. This could be Eva Elisabeth from the Gakowa family book, approximately age 16 in 1770, and possibly his sister.

The two men spent the rest of their lives in Grabatz. Jakob died there in 1810, his wife Sabine died there in 1811. Melchior died there in 1818 and his wife Maria Anna died in Lazarfeld in 1827.

The last Stumpf family event in Grabatz happened in June 1819. The families moved on.  More on this in my next blog installment.

Where did these men come from?

Jakob’s Birth and Origin Clues

Birth is estimated to be 1745 in the Grabatz family book (most likely based on his recorded age at death) but estimated to be born in 1739 in the Gakowa and Kolut family books. The 1739 date is from earlier records, so likely more correct.  Sources list his origin as being from the "Reich" and from "Pfalz."

Melchior’s Birth and Origin Clues

Melchior is estimated to be born about 1742 across all the sources. The Grabatz family book lists Pfalz as birthplace, but the Stefansfeld family book and the Kühn Lazarfeld family book list Schwaben as birthplace. Stader's Sammelwerk only lists "Reich."

Family Groups Based on All the Clues

In family group form, here is a summary of what I have discovered and determined [2]:

STUMPF Jakob
  *abt 1739 or 1745 “Pfalz”/"Reich"        †16 May 1810 Grabatz
  Ꝏ
  NN Anna or Katharina
  *abt 1746
    1. Margaretha     *abt 1762
    2. Adam           ~15 Aug 1764 Kolut    †24 Jan 1822 Zichydorf
    3. Martin         *abt 1767
  Ꝏ 06 Oct 1772 Grabatz
  LONGIN Sabine

  *abt 1741  Lorraine                       †21 Oct 1811 Grabatz
    4. Margaretha     *28 Jul 1773 Grabatz  †18 Feb 1778 Grabatz
    5. Elisabeth      *19 Sep 1775 Grabatz  †24 Aug 1776 Grabatz
    6. Jakob          *03 Jun 1777 Grabatz  †11 Jun 1777 Grabatz
    7. Johann Michael *22 Jun 1778 Grabatz
    8. Jakob          *25 Oct 1780 Grabatz  †       1859 Stefansfeld
    9. Anton          *17 Jun 1783 Grabatz  †06 Jun 1784 Grabatz


STUMPF Melchior
  *abt 1742 “Pfalz” or “Schwaben”/"Reich"   †29 Nov 1818 Grabatz
  Ꝏ 17 Feb 1765 Kolut
  FORVITT Maria Anna
  *abt 1741                                 †29 Nov 1827 Lazarfeld
    1. Lorenz         *   Jun 1766 Gakowa/~24 Jun 1766 Kolut
    2. Johann Adam    *   abt 1767 Gakowa   †31 May 1775 Grabatz
    3. Franziska      *10 Aug 1769 Grabatz  †14 Aug 1769 Grabatz
    4. Jakob          *29 Oct 1770 Grabatz  †25 Jan 1806 Grabatz
    5. Elisabeth      *02 Feb 1773 Grabatz
    6. Johann Adam    *25 May 1775 Grabatz
    7. Margaretha     *16 Apr 1776 Grabatz  †23 Apr 1776 Grabatz
    8. Anna Maria     *28 May 1777 Grabatz
    9. Johann Adam    *15 Feb 1780 Grabatz
   10. Barbara        *15 Feb 1781 Grabatz  †12 Jun 1781 Grabatz
   11. Katharina      *29 Jun 1782 Grabatz
   12. Adam           *22 Dec 1785 Grabatz  † 25 Jun 1786 Grabatz


STUMPF Eva Elisabeth
  *abt 1754

Comment on Johann Adam

Melchior has three sons named Johann Adam.  Yes, three.  Oh, and another son named Adam.  In the Grabatz family book, the death in 1775 of Johann Adam was attributed to the second Johann Adam, but the entry in the church book indicates he was 8 years old when he died, which would mean it was the first Johann Adam.  Stader's Sammelwerk agrees with this assessment.  The fates of the other Johann Adams are unknown.

Missing Info

• The death of Jakob’s wife Anna or Katharina, presumably before Oct 1772.

• The deaths or other information of some of their children, especially Jakob’s son Martin and Melchior’s sons Lorenz and the two Johann Adams.  Did they die on the move to Grabatz, die in Grabatz, or live to adulthood and move somewhere I haven't found them?

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Footnotes

[1] Gakowa is the German name for the village.  It was also known as Gakova.  It is currently called Gakovo and is in Serbia.

[2] I'm using the format used in the family books, including the symbols * for birth; ~ for baptized; ꝏ for marriage; † for death.

Works Used to Compile Jakob and Melchior’s Families

If any researcher would like copies of scans I have or direct links to online sources, let me know.

Awender, Hans, compiler. Familienbuch der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde Stephansfeld, Banat, 1796-1945: Vorfahren und Nachfahren. Salzburg, Austria: Stephansfelder Heimatausschuß, 1998.

Bayer, Johann. "Ortsfamilienbuch Kolut." Online family book. Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. (CompGen). Genealogy.net. https://www.online-ofb.de/kolut: 2021.

Hl. Maria von der immerwährenden Hilfe [St. Mary of the Perpetual Help] (Grabatz, Torontál, Hungary). Kirchenbuch, 1768-1881. Digitized Microfilm. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, http:/familysearch.org : 2021.

Ivanov, Alfred, compiler. Familienbuch der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde Grabatz: 1768-2008. N.p.: HOG Grabatz, 2008.

Kühn, Josef. Familienbuch der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde Lazarfeld im Banat : und ihrer Filialen Klel (KkL.) und Jankahid (Jhd.): 1800-1834/1852. Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany: Josef Kühn und Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Veröffentlichung Banater Familienbücher, 2004.

Schnaterbeck, Johann and Michael Hutfluss, compilers. Ortssippenbuch Gakowa (Gákova, Gakovo, Gádor): Batschka. 2 volumes. Kornwestheim, Germany: Heimatortsgemeinschaft Gakowa, 1994.

Stader, Stefan, compiler. Sammelwerk Donauschwäbischer Kolonisten. 9 volumes. Sindelfingen, Germany: Donauschwäbischer Familienforscher, 1997-2017.

Wilhelm, Franz and Josef Kallbrunner. Quellen zur deutschen Siedlungsgeschichte in Südosteuropa. Munich: Reinhardt, 1936. Digitized microfilm 897413 is available at FamilySearch at https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/48684.