Behind the Brick Wall: List of Stumpf Boys Who "Disappear"

This post and the next post are lists of Stumpf boys and men who have brick walls.

*NO DATA EXCEPT BIRTH*

In compiling the early generations of descendants of the brothers Jakob and Melchior Stumpf in the Banat, I came across several children who had a birth/baptism entry, but no other information.  In my database, I marked them with a death location of *NO DATA EXCEPT BIRTH* so I could find them easily with a search.  I then added the brick wall image with a question mark as their profile picture, so I could identify them at a glance in their families.  

I was hoping as I dug in deeper, I would be able to close out some of these brick walls.  These are the names from the first few generations that I so far cannot connect with their fates, although I do have a guess on one of them.  These are only from the first few generations.  There are lots of people in the later generations I also don't know their fates, however, I felt the earlier generations were foundational to building the tree of this Stumpf family.  I’m left wondering if these unaccounted for Stumpf boys died young or grew to adulthood and moved away to a village whose records I haven't accessed or joined the military.

Profile picture for boy whose fate is unknown. Image created by author from clipart.

List of Missing Boys

Here is a list of the boys that are brick walls coming forward in time, grouped by families.  (To see the family groups for Jakob and Melchior, see Jakob and Melchior: What's Known from the Banat Side.)

Son of Jakob and earlier wife, either Katharina or Anna.

Martin was born about 1767.  No baptism entry found and I suspect the name comes from the Settler’s list where he is listed with sister Margaretha and brother Johann Adam.  Margaretha was born in Dörlesberg before they immigrated. Johann Adam was baptized in 1764 in Kolut with a birth noted as Gakowa.

• Did Martin die in Gakowa and that was not recorded, or maybe on the move to Grabatz?
• Did he exists at all?

Sons of Jakob’s son Johann Michael and wife Magdalena Krämer 

Josef born 21 Jan 1806 in Grabatz

Jakob born 12 Mar 1824 in Stefansfeld

Son of Jakob’s son Jakob and wife Elisabeth Unterreiner

Jakob born 10 Dec 1803 in Stefansfeld

Sons of Melchior and Maria Anna

Lorenz born June 1766 in Gakowa and baptized in Kolut.

• Did he die in Gakowa and it wasn’t recorded, or maybe on the move to Grabatz?

Johann Adam was born 25 May 1775 in Grabatz

(Another) Johann Adam was born 15 Feb 1780 in Grabatz

Son of Melchior’s son Jakob and Katharina Bartl

Michael born 26 Jul 1803 in Grabatz

Son of Melchior’s grandson Peter and Anna Maria Neurohr

Friedrich born 28 May 1829 in Kathreinfeld

• There are some Franz Stumpfs who are not connected to their birth families who I'll list in the next post, but this one seems to be not the right age, too young for one and too old for the other to be either of them.  Also, the nickname for Friedrich is probably Fritz and not Franz.

Son of Melchior’s great-grandson (and Peter’s son) Johann [Michael] and Anna Maria Putz

Johann born 15 Jul 1841 in Kathreinfeld.

• This actually might be my 3x-great-grandfather who married Katharina Hoffmann
• With a birth of 1841, Johann would definitely be affected by the gap in records of Kathreinfeld. 

Jakob and Melchior: Their Descendants

The previous blog post followed Jakob and Melchior Stumpf from Gakowa to Grabatz. This post looks at their sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons tracking where the families went after leaving Grabatz.

Villages Full of Stumpfs

There are several villages in the Banat that have large numbers of Stumpf families.  Figuring out how they all fit together, if they fit together, and where they came from might help me figure out how my ancestor Johann (born about 1838) connects to the rest of them.

Jakob’s Descendants

Jakob lived in Grabatz from at least 1772 until he died in 1810.

Jakob's sons' families went to Zichydorf and Stefansfeld.

Jakob's son Adam moved to Zichydorf between 1789 and 1792, before his father’s death. Adam's son, Johann Peter, also stayed in Zichydorf.

Johann Michael is the next surviving son of Jakob. He moves to Stefansfeld between 1819 and 1821. The family stays in Stefansfeld with a few grandsons moving to Sartscha.

Jakob’s last (surviving to adulthood) son, Jakob, married in Grabatz, spent a few years in Stefansfeld, moved to Zichydorf for a few years, but moved back to Stefansfeld to stay. One of his grandsons moved on to Setschan.

Melchior’s Descendants

Melchior lived in Grabatz from at least 1770 until he died in 1818.  His widow died in Lazarfeld nine years later on the same date.  

Only one son is known to survive to adulthood: Jakob (*1770). There are three sons whose fate is unknown. Lorenz (*1766), Johann Adam (*1775), and Johann Adam (*1780). In some family books, Johann Adam (*1780) was assigned as a groom of Elisabeth Unterreiner before she married a son of Jakob. No marriage record was found in the Grabatz church book, so I'm assuming this was a compilation error.

Melchior's grandsons went to Kathreinfeld and Klek.

The one surviving son, Jakob (*1770) who died in 1806 at 36 years old, had two sons: Peter and Jakob. Peter went to Kathreinfeld and Jakob went to Klek. This is also captured in the 1828 Census, which recorded landowners.  Peter's sons stayed in Kathreinfeld.  Some of Jakob's sons stayed in Klek and two moved to Deutsch Etschka with one of them dying in Sigmundfeld.

Please enjoy this graphic

To better visualize the movement of the Stumpf family, I created this graphic.  

Note: Dates of moves are approximate and based on dates of known events. Only males known to have families are shown, since the Stumpf surname was the priority of this exercise. In cases where the year of death is unknown, there are alternating colored and uncolored boxes with a question mark in the final box.  In cases where the year of death is known, the colored bar ends with a cross in the death year column.

 

Here's a link to a pdf version for your perusal.

Update 20 Mar 2023: Corrected spelling of Stefansfeld.

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?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.