1. Schwenk Ancestry · 2. Lieb Ancestry · 3. Breymayer Ancestry
THE LIEB LINEAGE
First Generation
Johannes Lieb, Member of the Local Court of Wildberg.
Wildberg lies about 35 kilometers west-southwest of Stuttgart on Hiway 463, the Schwarzwald Bäderstrasse. [ TOOLS Section ] Laichingen lies at a distance of 75 kilometers east of Wildberg. This community was under the rule of the House of Württemberg as were all those we have talked about earlier.
All we really know of this ancestor Johannes Lieb comes from the church marriage book entry made in Pfullingen in 1659, when his son Johann Christoph married. The clerk/scribe or pastor referred to the father of the groom as, "Herr" Johann Lib, member of the village court in Wildberg. Keep in mind that the title or form of address, Herr, was not applied loosely in those days - unlike our term, Mister, used rather indiscriminately today in America. A Herr so-and-so was a burgher of high social standing. Note the spelling of this family name. Was that the way this family spelled it in 1659, or did the man recording this event simply spell it as it sounded? The latter is more likely.
The surviving church records of Wildberg begin with the year 1558; that book contains the marriages. The death record book begins in 1615; the recorded births begin in the year 1646. It is likely that the births and deaths were recorded earlier - probably beginning back in 1558 - but were lost or destroyed, perhaps during the madness of the 30 Years War.
Johannes Lieb was born in all likelihood around 1600 and probably there in Wildberg. The search for his death date, with the hope of determining his birth year, was unsuccessful, however this did yield some information. An entry made on July 4, 1635, reads, "Johannes, Johannes Lieben's seven week old baby died." In March of the preceding year another infant, whose father was shown as Johann Lieben, died. This was about two years before baby Johann Christoph Lieb, our ancestor, was born. It seems very likely that the above recorded father of the two dead infants was our Johannes Lieb. The pastor did not take the effort to record the name of the mother; because of that omission, we may never have learned the name of our "Matriarch" were it not for a death entry to be mentioned in the following paragraph (this really was no omission; the mother of the deceased was, by custom, simply not listed, unless the deceased were born out of wedlock. Beginning in around 1808, a standardized form included/required the listing of both parents). A search through the marriage book, from 1618 through 1640, did not reveal the name of Johannes Lieb and his bride. It is possible the marriage took place elsewhere, in his or her home village.
While searching the registers of the Wildberg Lutheran Church, a few "Lieb-like" family names were observed. There was a Hans Lieben or Liebe living there; he was then Burgermeister (mayor). And there was a Johannes Löblin who married there in September of 1635. There was no family name spelled "Lieb" observed, but that means little in view of the haphazard ways of spelling in those days - remember how this name was spelled in Pfullingen in 1659! Also, the given name Johannes was often spelled and spoken as Hans or Johann; and so it may be that the above recorded Hans, the Burgermeister, was indeed our Johannes Lieb. And then a death entry on April 15, 1641 tends to support this probability and at the same time reveals the name and birth year of his wife - our matriarch Lieb; on that date, a Margarethe, 40 year old wife of Hans Liebe, Burgermeister, died.
Entries made in the death book reveal much about the times. The Pest - the Plague - was taking a horribly heavy toll in the years around 1635 throughout this part of Germany as well as the results of the 30 Year's War. Often, entire families died within a short time of this dreaded infectious disease. A man of about forty years of age and close friend of the pastor died on the same day as did one of his children; they were buried together. Another married couple died during the same day on a particular date; the pastor noted that the one spouse "was feeling just fine during the morning", then died suddenly that evening not long after his spouse had died a lingering death. Many soldiers appear in the death entries - most recorded as "unknown." Many babies were recorded only as "Soldats Kind", or soldier's baby. It is little wonder that the death book entries were so brief; the pastor had his hands full trying to cope with so many funerals and the grief and despair of the survivors. This time period was surely one of the darkest hours in the history of this part of Europe.
Second Generation
Johann Christoph Lieb, Clergyman
Johann Christoph Lieb was born in 1636 in Wildberg. How do we know that in view of the birth records not beginning there until the year of 1646? This would have to be extracted from his death entry, but this was never uncovered by this descendant. It seems that someone in America was searching his/her Lieb roots about ten years ago, then entered this data into the vast computer files of the Morman Family History Library in Salt Lake City. A computer printout from what is called the International Genealogical Index contains the name of this ancestor, his year and place of birth and father's name. It does not show the place of death. It is likely the same researcher, who found the marriage entry of our J.C. Lieb in the Pfullingen Church microfilms of the Morman Church. It was this information which provided the clue to this writer to order the same microfilm from the Morman Family History Library in Salt Lake City. We owe this unknown-to-us person (though the name and address can be obtained) much gratitude. The I.G.I. computer printout shows just the basic data: names of Johann Christoph Lieb and his bride; the date and place of the marriage. The microfilm reveals much more. We will come to that soon.
What do we know about the life of this man up to the date of his marriage in 1659 at the age of twenty-three? Practically nothing But that too can be said for one of his descendants, our John Schwenk, born about two centuries after this Lieb's birth in Wildberg. The paper trail is scanty. We are left with little choice but to speculate
It is likely that his father, Herr Johannes Lieb, was a prosperous man. It is also probable that he sent this son to the University of Tübingen to study theology. Tübingen is located about 30 kilometers south of Stuttgart and a two hour brisk walk west of Pfullingen where he would later marry. It is probable he met his future wife in Tübingen, for she was born there on Feb. 14, 1642. It could be that they met in Pfullingen, however, while he was serving as Diaconus in the Lutheran Church. Her father, Herr Joachim Christoph Bansovius, was a prosperous financial adminstrator in Pfullingen at the time of the wedding. One wonders if Johann was still a student at the University of Tübingen (founded in 1477 where also our ancestor Wolfgang Fridrich Blifers studied theology in the early 1700s before taking over the pastorate in Mundingen in 1719) while serving as Diaconus in Pfullingen when he married?
The following is the translation of the marriage entry in the Pfullingen Ehebuch:
Anno 1659 "on the 31st of October a wedding was held. Herr M. Johann ChristophLib, local Diaconus, the lawful son of Herr Johann Lib, member of the court in Wildberg: with Maria Margretha, the lawful daughter of Herr Joachim Christoph Bansovius, local financial adminstrator."
The reader may have noted the letter "M" before the groom's name. This denoted his educational attainment, a degree of sorts conferred onto the theological student who had passed his final exams.
One year after those vows were said, the first baby arrived. This was our Samuel Christoph Lieb, and the event occurred on October 22. The pastor entered the parents' names beneath the Eltern column, which was the normal thing to do, but he added beneath those names the date of their wedding; that was very unusual! Beneath the heading, Gevatter Leut (Godparents) appear the names of many important-sounding people. There is a Herr Rumnehn who has something to do with "the highness of Württemberg"; there is an M. Johann Wilhelmus, the head pastor of this church; there is a Frau ( title for wife of a man of status) Regina Susanna, wife of Ludwig Weber who has an important position (untranscribable for this student of Altschrift) in Tübingen; and a Anna Susanna someone.
Two years later, on October 21, a baby girl was born and named after her mother Maria Margaretha. Once again, the Gevatter Leut were influential people in the surrounding communities. With both entries, the family name was spelled, Lieb.
The search for other children born to this couple through the years to 1681 yielded nothing except names of children born to a Simon Peter Lieb and wife Anna Johanna. Was this a brother of our Johann Christoph? Probably not. Poor Simon carried no title of Herr before his name, but this does not exclude the possibility of sibling kinship. This was the only other Lieb name observed in the church books.
Did Johann and Maria Margaretha have other children? Probably. It is likely they moved to another community not long after 1662 where he may have taken over the pastorate of a church. A search in the Tübingen church birth records between the years of 1663 and 1670 revealed not one Lieb name. Because Tübingen is such a large city, the church there created an index system for births and deaths. This aids the inquirer greatly. Only two Lieb family names appear in the birth index of this large city - a Hans Ulrich and Johann Ulrich, the fathers. Incidentally, the name Schwenk was not seen in the Tübingen records, nor earlier in those of Pfullingen.
Where and when the life of our Johann Christoph Lieb ended, we do not know. Perhaps those answers lie in the files of that researcher who sent data about these Liebs to the Morman Church archives. We do know, however, a little bit about what happened to the wife of J.C. Lieb. For that we owe our gratitude to Herr Fritz Braun, current pastor of the church in Schopfloch, who so graciously sent several photocopied documents in July of 1994 to this descendant of one of his predecessors! But you must read on.
Third Generation
Samuel Christoph Lieb, Clergyman
Samuel Christoph Lieb was born on October 22, 1660 in Pfullingen. Where he grew up remains an unswered question. It is likely he too attended the University of Tübingen. The record of the date and place of his marriage rests on a page of a book in a parish church somewhere in the Stuttgart region. Sometime around the middle of 1690, he arrives in the village of Dürrwangen and introduces himself in the Taufbuch, birth register, as the new pastor of this church (see that reproduced document and his beautiful penmanship directly below). Following his signature, he adds the name Pfullingen. This may have meant to indicate the community of his prior pastorate. A search in the marriage register of Pfullingen disclosed nothing regarding his marriage.
He was a married man when he arrived in Dürrwangen, for his wife Anna Margaretha, born Eberhardt, delivered their first child in November of that year. It is likely they married in 1689 or early 1690. A clue as to where was again provided by some nameless researcher. An International Genealogical Index printout shows that an Anna Margarete Eberhardt was born in Nürtingen (not far north of Dettingen/Erms) on 3 January, 1660, whose parents were Hans Jacob Eberhardt and Anna Dorothea Schopper. This is most probably the same Margaretha who married our Samuel Christoph, although her later death entry indicates she was born in December of 1664. The microfilmed parish records of Nürtingen were not sent for.
In the years between their arrival in Dürrwangen to March 13, 1699, five babies were born to this couple; three girls and two boys. One of the latter was our Johann Friderich; he was born 18 March, 1692. He takes center stage in the following chapter.
On Dec. 29, 1700, the pastor M. Samuel Christoph Lieb of the Dürrwangen parish is replaced by Sub Ministero (a title appearing in most of the church books meaning, minister) M. Georg Conrad Nietsamen. And so now the question arises to where did our Samuel and family move? Fortunate for our search, someone in that parish church made an entry in a Family Register book. Samuel, his wife and the five children appear in this very early-developed precursor of the Family Register concept. Written on the right hand side of this entry were the words. "Pastor hier, 1690-1700, dann remotus in Diaconiam Ebingensem." A map of this region shows an Ebingen located 10 kilometers east of Dürrwangen, hence a microfilm of that parish was ordered.
There in Ebingen on Oct. 6, 1701, a sixth child comes into this family, a Jonathan Martin Lieb. We will see more of him later in the next generation chapter. In the meantime, our Samuel C. Lieb was serving as pastor or assistant pastor there in Ebingen. In 1705 on Feb. 8, in the Ebingen death book, there appears a lengthy and reverential description of the death and funeral of one of the highly respected members of this community. And this was Anna Margaretha, wife of the pastor, Samuel Christoph Lieb. Some of the words are smudged and illegible, but her age at death - 40 years and 2 months - is readable. She died of an illness, and was buried on the 11th. The handwriting of the entry appears to be that of the grieving husband.
Three months later, in the Schopfloch parish birth register, the same handwriting appears - that of our now widowed Samuel Christoph Lieb. He introduces himself as the new pastor before writing in a birth entry on May the 11th. And before very long, and through the next 10 years, he would also be entering the names of his own children. On Sept. 26, 1706, the first child ever born in this village bearing the family name, Lieb, was born. This was Johann Erhard; the father was our Samuel C. Lieb.
Thanks once again to the efforts of another unnamed researcher and the facilities of the Morman Church, we know that Samuel C. Lieb remarried four months after taking over the pastorate in Schopfloch. This took place on Sept. 15, 1705 in Esslingen, a city some 15 miles northwest of Schopfloch. The bride was Dorothea Magdalena Weber. She was then age 27. How they met, the scanty paper trail does not reveal.
It is little wonder that our clergyman ancestor remarried so soon after the death of his first wife; here he was with five children (the first born child died in 1698) under the age of thirteen. He faced the same problems which our Bernhard Schwenk did in 1707 over in Feldstetten when his young wife died suddenly in childbirth.
As mentioned above, a baby boy was born to this couple in 1706. Dorothea bore four more children, all these dying in infancy. Then on July 16, 1716, shortly after giving birth to her fifth child, she passed away. The death entry lists no cause of death. She was age 38 at time of death.
As far as could be determined, Samuel C. Lieb did not marry again. His youngest child was then age ten. It is probable that his mother, Maria Margarethe, was living with him then and helping raise the children. As you may recall, we did not find any death date for her husband, Samuel's father, but it is very likely she was a widow by the year 1716. And it was her name which would be entered into the death register of the Schopfloch parish church five years later. This occurred on July 16, 1721:
"Frau Maria Margaretha Lieb, widow, as my most dearly beloved mother, deceased. Age 79 years, 2 weeks. Aeternum Triumphat. Body and soul" Then a one-line quote from the Bible; "What a parent! Herr Reinhard M. Leer, pastor in Guttenberg."
In the year 1731, the life of our Pastor Lieb came to an end. The death register in Schopfloch contains the following words, quilled on Jan. 17, 1731:
"Died, the right reverend and learned Herr M. Samuel Christoph Lieb, age 70. For 26 years pastor and spiritual leader of the local community of Schopfloch. His funeral text was Romans 8....... Herr M. Denzel D. Mahlinger in the neighboring community of Guttenberg ."
And so ends the third generation of our Lieb ancestry. He had s!erved the Lord as pastor in three, perhaps four different communities for just over 40 years. He fathered eleven children; three of these are documented to have married and fathered children. The most important one, from our point of view, was Johann Friderich Lieb. He takes center stage in the following chapter, but we will also learn something of his two brothers, Jonathan Martin and Johann Erhard.
CONTINUE