Jakob Friedrich Benkelmann

Notes:

BonnieMargaret Jacobs wrote that he remained in Pl?derhausen where he married and raised a family. (p. 58). The kirchlichen Familieregister Band I (p. 58 and 94) shows that he was confirmed in 1814, and was a weaver, marrying first Eva Marai BAUER (10 Jan 1830) and second Catharina ERLENMEYER (November 1848).

She said he had only one son, Johann Jakob born in 1830. In 1856 this son married a Catholic woman.

Notes:

In her 1981 unpublished manuscript, BonnieMargaret Jacobs writes that "Johann Jacob (III) grew up in Pl?derhausen with his sister and his cousins, but his father had died a year before the son would have begun his apprenticeship, thus he could not follow in his fathers trade as wannanmacher. He apparently apprenticed with his Uncle Christianius to become a weaver. When he was 20, perhaps in his wandering years as a journeyman, he met Maria Katharina Bauer, whose family had been citizens of Breech, in B?rtlingen parish, for several generations. There is, of course, no record of how the young couple felt about each other or what their intent was. But it was not long before they were faced with a difficult choice [because of Catharina's pregnancy]. Under the restrictive marriage laws of the time, it would have been economic suicide for young Jacob to marry Katharina, he would have had to forfeit his imminent promotion to master status. Katharina was pregant with no husband, and while her unfortunate situation was not unusual, it was still difficult. Though the illegitimacy rate in W?rttemberg was high, so was the infanticide rate. Many young women tried to hide their pregnancies and dispose of their children, but she did not. She would have been called before her pastor to explain the circumstances of her pregnancy and identify the father. In this case, both Katharina and Jacob acknowledged their relationship. In many other cases, that didn't happen and the child would bear his mother's surname. If the father was identified, and acknowledged his paternity, then the child would bear the name of his true father. (p. 56).

Johann married Maria Margaretha Winkle on 7 Nov 1797 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany. Maria was born on 18 Nov 1775 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany; died on 3 Mar 1822 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Kirchlichen Familienregister Band shows her as a daughter of "Johann George Winkle, Weingartner weil. and (his wife) Waldburga geb. (born) Geigerin." (Jacobs, p. 57).

Notes:

Married:
BonnieMargaret indicates that on the Pl?derhausen marriage record of Maria to Johann Jacob, he was listed as a "Burger, Weaver and Weingartner (vintner, or wine gardener)." The marriage inventory, page five, stated that among other items Jacob brought into the marriage were 200 florins that he had inheritied from his grandfather, but that after a subtraction of a fee he had to pay his "Weibsbild" for the upbringing of his illegitimate son from a prior relationship, he had 125 florins of this inheritance remaining.

BonnieMargaret said the "Weibsbild" was a Schwabish idiom that translates roughly into "the lady was no lady," a term of contempt for the pregnant, unmarried woman. In "Gender, Language and New Literacy: A Multilingual Analysis" by Eva-Maria Th?ne, et-al, it is shown that Weibsbild is a compound word literally meaning 'picture of a spouse' and in actuality meaning "hag" ---and is derogatory in current usage.

BonnieMargaret Jacobs, on page 63 of her 1981 manuscript, cites DEKANAT SCHORNDORF, BAND I, BLATT 26 for the parish records detailing the Johann Jacob Binkelmann and M. Winkle family.

Notes:

BonnieMargaret Jacobs writes that Jacob followed his father and grandfather into the trade of wannanmacher. She added that almost certainly the men of Pl?derhausen were farmers in addition to their trades, because trade alone was not large enough to support a man without land to grow his own food. BonnieMargaret noted that cabbage, millet, poppy, beets, clover and flax were all raised in the area (p. 53). BonnieMargaret also stated that the death record of Jacob showed his cause of death at the young age of 36 was attributable to 'delirium-fever.'

BonnieMargaret found records of Johann Jacob Benkelmann's death inventory in Pl?derhausen records. She explained that "upon death, every item belonging to the married couple was inventoried and the guilded artisans placed a monetary value on each thing owned by the parents. The property and inheritance of the wife would be deducted from the estate and the remainder would be divided equaily between the widow and living children. Since the widow would immediately receive possession of her own clothing, only the clothing of the deceased would be itemized"

Jacob's death inventory included the following property:

"one half of a two floor house and an additional building and yard under one roof, down in the lower part of the village besides Friedrich Bose and Christoph Gries", following the house there is a list of vineyards, meadows and garden. No cash is listed, but the couple owned one prayer book, one hand Bible and one hymnal. Furniture and household items consisted of: a bed, clothes wardrobe, hat box, milk box, trunks, child's bed, old trunk, hardwood table, two chairs, one footstool, bells and tools (household), garden tools, axe, field fork, scythe, one container of seed, foodstuffs (potatoes, etc), craftsman's tools, one pistol. His clothing consisted of one blue jacket, one waist cloth, one black pair leather pants, one pair deer leather pants, one hat, one blue chest cloth, one white cloth vest or jacket, one pair shoes. The inventory also itemized every kitchen tool, and the longest category in his inventory were the household linens, five pages in total of linens alone. The total inheritable property was valued at 1312 florins and 30 kreutze, and after re-listing all the property, the inventory specified who got what. It was signed by Eva and her curator, and by the curator of the children's interest. (p. 64).

Johann married Eva H?fner on 2 Feb 1773 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany. Eva was born on 27 Nov 1752 in W?rttemberg, Germany; died on 29 Dec 1829 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BonnieMargaret Jacob's refers to her as "the daughter of the farmer of Aichenbach." (p. 53). The parish records transcribed on page 91 show her parents as Joh. Jacob H?fner, Bauer in Aichenbach, and Magdalena B?hler.

She stated that Eva H?fner remarried in 1789, a year after Jacob's death, and it appears she may have married a relative, and in 1795 she was divorced, apparently by a husband who preferred a woman who would be (and was) willing to bear his children. On page 93 of her manuscript, it is shown that Eva's second marriage was to Jacob B?hler, employed as a vintner.

In a footnote, BonnieMargaret said that German law on hereditable properties provides a possible explanation for Eva remarriage and subsequent divorce. Citizens did not own their land, but it was the lease of that land that was heriditable. In some areas of Germany, a widow had to be remarried within a year of her husband's death to retain the tenenancy on the land. Her remarriage falls within that time frame, and her divorce was at the time her son Johann Jacob achieved master and citizen status. Thus it is probable that the marriage, apparently to a relative, was a marriage of convenience to retain the land tenancy for her children at their ages of majority. (p. 54).

Notes:

Married:
BonnieMargaret Jacobs, on page 63 of her 1981 manuscript, cites DEKANAT SCHORNDORF, BAND I, BLATT 25 for the parish records detailing the makeup of the Johann Jacob Binkelmann and Eva Hafner family.

Notes:

Shown as a "Mauermacher" (brickworker, masonry) on the marriage record of his son, Christian Binkelmann. Pl?derhausen parish registers show him as a son of Hans Jerg Benkelmann und Anna Barbara, geb. Wallter.

Johann married Rosina Hofer on 2 Nov 1751 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany. Rosina was born on 10 Dec 1729 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany; died on 12 Mar 1780 in Pl?derhausen, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BonnieMargaret Jacobs writes that she was a daughter of citizen and carpenter Michael Hofer. (p. 52. 02).

Notes:

Married:
BonnieMargaret Jacobs writes that they had eight children in total, the last one was stillborn and not idenfied by name or sex in the parish records (p. 53). In the chapter titled "The Migration to Pl?derhausen," in her 1981 unpublished manuscript, she stated that the familienregister information on Johann Jacob I was received from the pastor of Pl?derhausen. On page 63 of this manuscript she also cites DEKANAT SCHORNDORF, BAND I, BLATT 24 as the source from which she obtained the details of the makeup of this family.