FROM CHĔŽNIK TO KIESCHNICK

The German language employs modified vowels (Umlaut – Umlaute) ä, ö and ü. As a rule, all German names of persons, places, etc., on church and archive records and maps employ umlauts to indicate modified vowels when applicable. We retain umlauts in English by writing ä, ae; ö, oe; and ü, ue. Thus, BÄHR is written BAEHR; MÖRBE, MOERBE; and WÜNSCHE, WUENSCHE. The spelling of place names with umlauts has been retained throughout this history. However, the spelling of personal names with umlauts was discontinued after the names were “transplanted” in Texas.

4-5-96

Revised: 11-18-02

Revised: 6-8-04

FROM CHĔŽNIK TO KIESCHNICK

A little over 50 percent of the Wends who migrated to Texas in 1854 came from the Province or State of Silesia (Schlesien) in the Kingdom of Prussia (Königreich Preussen). They came from the counties (Kreis – Kreise) of Rothenburg and Hoyerswerda. The rest came from the Kingdom of Saxony (Königreich Sachsen), from the counties of Bautzen and Löbau (Loebau). After theunification of West and East Germany in 1990 the area covered by the above counties is now included in the newly-formed Province or State of Saxony in modern Germany.

OUR KIESCHNICK LINEAGE

NOTES

Names of persons born in what is now modern Germany are spelled the way they appear in the church records where the baptisms are recorded. If more than one spelling is rendered then the standardized German spelling is used. States, countries, etc., are in English. The spelling of places was taken from a modern German map.

B. indicates date of birth. D. indicates date of death. [+] indicates our ancestor when there was more than one marriage.

A little over 50 percent of the Wends who migrated to Texas in 1854 came from the Province or State of Silesia (Schlesien) in the Kingdom of Prussia (Königreich Preussen). They came from the counties (Kreis – Kreise) of Rothenburg and Hoyerswerda. The rest came from the Kingdom of Saxony (Königreich Sachsen), from the counties of Bautzen and Löbau (Loebau). After the unification of West and East Germany in 1990 the area covered by the above counties is now included in the newly-formed Province or State of Saxony in modern Germany.

[1]

JOHANN KIESCHNICK AND MARIA WUTSCHER

To date the earliest Kieschnick ancestor I have been able to identify is Johann Kieschnick, whose date and place of birth is not available, but who lived at Dauban. He is mentioned in the Förstgen Cathechumen Register in 1810 as the father of Johann Kieschnick (1795) who came to Texas. His wife was Maria Wutscher. The date and place of her birth are also not available.

The name WUTSCHER is probably the German phonetic spelling of WUČEŔ, Wendish for teacher.

Johann Kieschnick was born at Dauban, Silesia, in April 1795. His parents were Johann Kieschnick and Maria, nee Wutscher. The maiden name of his wife is problematic. In her obituary Pastor Johann Kilian stated that her maiden name was Agnes KALICH. My efforts to confirm this name in various church records in Lusatia were frustrating. Since her place of birth, Buchwalde, Saxony, belonged to the Parish of Baruth, I wrote to Pastor Joachim Philipp, giving him the date and place of birth recorded on the Ship Register. The Baruth marriage records contain the following (translated by the writer): “Married on 9 January 1825 in Baruth were: Juv. (young man) Johann Kejznik, legitimate oldest son of Johann Kejznik, cottager in Tauban (Dauban) and Virg. (young woman) Agnetha, surviving youngest legitimate daughter of the late Georg Kohli, small farmer on Byttner’s at
Buchwalde.”

Some records indicate that Agnes Kalich or Kohli was born on 28 April 1795, but Pastor Philipp wrote that he could not find any record of a girl born on 28 April 1795, but a girl, named Agneta Büttner (Buettner), was born on 28 April 1798 at Buchwalde. Her parents were Georg Büttner and Maria, nee Pawez. Pastor Philipp also wrote: “The change in family name may be explained like this: Whoever worked someone else’s farm, often assumed the name of the former owner. According to this, at the time of his daughter’s birth, Georg Kohli was called Büttner – farmer. Later on one looked back at ones’ true origin. There are numerous name changes of this type in this place.”

A lady in Lusatia, who did a lot of research on our Wendish ancestor’s, wrote me that the many ways names were spelled was due to the fact that the spelling of names, especially Sorbian names, had not yet been standardized by the time of the emigration of 1854. Persons who made the entries in the church records often spelled the names phonetically. Many were Germans and did not know the Wendish language. Before the emancipation of the peasants of Saxony in 1832 many were illiterate. Kurt Krahl, in his history WOHER DES WEGES, LIEBES GUTTAU? (FROM WHERE DID YOU COME, BELOVED GUTTAU?), refers to an 1839 document which states that “16 out of 41 small property owners at Guttau at that time could not even sign their names, but had to sign by making three crosses.” Guttau is only 3 miles from Baruth.

In Max Gottschald’s book DEUTSCHE NAMENKUNDE (German Onomastics) KALICH has the following definition: “wendisch Kolik, Verkleinerung von koł, Pfahl,” which translates: “Wendish kolik, diminution of koł, ‘stake.’”  This book also indicates that a considerable number of both German and Slavic names have their root in Kol (Slavic Koł) and one of the German names listed is Kohli. Actually, there is a similarity between KALICH and KOHLI when the h (which is German) is removed from KOHLI. The entry for Pfahl in my German-Upper Sorbian dictionary reads: “Pfahl koł; Deminutiv kolik” = “stake, ko: diminutive, kolik.”  Thus KALICH means a stake or small post. My conjecture is that the maiden name of Agnes Kieschnick, nee KALICH or KOHLI, has its root in the Sorbian diminutive of Koł, in the form of Kolik, the last k denoting diminution.

Johann Kieschnick’s obituary in 1867 states that, after working here and there and also serving in the army, he married in his 29th year. The obituary states that they had 7 children. The Ben Nevis List of 1854 lists 3 daughters and one son underneath their names. It is also known that Andreas, who is listed immediately above their names, was their son. Besides those listed, the above-referred-to Catechumen Register mentions an older daughter, Anna.  Thus we do not have the name and birth date of one child. Apparently, all children were born at Dauban. Listed below are the names of six of their children together with some other available data:

NAME               BORN                DIED               SPOUSES

Anna                 13 Jan 1826

Andreas             13 Nov 1828     23 Feb 1901     Elizabeth Koerner

Magdalene         02 Dec 1830     11 Oct 1900     Johann Hattas

Maria                07 Jan 1834                            Theodor Tonn

Johann              08 Jan 1834      14 Feb 1916    Pauline Bartel

Agnes               25 Jan 1836       17 Jun 1927    Johann Miertschin

Anna is not listed on the Ship Register. The Förstgen Catechumen Register of 1810 lists her name as a confirmant in 1839.

Andreas was confirmed in 1841. After he came to Texas he married Elizabeth Luise Koerner, who came from Württemberg (Wuerttemberg) and who was born on 9 February 1831. They were married at Brenham on 9 March 1858. My late uncle, Gerhard Biar, stated that Andreas was a jovial person who loved to tell humorous stories.

Magdalene, our ancestress, was confirmed in 1843. She became the second wife of Johann Hattas. For more information please see below.

Maria’s birthdate was one day prior to that of her twin brother, Johann. She married Theodor Tonn.

Johann married Pauline Bartel on 14 February 1858 while the Kieschnicks lived at Brenham, Texas. She came from Eichstädt, near Berlin, Germany. They raised a family of 10 children. During the Civil War he was a member of Waul’s Texas Legion. By trade he was a shoemaker.

Agnes married Johann Miertschin. She died at Serbin, at the age of 91.

After the Johann Kieschnick (1795) family arrived in Texas they settled near Brenham. Originally they were members of Ebenezer Lutheran Church, whose building was dedicated in 1855 and whose pastor was Rev. J. G. Ebinger. This church was located in the Berlin community, three miles west of Brenham. Dissension erupted among the members of Ebenezer from the beginning and a division of the congregation was experienced in 1856.  The breakaway members organized Salem Lutheran Church with Rev. Ebinger as their pastor and their building, about 2 miles southwest of Brenham, was dedicated in 1857. The Kieschnicks became members of the new congregation. Salem congregation belonged to the Texas Synod.

When Johann Kieschnick (1795) died in Serbin on 21 November 1867, Pastor Kilian stated in the obituary that all surviving children were living in the Serbin vicinity except for Johann (1834), who was still living near Brenham. Johann (John) (1834) later also moved away from Brenham and eventually moved to Thorndale where he died on 14 February 1916.

OBITUARY
OF JOHANN (JAN) KIESCHNICK (1795)

With respect and love we remember Johann Kieschnick, resident [of Serbin], whom the Lord called from this [world] this past Thursday at 9:30 in the morning and whose mortal body, after dismissal from his home, was laid to rest in the grave with a blessing and given a Christian burial.