They Had Wendish Wives and Husbands! – by Weldon Mersiovsky

Many people have asked me why I am involved in the Texas Wendish Heritage Society because they think that my name is not Wendish. They are correct.

Mersiovsky is not a Wendish name. It is a Bohemian name, an old Bohemian name. My ancestors lived in the Kingdom of Bohemia since Miros built a farmhouse and established what became known as the town of Mirosov and the inhabitants of the house became the Miroshovskys, the knights of Mirosov. The Miroshoffskys became Protestants at the time of Jan Hus and ultimately lost their land and titles in 1620 after the Battle of White Mountain at Prague where the Protestants lost.

After living underground as Protestants until the 1690s one Mirshoffski called Matthäus left the Kingdom of Bohemia and settled in the Kingdom of Saxony. He was an immigrant known as an Exulanten. In 1880 my grandfather and his family came to Texas from Germany.

The Mersiovsky siblings, and half brothers, and step brothers married Wends, as follows.

1. Karl Gustav Mirtsching was the firstborn son of Maria Theresa Mirtsching who later married Carl August Mersiovsky. According to the Holy Trinity Hochkirch, Sachsen, church records the father was Johann Carl Rentsch. Theresa and John were not married. Theresa’s father was Andreas Miertschin of Steindorfel and her mother was Magdalena Domschke of Baschütz.

Gus Mirtsching married Marie Magdaline Mickan (born on 16 Jul 1873) on 10 August 1891 (the marriage license was issued in Bell County) and settled in Walburg, Texas. Marie was the first child, first daughter of John Mickan and Maria Magdalena Neitsch. John Mickan came to Serbin, Texas on the Fortuna in 1858 as the second child, first son of Magdalena Symmank (widow of Johann Mickan) and the stepson of Johann August Symmank. Maria Neitsch was born in La Grange, Texas in 1855, the fourth child, second daughter of Johann Gottlieb Neitsch and Maria Symmank, travelers on the Ben Nevis. John Mickan and Maria Neitsch were married on 13 Feb 1872 at St Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin.

2. Gustav Adolph Mersiovsky was the oldest surviving son of Theresa Mirtsching and Carl August Mersiovsky of Weigsdorf. The original Mersiovskys immigrated to Saxony in the late 1600’s and the ancestors of August lived in Weigsdorf, Oppach, and Beiersdorf, attending church in Cunewalde.

Adolph married Maria Theresa Lorentschk on 22 Jan 1895 in St Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin. They lived in Serbin (St Peter’s Lutheran Church), Winchester (St Michael’s Lutheran Church) and finally, Walburg (Zion Lutheran Church). Mary was born on 4 Feb 1876 on Rabbs Creek the first child, first daughter of Andreas Lorentschk and his first wife Agnes Zwahr, who, as children, had both been passengers on the Ben Nevis.

Andreas, the third child, third son of George Lorentschk and Elizabeth Kasper, was 10 when he came over on the Ben Nevis with his parents. Agnes was three when she traveled on the Ben Nevis and when her father Andreas Zwahr died in Frelsburg in 1855. Her mother had been a widow for about 6 years when she had planned to marry Johann Jeremias, a fellow Ben Nevis passenger, because a marriage license was issued on 22 Jan 1861 in Bastrop County, Texas. For some unknown reason, other than the marriage was obviously called off, Pastor Kilian returned the license to the county unexecuted. Mari’s mother then married Matthes Schelnick in 1866 and he helped rear the youngest of the Zwahr children.

Agnes was the fifth child, fourth daughter of Andreas and Maria Zwahr. Agnes died after giving birth to two daughters, Maria who married Adolph Mersiovsky and Hanna, unmarried, who reared Karl Krautz. Andreas Lorentschk subsequently married Hanna Nickel with whom he had two more daughters, Hanna, who married Carl August Berk and Emma who married Paul August Kaiser.

3. A second son to Theresa and August in Germany, Karl August, died after one month.

4. Wilhelm Ernst Mersiovsky was the third surviving son of Theresa and August Mersiovsky. Ernst married Anna Jakobik, the first child, first daughter of Matthis Jakobik and Marie Magdalena Bohot, on 18 November 1896 at St Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin. According to George Nielsen, Anna was born in either Schleife or Neustadt, Germany and came to Texas in 1881 with her parents. The Ernst Mersiovskys lived in Serbin (St Peter’s Lutheran Church), Giddings (Immanuel Lutheran Church), and Walburg (Zion Lutheran Church).

5. Julius Herrman Mersiovsky was the fourth surviving son of Theresa and August. Herrmann moved to Walburg from Serbin in the summer of 1897 and lived there until 1905. He moved to St Louis where he changed his name to Mirtsching and married Elsa Walther.

6. Maria Linna was the only daughter born to Theresa and August Mersiovsky. She married John Kubsch at St Peter Lutheran Church in Serbin on 25 Jan 1898. John came to Serbin not too long before he married Linna. John and Linna moved to Walburg (Zion Lutheran Church) where John died in 1905. John and Linaa had three surviving sons, Willie, Walter and Johnnie. After John’s death, Linna married Wilhelm Sommer, with whom she had a son, and they moved to The Grove (St Paul’s Lutheran Church). The son died and Wilhelm either died or left. In The Grove Linna married Matthis Dutschman, a widower with ten children. They had one daughter together, Ruth Dutschmann, who married Robert Winkler.

After August had died in Germany, Theresa married Leberecht Mersiovsky, August’s first cousin. Together they had Carl Emil and then migrated to America.

7. Emil never married, inherited the family farm and passed it on to his half-brother Robert at his death.

8. Herman Neitsch Mersiovsky was the son of John Robert Neitsch and Carolina Wilhelmina Richter of Walburg before either of them were married. When Neitsch would not marry Wilhelmina she married Heinrich Büttner, widower, from Warda (Holy Cross Lutheran Church), to where she moved. Herman married Martha Mickan of Serbin, the third child, third daughter of Peter Mickan and Maria Deo. Peter was the brother of John Mickan. John Robert Neitsch was a brother to the wife of Gus Mirtsching. Herman took on the Mersiovsky name when his mother, Wilhelmine, married Karl Leberecht Mersiovsky after the death of Theresa.

9. Robert Mersiovsky was the only surviving son of the marriage of Carolina Wilhelmina Richter and Carl Leberecht Mersiovsky. He married Hulda Symm of Serbin, fifth child, fifth daughter of Ernst Adolph Symm and Anna Maria Jank on 27 Oct 1914. Ernst, born in 1862, was the first child, first son of Johnann and Agnes Symm who came to Texas in 1861 from Klix (according to George Nielsen). Anna was the first child, first daughter of Ernest John Jank and his wife Maria Schneider, born in 1860 in Prussia. Anna and her parents migrated to Texas in 1882 (according to George Nielsen).

The children of Gus and Maria Mirtsching = ¾ Wendish maybe 7/8 depending on the lineage of Rentsch.

The children of Adolph and Mary Mersiovsky = ¾ Wendish.

The children of Ernst and Anna Mersiovsky = ¾ Wendish.

The children of Herman and Elsa Mirtsching = ¼ Wendish.

The children of Linna and John Kubsch = ¾ Wendish, providing Kubsch was Wendish.

The daughter of Linna and Matthis Dutschmann = ¾ Wendish

The children of Herman and Martha Mersiovsky = ¾ Wendish, could be 100% if Herman’s mother Richter was Wendish.

The children of Robert and Hulda Mersiovsky = ½ Wendish, could be ¾ if Robert’s mother Richter was a Wend.

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