Bill Biar, who grew up in Thorndale, Texas and lived in Carrollton, Texas until he passed away on 30 Oct 2012 was a dedicated researcher and prolific writer of things Wendish. He was a dedicated Christian who wrote 40 hymns set to to traditional Lutheran music and often, along with his wife, Steffi, assisted the Concordia Historical Institute in St Louis, Missouri by transliterating and translating German documents and letters. He had made significant contributions of books, papers, and electronic media files to the Texas Wendish Heritage Society, in Serbin, Texas. This blog is an attempt to take his electronic media files and make them available to everyone.
We decided to use the term “Stockwendish” to identify this blog. If you do not know what “stockwendish” means, you will need to read on. Clicking on a title below will take you directly to the subject you click on.
Some Observations about Researching the Wends
My Foreign-born Ancestors Who Came to Texas
Emancipation of the Peasants in Silesia and Saxony
Provinces (Länder) of Modern Germany after Unification
There is some evidence that the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius (born in Thessalonica in the 820s), the Apostles to the Slavs, reached the Bautzen area. Their mission of evangelization, in the latter part of the ninth century, took them to Great Moravia, which, at that time, included Bohemia and other central European territory. […]
Christianization of the Wends Read More »
Archaeological discoveries in Lusatia and surrounding territory have produced many artifacts and much valuable information of the early Sorbian tribes and their culture. It appears certain that additional discoveries will yield many more artifacts and information. Sites of old medieval fortifications appear to have the greatest potential. Prior to the Frankish conflicts the Sorbian tribes
The villages in which our ancestors lived in Lusatia were sites of manors. These manors, or landed-estates, were in possession of noblemen for many generations. The manorial system in Lusatia began as soon as the Sorbs lost their independence. Armed attacks against the Sorbs started in 806 under Charles the Great (Charlemagne) of the Franks
The Manorial System Read More »
The Sorbs, as they always wanted to be called, or Wends, as the Germans, called them, descended from the Slavs. Numerically, the Slavs are the largest linguistic group in Europe, numbering some two hundred million people. The geographical origin of the Slavs has always been problematic. Their history pre-dates the Christian era. Roman historians, Pliny
