Johann Konrad Hasselbacher (1817-1876

Johan Conrad was my 3G-grandfather. I know little more about him other than he carried forward a family name of Conrad with which my Grandfather was probably named. His father is unknown to us.  He was the only child of his mother, Margaretha Hasselbacher, and was named after her brother.

Rising from the handicap (at that time) of his illegitimate birth, he became the tailor of Diespeck, as would his son and grandson. His descendants would be among the most numerous in Diespek during the 19th and 20th centuries. How he came to be a tailor is unknown to me. Perhaps his mother Margaretha was a tailoress or dressmaker. There were no earlier tailors in the family lines line that I am aware of.

You can view his 1845 marriage record to Anna Barbara Kraft, or his 1876 death record elsewhere in these pages.

BIRTH RECORD

Transcription
of Birth Record 1817. Page 144, Item #10.
Sontag 13 April (1817)
(um dreizehnte April)
Jonann Conrad, die ledigen Ka-
tharina Margaretha Hasselbacherin des
Johann Georg Hasselbacher Unterthans und
Einwohner dahier älteste Tochter,
[2 lines crossed out]
uneheliche? ??? Sohnlein, ??? ???
???, , früh und 1 Uhr. getauft Dienstag die 15 April
Taufstnthe? des Johann Konrad Hasselbacher
des Johann Georg Hasselbacher ??? Sohn
C. H. Bruder der Mutter des Kinder.
Died 3 Juli 1876, viduus.

See also the church abstract of the record.

Peter’s Translation:
Sunday April 13, 1817
(Thirteenth of April)
Johann Conrad, [son of] the single
Katharina Margaretha Hasselbacher [daughter of]
Johann Georg Hasselbacher, Unterthane and
inhabitant here– oldest daughter,
?illegitimate ???? little son, ???
[time of birth?] was baptized Tuesday 15th April.
Godfather was Johann Konrad Hasselbacher, son of
Johann George Hasselbacher [modifier here] son.
C.H.? brother of the mother of the child.
Died 3d July 1876 as a widower.

Comments:
• It is obvious that I had some trouble with the script above. A few words remain obscure to me, especially those defining the time, sequence, and perhaps legitimacy of his birth. The modern church abstract helps.

• I have seen Conrad and Konrad spelled interchangeably without apparent logic. I do not know what conventions were followed, perhaps simply the preference of the minister. Conrad’s marriage record uses Conrad but his death record spells his name as Konrad.

• At the time of his death, he lived in the house on Sandstrasse that has been continuously occupied by his descendants to the present time.

• His mother was 29 at the time of Johann Conrad’s birth.

• In the birth record, we see his grandfather again referred to as Unterthane, a designation I have not seen elsewhere in the church records of Diespeck and suggests a more direct obligation to a liege. I am still hoping for a more definitive explanation.

• The Latin tern “viduus” added to the birth entry at the time of Johann Conrad’s death indicates that he was a widower in 1897 when he died at the age of 59.