Month: May 2018

Imperial Chamber Court

The Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), the supreme court in the Holy Roman Empire was located in Wetzlar from 1689 until 1806. At the court diplomats from all german principalities were accredited. All of them with a larger or smaller entourage. This is the background why the bader Georg Hutsteiner obviously came to Wetzlar – likely with the saxonian diplomats – where he married a local girl in 1714.

Also his nephew Michael Hutsteiner came along with him a shortly later and  probably he learned his profession (Bader = medical doctor) from his uncle. Latest in 1734 Michael moved to Dillenburg, not far away from Wetzlar, and became the founder of the large Hessian family tree.

A hidden family secret ?

Is there a hidden family secret in Wetzlar ?

Georg Hutsteiner married in 1714 and became father of 4 children shortly afterwards. But then there is a gap and his only son Johann Georg was born 1733 (and died shortly afterwards).

It happens often that between the penultimate child and the last one is a larger timely gap, especially if the woman is already in her 40s. But this is not the case here and the gap is unusual long.

So, what happened ?

It is possible that other children are recorded anywhere else still unknown to us or they simply have been forgotten to be recorded in the church books or they had been stillbirths and they were not recorded anyhow. Or, or, or..

Or was the Johann Georg born in 1733 already a child of Michael Hutsteiner who suddenly appears in 1734 in Dillenburg but baptised/adopted by his uncle ?

III.2.2 Dillenburg

Dillenburg is the epicentre of the Lutheran Hutsteiner families in Westphalia-Hesse. During the 1600s-1700s the dukes and counts of the region Nassau had close relations to Saxony. Michael Hutsteiner from Hartmannsdorf in Saxony, was the forefather of these families. He had close relations to the court of Dillenburg and their soldiers. Michael came along with his uncle Georg Hutsteiner, who was doctor in Wetzlar.

Dillenburg was ruled until 1739 by Christian von Nassau-Dillenburg and from 1742 by Karl August von Nassau-Weilburg. Both had been relatives and closed an inheritance contract. Important to know: Karl August had been working for the duke of Saxony as an ambassador to France. Later, in 1734, he had been commander of Palatinate troops against France in Poland’s war of succession, probably with Saxonian troops enforced. Saxony’s duke claimed Poland’s rulership and was supported by the Holy German Empire against France.