forefamilies: Reed

Monday, April 13, 2015

Part 2: Martin Church - Bärstadt, Germany

Reed's next stop in his journey was Schlangenbad-Bärstadt:
The Borges/Burgess family attended church in Bärstadt which is several miles from Fischbach and Ramschied. This is where they christened/baptized their babies and where their funerals were held. The Martin Church as it stands today, dates from the years 1709-1717 although the tower and the foundation walls have earlier Roman elements. The oldest bell was cast between 1200 to 1250. The two younger bells were cast in 1468. The Martin Church stands in a small park that was once the 18th century churchyard. There are remains of some old grave stones. The Martin Church has a beautiful pipe organ. It was built/added about 1770 so Christian and his family were there at the time.

Here is a German website about the organ:
http://www.stumm-orgel-baerstadt.de/

Bärstadt Coat of Arms

Over 1000 years old

Part two of Reed Slack's journey to Hesse-

Reed:
After Fischbach, I drove over to Bärstadt, which is quite open and level compared with Fischbach and Ramschied.

I stopped at the Church, but it was closed, unfortunately

. I took a number of photos, including the three headstones/markers in the yard. I don’t know if you can make out the years well on the marker, but it is from the 1700s.

There is a sandstone “tablet” encased in the stucco just next to the door.

The engravings are so faint that it is impossible to read, but it was interesting anyway. The other headstones are either difficult or impossible to read. I would have loved to see the inside of the church, but wasn’t able.

Panorama -Three photos stitched together

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Other pictures of Barstadt taken by Reed:

Message board in front of Martins Church

Inn

Road in front of Inn

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Thank you Reed for sharing with us. Click below to see his visit to the other villages:

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Links:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A4rstadt

http://www.stumm-orgel-baerstadt.de/

Part 1: Fischbach (Bad Schwalbach) Germany - Burgess Ancestral Home

According to professional research (see the 2001 Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association) our Hessian ancestor is from Fischbach bad Schwalbach, Hesse, Germany.
Johann Christian Borges was born on March 6, 1754 in Fischbach bad Schwalbach, Germany - 14 miles northwest of Wiesbaden and 40 miles from Frankfurt. In 1971 Fischbach became a borough of the city of Bad Schwalbach. Christian's mother, Catharina Magdalene Prebers was from Ramschied, a village to the north and his father, Johannes Borges was from Fischbach. Both villages were a part of the parish of Bärstadt. His grandmother's family (father's mother) was from Herxheim. Johann Christian Borges was a member of the Hessian military which came to fight against the colonists in the Revolutionary War. Christian deserted while serving in Rhode Island and changed his name to the English sounding John Christian (sometimes Christopher) Burgess. He married and settled in New York state.

In early 2015 our second cousin, Reed Slack arranged a 24 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany during his return trip to Nigeria. He was able to visit Fischbach, Ramschied, Bärstadt and Herxheim all important to our Burgess ancestors.
He has kindly shared his thoughts and photos which I will post in four separate blogs.

Fischbach crest

Part one of Reed's ancestral journey:

Reed:
I was able to visit Fischbach, Barstadt, Ramschied (which are all kind of one valley over from each other, with Fischbach in the middle), and Herxheim bei Landau (150 km south of Frankfurt and where the Starcks come from). All were incredibly beautiful, but Herxheim is very different than the others..

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Well, where to begin. I guess let’s do the logistics first. Fischbach is an easy 30 minute drive from the Frankfurt Airport. I had printed Google maps before I traveled, but the navigation system really proved essential. Driving in Germany is relatively straightforward, though I did read up online a little, particularly to familiarize myself with the road signs. It took no time before I felt completely comfortable--the autobahn has its own formal/informal rules that are a must to read up on, but easy to manage nonetheless.

The Taunus mountains aren’t really mountains in the sense of Pine Valley/Rocky Mountains, but they are more than mere hills. The mountains are cut with deep, narrow valleys, with the town nestled on the valley floor alongside streams and expanding up the hillside. The hill tops remain heavily forested, but much of the land has been cleared for farms/pastures. The trees are a mix of evergreen and deciduous, with the deciduous more prevalent. It absolutely reminded me of upstate New York, so Christian would have felt quite at home there.

Panoramic view of Fischbach (three photos stitched together)

Fischbach is a very small village, especially the older parts down along the stream. The streets are exceedingly narrow, with barely room for 2 cars to pass. It was Saturday today, and many of the people were outside their homes, walking and talking with neighbors. I spoke with a few people, but unfortunately, their English was no better than my German, which is to say zero. I did show them the fan chart for Christian that I had printed, so they understood why I was visiting the town.

The “fishing stream” for which the town is named is quite small, though it was running high due to overnight rains. It is about the same size as the [small] stream in Pine Valley that runs behind ------'s cabin

There is a small cafe in Fischbach. I stopped in while walking down through town, but they weren’t open yet for lunch. I drove back the last thing before leaving the area and heading back to Frankfurt, and they were closed again because the power had gone out due to a heavy wind and rain. I had been looking forward to eating in Fischbach, but it didn’t happen.