Anna Stapfelbacher

1752-1814

Born 1752, Schiltach, Kreis Wolfach, Baden

Died 1814

Father: Christian Stapfelbacher

Mother: Anna Catharina Vollmer

Children include Anna

She bore fourteen children in twenty-eight years, the first at twenty-one and the last at forty-nine, and buried at least four of them.

Her husband Abraham Becht died on 10 January 1801. She was then carrying their last child, Anna Maria, who was christened at Schiltach on 12 February, a month after her father's death. She lived almost fourteen years as a widow.

She died on Christmas Eve 1814, a little after one in the morning, at a farm in the Lehengericht, the scattered upland part of the Schiltach parish. She was sixty two. The parish entered the cause as Auszehrung, a slow wasting illness, and buried her at Schiltach two days later. Her death entry names her parents in full: the late Christian Stapfelbacher, a day labourer on the Buehl, and Anna Catharina born Vollmer.

She died in a hard year for the parish. The Schiltach clerk entered 107 deaths in 1814, among them a run of small children dead of measles that autumn, and hers is the third from the end.

Parents

Anna Catharina Vollmer (b. 1714)

Christian Stapfelbacher (1711-1777)

Children

Anna Elisabeta Becht (1773-1850)

Sources

ANNA STAPFELBACHER, baptised 13 SEPTEMBER 1752 at Schiltach, daughter of CHRISTIAN STAPFELBACHER and a VOLLMERIN. VOLLMERIN IS NOT A NAME, IT IS A GRAMMATICAL FORM. The Schiltach clerk of that generation habitually entered a mother by the feminine of her surname and nothing else, which is why the same books give Wolberin, Deuschin, Roeckin and Rirgissin. It means a woman of the Vollmer family. Her given name is not in this entry. THE CHILDREN OF THE MARRIAGE, entered in the same book: JAKOB, born 1792; MAGDALENA, born 10 November 1793 and baptised the next day; ANNA CHRISTINA, 10 December 1798; and ANNA MARIA, 12 February 1801. The clerk gives their birthplaces as HOEFEN and KIENBRONN, the outlying hamlets of the Schiltach parish, so the family was farming out of the town rather than in it. The father is written Becht, Bechet and Bechtold in different hands of the same register.

THE MOTHER HAS A GIVEN NAME AFTER ALL. The baptism of ANNA in September 1752 entered her only as VOLLMERIN, the feminine of the surname, which is how that clerk handled mothers. The baptism of a second daughter four years later does not: DOROTHEA STAPFELBACHER, christened 28 MARCH 1756 at Schiltach, daughter of CHRISTIAN STAPFELBACHER and ANNA CATHARINA VOLLMER. So she was ANNA CATHARINA VOLLMER, and the two entries are four years and one clerk's habit apart. THE BURIAL THAT FITS HIM. A CHRISTIAN STAPFELBACHER, born 1711, died 25 OCTOBER 1777 and was buried at Schiltach the next day, the entry naming his wife CATHARINA. That is the right parish, the right wife's name and a workable age: forty one when Anna was born, sixty six at his death. CARRIED AS AN IDENTIFICATION. The burial does not name his children, and the parish had at least one other man of the name, a CHRISTIAN STACHELBACHER buried 15 April 1749. That one cannot be him, since this Christian was fathering children in 1752 and 1756. Stapfelbacher is a rare name in these books, which is what makes the 1777 burial worth carrying at all.

Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971, Schiltach, indexed at FamilySearch. THE MARRIAGE, 7 OCTOBER 1732: "Xstian Stoßelbacher," son of "Joh. Stoßelbachers," to "Catharina Vollmars," daughter of "Abraham Vollmars" (1:1:QPD6-XYPM). The indexer's spelling is the clerk's, and the clerk was not consistent: the same family is Stapfelbacher, Staffelbacher, Stastelbacher and Stoßelbacher across the entries below. HER BAPTISM: "Anna Catharina Vollmer," baptised 6 March 1714 at Schiltach, daughter of ABRAHAM VOLLMER and CHRISTINA (1:1:QPD6-X869, and again as 1:1:N87G-KL6). The father's name on the baptism is the father's name on the marriage. A second Anna Catharina Vollmer was baptised at Schiltach on 12 February 1724 to a Jacob Vollmer and Luzia (1:1:QPD6-JTJT); the marriage entry's Abraham rules her out. THEIR CHILDREN, each naming Christian as father and Catharina as mother: JOHANNES, baptised 22 November 1735 (1:1:QPD6-J3V5); ANNA, baptised 13 September 1752 (1:1:QPD6-VKM3), who married Abraham Becht; DOROTHEA, christened 28 March 1756, the mother written out as Anna Catharina Vollmer (1:1:N87G-6V6). The first son carries his grandfather's name. HIS FATHER, AND A MARRIAGE THAT PROBABLY IS HIS PARENTS'. A "Johannes Staffelbacher," son of "Andrea Staffelbachers," married "Lucia Brilhartzen," daughter of "Hannß Conrad Brilhartzen," at Schiltach on 22 January 1709 (1:1:QP6Q-P97L). Christian was born about 1711, two years after it. Nothing read joins the two entries except the father's given name and the dates, and Christian's own baptism is not in the index, so Johann is carried as his father on the strength of the 1732 marriage and Lucia is carried as a probable mother and marked as such.

Germany, Marriages, 1558-1929, Schiltach, indexed at FamilySearch (1:1:N8YF-ZBW): groom ABRAHAM BECHTEN, father of groom JOHANN JACOB BECHTEN; bride ANNA STAPFELBACHER, father of bride CHRISTIAN STAPFELBACHER. The index carries no date; their daughter Anna Elisabeta was born in June 1773, so the marriage falls before that. Two later baptisms confirm the couple: ANNA MARIA BECHT, christened 28 March 1781 at Schiltach, and ABRAHAM BECHT, born 24 December 1784 and christened Christmas Day, both to Abraham Becht and Anna Stapfelbacher (1:1:N87G-86F, 1:1:NCCC-SMR). Anna died 24 December 1814 and was buried at Schiltach two days later, entered as the daughter of Christian Stapfelbacher and Anna Catharina and the wife of Abraham Becht (1:1:QPD6-JSYB).

Standesbuch der evangelischen Gemeinde Schiltach 1814-1819 (church book duplicate kept for the civil registry), deaths 1814, entry 105, Staatsarchiv Freiburg L 10 Nr. 6193, plate 49. https://www2.landesarchiv-bw.de/ofs21/bild_zoom/thumbnails.php?bestand=10028&id=2243013

Schiltach evangelical parish books of baptisms and marriages at FamilySearch (cited on the linked entries); Standesbuch of the evangelical parish of Schiltach 1814-1819, deaths of 1814, entry 105, Staatsarchiv Freiburg L 10 Nr. 6193.

If Anna Stapfelbacher is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Anna Stapfelbacher (1752-1814)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/anna-stapfelbacher-1752-1814-96f206.