Although I know that the topics of Heuerleute and Leibzucht have been covered on several occasions over the past few years, I am still not sure how I should characterize Meyer-Holzgrefe in Bokern, Damme where my Bergmann and Handorf ancestors came from.
Were all the many Bergmanns, Handorfs and Rusches (whose names are found in the Damme church records) the descendants of landless younger sons of a previous owner? I had been under the impression that they were "heuerleute", i.e. that they were tenant farmers and not related to the land owner. If the latter case is true, would "Holzgrefe" (Holzgraefe/Holzgreve) have referred to the name of the owner of the land and, by extension, the heuerleute? In any case, what kind of farm would it have been? Was it, as I have seen it once or twice referred to, a collective farm?
Leibzucht: The parents of Maria Agnes Handorf (b. 1859), Johann Bernard Handorf und Katharina Maria Rusche, are listed in the 1859 Damme Kirchspiel as living in the Holzgreven Leibzucht i.e. a pensioned living arrangement). In 2001, Don Meyer made this suggestion: "I believe the Leibzucht was an extra, smaller house that at first was for the parents to move into after giving the farm over to the inheriting son. In later years, I believe the house was often used for Heuerleute (essentially tenant farms). Fred Rump, in his answer, seems to have agreed that living in or on a Leizucht meant that had been granted to right by the owner to live where their parents had lived before their death. Or was Nancy Pundsack right when she wondered if the term did not mean so much a building but rather that that the heuerleute simply lived "on the estate or farm of some particular person who inherited the right to manage it. "
I'm not sure if I'm being thick-headed but I'm still confused. I'd be immensely grateful if someone could help me figure out this puzzle.
Werner's link is an excellent resource on the whole topic but one must
warn that history was local back then and circumstances in one area do
not necessarily translate for another. In general, the Heuersystem
grew out of the need to keep farms whole. Only one heir could inherit
the farm and the rest of the children had to either marry into another
farm, settle as field hands on the parent farm or become Heuerleute
(somewhere) if they wanted to marry and have children of their own.
Once the switch to Heuermann was made it was extremely difficult to
reverse the process for the children. They simply took on the status
of their parents and made do as best they could. The only opening was
a marriage into an existing heirloom.
As the link illustrates, the Leibzucht was a somewhat open ended
affair but it always would have started out as a status for the aging
parents who needed a place to live as their heir needed the space for
his own family. We need to place an image of the typical farmhouse
into our consciousness. It contained a few cubicles for sleeping and a
large room which served for everything else. This room was simply the
other side of the stable where the animals lived in the same house.
The roof was vented to allow the smoke form the open fire or fireplace
to escape but cooking was pretty much out in the open. The village
museum of Cloppenburg contains 50 buildings which were removed to
there from their original locations. They show what living was like in
the 16th to 20th century. Many of the buildings shown are the biggest
and grandest farm houses ever built in the Oldenburger Münsterland but
even the noble estate house is not the castle one might expect but
rather a large farm house with some amenities. Sadly the website does
not show much of what exists there. I guess they want you to visit in
person instead. http://www.museumsdorf.de
Since I'm off on a sidetrack - only the very largest of farmhouses
contained a separating wall between the animals and the living
quarters. The Quatmannshof in the Cloppenburg museum is one of these
very large houses. It was built in 1803 in Elsten in the parish of
Cappeln. What we have here is basically three sleeping rooms each
containing a number of alcoves where one would retreat to for the
night. Then there were two rooms and the Flett or open area. The
Flett was were the wall was which cut the building off from the stable
area where the help slept over the cows. The Flett wall had a
fireplace with a chimney where all the meals were prepared and
basically were all activity happened. There was one other room behind
the wall with the animals which served as a communal living room for
the help which worked the farm. Now this was fancy living folks. The
typical farm in 1790 was described thusly: 'most farmhouses do not
have chimneys which is why everything always looks so black. People,
clothing, linnens, the food and the feed are smoked thru and thru. The
air is unclean, choking and harmful to the eyes.'
Anyway, one can imagine the sanitary state, the sickness and early
deaths resulting from these conditions and we are talking of farms
here. The Heuerleute lived in another level of accomodations. A
bakehouse, a stable, anything would do until the farmer erected
something with four walls designed for human living with the animals.
Thank you! The website helped a lot but I'm still wondering about the surnames of my Meyer-Holzgrefe ancestors. Would I be right to presume that the Handorfs and Bergmanns were the descendants of Holzgrefe daughters and the various sponsors whose surnames were Holzgrefe or Meyer-Holzgrefe the descendants of younger sons? I'm working on the assumption that the custom in Damme/Bokern was the same as in Altenbeken (where my grandfather's family originated) and that the "Meyer" was tacked on to the surname of the owner of the estate.
Sorry to sound like a dunce but I've been really confused about all this.
Thanks again.
Margot
Margot King
17 Woodside Avenue
Toronto ON M6P 1L6 Canada
Phone: (416) 604-3111
email: margot.king@ca.inter.nete
Margot,
names are funny things! Typically there was nothing authoritative
about assigning them. They sort of just happened. Today that's all
different but the rage in Germany is to double up on the surnames at
marriage. Lots of folks have hyphenated names today. It becomes a
problem when their children marry again into another hyphenated name.
It's a bit cumbersome to use both the mother's and father's last name
to result in something like Hans & Angela Meyer-Schmidt-Holz-König for
example. They may even have rules against that.
But in the past such joinings were mostly for the preservation of two
distinguished
family names who by themselves stood for something in the community.
Say the daughter of the biggest farm married the son of another big
farm or even a guy who had nothing but his name. Her prestige remained
with her family but she added her husband's name to hers at marriage.
One could conjure up many reasons for the joining of names but the
individual circumstances may always be different and difficult to
untangle centuries later. Usually it was done simply by custom and
once things got writtten down in the church it became sort of
official. Unless one searches deep in to the local history and
researches farm ownership records (if they exist) it is probably just
left alone to be what it is.
Our son changed his last name to Rumpf at marriage. I know the whole
circumstances surrounding this event but after I'm gone will any of
this be known? I don't think so. My kids will not talk about it to
their kids and would not be likely to reveal the whole story anyway to
anybody. So it will become a mystery as to why our family name was
changed except for the obvious reason to not be a rump.
Fred
PS if I ever get to write a family history, it will be told even
though we may leave out some facts. And that's how it goes.
