Meyer-Holzgrefe in Bokern, Damme

Hi, Margot, I'm glad to see you're still hunting for family members.

Did I ever give you the meaning of "Leibzucht" from Ernest Thode's German
English Genealogical Dictionary?

It says that "Leibzucht" means life estate [granted by the local lord or
church]. Where the word seems, in the old records, to refer to a building, I
suspect that is only a way of saying "in the dwelling of the holder of the
Leibzucht." There could have been more than one family living in the main house.

My experience in reading the old records leads me to believe that
"Leibzucht" after a person's name meant he was the head of that farm. Some of the other
people dwelling on the farm were sons or descendants of a previous or
current owner, some were from other farms.
I doubt that there were many cases of a farm 'owner' passing his farm to his
son before he himself had died.

And there was for some times and places little unrest apparent amongst those
who did not inherit. They went on for generations being listed as
Heuerleute. They were probably culturally conditioned to accept their lot. Some began
"cottage industries" to supplement their income. When those dried up, there
was migration.

Thode also defines "Heuer" as haymaker, "Heuerling" as renter, tenant,
"Heuerleute" as tenants, "Heuermann" as lessee, tenant and "Meyer" as "farm
administrator or tenant." The use of "Meyer" in the records seems to indicate the
head of a farm and is perhaps one of those occupational terms which became
surnames.

You wrote:
"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?
"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)."

Some of the Bergmanns, Handorfs, and Rusches may have been chief farmers
(heirs to a farm) in earlier records. Some of the non-heirs may have become
heuerleute on the same estates or on other estates. The ones on the Holzgreve
estate may have had some relationship to the Holzgreve family, perhaps through
a daughter, or maybe not. In any case, it was the Holzgreve family who had
the Leibzucht, the rest were Heuerleute. A search of the records would be
needed to see whether or not there is a family connection.

I have never seen the farms referred to as collectives. And that term
doesn't seem to fit since one man (or couple if the wife was the heir) was the
chief and the others were tenants or servants. A group of nearby farms formed a
farming community, called a "Gemeinde." That is perhaps where someone got the
idea that it was a collective farm.

I am interested in your Rusche findings. My husbands' family goes back to
Rusche in Damme in 1770. The marriage record doesn't say whether or not
Catharina Rüsche was Heuerleute or a daughter of the owner of the farm. There was a
Rusche farm somewhere. If you have anything from that era, would you send it
to me, please.

I have the book 700 Jahre Haverbeck. It has in it a listing of possibly your
family of Klemens Bergmann/ Agnes Krapp (married 1901). If you want the
information about them from the book I will send it to you. They were both from
the Steinfeld parish (in Schemde), but lived in Haverbeck, which isn't very
far from Steinfeld.

Nancy Pundsack

I'm sorry. At the risk of offending the writer, this is all wrong.

My experience in reading the old records leads me to believe that
"Leibzucht" after a person's name meant he was the head of that farm.

He used to be the head of the farm but now his son would be in that position.

It was precisely the purpose of the Leibzucht to take care of the
oldsters without dumping them out in the woods. It also permitted the
heir to raise a family on the old homestead while still young enough
to do so.

Some of the other
people dwelling on the farm were sons or descendants of a previous or
current owner, some were from other farms.

And they would be either in the position of Knecht, Magd or Heuermann.

I doubt that there were many cases of a farm 'owner' passing his farm to his
son before he himself had died.

See above. That was the whole purpose of the system. Social welfare by
the state did not exist but society took care of its own family by
family. The Leibzucht usually had a small garden of its own for the
couple to tend to but their main sustenance came from the work of the
son or daughter to whom they had handed the farm. They did not just
sit on their duffs and helped as they could but people got old much
faster then today. Also, the old folks had honorary positions in
society and were looked up to by their young ones.

Fred
.