Anna Mattie Schmitz (1880 - 1917)

Born 16 Jan 1880 in Hanson, Shelby Co, Illinois

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 Jun 1917 at age 37 in Ramsey, Fayette Co, Illinois

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Biography

The Schmitzs came from Wormersdorf, Germany, in the Eifel mountain range's Ahrgebirge foothills 9.5 miles from the left (west) bank of the middle Rhine. This area is today in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, just north of the state of Rhineland Pfalz Palatinate. It is encompassed by 2 modern counties: Euskirchen and Rhein-Sieg Kreis.

The area lies on the river Erft, but the Romans built an aqueduct channeling the water to Cologne, rather than Düsseldorf 50 miles further down the Rhine, where the Erft river otherwise naturally flowed into the Rhine.

For us, the lineage combines the Schmitzes of Wormersdorf, Rhein-Sieg Kreis with the Wiskirchens of Euskirchen. In the Middle Ages the area was in conflict between Cologne and Julich.

600,000 Homo neanderthalensis Territory (Mauer 1 mandible discovered 1907 SE of Heidelberg) Neanderthals extinct by LGM last glacial maximum -24,000 43,000 Homo sapiens 24,000 LGM Last Glacial Maximum 5500 BC nomads settle nearby Zülpich 3000 BC IndoEuropeans 750 BC Germanic peoples 50 BC Romans

80 AD Eifel aqueduct to Cologne; till 260 plunder by German tribes

250 AD Franks

496 Battle of Tolbiac (Zülpich) between Franks & Alemanni, after which King Chlodwig embraced Christianity & founded Merovingian kingdom Zülpich crossroads from Köln, Trier & Reims

843-1190 Lorraine, then Dukes of Brabant

881 Viking raids

900 Tomberg Castle

925 Henry Fowler conquers Zülpich,

1000 Pfalzgraf Ezzo

1221 County Neuenahr Wormersdorf & Rheinbach

1278 Zulpich fortified by Archbishop Cologne

1288 Count of Julich destroyed Zulpich

1343 Archbishop Cologne

1356 Julich a Duchy

1546 Jülich- 1609

1609 June 10th War of Jülich Succession - Oct 13 1614; with Brandenburg versus Austria

1614 Herzogtum Pfalz-Neuburg: Philipp Ludwig Lutheran Wolfgang Wilhelm re-Catholicized & ruled 1614-1653

1631 witches burnt

1673 Rheinbach torched by Orange

1685 Kurfürstentum von der Pfalz

1794 France

1815 Prussia

Sources

• family records