Information on Karl Heberer, born Hirschhorn, Germany 1779

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Karl Heberer is believed to have been born in Hirschhorn, Heppenheim, Hessen, Deutschland on 5 April 1779. He married Caroline Werle 4 November 1807. We have reason to believe he was Lutheran. Family lore also states he was an arsonist and Treasurer to the Grandduke of Kurmainz in Hirschhorn. Any information would be appreciated.
in Genealogy Help by Deborah Rohrmann G2G4 (4.0k points)

According to information at the state archive of Darmstadt (responsible for southern Hesse, which is where this is located), Karl Heberer was recorded as district treasurer (Rentamtmann) for the district of Hirschhorn within the grand duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1809 and 1811 and was pensioned off from this position in 1821 (so not quite treasurer to the grand duke, but rather lower down within the ducal administration). Source (in German): https://arcinsys.hessen.de/arcinsys/detailAction?detailid=v2739641

Hirschhorn was within Kurmainz (the prince-archbishopric and electorate of Mainz) until 1803, when it was allocated to Hesse-Darmstadt (which became a grand duchy in 1806). Kurmainz, being ruled by the Catholic archbishop of Mainz, was arch-Catholic; as late as 1824 (per German wikipedia), there were only 25 Protestants out of 1507 total population in Hirschhorn. So chances are that Karl was at least born Catholic, though he perhaps converted when he entered the (Protestant) grand duke's administration.

The Catholic parish records for this area are not online (if they were, they would be at matricula-online.eu), and it appears there are no Protestant records for this area at archion.de, either.
Very accurate refurbishment.
Very interesting.  It is possible the information we have was referring to the Archduke being Lutheran rather than our ancestor, as things tend to get jumbled up over the centuries.  I wonder if the arsonist part is accurate.  We visited the Archduke's castle or whatever it was called in 1968.  It was quite impressive.
Sorry, I meant Grandduke!

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