Jacob Waltz Sr. (abt. 1595 - 1645)

Husband of Anna Seifried — married 14 Oct 1623 (to 13 Apr 1645) in Altensteigdorf, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire

Descendants

Died 13 Apr 1645 at about age 50 in Heselbronn, Altensteig, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire

Biography

Birth

Jacob Walz was born approximately between 1595 and 1601,^[1] probably somewhere in the Altensteig region in what was then the County of Baden. In 1603, when he was still a toddler, the Altensteig district was acquired by the Herzog of Württemberg.^[2]

Occupation

Jakob was the mayor of Heselbronn, a hamlet located about a half mile due west from the present outskirts of Altensteig.

Marriage

Jakob married Anna Seifried on 14 October 1623 in Altensteigdorf, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire.^[3][4]

Children

Jakob and Anna had the following children:^[5]

The Plague of 1635

The bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, periodically swept across the various states of Germany. In the XVIIᵀᴴ century, the worst of these plagues peaked in the year 1636, as can be seen from this graph:^[12]

Peaks in the Periodic Recurrence of the Bubonic Plague in Southwestern Germany

This was the result of the victory of Imperial forces at the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634, when the victorious troops were quartered among the population and lived off the land. As a result of disease among the soldiers, in many Württemberg towns, such as Ebingen and Dornstetten, the plague reached its apogee in 1635.^[13] This seems to have been the case in Heselbronn. Mayor Waltz's family was hit particularly hard. Of their six children alive in 1635, four of them died of the plague. On 19 September, little three year old Agatha died of the dread disease, and just three days later, five year old Anna also succumbed to the Black Death. On 9 October, one of their daughters, whose name and age is unknown, also died; and the very next day, Hans Jerg, who may have been their oldest child, perished as well. The tragic impact of this catastrophe is hard to imagine in a more comfortable age protected by science.

Death

Jacob was probably still in his 40s when he died on 13 April 1645 in Heselbronn, Altensteig, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire.^[14] The effects of war, poverty, hunger and the bubonic plague had reduced the population of Württemberg from 350,000 in 1618 to 120,000 in 1648.^[15] He did not live to see the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that brought an end to this ordeal of disease and starvation. When he died, his wife Anna was three months pregnant with his last daughter, Elizabeth. Less than four months after the birth of Elizabeth, she remarried.^[16]

Sources

1. ↑ Estimation by Klenk is 1595, GEDBAS, Jakob Waltz; van der Molen, GEDBAS, Jakob Waltz, suggests ca. 1601. There is an entry in the Simmerfeld Baptismal Registry of a Jacob Walze or Walzen, whose parents were Filg and Elizabethe: Baptismal Register of Simmersfeld (Beüren), Anno 1599, Entry 5 recto.

   Baptismal Record of Jacob Walzen

   Beuren is 1.7 miles west of Heselbronn. Jacob's wife, Anna Seifried, has her baptism entered in this same volume.
2. ↑ "Altensteig", Wikipedia.
3. ↑ OSB Altensteigdorf, p 102, entry #834.
4. ↑ Kirchenbuch der evangelischen Kirchengemeinde Altensteigdorf, Dekanat Nagold, Band 1 (Mischbuch. Taufregister 1622-1673; Eheregister 1620-1677; Totenregister: 1632-1678) Ancestry Sharing Link
5. ↑ OSB Altensteigdorf, p 102, entry #834; GEDBAS, Jakob Waltz.
6. ↑ OSB Altensteigdorf, p 102, entry #834. This first Anna will have died before the second Anna was born in January of 1637. So the Anna mentioned as having died on 21 Sep 1635, is almost certainly her.
7. ↑ OSB Altensteigdorf, p 102, entry #834. She fits into the temporal gap between Jacob (b. Nov 1633) and Anna (b. Jan 1637). Given her implied date of birth, she will have died as an infant. However, there is an apparent gap between her mother's first expected child in 1624 and the two children thought to have been born before 1630, in which case she could have been an older child; but then we would have expected a name.
8. ↑ GEDBAS: Maria Waltz (Tschischka).
9. ↑ OSB Altensteigdorf, p 103, entry #839.
10. ↑ OSB Altensteigdorf, p 103, entry #841.
11. ↑ She had at least five children with Lorenz. GEDBAS: Elisabetha Waltz.
12. ↑ Eckert, "Boundary Formation and Diffusion of Plague", 53 Fig. 1.
13. ↑ See, for instance, the profiles of Caspar Keller of Ebingen, and Matthias Unmach Jr. of Dornstetten. "Tuttlingen in the year 1635 had 546 deaths, Calw 772, and Freudenstadt 434; Neuenburg, Nagold, Sulz, and other places were also attacked." Prinzing and Westergaard, Epidemics Resulting from Wars, 62-63.
14. ↑ Kirchenbuch der evangelischen Kirchengemeinde Altensteigdorf, Dekanat Nagold, Band 1 (Mischbuch. Taufregister 1622-1673; Eheregister 1620-1677; Totenregister: 1632-1678) Ancestry Sharing Link
15. ↑ "List of rulers of Württemberg", Wikipedia, sub nom. Eberhard III.
16. ↑ The marriage was to Conrad Wurster, the record of which is oddly crimped in the margin of the page:

    Conrad Wurster - Anna Walz Marriage Record

    Marriage Register of Altensteigdorf for 17 Feb 1646.

See also:

• Baptismal Register of Simmersfeld (Beüren), Anno 1599, Entry 5 recto, 11 May (Image 1103 of 1264). Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1985 for Jacob Walze. Simmersfeld u Wenden > Seelenregister, Familienbücher, Taufen, Heiraten u Tote 1580-1805.
• Marriage Register of Altensteigdorf, Mischbuch 1620-1672, Band 1, Bild 79 for 17 Feb 1646. Württemberg: Landeskirchliches Archiv Stuttgart: Dekanat Nagold: Altensteigdorf, for Conrad Wurster.
• Family # 834 in: Prof. Dr. Burkhart Oertel, Ortssippenbuch der Pfarrei Altensteigdorf Kreis Calw in Württemberg 1620-1808. Deutsche Ortssippenbücher. Herausgegeben von der Zentralstelle für Personen- und Familiengeschichte Reihe A - Band 85, zugleich Band 2 der Württembergischen Ortssippenbücher, Neubiberg bei München 1979.
• Register of Deaths in Altensteigdorf for the year 1645. Cited in GEDBAS (Verein für Computergenealogie) > under the name: Jakob Waltz. Researchers: Edith & Friedrich Klenk.
• GEDBAS (Verein für Computergenealogie) > under the name: Jakob Waltz. Researchers: Edith & Friedrich Klenk.
• GEDBAS (Verein für Computergenealogie) > under the name: Jakob Waltz. Researcher: Bavo van der Molen.
• GEDBAS (Verein für Computergenealogie) > under the name: Maria Waltz. Researcher: Helmut Tschischka.
• Edward A. Eckert, "Boundary Formation and Diffusion of Plague: Swiss Epidemics from 1562 to 1669", Annales de démographie historique (1978): 49-80.
• Friedrich Prinzing and Harald Westergaard, Epidemics Resulting from Wars (Oxford, London, New York [etc.]: Clarendon Press; H. Milford, 1916).
• "List of rulers of Württemberg", Wikipedia, sub nom. Eberhard III.
• "Altensteig", Wikipedia.

Records pertaining to Jacob's children:

• Families #839 and #841 in: Prof. Dr. Burkhart Oertel, Ortssippenbuch der Pfarrei Altensteigdorf Kreis Calw in Württemberg 1620-1808: Herausgegeben von der Zentralstelle für Personen- und Familiengeschichte Reihe A - Band 85. Zugleich Band 2 der Württembergischen Ortssippenbücher, Neubiberg bei München 1979.
• GEDBAS (Verein für Computergenealogie) > under the name: Elisabetha Waltz. Researcher: Dennis Kirstein.

Acknowledgement

This profile was created by Richard L. Dieterle on 9 May 2021.