Thursday, January 16, 2025

The Birth of John Bentz

       





Recently, I was able to find and have translated the civil birth record, in German, for my maternal 2nd great grandfather John Bentz.

Index found on FamilySearch:


Original register:


Translation:

In the year 1828 of 14th February, at 10 a.m., before us Peter Alesch, registrar of the civil status records of Weiler-la-Tour, canton of Bettembourg in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, has appeared Willhelmus (William) Bintz, aged 42 years, linen weaver, residing in this municipality, who presented us a child of male sex, born of him and of his wife Maria Petesch, on this day at one a.m., and whom he declared to give the first name of Johan.

Which declaration and presentation were done in the presence of Nicolas Hengen, schoolteacher, aged 28 years, and of Nicolas Kries, aged 37 years, field warden, who are residing in this municipality. And have the father and the witnesses signed the present birth record, with us after having been given lecture thereof.

[signatures]

At times I have come across information in someone else's tree or on a data base.  I use this information as a 'lead' but still want to prove what I see elsewhere.  With the information in John's birth record I can now verify information previously seen and possibly learn something new:  

  • a confirmation now on the birth dates (7 years off from what I previously believed) and time of Johan Bintz’s birth.  Interesting that only 9 hours after Johan's birth his father registered the birth.
  • a confirmation on Johan’s parents (my 3rd great grandparents) - Willhelmus [William] Bintz and Maria Petesch
  • a confirmation that Johan’s parents lived in Weiler-la-Tour, Bettembourg, Luxembourg
  • new information that Willhelmus was a linen weaver
  • name change from ‘Bintz’ in Luxembourg to ‘Bentz’ in the United States

The translator I used in Luxembourg also informed me that “In some records Weiler-la-Tour is mentioned to be part of the canton of Bettembourg, in other records of the canton of Luxembourg. This goes back to the partition of Luxembourg in 1839 (London Treaty at the end of the Belgian Revolution). The partition went right through some of the cantons, with some municipalities becoming Belgian and others remaining Luxembourgish. There was an urgent need for administrative redistricting, which was done by the royal-granducal decree of October 12, 1842. Esch-sur-Alzette then became the seat of the canton of Esch, which was formed with some eastern parts of the cantons of Messancy (the remaining parts formed the canton of Messancy in Belgium) and  some parts of the canton of Bettembourg. Some other parts of the canton of Bettembourg  (including Weiler-la-Tour) were reattached to the canton of Luxembourg. The canton of Bettembourg ceased to exist as of 1841."

Important information to be aware of as I do further research.

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share, I look forward to hearing them.

Enjoy the journey,

Debby

See also post The Wedding of Johan Bintz and Margaretha Rovin.  

For information on translation of German records in Luxembourg see post The Birth of Jacob Hamman.

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