The Wolf Family of Hřešice, Central Bohemia

Research Note by Wesley Johnston, begun 25 Dec 2019, last updated 25 Dec 2019

https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/15071894/person/102150367412/media/270c1744-274e-448e-aa43-6b8963c8478c

Overview

The earliest record (not including land records) of Hřešice, the 1655 Seigniorial Register of the Schwatzenberg Family estate of Mšec, begins with the family of Martin WOLF. He and his descendants remained at the top of the list into the 1800's. Martin had many children who had many children. So 360 years later he has a great many living descendants, including me.

This research note seeks to ultimately allow every WOLF family member who appears in any Hřešice record to have a clear connection to the rest of the WOLF family members.

Martin remained the first family in the Seigniorial Registers for many years, through the 1692 register, even as his sons began appearing separately -- also in the main section. But in 1694 (no 1693 register known), he appears, as Martin the elder, in a less prominent position in the list, withhis son Vaclav/Wentzl then in the first position.

The Seigniorial Registers

The Seigniorial Registers of the SCHWARTZENBERG family estate of Mšec are held at the State Regional Archive at Trebon and are digitized online. The complete list can be seen at:

https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/seigniorial_registers-sra_trebon_-_department_trebon-msec

The registers include the town of Hřešice, where Kaspar Lieberzeit was the miller. The years includes are:

1665, 1670, 1672-4, 1680, 1682-4, 1692, 1694, 1699-1701, 1703, 1706, 1708, 1710-2, 1718-21, 1724, 1727-31, 1733-5, 1738, 1741-5, 1752-3, 1755, 1760, 1765-7, 1771, 1778-1800, 1842

The entries are in Czech and German. Thanks to Zuzana JIČÍNSKÁ for first alerting me to these extremely important records.

Each town has three sections.

1. Sedlaczy – Sedlaks: landed (but not land owning, since they were serfs) farmers, often shown with the number of Lan units to the left of their name (“Bauern” in German = Farmers) – This section is not usually named in the enumeration.
2. Podruzy – landless laborers (“Inleute”, plural of Inwohner, in German = landless lodgers)
3. Sÿroczÿ – Orphans = families of a now-deceased primary member ( “Waisen” in German = orphans)

See www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Czech_Republic_Land_and_Property for information on the Lan allotment system and related descriptions of people.

In the Syroczy/Weissen/Orphans section, the deceased person’s name is preceded by PN (Po Nebožtic)  in Czech and NT (Nach Tod) in German. Both mean “after death/decease”.

The best information on Seigniorial Registers is http://www.oxfordjctgenealogy.com/main/?page_id=1660

Martin WOLF: The Earliest WOLF

Most of the vital events in the life of Martin WOLF predate the earliest church registers (matriky in Czech). Thus, the Seigniorial Registers are the only source of most of the information about him and his adult family.