THE CRADLE BY THE WESER: ANCESTRAL ORIGINS CONTEMPORARY ROBRECHTS
Welcome Robrechts!
What a wonderful moment this is in this special place. All of us who carrx the name Robrecht, or have it as a partof our family history, have come together to celebrate being a part of this world wide family called "Robrecht".
About 4 months ago I suggested to Anneliese (Robrecht) Gollner that we have a reunion
for all Robrechts. She aggred... and now... here whe are. I want to thank her and her
daughter, Hannelore, and their family for here kindness and generosity. I also want to
thank Manuela Konerding for helping us to translate as well as the many other things she
has done.
I will be in herdebt for a long time. This of course is your country and we Americans are
guests here so At least 9 of us Robrechts gathered here today are citizens of the United
States of America and have come as far as 5.000 miles to be with all of you German-born
Robrechts. It's an honor for us to be able to meet you and to share this time with you.We
will treasure it for a long time to come. I believe that most of the German-born Robrechts
here today are from the surrounding area. But there may be some from other parts of
Germany. Could we have each person, whether German-born and American-born, take a turn ans
stand and tell us your name and the city or village that you are from...
For me this meeting with you is spiritual experience. I hope it will bethat way for
each of you too. As each of us come to earth we are born into famolies to nurture and
love us. We were born into that family called Robrecht and as a result share a common
bond. We are linked by a common heritage.
Let me try to explain to you what I found out as I did research on the Robrechts. This
whole matter os a little like putting together the pieces of a puzzle . So be patient
as I speak about the piecces and then try to put the pieces together.
In 1992 I purchased a book had the adresses of all households with the last name of Robrecht.It included people in both Germany and the United States. It was like a telephone bookexcept it only had Robrechts in it with their names and adresses. In Germany there were 296 households with the name of Robrecht. Inthe United States there were 56 households with the last name of Robrecht. A few months ago, I got out my German road map and laid it on our kitchen table. With the help of my 14 year old daughter, Emily, we looked at each German adress and then found the city of each adress on the road map. As I am sure you know, maps are often divided into square or rectangular areas so you can find places. Well I counted up the number of Robrechts who were living within each rectangular area on the map. What I found was interesting and curious to me. I have here overhead trransparencythat shows a map of Germany. This circled number in each section of the map represents the number of Robrecht householdsin the srction as of 1992. The interesting thing is that the rectangular area that had the most Robrechts living in it was the one that most of you live in. It is the one with Wurgassen, Herstelle, Buhne, Beverungen, Höxter and so on. There were 69 as of 1992. (By the way, I have a copy of the map for each of you as well as a copy of a shortenedversop of my remarks.)
Notice that the section that has the next highest number of Robrecht households is the
one with Pader- born in it. After that the next largest numbers are found in the larger
cities of Essen and Düsseldorfl I do not think it is a coincidence that the section
with the largest number of Robrechts within its boundaries is the one in this area of the
Weser. Now let me share what conclusion I would make about all this (and I believe this
and other evidence that I will present supports this): that all currently living Robrechts
are related to and have as their root ancestors that group of Robrecht families who lived
within 15 kilometers of this very site around 1650. The other villages this would
include are Herstelle, Wurgassen, Buhne, Beverungen and as far north Hoxter und Amelunxen
(I am sure there are others but these are the ones that I haved identified).
One might say that these villages make up the birthplace,the "cradle" if you
will, of the Robrecht "family" (taken as a whole) as it is today. To me it is a
very good feeling to have this sense of identity, this sense of shared heritage with
each of you. As I imagine myself walking around Wurgassen, I feel like I shoud take off my
shoes - it feels that special to me. I would say sacred but we usually reserve thatword
for Deity. Now I know I have given you my conclusionbefore I gave you all the evidence but
I guess I just couldn't help myself. I had to just blurt it out. I am not a good novelist
who can build suspense. So back to the evidence.
In the late 1500s and early 1600s the Catholic and Lutheran clergy were directed by their superiors to start keeping baptismal, birth, marriage and death records. In Germany, the book or registry they kept this information in is called "Kirchenbuk." In the 1970s and later many of these Kirchenbuks were microfilmed and that is primarily how I have done what little research I have. About 1 1/2 years ago I found the birth and baptismal record of my great-grandfather, Carl Robrecht, on a microfilm of the Kirchenbuk from St. Bartholomew's in Herstelle. He was my ancestor who emigrated to the United States in 1854. This same Kirchenbuk, which covers the time period from 1645 to 1875, had information in it that allowed me to trace my Robrecht history back to 1652. I am here today because I wanted to see the place where my great-grandfather and his ancestors... my ancestors... your ancestors... lived and played, worked and worshipped, married and had children, grew old and died. The interesting thing for all Robrechts is that it is in this Kirchenbuk and one other in Hoxter that the Robrecht name first begins to appear around 1650-- that is, appear with any frequency. I did find one Robrecht family in Paderborn around this same time, 1650, but only one. I have looked in Kirchen-buks of churches in other German villages for the same time period but the Robrecht name does not appear until later in time. Perhaps as others do more research we will learn more. I hope some of you will choose to get involved in this Now, let me tie this back into the map I mentioned earlier. Here we are 350 years from the first recorded baptism of a Robrecht in the Kirchenbuk of St Bartholomew at Herstelle in 1648....And the section of the map that has the most Robrechts living within its boundaries, as of 1992, is the one that has Wurgassen, Herstelle, Buhne and Hoxter right in the middle of it. As we look at the map we can see that many Robrechts began to gradually move to the west. We might assume that many did so to buy farms or seek better jobs. Usually jobs are more plentiful in cities and people are attracted to the diversity that city life offers. So we see the gradual migration west to the larger cities. What other evidence is there to support this idea that today we are in the ancestral birth- place of contemporary Robrechts. Over the last few months I sent a letter to every Robrecht household in the United States for whom I had an address. That amounted to 40 Robrecht households. I told them about the research that I was conducting and asked them to respond to me if they knew who their immigrant ancestor was and the village or city in Germany from which the immigrant or the immigrant's ancestor came.The results are as follows: so far we have identified 10 Robrecht immigrants who came to America in the 1800s. All of them came from this area of the Weser and most of them came from villages within 15 km of Wurgassen. Last month I sent a letter to 30 Robrecht households in Germany. I sent it only to those addresses that are a long way from this area of the Weser because I thought that it would be possible that they would be associated with a completely different line of Robrechts. So far I have gotten 8 responses. In each case they identified ancestors that originate from this same area of the Weser. And again most were within 15 km of this place.
So, let's review the pieces of the puzzle and see how they fit:
1) the present day distribution of Robrecht households in Germany shows an unusually high concentration of Robrechts in this part of Germany, especially considering that it is so rural.
2) When you look at the time period around 1650, the Robrecht name (spelled how we spell it) is present in the Kirchenbuks of villages around this part of the Weser River but almost in no others--at least of the Kirchenbuks that I have looked at as of this date.
3) We have the responses, to my letter, of those Robrechts in the United States and those who live in the more distant parts of Germany. All identify ancestors who came from this part of the Weser River-- almost all within 15 km of the Herstelle/ Wurgassen area.
Now you have the pieces of the puzzle that I know about. It looks to me like they fit together. The evidence is compelling. It looks to me like this area is in fact the ancestral birthplace, the homeland, the "cradle" of all contemporary Robrechts. I recently came across a small family history book published in 1936 by a German man who had Robrechts in his family line. He apparently lived about 25 km (15 miles) west of Beverungen. He says in his book, "I suspect that all [Robrechts] in the Nethegau [the area he lived in] have one...[root] ancestor who moved west from the Weser River around Herstelle and Wurgassen." (So Wird Ein Volk, by Hans Poetschki--see appendix). I am not sure it is quite that simple but I think the concept is correct. I am guessing that it is possible that Herstelle and Wurgassen are the 2 original communities that our ancestors settled in. One of the reasons I came here is to learn from you what you know about this.
In conclusion and on a personal note I want to say that my wife and I are very excited to be here and to be able to walk where my ancestors walked and to be able to meet and talk with you my Robrecht cousins. The last 2 verses in the Old Testament (Malachi 4:5-6, King James version or Malachi 3:23-24, Catholic version) say that God will send Elijah "And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers...." As we have been engaged in this meeting today and as we carry on further research about our Robrecht ancestors it seems to me that we are fulfilling this prophecy: that is, as children of the fathers and mothers who have gone before us, our hearts are indeed turned to them. We value, cherish and honor their legacy. We stand on their shoulders. May God bless us each as we seek his will and act as instruments in his hands to do good...just as those who have gone before us have done. Thanks to each of you for coming and for allowing me to share these thoughts with you.
Terry Robrecht 
8 Nov 1998
Wurgassen, Germany
Inaugural World Wide Robrecht Reunion
