The Family and Descendants of Gottlieb Schulz from Hohenselchow
The Schultzes emigrated from Germany in 1885 (presently called, Hohenselchow-Groß Pinnow, Uckermark District, Brandenburg, Germany), and settled first in Lewiston, Minnesota, and less than a year later, they moved the short five mile distance into the Bethany community. With a few exceptions, these Bethany immigrants were rural folk, farming in this new country and raising crops and livestock.
At that time, the village of Bethany (unincorporated community) was a small but growing town. At the center of the Bethany community was the Bethany Moravian Church. The Bethany congregation was organized in 1867 by fourteen members. Church services were conducted at the schoolhouse until a new church was con- structed in 1872. Thirty years later, a newer church was built on the site in 1903 and torn down in 1979, -three years after the congregation merged with Hebron to form Our Savior’s Moravian Church. The Schultzes were members of this church community.
The Moravian Church (The Unitas Fratrum, or Unity of the Brethren) is a Protestant church that originated in Moravia, Austria. It was founded in 1457 by the followers of John Huss whom the Council of Constance condemned and burned at the stake. The Moravian Church was founded sixty years before Martin Luther began his reformation and one hundred years before the Anglican and Episcopalian churches were established. In spite of the ruthless persecution of the Moravians with fire and sword by the Roman Church, the Moravian, or Brethren Church, grew and spread in Central Europe, and later in America.
Schulz is a common “Germanic” or “Teutonic” and Jewish-Ashkenazi family name in Northern Germany. The German word Schulz originates from the oldest form of the name known as Schultheiß or (Dorf-)Schulz(e). The term originally denoted a man responsible for collecting dues and paying them to the lord of the manor, a local law enforcement officer like a police officer, magistrate, bailiff, or mayor. The name Schultzheis: was then shortened to Schultze, and again modified to the present form, Schultz. Other meaning of Schultz are:
1) A German occupational name for the man in charge of a village (magistrate, sheriff, overseer) originally derived from the Middle High German word “schulteize” meaning the person in charge of collecting payments on behalf of the lord of the manor.
2) The Jewish origin of the Schultz, is uncertain, possibly given to, or by, a rabbi. Spelling variations of this family name include: Schultz, Schultheis, Schultes, Schultz, Schultze, Schulz, Scholz and other variations.
The first Pomeranians, between 9th–10th centuries, were several groups of West Slavic tribes who lived along the shore of the Baltic Sea between the mouths of the Oder and Vistula Rivers. The name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means “Land at the Sea”. In the early 12th century, Obodrite, Polish, Saxon, and Danish conquests resulted in vassalage and Christianization of the formerly pagan and independent Pomeranian tribes. In the High Middle Ages, (about 1100-1300 AD) the area became Christian and was ruled by local dukes of the House of Pomerania and the Samborides, at various times vassals of Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland. From the late 12th century, the Griffin Duchy of Pomerania stayed with the Holy Roman Empire. Later the Duchy of Pomerania adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1534, while other areas (mainly Polish areas) remained with the Roman Catholic Church.
Pomerania is a historic region in which both Slavs and Germans have played their part in the history of this part of north-eastern Europe. Archaeological research confirms that this part of Europe was from the earliest times settled by Slavic, Germanic and Celtic tribes. However, from the 12th century onward with the influx of Germans from the west, Pomerania began to be dominated by Germans and by the eighteenth century had become a thoroughly German area. In 1815 Pomerania was incorporated into Prussia. At the end of the First World War parts of Pommern were incorporated into the newly created Poland, and the remainder was swallowed up at the end of the Second World War when the borders of Poland were shifted dramatically westward. The German population of Pommern was expelled and their place taken by Poles originating from the eastern part of Poland, which had been given to Ukraine and Belarus. In 1945 centuries of German history was wiped out; much of the area became part of Poland.
In the spring of 2021, I (Donald Schultz) hired a local German genealogist to investigate the origins of our Schultz family of Pomerania (Pommern in German) prior to their immigration to America in 1885. Thanks to Herr Martin Sohn, a Pomeranian genealogist of Burrow, Germany (not far from Hohenselchow), who researched the archived Lutheran church records of Hohenselchow (now in Greifswald, Germany), and though he found lots of Schulz records, he was able to “decode” and organize more of our early Schulz family history, (originally spelled “Schulz”, without the “t”).
In Greifswald, Germany (a central location for area church archives) in the books of Hohenselchow (starts 1797), he found lots of Schulz records. All these Schulz families are related. Unfortunately, the archived “Evangelische Kirche” or Lutheran church books are very hard to read, some in very poor condition with tattered edges, faded and illegible script or just missing. Also, there are gaps in the birth records between 1848 and 1854 and 1874-1930. So, he could not find the birth of August Friedrich Schulz in 1849. But he did find his confirmation record and he thinks he has the right parents. Unfortunately, the church books with the birth entries of Bertha and Wilhelm Schulz, born in 1874 and 1878 are missing. He couldn’t find August Ludwig Franz Schulz, born in 1840. He wasn’t born in Hohenselchow. His research is presented as follows, pg 4-9.
Below is a photo-copy (example) Martin Sohn made of Daniel Schulz’s Lutheran Church marriage registry. Martin translates: “Farmhand Daniel Schulz, son of the deceased farmer Christian Schulz in Hohenselchow and his wife Luise Witt, born on 8 December 1801 in Hohenselchow, married on 17 March 1831, Marie Lenore Zuehlsdorf, daughter of farmer Michael Zuelsdorf in Hohenselchow and his wife Anne Dorothee Dehr, born 18 December 1806.”
Our Schultz family history begins with Gottlieb Schulz, who was born in 1729. Records indicate that he was a farmer in Hohen-Selchow or Hohenselchow and married Sophia Stendel. Gottlieb died at the age of 72 on 26 Jan 1801; he was buried on 29 Jan 1801. Sophia Stendel, widow of farmer Gottlieb Schulz in Hohenselchow, at the age of 72, died on 11 Sep 1810, and was buried on 14 Sep 1810. Four children.
- Christian Schulz, born in 1759, died 1809.
- Daniel Schulz, born on 7 Feb 1770 in Hohenselchow, died before 1818.
- Michel (Michael) Schulz, born on 1 Dec 1771, in Hohenselchow, died Jul 1828.
- Gottlieb Schultz, born 25 Sep 1774, in Hohenselchow, died 1835 of typhus.
Donald Albert Schultz
I am Donald A. Schultz. I was born and raised mostly in eastern Iowa, except for a few years in Winona County, Minnesota, the home of the Schultzs that immigrated there in 1885 from Pomerania. I majored in biology and chemistry in college and was especially interested in genetics and my family heritage. I worked many years as a medical technologist in the Dayton Ohio area and in an area paternity lab. (I relocating there after my marriage to an Ohio girl, who I met in college.)
My father was a first-generation American, while my mother's people (Pennsylvania Dutch, immigrants of Switzerland and southern Germany) have been in America since the early 1700s. Once I retired, I took the time to investigate, record, and write my family line (genealogy). I thought it was important for my children to know, who we are, how and why we got here. The Schultz family history proved difficult for me. Consequently, I hired a German genealogist to help me with this quest. Although I had studied two years of German in college, it just wasn't good enough to read the old German Gothic or fraktur script. I learned that our surname was changed from "Schulz" without the "t" to "Schultz" with the "t" once in America. Also, Schulz or Schultz is a very common German surname, especially in northern Germany.
Donald Schultz of Dayton, Ohio, [email protected]