I’m now entering the set of cards in this suit of my Gx3 Grandparents on my mother’s maternal line, of whom I know the least. We are in some pretty hazy territory, so I expect the next eight posts to be much shorter than the rest. My Gx3 Grandfather, Franciscus “Franz” Lerner is a prime example of this. I don’t even have a solid idea of when he was born and died.
As far as I know, with not a lot of evidence, is that Franz was born sometime between 1835 and 1840 in the German colony of Rastadt in the Beresan District of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. What I know with a bit more certainty is that Franz’s paternal line hailed from the Karlsruhe area of Baden in what is now Germany. At least four generations of his direct male line likely may have lived in Baden.
The hiccup in this lineage is the identity of Franz’s father. While I know nothing of Franz’s mother, not even her name, I have two possible candidates who might be his father. Franz may be the son of one of two brothers, Michael Lerner or Bernard Lerner. They are the sons of Franz Ignaz Lerner (1759-aft. 1816) and Maria Eva Geiger (1756-aft. 1816), both from Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. They left Baden for the Beresan in 1809 and settled in Rastadt.
- Michael Lerner was born on July 11, 1793 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. He was married to Maria Eva Eberle, born June 3, 1793 in Pleisweiler, Bergzabern, Pfalz, although the evidence of this marriage is not verified.
- Bernard Lerner born February 27, 1798 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. Bernard was married to Barbara Heil, who was born about 1799 in Niederlustadt, Germersheim, Pfalz.
Franz married Anastasia Wormsbecker (there are many spelling variations) in Rastadt, Beresan sometime around 1860. They had five children. The youngest four all emigrated to North America. Two went directly to Saskatchewan, Canada. Two sons went to Texas, one of whom was my Great Great Grandfather, Michael (“Mike”) Lerner. Mike ultimately moved to Saskatchewan with his family; his brother, Jerome, remained in Texas. Only their eldest child, Elisabeth, remained in the Beresan.
As I was looking at the list of Franz’s children, my mind began to speculate. A custom in the Netherlands for naming children was that the first son was named after the child’s paternal grandfather. The second son was named after the maternal grandfather. The first-born daughter was named after her maternal grandmother; the second daughter was named after her paternal grandmother.
If there was anything similar in German culture, particularly those parts of Germany closer to the Netherlands, that carried into the Beresan, it might provide a clue as to whether Michael or Bernard is Franz’s father. Mike was Franz and Anastasia’s first-born son. The name would be in keeping with a paternal grandfather with the same name. Mike and Anastasia did not name any of their other two sons Bernard. Of course, I can’t place much, if any, weight on this, but it does make some walking around sense.
For me, Franz’s life ended as mysteriously as it began. At most, all I know is that the possibility is that Franz died in 1876 or 1877 in the Beresan.
You can find more specific information about the dates and places of Franz’s birth, marriage, and death on various online trees, but they are largely unsourced or provide unverifiable and vague citations. Without something more, they deserve to be given no weight.
A Deck of Ancestors 