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This is the church book entry for my 11ggf Emerich Braunschweig's marriage, in 1593. It is in German. Unfortunately, I can't make out anything legible here other than his name. I'm hoping that someone is able to decipher enough here to figure out who he married (my 11ggm).

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Item Emerich Braunschweigs und ____ ____...

...____ zusammen gegeben den 13 novembris

The priest tended to use the same text for every entry; here are a few entries he made over the following 16 years for other Braunschweigs:

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Edit: Emerich's wife's funeral record:

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Edit 2: Here is the upper part of that page, and the lower part of the prior page, to put this in context. The word "novembris" is legible in a prior entry, circled in red.

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Also, I've tried enhancing the extracted section to darken the bits that were almost invisible in the image, and to "de-bolden" it as much as possible, to better allow individual letters to be distinguished. It's harder to tell resized here, but if you open the image separately, and zoom in 200%, it almost seems readable.

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Update: This is the best I can enhance those parts of the image. The text sort of looks like "Jorizomorieggen"?

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October 5th edit: I've found two births in 1576 where the surname looks very much like at least the first half of the surname here. I cannot read either, but perhaps these will be of some assistance; it's likely the same priest writing.

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Weitzel entry with very similar "tz" ligature, from 1577: enter image description here

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    That's hard. What makes it even harder is that I think the wife's surname was split between line one and two. But you are right, the structure is similar. Herr Emerich Braunschweig[er?] und ... ... ... zusammen gegeben den 13? ... ... I think your best bet might be to locate a better reproduction (not on microfilm) or the original.
    – nebulon42
    Commented Jan 24, 2021 at 12:38
  • Thanks, and I wish! It's from Creuzburg, where the records only first became available at all on Archion back this last September.
    – BrianFreud
    Commented Jan 24, 2021 at 15:17
  • The month could be "Novembris" or "decembris". Would this be in line with previous entries on the same page? I can say for certain that the month in question ends with "bris", probably "mbris". This could only be septembris, octu/obris, novembris, or decembris. What do you think? As for the wife's name, maybe another viable strategy is to look for her death entry. Must be a female name with Braunschweiger as surname. Is there a name index available for that church book? Best of luck!
    – Til Hund
    Commented Jan 24, 2021 at 21:44
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    Similarly like @TilHund suggested are there only marriage entries? Another strategy would be to look for baptizms of children after the wedding (date could be determined by adjacent entries). There also the name of the mother should be mentioned.
    – nebulon42
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 15:12
  • Good thinking, nebulon, as this research can be carried out easier. The first baptism entries can be expected a year or two after the year, in which they married. However, at this time it was not uncommon to never (!) mention the mother and to just associate the child with the father. But this varies from my experience. Only one way to find out.
    – Til Hund
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 15:30

1 Answer 1

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My best guess: “Item Emerich Brunschwiegk und Cristina Brethe..... zusammen gegeben den 13 Novembris”

I’m not entirely sure that the bride’s name is Cristina, could be Cattrina as well, but it defenitly ends with “ina”. Look for similar spellings elsewhere in the same book.

The month seems to be november rather than december. See the last entry for the year, 29 Novembris.

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  • You're right, "Novembris" is readable 2 entries above, as well as in the entry below - I'm not sure why I'd been thinking decembris. I've not seen the name "Christina" use in the area, but "Cattrina", or at least variations thereof, would fit. I'd been reading the surname as starting with a "J", but I can see the "B". the 4th or 5th letter looks more to be a "z" to my eye, but I can see where you're thinking "th". I don't know of any surnames from the area at the time that fit either surname pattern, but I'll give it another look.
    – BrianFreud
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 14:00
  • I've found two birth records from 1576 where the surname looks very much like at least the first half of the name here. I can't read either scribble, but perhaps it's helpful?
    – BrianFreud
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 15:24
  • Also, from an entry reading "Wetzel", I'm thinking that the 4th or 5th letter might be a "tz" ligature.
    – BrianFreud
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 15:33
  • The name in 1576 seems to be Herzogk or Hertzogk, I'm not sure if there's t in the middle there, or is it just Herzog and Wezel. It is indeed similar and quite possible, but then it would be just Herzo or Herze. I'm also thinking if the ending of the name might actually be something else, not a name at all, for example the place where the pride was from, if she wasn't local. It's a strange way of continuing a name to the next line.
    – CuriousM
    Commented Oct 6, 2021 at 20:31
  • I'm wondering if I may have over-enhanced the faded bits on the 2nd line. On most other lines, the 2nd line is indented, starting about the "t" in "Item". If the first bit on that second line is actually bleed-through, and we assume the second line doesn't actually start until the letter after the dot that might be an "i"... It also looks like there was a below-baseline letter in the middle of the first name, so "Cattrina" doesn't quite fit. Could the name be "Cathrina Herzo<br>ggen"?
    – BrianFreud
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 0:39

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