Same Name - Reith
For the week 25 prompt, Same Name - I've decided to take a look at a branch of the family tree that I haven't paid much attention to and that is the Reith family. So it is the surname that is the thread.
When I looked up surname origins I could only find references for the Scottish origins of the name. There is also a town called Reith in Lower Saxony but the Reiths I am concerned with come originally from Eschwege, Hesse.
Reith is my maternal grandmother's maiden name. She was the third child, second daughter of Christoph Wilhelm Emil Reith, who was born 8 November 1856 in Eschwege, Germany. Her older brother was named Willi Ernst August Alfred and an older sister was called just Else.
Meta named her youngest daughter Gretel, after her own younger sister, and her oldest son Edwin, after her youngest brother, Edwin. Her second son she also named Willi after her older brother, together with the name Emil, after her father and then Justus, possibly after her husband's deceased younger brother. Meta's third son was simply named Reinier, after his own father and grandfather.
Meta's father was Uber Zoll Inspektor, or senior Customs Officer and was born in 1856 in Eschwege, district seat of Hesse, in the geographic centre of Germany.
I have only a simple typed up family tree in German to go by for the Reith family. I don't know who put it together but it is all I've got for now.
This shows the earliest Reith is Johannes, born in 1725 in Neuerode, Hesse, and he was a shepherd and cattleman. The youngest of his four children, also Johannes, born in 1770 is the next link in the line of descent. He too was a shepherd and casual labourer, probably still lived in the area of Eschwege, although his wife Anna Catharina Konig came from nearby Erhausen.
Next in line is yet another Johannes, born in 1791 or 1793, who was a soldier in the regiment of Solm. His son Heinrich, born in 1830 is the next link. Heinrich married Dorothy Elisabeth Pfisterer in 1853 and their son is Christoph Wilhelm Emil Reith, my great-grandfather, born in Eschwege in 1856.
Heinrich Reith was Sparkassenrendant and Rendant of district hospitals. With my Dutch and rudimentary German I interpret this to mean that he was a bank manager and financial officer of district hospitals. A big jump in social status and wealth from shepherd and cattleman.
The homeland for the family is in the province of Hesse, and the early generations stayed close around Eschwege, but then moved further away and finally in the 20th century had moved to Worms, Rhineland Palatinate.
Meta was very close to her parents and siblings and when she travelled to Java, April 1914, to marry my grandfather, she wrote many long letters, aboard ship, which I now have and am deciphering, because they are in German, of course.
In the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) it was usual to send the children back to the Netherlands to complete their education. So Meta's sons too ended up boarding with family friends but for the hoidays, like Christmas, or summer holidays, they would go to their mother's family, the Reiths in Worms.
My mother kept in close contact too with her German relatives but the ties loosened and faded with the next generations. However, within the last couple of years some threads have connected again, as a cousin, a great grand daughter of Else, found me through her genealogical research.
When I looked up surname origins I could only find references for the Scottish origins of the name. There is also a town called Reith in Lower Saxony but the Reiths I am concerned with come originally from Eschwege, Hesse.
Reith is my maternal grandmother's maiden name. She was the third child, second daughter of Christoph Wilhelm Emil Reith, who was born 8 November 1856 in Eschwege, Germany. Her older brother was named Willi Ernst August Alfred and an older sister was called just Else.
Meta named her youngest daughter Gretel, after her own younger sister, and her oldest son Edwin, after her youngest brother, Edwin. Her second son she also named Willi after her older brother, together with the name Emil, after her father and then Justus, possibly after her husband's deceased younger brother. Meta's third son was simply named Reinier, after his own father and grandfather.
Meta's father was Uber Zoll Inspektor, or senior Customs Officer and was born in 1856 in Eschwege, district seat of Hesse, in the geographic centre of Germany.
I have only a simple typed up family tree in German to go by for the Reith family. I don't know who put it together but it is all I've got for now.
This shows the earliest Reith is Johannes, born in 1725 in Neuerode, Hesse, and he was a shepherd and cattleman. The youngest of his four children, also Johannes, born in 1770 is the next link in the line of descent. He too was a shepherd and casual labourer, probably still lived in the area of Eschwege, although his wife Anna Catharina Konig came from nearby Erhausen.
Next in line is yet another Johannes, born in 1791 or 1793, who was a soldier in the regiment of Solm. His son Heinrich, born in 1830 is the next link. Heinrich married Dorothy Elisabeth Pfisterer in 1853 and their son is Christoph Wilhelm Emil Reith, my great-grandfather, born in Eschwege in 1856.
Heinrich Reith was Sparkassenrendant and Rendant of district hospitals. With my Dutch and rudimentary German I interpret this to mean that he was a bank manager and financial officer of district hospitals. A big jump in social status and wealth from shepherd and cattleman.
The homeland for the family is in the province of Hesse, and the early generations stayed close around Eschwege, but then moved further away and finally in the 20th century had moved to Worms, Rhineland Palatinate.
Meta was very close to her parents and siblings and when she travelled to Java, April 1914, to marry my grandfather, she wrote many long letters, aboard ship, which I now have and am deciphering, because they are in German, of course.
In the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) it was usual to send the children back to the Netherlands to complete their education. So Meta's sons too ended up boarding with family friends but for the hoidays, like Christmas, or summer holidays, they would go to their mother's family, the Reiths in Worms.
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| Meta's sons on holiday with their German family, grandmother Marie Reith and aunt Gretel. |
My mother kept in close contact too with her German relatives but the ties loosened and faded with the next generations. However, within the last couple of years some threads have connected again, as a cousin, a great grand daughter of Else, found me through her genealogical research.
Great that you have these details. So interesting that Meta traveled to Java to marry your grandfather. I guess he was there due to it being a Dutch colony. But how did she know he was there to go to him?
ReplyDeleteThanks Brian for your interest. Meta met him in Germany, probably Oberlahnstein, where my great-grandfather was then employed for the Victoria Brunnen, mineral springs. There was then a proxy marriage so that the bride could travel as a married woman and the costs would be borne by the husband's employer. For more about Meta see my posts Cemetery and Something Unusual - being a glove bride, for the background to proxy marriages in the Netherlands.
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