Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 12:15 pm
Post subject: Golden Wedding in 1754?
Hi Dave,
I would appreciate your help with this text:
https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/deutschland/fulda/fulda-stadtpfarrei-st-blasius/1-05/?pg=394
It’s the entry on the bottom of the right side. I understand it’s the golden wedding of Laurentius Dilsberger, an honest and remarkable citizen and backer in Fulda, and his wife Anna Catharina, born Buttner, but I am unsure with the details.
Best regards,
Michael
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dnowickiPO Top Contributor
Joined: 28 Dec 2011
Replies: 2793
Location: Michigan City, IndianaBack to top |
Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 11:20 am
Post subject: Re: Golden Wedding in 1754?
Hi Michael,
I kept the translation as close to the Latin and as literal as possible except where absolutely necessary (e.g. the elimination of the triple negatives of the first sentence). I’m not particularly please with the flow and the style of the language in the translation but to make it conform better with good English form would require a more free and less literal translation.
A similar entry appeared in a marriage register for a set of my 5th great grandparents celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary. For a couple to have lived long enough to celebrate 50 years of married life was rather rare during the 18th and 19th Centuries and thus it merited an entry in the parish marriage register to commemorate the event.
The section describing the event brought back memories of things from my younger days which I’ve not thought of in over 50 years. During the 1950s and for most of the 1960s frequent reception of Communion was not something which was part of life for most adults—Confession and Communion at Christmas & at Easter was pretty much the norm. Thus Confession & Communion at the time of the wedding anniversary was something noteworthy. It brings back memories of grammar school days when the nuns would march us all to church for Confession prior to receiving Communion at daily Mass on the First Friday of the month. That went by the boards as soon as we started high school. Mention of the Gospel side brings back memories of serving Mass. The two ends of the altar were referred to as the Epistle side and the Gospel side. The description in the text is understood visually if one faces the altar from the viewpoint of the congregation. At the beginning of Mass the missal was on a stand on the far right of the altar. After the priest read the Epistle the missal was moved to the far right side of the altar, where the priest read the Gospel. Thus, the right side of the altar & of the sanctuary was known as the Gospel side, which is where the ceremony described in the text took place. Anyway, had you not posted the text I doubt that I would have ever thought about any of that. It seems strange that things not thought of for so many years come to mind so clearly when the right stimulus is provided. It makes one wonder whether anything is ever truly forgotten or are all memories just dormant waiting for the proper stimulus to awaken them.
I hope the translation fills in the details for you.
Wishing you all the best,
Dave
It never happened during the space of 25 years that either it came to pass for me or that as I read older metrical books did I ever truly find (such an entry): the very upright and worthy man, townsman, and baker of Fulda, Mister/Sir* Lawrence Dilsberger and his highly esteemed and very upright wife Anna Catharina née Buttnerin lived together in a praiseworthy and amicable manner for a total of 50 years with each other and with their sons and daughters and also their grandchildren** to the third generation: These most upright spouses on their own and also at my suggestion for the public edification of the townspeople, these jubilee spouses, I say***, at the designated hour in the morning, namely the sixth hour made their Confession and were refreshed with Holy Communion and with my brief exhortative and congratulatory sermon concerning past years which they had with so great a blessing of/from God. I gave them and all the people a blessing in a worthy manner. NB. My sermon was not from the pulpit**** but from a stool or chair near the altar from the Gospel side placed there by me. May All-powerful God deign to long preserve these jubilee spouses.
Notes: *D. in the text stands for either dominus or domnus, both of which have the same meaning. In Polish docs from the 18th Century the usual translation would be “Pan”. I don’t know the best rendering for documents from a German speaking region.
**nepos, nepotis, m. grandson: Since masculine nouns are often used in the plural to include both genders I translated the word as grandchildren rather than as grandsons.
***inquam/”I say”: A verb form (possibly originally a present subjunctive) used parenthetically, often for emphasis. Here it forms a connection for the repeated subject (the spouses).
****cathedra: The noun means “chair, seat, pulpit, etc.” Given the sense of the sentence, pulpit is the most logical translation. The word cathedral comes from cathedra as it indicates the church which is the “seat” of the bishop of a diocese.
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2021 4:43 am
Post subject: Re: Golden Wedding in 1754?
Thank you, Dave. Your translation is really helpful and fills in the details for me. And thank you for sharing your memories, too. Sometimes they come along in miraculous ways.
Lawrence and his wife Anna Catharina happened to live together for another 6 years, they both died in 1760. As you said, rather rare in these times.
A good rendering for dominus or domnus in German might be “Herr”.
Best regards,
Michael
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