five priests in a row

Looking up W. O. von Horn, the author of the very romantic book that constitutes the earliest documented connection between Heinrich the cellist and Maria his future wife, I noticed the weird coincidence that the author is from a very similar background as two thirds of the ancestry of Heinrich and Maria’s future daughter in law. (As Ruth’s parents were first cousins, she only had three sets of great-grandparents, and the normal genealogy maths doesn’t apply.)

Porträt: W. O. v. Horn. In: W. O. v. Horn’s gesammelte Erzählungen. Neue Volks-Ausgabe. Vollständig in 12 Bänden. J. D. Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main 1. Band, 1861
Source: Wikipedia

W.O. von Horn, real name Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp Oertel, was the middle one in a lineage of five consecutive protestant priests in the male line, rooted in the village of Horn near Simmern (plus his brother). Info from Wikipedia plus additional details from this genealogy dataset:

1. Johann Paul Oertel * 17.5.1708 Simmern, + 19.2.1780 Horn) parish priest of Horn since 1746, previously at Nieder-Hilbersheim
oo before 1747 Anna Christina (Christine) Faber

1.1. Friedrich Peter Paul Oertel (1748–1819) priest in Horn, 1804 President of the Lokalkonsistorium (whatever that means) in Bacharach, 1812 parish priest of Manubach, Kreis St. Goar, Superintendent in Koblenz
oo 22.3.1782 Juliana Carolina Wilhelmina Maria (Juliane) Wolff

1.1.1.Friedrich Franz Heinrich Jakob Oertel * 20.12.1784 Horn 1863 Bingen) parish priest at Oberdiebach and from 1832-1857 in Kirn
1.1.2. Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp Oertel = W. O. von Horn (* 15. August 1798 in Horn; † 14. Oktober 1867 in Wiesbaden)
oo 1822 Antonie Henriette von Saint George (1798-1870) from Weilburg (Lahn)

1.1.2.1. Pauline Christiane Oertel * 1823
oo Reichard Gerber (1823 – 1852)
1.1.2.2.Georg Friedrich Hugo Oertel (1827–1909) parish priest in Horn (1854-64), Ottweiler and Simmern; superintendent at Simmern (1883-1907)
oo Jakobina Philippina (Jakobine) Caesar (1827 – 1908)
1.1.2.2.1.Christina Julia Anna Oertel (1858 – vor 1889) oo 1883 Gustav Adolf Eybisch
1.1.2.2.2.Richard Oertel (1860–1932) parish priest in Neuerkirch; member of the Reichstag. oo 5. November 1886 Elise Cauer (1865–1919; daughter of Robert Cauer the Elder (1831–1893), sculptor)
1.1.2.2.3. Jakobina Mathilda (Mathilde) Oertel * 1862 Horn oo 1889 Simmern: Gustav Adolf Eybisch (widower of her older sister, also a parish priest in Heiligenwald, Neunkirchen und Bingerbrück, their son also became a priest)
1.1.2.2.4. Emilie Julie Maria Oertel (1863 – 1949) oo 1892 Simmern: Paul Julius Lembeck
1.1.2.3. Mathilda Oertel * 1829 oo Heinrich Wilhelm Eduard Fuchs, Oberförster, * ca. 1825

I note that the author’s background as the son of the parish priest of Horn born in 1798 was very similar to that of some of Ruth’s ancestors in the Kauer clan and in the Imig clan. (Sadly the Cauer clan which the fifth generation Oertel priest married into is unrelated to our Kauers, this prominent family of sculptors and artists came from Berlin and settled in Kreuznach for some reason.) So if only I had a more extended family tree for W.O. von Horn, I am quite sure it would touch mine somewhere.

A quick search for the place name of Horn in my family history file revealed that four marriages of my direct ancestors happened in Horn. They are all from the ancestry of Ruth’s grandmothers, the sisters Elisabeth and Margaretha Imig, and the most recent one is:

Christoph Philippi, a tanner from Ohlweiler near Simmern, married Charlotte Kuhn from Simmern on 25.7.1775. At this point, I assume that the serving priest at Horn must have been either Johann Paul or Friedrich Peter Paul Oertel.

Sadly the other three marriages that happened at Horn were too early even for Johann Paul. One was in 1701 (Joh. Nicolaus Kurtz oo Elisabeth Margaretha Wagner), and then we have Elisabeth’s parents in 1671, and another pair of Imig ancestors in 1659, namely Michel Augustin from Riegenroth and Elisabeth Christ. (NB I’m giving GedBas links for each spouse separately, because each of these has incomplete info on the families attached to their other half.)

Still a generation deeper down, we have Hans Caspars, a “welsch” (meaning foreign, eg French, but probably not Welsh) carpenter was active at Horn. No dates for him but his son Johann Caspers was born 1644 in Argenthal. (The son of Michel Augustin married the daughter of Johann Caspers in 1706 at location unknown.)

Whereas Ruth’s Imig ancestors are most closely associated with the village of Horn (as well as a bunch of other villages near Simmern), those of her grandfather Christoph Gottlieb Kauer are more similar to the Oertel families in that they also included village priests and teachers in the same area (but a bit more mobile). For instance, we have Johannes Weiß (1704-72), the parish priest of Eckweiler, next door to Sobernheim where WO von Horn became parish priest in 1835 and a contemporary of his grandfather born in 1708. Johannes Weiß’s father-in-law, Martin Philipp Nicolas Ebner was the parish priest of Alterkülz and a senior year teacher at the Latin school of Trarbach (as was his father). Further protestant priests include Nikolaus Andreae in Gebroth from 1632, as well as Peter Siegel during the time of the Reformation. Oh, and the Kauer side of the family also features a connection to the earlier story writer Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826), who was also a priest before he found fame as a writer. I think it is fair to assume that W.O. von Horn knew the stories of Johann Peter Hebel.

Seeing that the first Oertel in line was born in Simmern, there should be further generations listed in Zwiebelberg's book of Simmern residents, which I don't have at hand right now, but can look up when I travel to Germany.