Okay, modernizing the spelling, squinting at the most indecipherable parts in hopes of an epiphany, and wrangling Google is tedious, and I'm doing it at work amid constant interruptions, so you're going to get his memoirs in a series of small installments. Here's the first installment.
Remember that this copy is a first draft, where he's constantly scratching things out and squeezing in insertions between lines, and there are blotches everywhere, and the handwriting, while far from the worst, is far from the best either. So there are parts where I've made my best guess, and parts where I've got nothing. He's also fond of run-on sentences, which I've split up for readability.
I was born in Pomerania on May 24, 1711 in Poberow, land which belonged to my family, to a father François Henri, who descended from an illustrious Scottish family, which was established in this province. My father married Vigilantia Elisabeth de Woedtke. After my parents had taken care of my education as much as their situation allowed, my father introduced me to King Frédéric William, who took me as a page. In the year 1729 in January the King sent me to Wesel to the Regulation of Dossau as lieutenant and aide major. There happened that same year, in the month of August, a tragic event at the court of King Frederick William, of which the Prince Royal was the subject, of whom/which the most famous pens will be busy writing his history of that time, as well as of his/its [something] one will certainly speak a lot.
Although I had only had an honorable and very justifiable part in this affair, the honor of the times, from which there was everything to fear, obliged me to expatriate myself for ten years, until the King Frederick ascended the throne, and who remembered, even in the first days of his accession, my attachment, and with whose testimony he honored me with an order, to return to my homeland. This order found me in Lisbon, where I had been placed Major of Cavalry since the year 1735, in the Regiment of the Marquis of Marialva.
Some observations:
Yep, he's defensive about 1730, all right. Poor boy.
"Francois Henri" is squeezed as an afterthought above the line, immediately after the words "d'un pere." So that's got to be his father's name. Yet there is not a single other source that gives that as anything but his brother's name.
Keith family genealogy:
Kloosterhuis says Peter's father was Hans Christoph, and that Hans and Vigilantia had 7 children.
Kloosterhuis' source is a genealogy that gives Franz Henrich as the oldest of those children.
Formey says Peter's father was Jean Christoph.
Some genealogies say that Hans/Johann Christoph and Vigilantia had 6 children (4 sons and 2 daughters).
One genealogy seems to say that Franz Heinrich was a son of Johann Christoph, and he ended up a lieutenant in Russian service (the handwriting plus my German may be failing me here, but I'm reading: "hat [außer? unter? feel free to pick a word here that makes sense] den Ehe mit einer von Natzmer gezeugt Franz Heinrich, welchen in Russische Kaiserl. Dienst als Liutenant ge....)." And there's an asterisk next to Johann Christoph's name, so I'm guessing this applies to him, and that he fathered an illegitimate son with an unnamed von Natzmer woman. Feel free to suggest alternate readings.
Some genealogies omit Peter's sister Agnesa Origana.
Not one genealogy or other source I can find agrees with Peter even a little bit.
What gives? What on earth do I put in the essay? Do I have to footnote "You'd think Peter would know his own father's name, but who knows? He already surprised us with 1729, but that seems way more understandable than this."
One thing I'll say is that I have no documentary source--like a church record, although these can be dicey too--only genealogies that were compiled after the fact. Kloosterhuis's source is a few of these error-ridden genealogies. Formey got his Keith family genealogy going back to Scotland from some source that isn't Peter (because Peter doesn't go back any further than his parents), but is probably the same source as Kloosterhuis': one of the family trees that's in the Prussian archives, like the Heroldsamt.
So even though I have like 5 genealogies, 3 in Prussia and 2 in Aurich, that all agree on Jean/Johann/Hans Christoph, it's possible they all go back to the same erroneous source. Though it's weird that the ones in the Knyphausen family that presumably belonged to Karl Ernst would be this wrong...Peter did die when Karl Ernst was young, and I know my great-grandmother Mildred didn't know the names of her maternal grandparents, because her mother died when she was young.
So maybe Peter knows his own father's name, and everyone else is copying off some inaccurate genealogy that confused his half-brother with his father. Weirder things have happened.
But I still wonder about that incredibly specific detail about Franz Heinrich going into Russian service.
Everyone, please tell me if there's another explanation you can think of that makes sense!
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Peter's memoirs - Pre 1730
Date: 2024-05-23 06:08 pm (UTC)Remember that this copy is a first draft, where he's constantly scratching things out and squeezing in insertions between lines, and there are blotches everywhere, and the handwriting, while far from the worst, is far from the best either. So there are parts where I've made my best guess, and parts where I've got nothing. He's also fond of run-on sentences, which I've split up for readability.
I was born in Pomerania on May 24, 1711 in Poberow, land which belonged to my family, to a father François Henri, who descended from an illustrious Scottish family, which was established in this province. My father married Vigilantia Elisabeth de Woedtke. After my parents had taken care of my education as much as their situation allowed, my father introduced me to King Frédéric William, who took me as a page. In the year 1729 in January the King sent me to Wesel to the Regulation of Dossau as lieutenant and aide major. There happened that same year, in the month of August, a tragic event at the court of King Frederick William, of which the Prince Royal was the subject, of whom/which the most famous pens will be busy writing his history of that time, as well as of his/its [something] one will certainly speak a lot.
Although I had only had an honorable and very justifiable part in this affair, the honor of the times, from which there was everything to fear, obliged me to expatriate myself for ten years, until the King Frederick ascended the throne, and who remembered, even in the first days of his accession, my attachment, and with whose testimony he honored me with an order, to return to my homeland. This order found me in Lisbon, where I had been placed Major of Cavalry since the year 1735, in the Regiment of the Marquis of Marialva.
Some observations:
Yep, he's defensive about 1730, all right. Poor boy.
"Francois Henri" is squeezed as an afterthought above the line, immediately after the words "d'un pere." So that's got to be his father's name. Yet there is not a single other source that gives that as anything but his brother's name.
Keith family genealogy:
Kloosterhuis says Peter's father was Hans Christoph, and that Hans and Vigilantia had 7 children.
Kloosterhuis' source is a genealogy that gives Franz Henrich as the oldest of those children.
Formey says Peter's father was Jean Christoph.
Some genealogies say that Hans/Johann Christoph and Vigilantia had 6 children (4 sons and 2 daughters).
One genealogy seems to say that Franz Heinrich was a son of Johann Christoph, and he ended up a lieutenant in Russian service (the handwriting plus my German may be failing me here, but I'm reading: "hat [außer? unter? feel free to pick a word here that makes sense] den Ehe mit einer von Natzmer gezeugt Franz Heinrich, welchen in Russische Kaiserl. Dienst als Liutenant ge....)." And there's an asterisk next to Johann Christoph's name, so I'm guessing this applies to him, and that he fathered an illegitimate son with an unnamed von Natzmer woman. Feel free to suggest alternate readings.
Some genealogies omit Peter's sister Agnesa Origana.
Not one genealogy or other source I can find agrees with Peter even a little bit.
What gives? What on earth do I put in the essay? Do I have to footnote "You'd think Peter would know his own father's name, but who knows? He already surprised us with 1729, but that seems way more understandable than this."
One thing I'll say is that I have no documentary source--like a church record, although these can be dicey too--only genealogies that were compiled after the fact. Kloosterhuis's source is a few of these error-ridden genealogies. Formey got his Keith family genealogy going back to Scotland from some source that isn't Peter (because Peter doesn't go back any further than his parents), but is probably the same source as Kloosterhuis': one of the family trees that's in the Prussian archives, like the Heroldsamt.
So even though I have like 5 genealogies, 3 in Prussia and 2 in Aurich, that all agree on Jean/Johann/Hans Christoph, it's possible they all go back to the same erroneous source. Though it's weird that the ones in the Knyphausen family that presumably belonged to Karl Ernst would be this wrong...Peter did die when Karl Ernst was young, and I know my great-grandmother Mildred didn't know the names of her maternal grandparents, because her mother died when she was young.
So maybe Peter knows his own father's name, and everyone else is copying off some inaccurate genealogy that confused his half-brother with his father. Weirder things have happened.
But I still wonder about that incredibly specific detail about Franz Heinrich going into Russian service.
Everyone, please tell me if there's another explanation you can think of that makes sense!