This morning as I’ve been working in my German records, I came to the family of Johann Carl Rieker who married Sÿbilla Herrmann on 12 November 1823 in Grossgartach. Sÿbilla is my 2nd cousin, 5 times removed. She was the mother of 18 children. Only one of these children (#17) died at birth. The rest lived, but only 3 lived to adulthood. The rest died in their first year of life. Those 15 babies lived long enough to be anticipated, named, held, fed, loved and nurtured, and then mourned and buried.
How does a mother do that???
Of the 3 children in this family who lived, the first daughter bore an illegitimate daughter, who lived to marry. Only the 2nd son, Johann Heinrich lived to marry and have his own children (he had 5 who all lived to adulthood). The 16th daughter, Christina Friederika, lived, but never married. Every other child child in this family died. The children came almost every single year. Sÿbilla was pregnant from 1822 to 1846. There were no breaks in her childbearing. Sÿbilla went on to live until 1884, 82 years. Her arms must have ached to hold her lost babies. I am grateful for temple work that reunites families like this one.
I have posted about women like this before. I just feel they need to be remembered and honored in some way, and so I will do that here.
This is my office. I keep an important piece of artwork in front of my face every day. It’s called “Carried by the Covenant” by Joseph Brickey. This woman represents, to me, these mothers who loved and lost. She watches over me every day as I do my German research in old documents gathered and collected while we were in Germany. As I work with these records, I honor and remember these good women from my ancestral village of Grossgartach.
Carried by the Covenant by Joseph Brickey
