The Absconder

One never knows what you will find in the land that is called Southern Bohemia. For genealogists Bohemia presents difficulties with changing surnames just one of the issues. For the most part our ancestors were serfs, many were farmers, some with little if any land. Most had a side side trade who went about their daily life with onerous obligations imposed by the domain. I have written a great deal about these difficulties. They lived day-to-day, with the possibility of a negative event leading to possible destitution for the family. I wrote about destitution in the village of Chvalovice farm #1 in which just over thirty year period of time three of four owners had to give up the farm due to poverty, which you can read about here. We also saw how families were impacted by children born out of wedlock in a post of 29 Sept 2022, which is here. There is now the story of a man who absconded and left his children to live out their own lives. This is a story of that circumstance and the absconder.

Georg Bostal marriage to Catherina Broz
He would take on Broz as his surname after
acquiring his father-in-laws holding in Zernovice
Source: Richard D'Amelio report on Bostal

It all began in my search for the marriage record of a woman named Catherina Broz, the daughter of Wenzl Broz of Zernovice. I found the marriage record, and with my normal trouble of deciphering the script I passed it off to my translator. Catherina married, on 3 Nov 1686, a man listed in the parish record as Georg Bostal of Kralovice. Kralovice is west of the Havel family ancestral village of Ratiborova Lhota. Yet, Georg and Catherina are not on the Havel side, they are on my paternal great grandmother's lineage, specifically Theresia Kamen. You cannot trust surnames in Bohemia, and that is the case here. But, Bostal is not really used as a surname, so the question arose where did the name come from? An hour of work by the translator found that Georg's father was Sebastian aka Wostel,  Wastel, and Bastel (where you can see where Bostal came from) with a surname Felckhlhauser, or Hauser for short. I will not go through all of the research that proves this link, as most would find it boring (although I find it rather interesting), rather let me tell the story of what occurred. Wostal took on the Fencl holding in Kralovice in 1654. In 1667 Wostal, or Sebastian, is on that holding with his wife and five children, four males and the youngest at the time a female, who is listed in the 1667 Seignorial Register as 1/2 years of age. Sebastian is an 8th great grandfather to me.

1691 Land Register entry when property is being given up
by Philip Fencl due to poverty
Source: Richard D'Amelio report on Bostal

In 1678 Sebastian cedes the farm for 85 Meissen schock grossen to his stepson, Philip Fencl. Sebastian married the widow Katherina with orphan children (in Bohemia if you lost the father, but your mother was still alive you were still considered an orphan).  The reason for his giving up the farm is listed as old age and destitution. Destitution arose due to his house having burned down not once, but twice! Fire was a constant hazard, and one of the reasons rules would be promulgated requiring masonry construction. By 1683 his wife is not recorded, she is likely dead, and son Josef has now joined the family. Pavel is not listed, meaning he married or died. Later records will show he had married. Georg, my seventh great grandfather who married Catherina Broz, is age 21 and in employment with the Forka mill in Kralovice. In 1684 we first see Sebastian as an absconder having left the dominion with out permission and his status is unknown. The children at the holding are Andrej-27; Georg is 22, noted as a miller; Matous 20; Sophie-17, and Josef-14. Sebastian will show as either an absconder or mendicant in all of the available Seignorial Registers until 1709, when they stop recording him. 

Google Earth Map
showing Zernovice (Broz family); Kralovice (Georg Bostal, ie Hasuer)
Ratiborova Lhota--Havel ancestral village

Like the Chvaolvice farm, the sorry state continues in 1691 when Philip Fencl cedes the farm to Matous Fencl due to destitution. In this situation two prior owners have gone destitute on this farm, and yet some one still wants to buy it. But, as we shall see, money is a long time in coming to the heirs of the grantor. At this point 20 schock grossen is still owed Sebastian Volkhauser (a form of the name Felckhlhauser) "who due to poverty became mendicant and has disappeared."

Four years later we find perhaps the most tragic and horrible part of the story. Sebastian has been gone for 21 years to an unknwon location. The Seignorial Register notes that "Sophie, now 27 years of age, is in detention at Gratzen owing to the fact that she had drowned her child." Sophie may have few memories of her father. It was, unfortunately, not uncommon for a mother who gave birth to an illegitimate child to kill the child and that could be the case here. 

Sophie's age in the records may be five years off.
This is 1662 birth record, but we don't know if this child died 
and the name was given to a child born later.
Source: Trebon archives, located by Richard D'Amelio

The 1711 Land register notes that the value of the farm is owed to Sebastian's heirs, or 30 years after his disappearance, and 33 years after he sold the farm to Pavel Fencl. The identified heirs are: Andreas Sohn (first son), Pavel Kuss (second son), Georg Broz (third son), and Georg Klima. We don't know how Georg Klima enters the picture, perhaps a husband of the likely now deceased Sophia. Also, the youngest son is not listed as an heir so he too may be deceased. 

Georg Broz will die before 1740, having received only 1 schock and 30 grossen of his share of the farm. In 1740 the land register notes that the inheritance is owed his heirs which include: Vojtech, Dorothea, Wenzl, Bartos, Satava (who married Catherina after Georg died and Catherina is now also deceased), and Jakub. In 1747, 69 years after Sebastain Hauser sold the property to Fencl, hid grandchildren get the value of the farm from that sale. Vojtech gets 46 grossen in 1747, or 69 years after his grandfather sold the holding to his stepson. Vojtech also received a share of his late brother Andrej's inheritance. What is amazing is that they kept a long detailed recording of debts owed and Sebastian's grandchildren benefited, and perhaps more amazing is they knew who they were and could find them. These ancestors were likely illiterate, but they wanted things settled fairly. I have to think their memories were probably better since they could not write, depending on oral tradition. What an accounting nightmare, but someone knew what they were doing. In fact, one could say that the domain kept better track of debts owed in the 17th and 18th centuries than politicians keep track of classified documents. 

In 1686 Georg married Catherina Broz and takes her surname as an after-the-roof name. It is interesting that none of Sebastian's children retained the Hauser (Volkhauser or Felckhlhauser) surname. Although they could also be after-the-roof names, too. Georg used a diminutive of Sebastian as his surname when he married, and took over the Broz holding from Catherina's father.  Our ancestors were a tragedy away from poverty. Not only that, the series of events that followed this tragedy, with Sebastian leaving the family, and Sophie having, being blunt, killed her own child, may well be related to the the two fires that destroyed the house and left the family in poverty. It was surely a series of tragic events, and the absconder, Sebastian, did not do his family no favors by running out on them. They were a family left to fend for themselves.