Joseph Schrag (Schrack) b. 17 Mar 1772 Bistroff, Moselle, FR d. 5 Apr 1830 Rhodes, Moselle, FR: The Schrock-Birkey Connection
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Joseph Schrag (Schrack)

Male 1772 - 1830  (58 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    Event Map    |    All

  • Name Joseph Schrag (Schrack)  [1, 2, 3, 4] 
    Birth 17 Mar 1772  Bistroff, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 5, 6, 7, 8] 
    • Belgrade farm. Commune of Grostenquin. Belgerade (Bellegarde) farm was built around 1818 according to Jean-Claude Koffel.
    Gender Male 
    Occupation Miller In Gondrexange and Imling, And At Rhodes (Bachat) At The Time Of Death  [9] 
    Occupation Unskilled Laborer In 1827 At Time Of Peter’s Marriage 
    Religion Amish 
    Residence 1797  Rhodes, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Living at Moulin les Bachats at time of brother Jean’s marriage.
    Residence 1799-1807  Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location  [10] 
    • At the mill in Gondrexange where four children were born.
    Residence 1811  Imling, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location  [11] 
    • Lived at the mill Remeling near Imling at the birth of Magdelaine in 1811, was still there in 1813 according to source 1056.
    Residence 1822  Rhodes, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location  [12] 
    Residence 1826  Rhodes, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Living at the mill at Bachats at time of Johannes and Catherine’s marriage
    Death 5 Apr 1830  Rhodes, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 4, 9] 
    • “On Apr. 5, 1830, Joseph Serack, 58, miller, a native of the farm called Belgrade [canton of Bistroff], Moselle, husband of Maria Neuhauser, died in Rhodes. The death was reported by son Peter Serack, 27, miller at Dompcevrin, Meuse.”
      (Translation by NASL)
    Burial Rhodes, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Most probably in a burying ground on the farm/mill Bachats.
    Person ID I1008  Schrock-Birkey Connection
    Last Modified 29 Oct 2022 

    Father Caspar (Gaspard) Schrag (Gerack),   b. 1744, Zweibrücken, Rheinland-Pfalz, GR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 15 Mar 1794, Neuviller-la-Roche, Bas-Rhin, FR Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 50 years) 
    Mother Barbe Rouvenac (Rüfenacht),   b. 1730   d. 1773 (Age 43 years) 
    Family ID F1586  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Maria Engel,   b. 1774, Gosselming, Moselle, Lorraine, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Abt 1800 (Age 26 years) 
    Marriage 13 Aug 1798  Gosselming, Moselle, Lorraine, FR Find all individuals with events at this location  [13] 
    • Fenetrange 57930 Alzing Ferme
    Notes 
    • Joseph was age 25 at marriage and Marie Engle was 26 years.

      Witnesses:
      Sebastian Ohmer, 64 years old and a blacksmith living in Gosselming.
      Jean Schrag, farmer living in the community of (Demascalle?), brother of Joseph.
      (Demascalle? may be Marshal/Marsal (Canton of Vic), a hamlet attached today to Vergaville, and
      near Bistroff)
      Jean Kamp, age 21, living in Bascha village of Rathe (probably Rhodes), neighborhood of ?
      Jean Newhauser, age 22, farmer living in Allzing, village of Gosselming. Named as a brother of Marie--actually he was a step brother, since Marie’s mother married secondly Jean’s father, Nicolas Neuhauser.
    Children 
     1. Joseph Schrag, Jr.,   b. 7 Jun 1799, Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 9 Feb 1805, Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 5 years)
    Family ID F731  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 12 Sep 2013 

    Family 2 Maria Neuhauser,   b. Abt 1772-1773, Gosselming, Moselle, Lorraine, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Aft 1826 (Age ~ 54 years) 
    Marriage Abt 1800  Gosselming, Moselle, Lorraine, FR Find all individuals with events at this location  [14] 
    • Alzing?
    Children 
     1. Johannes Schrock (Schrack, Gerrard),   b. 15 Jun 1801, Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 21 Jan 1875, Pekin, Tazewell Co., IL Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 73 years)
     2. Peter Schrock,   b. 15 Jun 1802, Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 7 Sep 1887, Trenton, Butler Co., OH Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 85 years)
     3. André (Andréas) Schrock,   b. 3 Jul 1804, Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 5 Aug 1855, Washington Twp., Tazewell Co., IL Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 51 years)
     4. Anne Schrag (Serach),   b. 24 Dec 1806, Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this location
     5. Magdalena Schrock (Schrack),   b. 10 Apr 1811, Sarrebourg, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 4 Aug 1855, Congerville, Montgomery Twp., Woodford Co., IL Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 44 years)
     6. Barbara Schrock (Schrack),   b. Abt 1815, Moselle, FR Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Abt 1835, Spring Bay, Worth Twp., Woodford Co., IL Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 20 years)
    Family ID F3199  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 19 Feb 2018 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 17 Mar 1772 - Bistroff, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - 1797 - Rhodes, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 13 Aug 1798 - Gosselming, Moselle, Lorraine, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - Abt 1800 - Gosselming, Moselle, Lorraine, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - 1799-1807 - Gondrexange, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - 1811 - Imling, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - 1822 - Rhodes, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - 1826 - Rhodes, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 5 Apr 1830 - Rhodes, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBurial - - Rhodes, Moselle, FR Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Notes 
    • At the time of Joseph’s brother Jean’s marriage in 1797, he was living at Moulin Les Bachats near Rhodes. Bachats is attached to Rhodes, 9 km north of Gondrexange. There is a walled Anabaptist cemetery at the edge of town, bordering a cow pasture, where Pelsy, Esch, Abresol families, and more, are buried.

      The 'ferme des Les Bachats' at Rhodes is still operational and maintains an inn. It is located on a peninsula in L'Étang de Stock (Stock Pond). A bachat is a feeding trough for cattle, indicating that it may have once been a dairy farm.

      Joseph married his first wife, Marie Engel at Alzing farm near Gosselming in 1798. Very soon after they were living at Gondrexange, for their first and only child (Joseph, who lived only 5 years) was born there. Marie died there, possibly as a result of child birth complications. A second time Joseph went to Alzing to marry his second wife, Marie Neuhauser, but returned to Gondrexange to live and work. Their first three sons and one daughter (Anne, who evidently died as an infant) were born between 1801 and 1806.

      Joseph and his wives could have lived at Domaine Ketzing for a time, a nobleman’s possession, who hired workers to farm and run the mill, blacksmith workers, brick kilns, etc., but this isn’t documented. Living quarters were provided in the woods some distance from the main chateaus. Today one can find a few foundation stones of buildings, and the remains of a well that served the workers. (2012) There was no persecution of Anabaptists during this time at Ketzing, as the Duke of Lorraine protected them. Today Ketzing is owned by an insurance company: a newer building is used for training seminars. The domaine is part of the forestry department and the chateaus provide lodging for hunters.

      But more than likely the family lived at the mill in Gondrexange, since Joseph was the miller there for a number of years from about 1800 to 1811.

      By 1811 the family had moved to Imling near Saarebourg. They lived at one of the three mills along the Saare River, Remeling, when their first daughter was born. The other two mills were Rimling, and Rot (Roth) (also called Rotmuhle). All three mills were situated side by side along the banks of the Saare. Eleven years later Joseph and Marie were back at Bachats, and were there in 1826. No doubt they lived there continuously until Joseph’s death in 1830. Marie was still living in 1826, but what happened to her after that is still unknown.

      “Joseph Schrack, 33, miller, ...witnessed the civil birth record of Johannes Gascho, Born on 8 Jan, 1806, son of Joseph Gascho, lease-manager of the agricultural property called Canardiere in Gondrexange, and Katharina Swalter.”

      “Gondrexange had two mills, one was sacred for the construction of the Marne-Rhine canal. It is logical that in a given period an Anabaptist was a miller. Joseph Schrag from Bellegarde, commune of Bistroff, had the mill turned from about 1800 to 1807. He was married to Marie Neuhauser who gave him several children in Gondrexange. Did he then go to Rhodes where he died in 1830?

      “His sister Catherine, born in Oderfang, Saint-Avold, married the mill boy Joseph Oyer in 1804 and went to Niderhoff's mill. Joseph Schrag was probably replaced or was he in competition with André Schertz enumerated in 1809 as head of the family. He was the son of Christian Schertz and Elisabeth Reitiger. The only act that reveals his presence is his testimony at the death of his father at the age of 55 years.” [10, 14, 15, 16, 17]

  • Sources 
    1. [S136] Eugene C. Schrock, editor (1996), The Schrag-Schrock Family, beginning with Joseph Schrag Sr.

    2. [S822] Donna Birkey, Schrock Immigrant Day.

    3. [S1053] Jean-Claude Koffel, Les anabaptistes de l’arrondissement de Sarrebourg, (Self-published), P. 31.

    4. [S40] Hermann Guth, Amish Mennonites in Germany: Their Congregations, The Estates Where They Lived, Their Families (English edition), (Masthof Press, Morgantown, PA).

    5. [S166] Ardys Serpette, Schrag, Joseph.

    6. [S188] Jean Francois Lorentz, [email protected]

    7. [S59] A Genealogy Report for Donna Nadine Schrock Birkey, Full date from Peter Schrag.

    8. [S1121] Bruce W. Jantzi, Jantzi/Yantzi/Yancey Family Origins, Part I, Page 172 - See this source for general and detailed information about Belgrade Farm at Bistroff.

    9. [S247] Death record of Joseph Schrag (Schrack) (Serack).

    10. [S1053] Jean-Claude Koffel, Les anabaptistes de l’arrondissement de Sarrebourg, (Self-published).

    11. [S1056] Abbe N. Baroth, Le village d’Imling près de Sarrebourg, (Self published).

    12. [S125] Schrock Farms April1, 1908 - 2008.

    13. [S168] Marriage Record of Josef Schrag and Marie Engel.

    14. [S398] Joseph Staker, Amish Mennonites in Tazewell Co.

    15. [S179] Ewald Klein (Alsace, France), Als-Lor Place Names.

    16. [S769] Neil Ann Stuckey Levine {Some answers, as promised}, Joseph Schrag (Schrack).

    17. [S1121] Bruce W. Jantzi, Jantzi/Yantzi/Yancey Family Origins, Part I.


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