Amanuensis Monday: Edy STROESSER’s birth certificate

This week I continue my project of transcribing Luxembourg sources with the birth certificate of Eduard STROESSER.

The obituary of Baltasar STROESSER referred to one of his survivors as “Edy STROESSER.” At the time I first accessed that article, I had never heard of anyone of that name, nor had I any information about the possible children of Baltasar STROESSER. I surmised that this Edy, and the next named Marcel, were Baltasar’s sons. The obituary of Anna KAYSER, Baltasar’s wife, strengthened this hypothesis. Her first identified survivors were Eduard and Marzel STROESSER. Although the names are not identical, they are clearly similar enough to likely refer to the same people.

This thought led me, naturally, to the Luxembourg civil registration digital images at FamilySearch. Luck was with me, as there was indeed a collection of birth records for the time and place that would have been most likely for the children or Baltasar and Anna.

So once again I began the familiar task of looking through registers page by digital page to reconstruct a family. And once again success smiled upon me. About a year after the marriage of Anna and Baltasar, just when a child might be expected, a child appeared in the record. And, sure enough, he was named Eduard.

This image has been trimmed from the original at FamilySearch.

Transcription (the italicized parts were handwritten on the record):

Im Jahre tausend neun hundert acht, den achtzehnten

des Monats Oktober um zehn Uhr Vor= mittags ist vor Uns

Jacob Stoffel, Schöffen delegirten Beamten des Civilstandes

der Gemeinde Esch , im Kanton Esch, Großher=

zogthum Luxemburg, erschienen Baltasar Stroesser, Wagner.

alt dreißig drei Jahre Vater des Kindes

wohnhaft zu Esch , welcher Uns ein Kind mannlichen

Geschlechts vorgestellt hat, geboren zu Esch, vorgestern

um neun Uhr Nach mittags, im Hause Nr. 1 Norbert Metz Platz= Gasse,

erzeugt von dem Comparenten und dessen Ehefrau

Anna Kayser, alt acht und zwanzig Jahre

und welchem er den Vornamen Eduard Heinrich

geben zu wollen erklärt hat.

Diese Erklärung und Vorstellung sind geschehen in Gegenwart Sebastian

Kayser, alt dreißig ein Jahre Ackerer,

wohnhaft zu Esch, und des Michel Rinnen,

Wagener, alt zwanzig fünf Jahre

wohnhaft zu Esch, und haben die Comparenten diese

Urkunde, nachdem sie ihnen vorgelesen worden, mit Uns unterschrieben.

Line by line Translation:

In the Year one thousand nine hundred and eight, the eighteenth

of the Month of October at ten o'clock Before noon is before Us

Jacob Stoffel, Alderman delegate Officials of the Civil State

of the Commune of Esch , in the Canton Esch, Grand-

duchy of Luxembourg, appeared Baltasar Stroesser, Coach-builder

aged thirty three Years Father of the Child

residing in Esch , which to us a child of the male

Gender has presented, born in Esch, the day before yesterday

at nine O’clock After noon, in House No. 1 Norbert Metz Place- Street,

begat by the Comparent and his Wife

Anna Kayser, aged twenty eight Years

and which he the First Name Eduard Heinrich

has declared to want to give.

This Statement and Presentation are done in the Presence of Sebastian

Kayser, aged thirty one Years, Farmer,

residing in Esch and Michel Rinnen,

Coach-builder, aged twenty five Years

residing in Esch, and the Appearing Parties have this

Deed, having been read to them, with us signed.

Apart from the confirmation that Eduard was the son of Baltasar STROESSER and Anna KAYSER, this record supplies another piece of new information: the family’s address in Esch-sur-Alzette. Addresses now inspire me with excitement, ever since the use of Google street view occurred to me last year. So upon translating this certificate, I hurried there. Unfortunately, the address took me to a complicated intersection and I wasn’t able to determine exactly which building corresponded to the address, but I didn’t give up. A regular internet search took me to an auction site called Delcampe containing old post cards of the area. Some of them I was able to recognize as the same area I had seen in street view. Upon closer inspection, several of them included in the photograph a business with the word “Wagner” painted in bold letters on the front. Could this be the home and business location of my Baltasar STROSSER, wagner? I cannot say for sure, but it certainly seems possible. Even more thrilling, one of the post cards depicted a small family standing in front of that particular business. Perhaps it is the STROESSER family in person.

Source:

Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, birth certificate no. 408 (1908), Eduard Heinrich Stroesser; digital image #107 of 975, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, “Naissances 1908-1913,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 26 Oct 2014).