Old signatures are hard to come by.  It was a rare event in Old Wuerttemberg when a bride and groom
    and perhaps also their parents were requested to sign their names onto a page of the Ehebuch - marriage
    register.  However in 1771 in Feldstetten, the pastor entered a full page of text explaining to the world -
    but mainly to his superiors - that he had counseled the young bride Anna Ursula Ostertag, age 22, who
    desired to marry the old widow Conrad Schwenk, age 69, about the risks of marrying a man of such
    advanced years.  After quilling these words, he requested Conrad and Anna and her  parents to sign
    this document.  Those signatures appear below in box 2.

    The words and signature in the heading above (within the light yellow area) are from a Lieb ancestor, Samuel Christoph Lieb, 1660-1731. He penned those words into the Taufbuch - birth register - in 1690 as he first took over this pastorate in Dürrwangen, a small village some 35 mi. south of Stuttgart.

    Until around the mid-19th Century, an inventory was required directly after a marriage and upon the death of either of the spouses.  This Inventur listed all real and chattel property - down to the last spoon and thimble. And because of this tradition - imposed by the state - we have the signatures of other ancestors and kin which you will see below.

       

     
       
       
       
       
       

      The four signatures to the left are from that 1771 document referred to above.  They are from top to bottom: Conradt Schwenckh, Anna Ursula Ostertag, Andreas  Ostertag and Anna Maria Ostertag. Note the spelling of Conrad's names. Their son Conrad, born in 1773, adopted the modern way of spelling both names.

      Note also that both women added "in" onto the end of their family name and placed an umlaut over the "a." This was the custom and  a female denotation.
       
       
       
       

      Conrad Schwenk, 1773-1867, born in Feldstetten, moved to Mundingen ( see map ) and married Felicitas Breymayer in 1797.  The signatures to the left come from the 1797  Inventur made in the fall of that year some six months  after the wedding.
       

      The  signatures  below those of the newly-weds
      are those of step-father Elias Fischer and  Anna ElisabethaBlifers Breymayer Fischer.
       
       
       

      In 1832, Konrad Schwenk 1805-81, son of Conrad aboveand brother of our Johannes,  1798-1869, married EvaHageloch in Mundingen.  These signatures were extracted from their Inventur taken shortly after their wedding. Andreas Hageloch was the father of Eva.Their house still stands and is now the home  of Frieda Beck Rehm, my 4th cousin.
       

      The sincerely Elmer are words written in 1940 by 
      my grandfather, Arthur Elmer Schwenk, 1881-1941. He was a clergyman and farmer/rancher.  A copy of his completesignature is not in my possession.

      Your affectionate daughter Linnie are words of Elmer's wife, Melinda "Linnie" Farringer.  This was taken froma letter she wrote to her mother in 1909.  Melinda was the mother of my father, Earl Whitfield Schwenk, b 1911.
       

        

     

    For detailed information on my Schwenk family history
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      This page created on 12 Oct 1997.