Society Co-President Susan Court Has Genealogical Success During Recent Visit to Germany

Society Co-President Susan Court recently met with Peter Ehrmann, the Archivar at the Stadtarchiv und Museen in Rottenburg a.N., Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the birthplace of her paternal great-grandfather, Bernhard Vollmer (1829-1919). (Bernhard moved to Kenton County, Kentucky, with his children Charles Vollmer and Katharine (Katie) (Vollmer) Court in the late 1860’s after his wife Sophia (Kohler) Vollmer passed away in Indiana. Bernhard died in Covington and is buried in Campbell County where he lived with his son at the end of his life.)

Susan Court meets with Peter Ehrmann, the Archivar at the Stadtarchiv und Museen. 

Before heading to Germany, Susan made an appointment with Herr Ehrmann and also sent him the story of her great-grandfather, which she had written in 2019 after, among other things, conducting research at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. There, she found records on Bernhard, his siblings, his parents, his grandparents, and his great-grandparents in the records of St. Moritz Catholic Church–information that was only available at the time outside of Germany at the Library. During the writing of Bernhard’s story, Susan also discovered, and reached out to, several Vollmer third cousins who now live in the village of Hochdorf, about 70 kilometers from Rottenburg. They provided more information and photographs.

When Susan arrived at the Stadtarchiv on May 21, 2024, she expected to be directed to records to research. Instead, she was surprised by Herr Ehrmann who had collected three different types of records in anticipation of her visit.

First, Herr Ehrmann brought out “inventory” records, which were compiled to delineate the distribution of a person’s assets and other property. These “inventories” were prepared on three occasions – at a person’s marriage, at his or her death, or upon the decision of a person to make a distribution, in exchange, for example, of being assured long-term care. Two of the documents pertained to Susan’s great-great-grandmother Victoria Vollmer (1782-1857) . In 1847, as a widow, she distributed property to her nine children (boys and girls equally, including 17-year-old Bernhard), in exchange for their caring for her, and then in 1857, there was an inventory of her property and assets prepared at her death.

Second, Herr Ehrmann showed Susan articles from two local newspapers–the Intelligenz Blatt and the Beckar Bote. The first publication announced Bernhard’s birth in 1829, and the second publication printed a short obituary of his mother in 1857.

Third, Herr Ehrmann displayed tax records which traced the property owned by Bernhard’s father Lorenz Vollmer (1786-1840) over the years. He then located the house which is not only still standing but also occupied (but not by Vollmers)!

Susan Court in front of the Vollmer ancestral home

Finally, Herr Ehrmann made copies of all of the documents he had collected for a reasonable cost of €.25 a page. A real bargain. He also asked Susan if he could include Bernhard Vollmer’s story in the archives’ public collection. Her answer was, of course!