poniedziałek, 14 maja 2018

"Respectable and religious parents"
A grave of JRRT's g-g-g-grandparents in Gdańsk (1791-1792)

Rococo gravestone from the St Salvator cemetery
As we remember Christian Tolkien and Anna Euphrosina Tolkien are buried in Gdańsk (former Danzig) in St Salvator Neuer Kirchof ("Newer Cemetery"). See here and see the following record from the St Salvator church book (SDL 362896, Ancestry.co.uk):


We can read here that Christian Tolkien (Tolkühn) (1706–1791) from Petershagen, Danzig (today Zaroślak, Gdańsk) was buried on 30 October 1791 in N.K. or Neuer Kirchof ("Newer Cemetery") and his wife Anna Euphrosina (1719–1792) from Petershagen was buried on 3 June 1792 in the same place. From the same document we know that their grandson, their daughter's son, Benjamin Ephraim Bergmann (1784–1790) was buried in the same cemetery. In the same grave? Only this three persons from the Tolkien and Bergmann families were buried in this cemetery. I would love to find the grave of J. R. R. Tolkien's great-great-great-parents. It should be easy because we have a register of all the graves in this place (SDL 362896, Ancestry.co.uk). But I still haven't found the record with the Tolkien (Tollkühn) family name. One of the candidates is grave No. 4 (the gravestones had numbers, see the photo on the left with gravestone No. 13 of "Jacob Dirckssen und seine Erben") where a possible aunt of Benjamin Ephraim is buried. Her name is Regina Elisabeth Bergmann (1829), wife of Johann Friedrich Bergmann from Johannisgaße (Danzig), a Trödlersfrau, 'handlarka starzyzną'.


Another candidate is grave No. 17, grave of the Ziegenhagen and Jantzen families. The Jantzens were furriers in Gdańsk and Michael Tolkien, Christian's brother is buried in Daniel Jantzen's grave in St Katharinen (see here). Florentina Elisabeth Ziegenhagen was a patron of Renata Eleonora Tolkien's baptism on 10 Jule 1756 (see here). Martin Jantzen was a patron of Renata Eleonora's son, Johann Christian (1782–). The Jantzens and the Ziegenhagens were close to the Tolkiens from Petershagen:


 My research is continued...

We know how the cemetery looked like, we know more or less the place where J. R. R. Tolkien's ancestors are buried in Gdańsk. After the Communist disaster, after German cemeteries were destroyed in the 1940s and 1950s it is time to commemorate the Tolkiens from Gdańsk. At least in this was:

Jacob Kabrun is buried in the same cemetery as the Tolkiens






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