german railway crash/disaster

[Berlin-Bob]

Lbias has sent me a copy of the birth cert. in PDF format.

I've take screen shots and will include them here for everybody who fancies having a go at translating.

I've also attached the PDF file, in case you want to enlarge it


One point is now clear:  In 1897 Steglitz was a part of the district of Teltow,
("Steglitz, Kreis Teltow" Bottom of page 2)
It was near Berlin, but didn't become a part of the Berlin admin. district till later. Nowadays, Steglitz is well and truly "absorbed" into Berlin.

I've also moved the topic to "Immigrants", where the german speakers are more likely to "hang out"

Bob

[Berlin-Bob]

Page 1:

[Berlin-Bob]

Page 2:

[Berlin-Bob]

It is "Beamten-Deutsch" i.e. Civil-Service German, which is always more convoluted and stiffer than "normal" german. The printed parts are in Gothic script, which is dying out now (thank goodness, even germans have problems with this !)

The left-hand column of page 1 was added in 1889.

First of all the standard text(s) (printed parts in bold)

Birth-Certificate No. 115  Steglitz, 19th April 1887.

The following persons appeared before the Signatory Registrar _____________ known(*1) Hebamme(?) = Midwife ?  Frau Blumenthal ?=1 born Krüger
living at Steglitz, ?=2 strasse 100 _____ Religion, registers that to Charity Charlotte Koch, born Beanland, wife of the ?=3 ?=4 Friedrich Hermann Koch ____ Religion, Living at Steglitz, Flaumbürgerstrasse 5 (?) bei Frau Herrmann (?) at Steglitz, in ?=5 on 16th April in the year thousand eight hundred eighty ?=6  ?=7   ?=8  mittags at eight  o'clock a child of masculine sex was born, who received the names Fredrick Hermann Harry.

The next bit says that the middle name has been corrected, as it was originall wrongly entered

Submitted, Approved, Signed ?=9 (her christian name ?) Blumenthal, born Krüger

The Registry Official / The Registrar
Zimmermann

The rest is basically a confirmation from 27th. March, 1897, that this is an official copy of the registry entry etc.


It looks like the midwife registered the birth, and she was know at the RO.
(*1) "Known to me" otherwise the Passport details would be written  here

?=3, ?=4 is probably the occupation. ?=3 could be Maler = Painter, Artist.
Re-reading this topic, you say he was an artist, so that would fit
?=8 is probably either "vor" or "nach" i.e before or after midday (a.m., p.m.)


I've numbered the words I can't read (?=1, ?=2, etc), hope this makes it easier for others to add their thoughts.

[Berlin-Bob]

The left-hand column of page 1 was added in 1889.

The lh-column says (I think !):

Steglitz, 10th. January 1889

The father of the children died from an accident,  the mother of the children has english nationality.

??=1  ??=2 has been recognised (authorised ?)by the Royal County Court II, Civil Chamber 2 in Berlin, 5th. January, 1889

Yours Sincerely
Zimmermann (= the registrar)

[Karen McDonald]

Just to add my two penn'th:

I think Frau Blumenthal's first name could be Clementine.

I think the birth year is shown as "thousand eight hundred eighty and seven", i.e. 1887. Very quaint!

I think the names were originally entered as Friedrich Heinrich Harry, and the "Heinrich" was amended to "Hermann".

I can't make out all of it, but I'm wondering if the document is a confirmation that the name was changed, rather than a simple copy of the birth cert?

All very interesting!

Karen
in Braunschweig

[Karen McDonald]

Me again.

My hubby finally had time to look at the posting today and he sees something completely different in the notes on the left side! (Sorry Bob, but I think I can see what he means.)

It looks like:
Der Vater der Kinder ist evangelisch, die Mutter der Kinder gehört der englischen Landeskirche an.

The father of the children is evangelical, the mother of the children is Church of England.

(Is evangelical the right word? Religion is not my forté...  But you know what I mean!)

So maybe papa wasn't dead yet, after all...

Regards from windy Braunschweig,
Karen

[Berlin-Bob]

Obvious when you know, isn't it 

Yes, I'll go with Hubby's translation on that.

Bob

[Rapunzel]

Dear Lbais and others

I have translated the complete German text on the birth certificate (what is known as the deutsche or Gothic Schrift) into everyday German and have also translated everything into English. 

I have everything saved as a Word file. What do I do now? How do I send it on?

By the way, the father, Ernst Friedrich Hermann Koch was a painter as in 'painter and decorator', not a painter as in 'artist'. He would have been recorded as 'Kunstmaler' if so.
It is also clear that the Beanlands in the census notes from Valda are two sisters of Charity Koch.

Hermann is always spelt with two ns in German - as on the birth certificate. Perhaps it was only said to the person registering in the UK who automatically wrote it in the British way.

There's also a discrepancy in the way the names of both Charity and her child are used. Whether Clementine Blumenthal made a mistake in the order of Charity's name we don't know. But, the order in which the child's name is recorded in the census is incorrect according to his birth certificate. It reads:
Friedrich Hermann Harry Koch.

Rapunzel