Mistake - Harm Weyers (1760-1820)

Harm Weyers was one of my German ancestors. He was born in the Parish of Sande 15 Aug 1760 to Heinke Weyers and Teite C Gummels. Harm married his cousin Anke Gummels and they had four children together. Unfortunately Harm’s life was not free of mistakes and he met with an unfortunate death in July of 1820. His death is described in the German parish records as follows:

Harm Weyers: Reverend Tenant on New Home, Christened the 15th of August, 1760, died on the twenty-seventh (27th) Junius of the afternoon at about three o'clock, and was delivered a speech to the first (1st) Julius the night before been buried.

Note 1. He leaves a widow and 4 children, of which the oldest is a son, 28, the 2nd a daughter, 21, the 3rd a daughter 15 and the 4th is also a daughter 12 years old, why the death beyen (= bei) Office u ___ through the _____ Ladner (?) Was displayed.

Note 2. Harm Weyers a son by name Grundmann was in the morning to take care of some affairs after the local church ____ gone, was _____ returned at 2 o'clock but did not arrive at home. The son, who had wanted to pick him up at 8 o'clock in the evening, found him on the 3rd plot of land on this side of the house, on the way (?) That goes from the road (?) To the land dead in the ditch on the _____ lying.

The _____ had no R ____ k, but not digging a foot __ it is therefore to suspect that he immediately fell in the fall _____ which also the doctor at inspection should have said. __ Revival had the Lord Doctor _______ from Neustadt, who had been summoned so easily, tried fruitlessly.

As it turns out Harm’s death was not as much of a mystery as it seemed. Another note, written in Latin instead of German, was scribbled below the German death record. It ran:

It is said that the dead man not infrequently abandoned himself to drunkenness. And on this day, in a/the tavern, together with Franziscus Bolken (a young man from Altmarien, turned 22 last year, who had kind of been his pupil for 2 or 3 years), he is reported to have drunk more than enough of both wine and aqua geneviensis (so it is called), and to have collapsed quite often. Because of this, one can see he was very disgracefully defeated by drunkenness and died.

F. B. attests that the dead man had frequently abandoned himself to drunkenness during the year [or "the years"] and that he went home drunk innumerable times. On this day, from the 7th hour already, in our street/village, he had drunk here and there 3 or 4 (?) of aqua genevensis and some wine as well, without anybody encouraging him. When F. B. left, he [the dead man] remained quite drunk.

The Church Record of Harm's untimely death