Otto Pfann (1759-)

Otto Pfann was baptized (Ev. Luth.) on 18 Mar 1759 in Amsterdam, first son of Balthasar Pfann (dutch link) and Agnieta Meulman. He was baptized at home, something the Evangelical Lutherans frequently did, and the sponsors were Daniel Bittelmeijer (husband of a probably sister of Otto’s father) and Kunigunda Pfan (probably another sister of his father, but this is the only time she shows up, so it is hard to say). He probably did not live very long, 16 months later another Otto is baptized, and the sponsors are Daniel Bittelmeijer⁽¹⁾ and his wife Maria Barbara Pfann. He was my husband’s 4th great-granduncle.

Both Balthasar and Agnieta come from Germany, he from Nuremberg in Bavaria, she from Detern in East-Frisia. Both were part of the Lutheran migration to Amsterdam. And for both this is more or less a dead end. The link between Balthasar and Maria Barbara is based upon the fact that they are sponsors at the baptisms of each other’s children; however, they could be cousins rather than siblings, Maria Barbara’s father is never mentioned.

Agnieta may have had a cousin Angenieta Meulman, who is a sponsor at the baptism of one of her children. That Angenieta was the daughter of Jan Meulman, who also came from Detern, but nothing has been proven as yet.

While the Ort Sippe Buch of Detern does have some Mohlmann (which would be the German spelling of Meulman), they are all almost a century later than my Meulman. I did put in a query to the forum, we’ll see where that leads. [Update: they are not listed in the book]

But these dead-ends point to a common problem: not much German genealogy from that far back is online; Familysearch records start mainly after 1800. The one big exception is the Online-Heritage Books by Theo Davina, but while they cover a large area of Germany, they cover only minor portions of Ost-Friesland and Bavaria.

But who knows, a breakthrough is always possible.

(1) Daniel Bittelmaijer was a wigmaker, as was Maria Barbara Pfann’s second husband; as well as Balthasar’s son-in-law Christopher Schindler, husband of his eldest daughter. Balthasar’s occupation is never mentioned, but it would not surprise me if he was a wigmaker as well.