Projekt: Experience Reports, according a contribution by Dr. Peter Chr. for the Deutsche Genealogentag 2003 in Schwerin:

The ideal of genealogy: A worldwide unique name.

- The SUSEMI(E)(H)Ls and their milking stool -

Otto KAYSEL born 1843, honorary citizen of his home town of Ludwigslust/ Mecklenburg   a street there is named after him -  was my great-grandfather. 

His ancestral line is:

- Louis KAYSEL, school principal in Kröpelin/ Mecklenburg,

- Friedrich KAYSEL, economy clerk in Kröpelin,

- Carl KAYSEL, pastor in Lübow in Wismar/ Mecklenburg, married to L(o)uise-Sophie née SIMONIS born 1750. 

Her ancestors were:

- Enoch jun. SIMONIS, pastor in Lüssow in Güstrow/ Mecklenburg,

- Enoch sen. SIMONIS, pastor in Wamckow near Schwerin/ Mecklenburg,

- Paschasius SIMONIS, pastor in Pampow near Schwerin/ Mecklenburg, married to Dorothea née MÜLLER born 1661. 

Her parents were:

- Johann Heinrich MÜLLER, who went far away and became pastor in the Alsace (today France), married to Margaretha née SUSEMI(E)(H)L born 1632 in Schwaan/ Mecklenburg.

Therefore I am a SUSEMI(E)(H)L descendant. 

The SUSEMI(E)(H)L Pastors

Margaretha’s father was Johann SUSEMI(E)(H)L, court cleric and pastor at the cathedral in Schwerin/ Mecklenburg, born 1596. In 1652 he started the first church book in Schwerin: „1652, I, pastor at the cathedral, with M. Ernesto MEYERN, started this church book. („1652 habe ich Domprediger neben Herrn M. Ernesto MEYERN dies Kirchenbuch angefangen.“)

Johann’s father was Joachim SUSEMI(E)(H)L, school principal in Schwaan/ Mecklenburg.  The teachers at that time were theologians, who had not yet become a pastor, or  - like Joachim -  never achieved becoming a reverend. At that time, a specific education or c.v. for teachers was not yet instituted. 

Joachim’s grandfather for me was well-known for several years: Pastor Gregor SUSEMI(E)(H)L born ca. 1505. Gregor managed to become a pastor. Ca. 1530 he was installed as a reverend in Neese near Ludwigslust/ Mecklenburg. There is documentary proof that he was a pastor there in 1541. 1549 was the official year of reformation in Mecklenburg, the Duke announcing conversion of all Mecklenburg people from Catholicism to Lutheranism. We have a protocol of a superior pastor inspecting Gregor SUSEMI(E)(H)L and his work in Neese: Gregor does his work very well, but he is still somewhat too Catholic.                                                                                     Neese church.

Gregor SUSEMI(E)(H)L had a son Johann already before 1549, as well as another son. Therefore he obviously was married. Thus he belonged to the Mecklenburg pastors, who had converted already to Lutheranism before the Duke’s official reformation announcement in 1549. 

The generation between. Joachim and his grandfather was missing for years: as we know today, he was named the same as his grandson Hans=Johann. This is documented by a copy in America, of an original document that disappeared in Germany, probably destroyed in the world wars. This copy arrived in America at the end of the 19th century. A fax of that copy, was sent to me some years ago. It shows exactly the line from Gregor (here falsely called George) via this Johann, called Hans, and via Joachim to the 2^nd Johann. This document probably came from the SUSEMI(E)(H)L genealogist Otto born 1849. Otto originally was named STÜHLOW and then SUSEMI(E)(H)L, because his parents married only after his birth. Illegitimate children at that time in Mecklenburg were quite common, up to 30 percent. Otto’s genealogy data are very reliable generally. Therefore I have no doubt about the correctness of this source. 

The SUSEMI(E)(H)L farmers

Besides SUSEMI(E)(H)L pastors, there are many SUSEMI(E)(H)L farmers, some of them still today in the area of Rostock and Warnemünde on the Baltic.. 

Pastors and farmers = one large family?

Two questions arise:

1. The SUSEMIE)(H)L pastors and farmers, are they one and the same family?

2. If yes, do the pastors descend from the farmers, or vice-versa? 

1. As you know, all MILLERs do not belong to the same family. When ca. 1300 the people created family names, they took them from any criterion. If one village had three Johanns, and one of them was the son of the miller he was called Miller’s Johann, This family was named MILLER. This happened in a village in Bavaria at the same time as in a village in Holstein. The MILLERs in Bavaria and the MÜLLERs in Holstein do not belong to the same family, although they carry the same name. The few SUSEMI(E)(H)L researchers on earth, including me, agree, that all SUSEMI(E)(H)Ls belong to the same family. 

The Slavs settled in Germany and Poland and far beyond in East Europe. One of the Slavic tribes were the Wends, who settled in Mecklenburg and somewhat beyond, from East Holstein to Danzig. The name SUSEMI(E)(H)L undoubtedly is derived from the Wendish CU(D)ZO-MIL, meaning “stranger lover” thus “who loves strangers”, the people who love to go abroad.  

And in fact the majority of the SUSEMI(E)(H)Ls no longer live in Germany, many for several generations already. They don’t speak German any more.

There may have been many CU(D)ZO-MILs, as there are many SMITHs and JOHNSONs today. Many of them Germanized separately. Most of them tried to Germanize in a way so that the new germanized name makes some kind of sense in German. Thus many "new" names were SUESS-MILCH [sweet milk] or SUSE-MEHL (Susanne-flour] etc. But only one unique man chose the "senseless" name SUSEMI[E][H]L - senseless because MIL, MIEL are not German words [unlike  MEHL, MILCH]. All researchers agree that ALL SUSEMI(E)(H)Ls are descendants of ONE UNIQUE ancestor, thus one large family. 

2. After clarifying, that all SUSEMI(E)(H)Ls belong to the same family we turn to the question: Do the pastors descend from the farmers, or vice-versa? 

The family mark, the milking stool

Johann SUSEMI(E)(H)L had a family mark showing a milking stool. 

Families unable to read and write had family marks; they appended this sign to documents and contracts. Therefore today we still speak of signing a document. At that time only few Christian people could read and write (unlike all Jews), but e.g. pastors could do so. Thus these families didn’t use a family mark, unlike e.g. farmers  - some farm houses still show a family mark today e.g. at the beam above the door. The family mark of the pastor Johann SUSEMI(E)(H)L and his wife Dorothea née SCHNÄKEL raises questions:  How does a pastor get a family mark and why in particular a milking stool? 

For these questions there is a conclusive explanation: Johann SUSEMI(E)(H)L is the  descendant of a farmer.

Thus the pastors descend from the farmers. 

From the farmers to the pastors

Usually you find no documents giving clear family connections before the 30-year-war 1618-1648. Church books were not yet used normally (e.g. in Schwerin the first church book was started in1652 by Johann SUSEMIHL), and most of the existing documents were destroyed in the above-mentioned war. In view of this background, it is very remarkable that we can follow up the SUSEMI(E)(H)Ls from 1505.on already. That we will find proof of clear family connections before that time is extremely unlikely. Thus we have to make plausible hypotheses for the descent of the SUSEMI(E)(H)L pastors from the farmers.

For this the former tradition of name-giving helps. The first son was named after the paternal grandfather, e.g. the cathedral pastor Johann born 1596 was named after his grandfather Johann=Hans who was shown on the American copy. His grandfather – Gregor’s father- also should have been named Hans. This Hans’ father also should have been named Gregor, and his father also Hans SUSEMI(E)(H)L, born ca. 1400. Perhaps he was that abstruse Mecklenburg Wende, who transmuted CU(D)ZO-MIL into SUSEMI(E)(H)L. 

If Gregor SUSEMI(E)(H)L, born ca. 1505, pastor in Neese, was the first of the pastors, this being the transition from the farmers to the pastors, Gregor should have had brothers, who continued with the rural tradition throughout to the many later and current rural SUSEMI(E)(H)Ls in Warnemünde and Rostock. These brothers and their children enable us to transform single early SUSEMI(E)(H)L farmers into a hypothetical SUSEMI(E)(H)L family tree:

a.  In Marnitz near Parchim (Mecklenburg)  (1) 1551 farmer Steffen SUSEMI(E)(H)L and  (2) 1570 farmer Hans SUSEMI(E)(H)L, in the neighboring village Marlow  (3) 1612 Anna SUSEMI(E)(H)L, who was accused of being a witch.  

b.  In Wismar (Mecklenburg)  (4) 1592 Thomas SUSEMI(E)(H)L, whose wife also was accused of being a witch.

c.  In the area of Rostock  (5) 1648-1670 farmer Hans SUSEMI(E)(H)L,  (6) 1653-1683 farmer Steffen SUSEMI(E)(H)L and (7) 1666-1689 thresher Jochim SUSEMI(E)(H)L. 

The records of both witches you can find in the Mecklenburg Witch Museum, in Penzlin between Waren and Neubrandenburg, 150 km east of Schwerin. There is a large chalkboard with ca. 800 names of the women who were accused of being witches, between 1500 and 1700. If at that time something bad happened, a bad harvest or someone became sick, without an explanation for that, the people sought for a cause, because of the human need for causality. If the cause was found to be a witch, she was tested by the “water investigation“. The woman was thrown into the water  - most people at that time were unable to swim. The theory was, that the devil in the water would prevent a witch from sinking, then she was burned at the stake. If she was no witch, she sank. Thus the woman being accused would die in any case. 

Which SUSEMI(E)(H)L recognizes his witch character? My wife said “I always felt that you descend from a witch!”.

I hope for yet many further SUSEMI(E)(H)L-descendants, who contact me, in order to truly complete the “SUSEMI(E)(H)L world family tree”. 

Peter Chr. CLEMENS, M.D. ~Ph.D., Am Tannenhof 52, D-19061 Schwerin-Schlossgarten, Tel +49-(0)385 -565670 (or -5202660), fax -5558979 (or -5202676), dr.clemenspc@p4all.de