Baptismal Notice for Elize Schuetz, 1865 (1)

This document comes from the family of Bill Dean, Margaret Dean's husband, who are the second great-grandchildren of Gottlieb and Anna Schuetz. It is a baptismal notice from Parli family to Schuetz's second daughter Elize sponsors wrote as keepsake of the baptismal day. Baptismal notices (Tauzettel, Taufbriefe, Taufhelgeli) have been an attribute of the baptismal ritual in the German lands since as early as 13^th century. Earliest surviving notices date back to the late 16^th century. Short notices with quotations from the Bible or folk blessings often accompanied baptismal gifts (often a little purse with money) from the sponsors, and served as a reminder to the parents of the baptized. The baptismal notices of the Schuetz family are decorated with block-printed ornaments executed black or blue ink and hand-colored with various degrees of precision.

The Gottlieb and Anna Schuetz received this notice on the day of their second child Elize's baptismal from Anna's family, the Parlis.

Elize Schuetz was the second child in the family born on April 17, 1865. She died in the vicinity of Humboldt, Nebraska on September 17, 1877, the year she turned twelve.

The Schuetzes' daughter Maria (Mary) Schuetz, born in 1867 in Switzerland started the Dean family line marrying German-born Dirk Sutorius in Humboldt, Nebraska in 1889. Sutorius' daughter Emma, born in 1890 married a recent emigrant from Germany (1908) Edo F. Harms in 1914. All three generations lived in Humboldt, Nebraska in close proximity with various relatives (Emma Sutorius's uncle John Schuetz lived right next door to her family according to the 1930 census).

For interviews and oral histories of this and other items please visit the History Harvest YouTube Channel.