Urte Strangulate and her kin

Urte Strangulate was a relative of mine born in 1844 in Daumanten, East Prussia.
Her husband was Jokubs Szkisznus, and her two children were Jokubs Sziksznus and Martin Szicksznus.

Really!

This sends me on a flurry of imaginative whimsy:

“It was a dark and stormy night…a wolf howled in the woods and the moon was eclipsed by ominous grey clouds and stabs of lightning bit through the wind and scorched the church steeple…this was the night when Urte Strangulate was born….”

What did she look like? What did she do?  From whence did she derive delight and comfort?

Well she seemed to delight in Szicknus, as she married him.

“But as she grew older, …Urte Strangulate was unhappy…once the dark and stormy night passed and the sunshine arrived…she sought out comforts appropriate to her temperament, and found them in a certain Szicknus….”

But though I will always believe she was born on a dark and stormy night,  her name only sounds odd to modern, American ears.  In the time and place where she lived it’s quite likely that one of our common American children’s names, like Kaitlyn or Gracie, Jade or Autumn,  might sound like a disease or a Sziknuss to them.

One of the great adventures of genealogy research, is coming into new and curious names and places.  You never know what unique treasures and unexpected connections you’ll find as you go seeking out family connections!

So where did Urte Strangulate come from, and how is she related to me?

It seems to all begin with Jurgis Strangulis, the first forefather in Urte’s own line of Strangle and Strangulate.  He was born around 1750, and had five Strangulis children.  One of these was Willems Strangulis, born in 1773 in Kalwiszken, which was probably an earlier spelling of the town name Kallwellischken, in my father’s area of East Prussia.  Willems had several Strangulis children, including Kristups Strangulis (Kristups was a very common male name of the time, as was Jurgis).  Urte Strangulate was one of  Kristups’ 11 children (all Strangulis or Strangulate children).  Z

How is Urte Strangulate related to me?

She’s 30 people away from me in my family tree:

“Urte Strangulate is your first cousin thrice removed’s husband’s brother’s wife’s brother’s wife’s first cousin thrice removed’s husband’s aunt’s husbands’ second great nephews’ wife’s nephew’s wife’s aunt.”  

So no, she is not closely related to me.  But I like her all the same.

Urte’s profile on Genealogy.net: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I26291&nachname=STRANGULATE&lang=en
Urte’s father Jurgis where the Strangulate line begins in recorded history of the region:

There were many in the Strangulis and Strangulate family.  One married Szicknus…another married a Killus. Ewe Strangulate married Jurgis Killus, in the Catholic Church in Prokuls, East Prussia, on Feb 18 1886.  I’m thinking there were bats flying out of the belfry at the time of the wedding.