Böldicke - Family Tree

From Kränzlin via Protzen to Wildberg

The Böldicke family lived for centuries in the small village of Kränzlin. Many manor estates existed in the surrounding area at the time.

My Böldicke line also begins in Kränzlin, with Paul Böldicke, a Halbbauer (*1742?, †14.11.1809 Kränzlin). On 4.11.1763 he married Anna Sophia Grubert in this village. Anna Grubert was a widow, and had been known as Sären until then. The following Böldicke generations were also born here, right up to my great-great-grandfather Hermann Wilhelm Jakob Böldicke of Protzen (*17.11.1848 Kränzlin, †28.3.1903 Protzen), who moved to Protzen as a young adult and worked there as an innkeeper and wheelwright.

Kränzlin lies about 5 km north of Neuruppin. The village was first mentioned around the mid-13th century. A document from 1291 records the Counts of Arnstein and Lindow pledging tax and toll revenues to the town of Neuruppin; at the time, the village was written as "Krencelin." In the 16th and 17th centuries there were 5 manor seats here, of which 2 survived into the 18th century. After the Thirty Years' War, much of the farmers' land was seized, pushing many of them back down to the status of Kossäten. The best-known and oldest family from Kränzlin was the "von Fratz" family, settled here from 1327 to 1701. Other notable figures associated with Kränzlin include Theodor Fontane and Karl Friedrich Schinkel.(Source: 1)

Protzen

With the marriage of my great-great-grandparents Henriette Auguste Emilie Rönnefarth and Hermann Wilhelm Jakob Böldicke, the couple's life moved to Protzen, where H.W.J. Böldicke worked as an innkeeper and wheelwright. My grandfather Hermann Alfred Arnold Böldicke (*31.8.1898, †14.6.1982) was also born in Protzen. As a young man, my grandfather moved to Wildberg, worked there as a teacher, and married my grandmother Elli Erna Grunow (*15.3.1898 Berlin, †25.7.1977 Neuruppin) there as well.

Wildberg

My grandparents lived in the small village of Wildberg. Hermann Alfred Arnold Böldicke worked here as a teacher starting 1.4.1920. My father and his brother also grew up in Wildberg. My grandparents later moved to Neuruppin once the children had left home. My grandmother's paternal ancestors, the Grunows, also came from Wildberg — her father was a master baker there.

I remember there were always "Streußelschnecken" (a German pastry) at my grandparents' place in Neuruppin. For fun, they always used to tell me "Streußelschnecken and honey are good for you." At the time I didn't yet know that my grandma came from a family of bakers, and probably had such a sweet tooth because of it — and that's just one of my most deeply held memories. A few years ago, a Mr Rönnefarth wrote to me through this website and mentioned he remembered my father and his brother — the two of them were "big cake eaters."

I never experienced the Wildberg years myself, though. The village was first documented in 1335 — "The Lords of Wildberg." The old fieldstone church was already built in the mid-12th century, and important trade roads already ran through the village at that time. In 1638 the village was burned down (Thirty Years' War), though the church's foundation walls survived. A few photos from my grandparents' time in Wildberg still exist.

When we visited all our ancestors' villages in 2005 — following in their footsteps — we found great-grandpa's inn as well as the school where grandpa Hermann Böldicke once taught.

The Name Böldicke

Over the centuries, the name Böldicke has repeatedly been spelled in different ways, which doesn't exactly make researching our ancestors any easier. Names weren't just spelled differently across generations — even one and the same person could be recorded quite differently across various documents. At the time, how a name sounded took priority over how it was spelled. For our Böldicke ancestors, I've found the following spellings of the surname so far: Bölk, Bölken, Böldike, Böllicke, and Böldiken. The image alongside is meant to illustrate this. The original wording of this parish register entry (which, however, doesn't belong to our line) reads:

"Caroline Gottliebe Böldicken, also written Bölk or Bölke."

You can find out more about the meaning of the name Böldicke here.

Family Tree of the Böldickes

Generation I: Parents (2–3)

Generation II: Grandparents (4–7)

Generation III: Great-grandparents (8–15)

Generation IV: Great-great-grandparents (16–31)

Generation V: 3x-great-grandparents (32–63)

Generation VI: 4x-great-grandparents (64–127)

Humankind is rooted in its ancestors, but all things have their roots in heaven.
(Chinese proverb)