Emigrants Henry Wurm and his wife, Elisabeth Lein originated from Bleidenrod, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. Hesse-Darmstadt was, until 1918, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, the capital of which was the city of Darmstadt. Bleidenrod, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany
Emigrants Henry Wurm and his wife, Elisabeth Lein originated from Bleidenrod, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. Hesse-Darmstadt was, until 1918, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, the capital of which was the city of Darmstadt.
The obituary of Henry Wurm provided a clue in its reference to the misspelled "Bliehrot". The village of Bleidenrod no longer exists independently. It is now part of the town of Homberg (Ohm) which is in the county of Vogelsberg in the administrative district of Gießen.
Information gathered to date has been summarized on this page. It is noted that there is potential for errors during the process of translation. We apologize in advance and gratefully accept offers of clarification. Do you have a connection to Bleidenrod, Germany? Any past or present day information / photos regarding this region would also be very much appreciated. Additional Bleidenrod Links and Information Selected Records from the Parish of Bleidenrod Bleidenrod Church - history and photos
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Having now located the town, we are attempting to piece together an historical view as well as a present day summary. Bleidenrod is located in the south east of Homberg in the low distinct end of the valley of the Fuchscreek which flows into the Ohm River. In 1970 the community had 223 inhabitants and an area of 581 hectare. 58.4 % of the inhabitants worked in agriculture and forestry.
The first recorded information of Bleidenrod dates back to 1289 though the village beginnings would have been considerably earlier. The village owed the earliest mention to an ownership conflict between the cloister “Wirberg” (in the west of Grünberg) and the knight “Rupert von Langenstein”, who wanted to reclaim the Bleidenrod manors his parents sold 12 years earlier to the cloister. Upon receipt of compensation in the amount of 3 Marks, von Langenstein waived his claim.
The “Salbuch” (the landlords list of his properties) from the department of Burg-Gemünden for the year 1582 contains a listing of the “Landlords of Hesse” and the name “Rau von Holzhausen” as the most important landlord. One of the both landgrave’s manors apparently was mortgaged to the owner of the castle in Homberg named “Jörg von Weiters”. The manor “Rau von Holzhausen” was acquired only in the year 1521 by Adolf Rau. It was owned before by an inhabitant of Bleidenrod named Herrmann Ortmann, who borrowed 40 Gulden as a mortgage by the Augustiner monks in the year 1521, for which he had to pay an interest of 5 % yearly. He had inherited the manor from his father and owned it as a free estate after he bought out the shares of his nine siblings. This burden explains his need of credits. Only one year later he raised another loan of ten Gulden. As a guarantee for the interest payment there was only a grassland bought for 32 Gulden, which yields four wagons of hay a year. On a chit of paper attached to the document Adolf Rau and the priest of Bleidenrod reasoned that Hermann had his manor leased from Adolf Rau and he therefore could not be burdened with further interests.
Bleidenrod belonged to the court and the later department of Burg-Gemünden. This is indeed first attested in the year 1466, but previously mentioned in the year 1317. The owner of the court originally had been the earls of Ziegenhain. After their line of descendents ended in the year 1450 it was inherited by the landgraves of Hesse. The constitution of the courts and the tributes and the duties of the inhabitants as well were comparable to those in the department of Homberg.
Hunger, depredations and the Thirty Year War led to a major reduction in population. During the final stage of the Hessenkrieg (Hesse war) between Hessen-Darmstadt and Hessen-Kassel in the final stage of the Thirty Years’ War many of the village inhabitants who survived were on the run. Of the 42 existing households in the year 1648 only 11 remained at the end of the war. It took nearly a hundred years for the village to return to its pre-war population. In the second half of the 18th century a significant increase of the population began, which continued despite some fluctuation until the middle of the 19th century.
In the year 1991 the village had a population of 216. In recent years, the population has remained relative stable. In the village there are seventeen agrarian farms. Six of them are full-time farms. The last few years have witnessed changes in the labour force. Only 16 of the 40 inhabitants employed in the agriculture, are exclusively employed in this sector acting. The remaining 24 workers had other occupations among their agriculture or respectively are pensioners. 57 inhabitants are earning their livelihood as commuters to other localities, 10 persons are employed by the existing 3 craft producers, 4 of them as commuters from other localities.
In the centre of town is the timbered church built in the first half of the 16th century. The last renovation of the outer walls happened in 1988. In the year 1974 the former school building, built in the year 1896, was renovated into a village community center.
Parish records of Bleidenrod show occurences of such surnames as Bapsten, Becker, Bietz, Diegel, Ebling, Fries, Grub, Happel, Leib, Lein, Loeblein, Niebergall, Philipson, Ritter, Schaefer, Scheid, Schneider, Schnell, Stumpf, Werther, Wirth, Wolff, Wurm (not a complete list).Research suggests that Wurm ancestors will also be located in nearby Ehringshausen (now part of Gemünden) and in Herbstein, Germany. We would like to connect with anyone familiar with Gemünden, Germany or Herbstein, Germany.
