Back to Family Story outcomes, S22
by Marissa Jarmon
My biggest discovery after taking genealogy was my father’s side of the family. Because of my relationship with him, I never even knew of my immediate collateral relatives, let alone my heritage back to 16th century Germany. Tracing my family back this far has allowed me to discover my connections to a noble German family.
My family tree indicates that Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt is my ninth great-grandfather. He was born in 1710 in Brandenburg, Germany. He later died in 1741 during the Siege of Prague. He is buried at the Berlin Cathedral. Other than these bits of information I do not know much about him. However, given his title and place of burial, I assume he was a man of noble character.
His son, Johannes Martin (1730 – 1790), was also born in the Brandenburg Palace in Germany. However, this is where the story leaves unanswered questions. At some point in his life, Johannes traveled to what would soon become the United States and settled in South Carolina. It is recorded that, there, he received a land grant for Oaklands’ Plantation in 1752, where he later died.
While I could not find much information at all on the Brandenburg family, I did not find anything notably bad about them. This leads me to assume that there was not anything evil or tyrannous about their ruling. This then poses the unanswered question as to why Johannes does not have a royal title, and why he decided to move to the United States.
I am interested in researching deeper into the connection between the Brandenburg family and South Carolina. This lineage is where my Germanic ancestry comes from. This is a part of my identity that I did not know about before doing this Ancestry research. I wonder now about the relationship between Fredrick and Johannes; whether it was a good one or a bad one. I wonder why the nobility and royal status did not remain in Johannes’ story. I predict that it has a lot to do with Johannes’ attitude towards slavery in the United States: maybe the attitude of the Brandenburgs was against this evil and they used their status and wealth to help. I make this prediction on my finding that Johannes’ great-granddaughter, Mary Carolina Stoutenmyer (1810 – 1896), married Blake Robinson (1800 – 1869), who was most likely a slave.
While the story of the Brandenburg family leaves me with many unanswered questions and hopeful predictions, I am overall intrigued and prompted to do more research into this family. I am very fascinated that I can trace back where my Germanic heritage comes from.
Sources:
https://www.geni.com/people/Friedrich-von-Brandenburg-Schwedt/6000000012735389563