Dispensation

just met some entries in the Fellbach marriage records, that have to do with "dispense". Following questions came up:
1) What is a dispense exactly, an allowance or a fee ?
2) What reasons lead to a dispens ? I saw i.e. "marriage in the closed time", "high difference in the age".
3) sometimes there is a note like "Sperl. 36 fl.", what is this ? 
 

Hallo Liste,
mir sind einige Eintragungen in Eheregistern begegnet, die mit Dispens zu tun haben. Hier meine Fragen:
1) Was ist ein "Dispens", eine Erlaubnis oder eine Gebühr ?
2) Wozu brauchte man als einen Dispens? Ich sah "wegen Altersungleichheit", "Cop. in geschlossener Zeit"
3) Manchmal erscheint auch "Sperl. 36 fl.", was ist das ?
greetings, Thomas

They can add a good deal of human interest to your research. One of the most common ones is Minderjaehrigkeit = under age. If you don't have an exact date of birth  this may help you make a closer guess. The age of majority or at least the age necessary for marriage was 25 for men and 20 for women. Below that age even with parental permission one had to get a special dispensation to be married. These dispensations carried a fee or sometimes a donation. I still have not straightened this one out. When I asked for help in translating some marriage records and said what I though it meant I was told by a couple of people that the words "opfer Becken" followed by an amount of money meant a donation. Personally if there is a required donation I still consider it a fee.  The war taxes were called contributions but they were not free will either.The next most commonly found dispensation is for Butsverwandtschaft in 2te/3te grad gleich/ungleich linie. This indicates a blood relationship and the degree.There were dispensations also for relationship by marriage at one time there
were restrictions on marrying a relative of the deceased spouse. The one you found "marriage in the closed time" usually you will also find the word Trauerzeit with this, it means they had permission to marry before or our the other had completed a set period of mourning. You will find that either the bride or the groom is widowed.

One I found particularly interesting was a dispensation allowing not  to marry on a Wednesday. If the bride is pregnant or if either have illegitimate children then they are allowed to marry but it must be on Wednesday. I have seen a couple where the Groom had fathered children with other women and they received a dispensation to marry on some other day but were not allowed to carry/wear the wreath. This I would like know more about it sounds as though it would reveal some wedding custom perhaps similar to our modern custom (am I out of date?) of only a virgin bride wearing white and a white veil. Also I have not determined if the was in a localized area or did it apply all over Wuerttemberg.

I would appreciate any insights others have on this Wednesday dispensation. 

They could also get dispensations to reduce the required number of proclamations. I have seen one in which the participants seemed to be from important families where all three proclamations were dispensed with. Chapter 3 of the David Warren Sabean book that Lothar referred to in a recent post, 'Property, Production and Family in Neckarhausen: 1700-1870'
has a good discussion of the topic of dispensations.

Celia

You asked what a "Dispens" exactly was, whether is was an allowance or a fee and what reasons led to it.

A *Dispens* (cf. Engl. verb: to dispense) grants (somebody) an exemption from a religious obligation, e.g. for a marriage of near  relatives (cousins). As the marrying age in Württemberg was generally  fixed at about 25 for men and at 22 for women there also was a *Dispens*  for this if people wanted to marry much younger. There was a *Dispens* for remarriage of divorced people, too. The Catholic Church knew a *Dispens* for the marriage of a person of Catholic denomination to
a Protestant one.

Could "in *g*eschlossener Zeit*" (closed time) be a misreading of  "in *b*eschlossener Zeit" as a capital G and a B are the spitting image of each other? This would then mean "within the time agreed upon". But without a context I even then I do not know what it  precisely means.

"Sperl. 36 fl." possibly a misreading for = *Sport.* = Sportel, which is a fee, in this case 36 florins.

Ich hoffe, das hilft.Viele Forschergrüße

Lothar Schmid

Fred Kopfler

Dieter Joos

Fred wrote:
> Before Vatican Council II, Catholics were not premitted to marry in the seasons of Lent and Advent, if memory serves me
correctly.  Perhaps this is what was ment by a dispensation to marry inside a "closed time."  Fred Kopfler<

My comment:
'Closed time' (geschlossene Zeit) means indeed the both seasons Fred mentions. The 'Trauerzeit' was usually one year. During this time the mourning person wore black clothes. However you will often find that the widower / widow married again only some weeks after the death of his first partner. This was a pure need for surviving of a big family with numerous children.

Dieter Joos

>The 'Trauerzeit' was usually one year. During this time the mourning person wore black clothes. However you will

I found this in a small commemorative book published by the Malmsheim church on the occasion of its 500th anniversary in 1989.

1720
Herzog Eberhard erlaest eine Trauerordnung, nach der Eheleute, Eltern und Schwiegereltern ein halbes Jahr vom Todestag an schwarz gekleidet gehen, Grosseltern, Geschwister und Schwaeger ein Vierteljahr. Bei minderjaehrigen Kindern trauert man 6 Wochen.

My German is not good but I believe this says that Duke Eberhard issued a Mourning Ordnance.   For married people, parents and parents in law black clothing must be worn a half year from the day of the death. For grandparents, siblings and spouses siblings a quarter of a year. For minor children the period was 6 weeks.

> often find that the widower / widow married again only some weeks
> after the death of his first partner. This was a pure need for
> surviving of a big family with numerous children.

Yes, I find this in my records as well. In 1635 between 13 July and 26 October 288 of the 433 inhabitants of this village died. Most of them of the Pest although during this period when the 30 Years War was raging in Wuerttemberg  there were other epidemics, starvation and few war casualties as well. The following February and March there were 12 marriages twice the average number of marriages in a year. By the end of 1636 there had been 20 marriages. Most of them between widows and widowers. As Dieter said this was necessary for their survival.  It took a family working together to survive.

Since I started working on the entire village I have gained a much better idea of what was going on in this town. Going through and picking only family members out of the church records is like choosing only pieces of a puzzle that have a face on them. You see some of the people but you cannot put together the whole picture.

Celia

I recall a time when Catholics could not get married during Lent, a sorrowful time, whereas marriage was considered a joyful occasion.  A dispensation to get married during Lent could be granted for a good reason, for instance, my aunt and uncle were married during Lent in 1943 as my uncle was in the Army and due to be sent overseas. Perhaps Lent was considered a "closed time" in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Kay Timmons , Annapolis, MD

Celia wrote:

> I found this in a small commemorative book published by the Malmsheim church on the occasion of its 500th anniversary in 1989. 

1720: Herzog Eberhard erlaest eine Trauerordnung .............this says that  Duke Eberhard issued a  Mourning Ordnance.
For married people, parents and parents in law black  clothing must be worn a half year from the day of the death.
For grandparents, siblings and spouses siblings a quarter of a year. For minor  children the period was 6 weeks.....

Yes, indeed that was a typical act in the age of absolutism, when a Lord believed to have the right to regulate even the mourning habits of parents. Naturally it was his interest to have his subjects working to increase his richness and breeding childs for his army and not mourning for months. But such  'gracious' orders were regularly disregarded by the people outside of the court. The rural population followed their old traditions as usual not bothering a lot about the duke and his court.

Dieter Joos

Hello list,
the feed-back to my questions was a very interesting serie of mails from other researchers, which shows again
the value of such a news group. Even if I have the advantage of living in the area theat I research, I depend on the experience of others that did the same job somewhere else. Again many thanks to all of you !

I will collect all the received information on my homepage and such make it available for collegues and our other fellowers, the searching machines :-).

Greetings from Fellbach / South Germany