Posted on Facebook on 31 December 2018.

Johann Laurentius or Lorentz Weisenborn lived in Marbach near Erfurt with his wife Martha Catharina Braun at least from the birth of their first child in January 1746 until his death in January 1763. Among the offspring of this couple are at least 170 Weis(s)enborn name bearers. At the end of this posting I have listed those who are facebook friends.

Of course Johann Lorentz Weisenborn and his fellow inhabitants of Marbach knew very well where he had been born. I do not yet know. In this posting I shall tell what I do know. I enjoy facing and resolving this kind of puzzle and I expect it will amuse those who fancy detective stories.

Johann Lorentz wasn't born in Marbach. We do however know that he was born one or two days before 6 July 1721 from his entry in the burial register of Marbach's only church which was dedicated to Saint Gotthard, see first attached figure. Johann Lorentz's wife was born in Marbach, but she and Johann Lorentz weren't married in Marbach. That is a strong indication that he was from a village so close to Marbach that "his" church was acceptable to the bride, as it was customary to marry in the birthplace of the bride.

Johann Lorentz and his wife have had at least six children. Five of these children were baptised in Marbach. The entries in the baptism register provide not only the names of the child and his/her parents, but also the "Gevatter" or "Pat(h)e", who acts as witness of the baptism. On the page with the entry for the first child in 1746 - the second attached figure - Johann Lorentz is mentioned a second time, as "Gevatter" for Michael Heinrich Focke's son Johan Lorentz. The baptism entries for the second and third children in 1748 and 1750 - third and fourth attached figures - further reinforces that Johann Lorentz was on very good terms with the Focke family and probably a familiar person in Marbach.

The witness to the baptism of the fourth child in 1752 - see fifth figure - is a lady from Walschleben, a village located some 10 kilometers north of Marbach. Was Johann Lorentz then perhaps born in Walschleben in 1721? No, but instead a Johann Nicolaus Weißenborn was born there in 1721, see sixth figure. The entry shows that the Weißenborns in Walschleben were serving in the "guards" regiment in the city of Gotha.

The entry for Johann Lorentz's fifth child in 1759 provides no additional clues, see sixth figure. The evidence that he had a sixth child is the marriage entry of his son Johann Friedrich in Marbach in 1785, see seventh figure. I have not found the entry for Johann Friedrich's baptism in the baptism register of Marbach. The date quoted by Michael Fitzgerald on the commercial website Heritage, 28 March 1753, cannot be correct in view of the birth of the fourth child in December 1752. What was the source of this wrong date? It cannot be the burial register as Johann Friedrich's age at death on 28 April 1822 has not been specified there, see eighth figure.

What can be done to answer THE question? I am going to re-examine the baptism register of Marbach for clues, in particular before 1746. Maybe Johann Lorentz has been "Gevatter" at a baptism and stated where he was from. That would be great! I will also scan the index of the registers of the villages in an increasingly wider circle around Marbach for the presence of Weis(s)enborns. I am doing this kind of research anyway, so no time will be wasted: every hit will end up in my database. I have however more incentive to focus on the area around Marbach, as the chance of finding a branch there - hopefully THE branch, of Johann Lorentz - is significantly higher, in view of the indications described above.

The facebook friends who have Johan Lorentz Weisenborn as their - currently - earliest known Weisenborn ancestor are

Carol Weisenborn
Julia Weisenborn Scott
Jenny von Weisenborn

Dennis Weisenborn
Dennelle Mathis

Rob Weisenborn
Eric J Weisenborn

Tammy Darnell
Holly Baker

Cheryl Lehner
Patricia Akerill

Bobbi Weisenborn
Coleman Weisenborn
Rebecca Weisenborn Miller