Johann Georgi Seltzer was my husband’s 5th paternal Great Grandfather. He was born 12 June 1740 in Raden, Kreis Leobschütz, Silesia, Germany. Since the end of WW2, Raden has belonged to Poland and is now called Radynia. After the war had ended, all the German people of that region were expelled by the new Polish government. It was a terrible time for them. They could barely take anything with them and many people lost their lives. Raden (Radynia) is a tiny village close to the Czech border.
Johann’s parents were Anton Selzer and Johanna Englisch. He married my husband’s 5th Great Grandmother, Elisabetha Grimm, 17 October 1769 in Schönwiese, now called Krasne Pole. This village is about 7 miles away from Radynia.
An old postcard of Schönwiese (Krasne Pole) from the 1920’s.
Johann and Elisabetha Selzer had 10 children, all born in Raden (Radynia).
- 1. Anton Valentin born 1771
- 2. Joseph Urban born 1772 and died 1789 in Raden
- 3. Carl Johann born 1774
- 4. Johann Georg born 1775 and died 1846 in Raden. He was married to Elisabeth Krischker. They had 12 children.
- 5. Maria Elisabetha Theresia was born 1779. She married Franz Schindler. They had 4 children.
- 6. Johann Martin born 1780
- 7. Johanna Selzer, my husband’s 4th Great Grandmother, was born 1782 and died 1822 in Raden. She was married to my husband’s 4th Great Grandfather, Anton Wiedemann. They had 9 children, one of them was husband’s 3rd Great Grandmother, Karolina Wiedemann who married Fridolin Scholz, my husband’s 3rd Great Grandfather.
- 8. Carolus Joannes, no dates available, he supposedly had at least 3 children
- 9. Clara Victoria died 1785 in Raden
- 10. Bernard Paulus no dates available
Johann and his wife had 10 children, 29 grandchildren, 22 great grandchildren, 58 2x great grandchildren and 57 3x great grandchildren. These are the ones I have found, there are probably a lot more. Many of Johann’s descendants live in Germany, Austria and the United States.
Johann’s relationship to my husband, his 5x Great Grandchild:
- Johann Georgii SELZER 1740-1800
5th great-grandfather of husband - Johanna SELZER 1782-1822
Daughter of Johann Georgii SELZER - Karolina Wiedemann 1811-1862
Daughter of Johanna SELZER - Franz Scholz 1832-1891
Son of Karolina Wiedemann - Adolph Albert Scholz 1865-1939
Son of Franz Scholz - Robert William Scholz 1906-2004
Son of Adolph Albert Scholz - William “Bill” Edward Scholz 1935-2002
Son of Robert William Scholz - Husband
Son of William “Bill” Edward Scholz
Do you know how many sets of 5th great grandparents you have? 128! Every generation doubles in numbers. Let’s see if this correct.
- Generation 1: Child
- Generation 2: 2 parents
- Generation 3: 4 Grandparents
- Generation 4: 8 Great Grandparents
- Generation 5: 16 2x Great Grandparents
- Generation 6: 32 3x Great Grandparents
- Generation 7: 64 4x Great Grandparents
- Generation 8: 128 5x Great Grandparents
- Generation 9: 256 6x Great Grandparents
- Generation 10: 512 7x Great Grandparents
- Generation 11: 1024 8x Great Grandparents
- Generation 12: 2048 9x Great Grandparents
- Generation 13: 4096 10x Great Grandparent
- Generation 14: 8192 11x Great Grandparents
- Generation 15: 1638 12x Great Grandparents
- Generation 16: 32768 13x Great Grandparents
So you have 128 sets of 5x Great Grandparent, that means you have 64 5x Great Grandfathers. How many have you found in your research?
In order for me to find the Polish name for Raden, I used Kartenmeister.
This is the best website to find the current names of former German cities. There were a couple of other towns with the name Raden, however I knew which Kreis (sort of like a county) it belonged to. Raden, Kreis Leobschütz which now is called Radynia.
I did find an image for Raden on a Polish website. You can see the image here. On the top half it shows a guest house and the owner has the same last name, Selzer. He might very well be related to my husband’s 5th Great Grandfather.
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