I have a paternal German line with several von Bergs who did not use the von in daily affairs but created records with that name. In a Karlsruhe archive, one record shows Carl von Berg as a "forester. My first assumption is that the man cut trees and related tasks. I began to wonder if that could be another way of stating a man owned land, or was poor translation of "a recluse" in a forest, or was "in charge of" a good deal of forest.
Then I found a Karl von Berg who was in his lifetime well known as a forest scientist. though there's no evidence of his being associated with my family members.
Much later researching the man's wife, Franziska Sallmann, I found the Sallmann or Sallmanhausen family tree with 3 or 4 branches (http://www.sallmann-genealogy.de/html/neuenstadt_germany.htm). In emails a man in charge of one of these lines disputes any connection between that family and mine. And yes, that could be so.
In the Sallman genealogy at the bottom of the Karl and Dieter arm of the Sallmann genealogy, is a Johann Carl von Berg (a couple of years ago it showed as "of mountain" without other information).
One woman inside the Sallmann family genealogy who is counted as their family member is numbered as:
"1CDJdBg: Charlotta Franziska Sallmann - 12.01.1788 - Maienfels b. Neuhütten." In my Karlsruhe archival research a "Franziska Sallman" is Mentioned as wife of Karl Berg, later found to be a von Berg.
The Karlsruhe archivist wrote: " The marriage certificate of Josef Berg and Elisabetha Friederike Bär and a copy of the birth certificate of Josef Berg are enclosing the following informations: Josef Berg was born on the 7th of March in 1863 at Karlsruhe and was the son of the unmarried woman Christina Berg living at Karlsruhe and coming from the village Hüffenhardt, belonging to the administration district of the town Neckar-bischofsheim. Christina Berg was legitimated daughter of Karl Berg,
forester of Hüffenhardt, and Franziska born with family name Sallmann. Josef Berg died on the 1th of January in 1915 at Karlsruhe (note at the bottom of the marriage certificate)."
Christina Berg did not use the von in her name, but with the birth of each child she listed no father and did consistently register the children as "von Berg." Only her son Josef Berg lived into maturity. He did not use the von. He is my grandmother Anna Berg's (b. Karlsruhe, 1889) father.
So is this a matter EuroAristo can comment on? or is it simply a lost family trail?
