My own stirps is called in the village "Wirtspeters" (literally translated "innkeeper Peter´s"). Correlated with that are certain character properties, for example sociableness. Regarding my brother Marcus, people from Erbstadt always say "that is a typical Wirtspeter". Regarding me, people have a lot more difficulties to discover these characteristics.

Until and including my father, all men had been farmers, partly with other additional professions.

The origin of the name Wirtspeter was the innkeeper (Johann) Peter, born in 1777. According the notes of my grandfather Karl, he had an inn above the cow barn in his early years. But he would have discontinued that inn before 1800. If that all is true, the period of the inn would have been very short but pretty sustainable (leading to our nick name). But potentially the inn was already operated by Johann Peter´s father Johannes who had been, besides his existence as farmer, a linen weaver and an innkeeper. The ballroom of the inn was later used as hayloft. In his notes my grandfather is mentioning the very smooth floor and the walls painted with flowers. I can´t remember these details, however, I still remember the barn from my early childhood.

Incidentally, Peter´s wife Katharina Sybilla was born as well as a "Stoerkel". So far, I was not able to find the baptism record of her father Michael. Maybe he originated from the line of Adam who emigrated very early to Boenstadt. Apart from that, it was very rare that two Stoerkels from the village married. I only found two more examples of such couples. Nevertheless, a small village consists of a restricted number of families. For example, this is obvious in the case of my grandma Magdalene, born as Seib. In her family line there are Stoerkels from the "Johannes-line" as well as from the "Peter-line". 

Peter the innkeeper and his wife Sybilla had nine children of which seven reached adulthood. Their youngest son Philipp Karl (*1816) is my direct ancestor. Interestingly, his older brother Daniel (*1804) decided to leave the village and to emigrate to America. I would have thought that according legal order of succession he would have taken over the property and the farm. With him, three of their sisters emigrated. There is a document which describes Daniel´s request for emigration and the respective approval by the authorities. Within this documents it is mentioned that  another sister of Daniel already lives in America. With that, obviously five children of Peter emigrated to America.

In the village, the farm kept operated by Philipp Karl, his son Jacob Karl and his grandson Wilhelm Otto. Also Hermann, another son of Jacob Karl, became a farmer (Weitzel family, living in the Untergasse/Wetterauer Straße) and Jacob Karl´s daughter Margaretha married a farmer from Rossdorf. Wilhelm Otto´s son is Karl, my grandfather. He was also running the farm. Sadly, he died very young, World War II had heavily affected his health. Luckily my grand-grandma and my grandma became very old: the wife of Wilhelm Otto, my grand-grandma „Gretchen“ (I had a lot of fun with her when I was a small boy) and Karl´s wife Magdalene (born as Seib), who was, at least in the eyes of me and my brother, the best grandma in the world. My father´s sister Hedi had married Heinrich Martin and lives in Kaichen.

In the 1960s my father Gerhard had decided to discontinue the farm and became an architect. Later on, this decision was pretty much appreciated by my brother and myself. We feel pretty well and comfortable in our non-farming professions.

My grandfather wrote in his documents that our estate is on the same place since the early 17th century (Hauptstraße 12, formerly Vorstadt 8 and before that obviously simply "number 41"). As a source he mentions the priest named Kastendyck who had done some research in the church books as of 1925. In favor for that is the fact that our house is directly located next to the church which has been at the same place "since ever". Against the assumption that our estate has already been the estate of the very early Stoerkels is the fact that the Haupstrasse (which is the street from which we enter our house) had been built not before 1800. Before that, there was the village´s protective barrier. At least the entrance as of today could not have been there in the very early time. Our house is not completely with basement. The existing basement is much smaller than the actual house and it can only be entered from outside. Potentially, this basement is part of the original house and our estate was connected to the rest of the village via a different way (somewhere between  „Wachthäuschen“ (guard house) and church).