345 years ago today -- on 16 July 1667 -- one of my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers died. Her name was Anna Grote Robrahn. We don't know just when or where she was born, but it was likely somewhere in northern Germany and in the early 1620s. (Anna's husband, Clawes Robrahn, was born in Pogez, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany in 1622.)

Anna and Clawes married in neighboring Carlow, Germany on 17 October 1648. They had 7 children between 1649 and 1659: Ties, Trine, Hans, Claus, Johann, Anna, and Engel. I'm descended through Anna's daughter Trine, who was born 11 December 1650.

Clawes was the village mayor ("der Schulze," or "der Schultheiss") in Pogez. He re-married on 17 September 1667, just two months and a day after Anna died. (Was the official mourning period 2 months?) Clawes and his new young bride ("young" as in 22 years younger than he was!) had another 8 children over the next 20 years. Clawes died in 1693 in the village of Pogez, the same place Anna died.

The other interesting thing about my ancestor Anna Grote Robrahn was that the German church record book all this information comes from says that the cause of her death was "als Hexe verbrannt."

For those of you without any German, that means she was burned as a witch.

< see http://www.pfhl.de/Kirchspiele/frz/2760.htm >