"From Where Did Zacharias Schömbs Come?       The Netherlands?"

The first evidence of Zacharias Schömbs in Undenheim is from the Protocol Book of St. Albans when in 1691 it was recorded that Zacharias and a Mathes Henn were installed as the Hofmänner of St. Albans-Hof, one of the large farms in the region of the St. Martins Cathedral in Mainz which kept the very large staff of the Cathedral fed. The reference in the Protocol Book is that Zacharias and Mathes Henn had come from Stetten, a village about 18 km (12 miles) to the south of Undenheim. With the single exception of the Protocol Book mentioned above, records had not been found of a Schömbs family in Stetten. But this could be because all records were destroyed in The Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Or in one of the many wars since.

In about 2020 an American cousins told us Zacharias had been born and raised in The Netherlands. But he refused to show us any documentation or even to tell us what he had found, other than that the family name had been Schombergs. It sounds strange. And it was.

Since this Netherlands idea had been raised Reinhold Schembs, who has done most of the research on the far-back family history, spent considerable time delving into Netherlands historical records. The Netherlands records from the 17th Century have generally survived to this day, probably because The Netherlands was never a major aggresor in the various wars since and has never been heavily bombed.

After considerable research Reinhold concluded there is no evidence we can find supporting the idea that Zacharias Schömbs (1645-1707), our forefather from Undenheim, came from The Netherlands. Reinhold found only one person, a Sacharias Schomberg/Schombart, born in approximately 1630, who might have been a possibility. Below is the analysis. After Reinhold finished his research Monika Schoembs (Nürnberg) and Jim Schembs (Phoenix AZ USA) each separately went through a similar exercise. We both agreed that Reinhold’s conclusion was correct.

But first, here is the shorthand that I will use: In the discussion our forefather Zacharias Schömbs from Undenheim will be called Zacharias (U). The one Dutchman that was found will be Sacharias (N, for Netherlands). Sacharias (N), in the Netherlands documents is recorded with the given names Sacharias and Zacharias, and the family names Schomburg, Schombert, and Schombart, among others. These spelling variations are common in historical records from the time and neither prove nor disprove the connection we are trying to make. Also, if Sacharias (N) emigrated to Undenheim, the spelling of his family name could have changed to Schömbs.

All the records of Zacharias (U) after 1691 are from the churchbook of Mariä Himmelfahrt, the Catholic church in Undenheim. Zacharias (U) and his wife Anna Magdalena had four children, all sons. The birth years for the four are derived from their death records, as we do not have birth records nor are sure where they were born. But presumably they were born in Stetten.

Below is a table of the various relevant historical events. The first two Columns on the left deal with Zacharias (U). The two columns on the right deal with Sacharias (N).

One can see there are no Zacharias (U) records, either in content or date, which correlate or match those of Sacharias (N).

Sacharias (N) did not emigrate to Undenheim and was not our forefather Zacharias (U)!