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From Mitteilungen der Westdt. Gesellschaft für Familienkunde 1935.

The text has been transcribed from the original document “Die Stammeltern des reformierten Geschlechts Nierstrasz in Eschweiler” by Heinrich Müllers, Frankfurt Main. Thanks to Kurt Nacken for the source material.

NB: The text has been translated to English with the help of deepl from the German version of this document.

All efforts have been made to transcribe the text as faithfully as possible from the original (in Old German font). I would nevertheless be grateful for any corrections. Note various spellings: Nierstraß, Nierstras, Nierstrat, Nierstraed. Similarly: Leonhardt, Leonhard etc. As the text explains, the original sources conflict concerning not only the spelling but the actual names of those concerned.

The “infinity symbol” (used to indicate marriage events) is transcribed here as a percent sign (“∞”). I assume that * indicates a birth date, and (*) a baptism.


The Progenitors of the Reformed Nierstrasz Family in Eschweiler

By Heinrich Müllers, Frankfurt Main

1. Geneology of oldest three generations

A genealogical list of the three oldest generations known so far, compiled “according to the church records in Eschweiler and old Nierstraß records”, informed me of Dr. Rübens in Rodenkirchen near Cologne as follows:

I. Leonhardt Nierstraß

Reformed; * ….., † ….. (before 1650), owner of a dye works in Eschweiler.

Children, born in Eschweiler and baptised just now (ref.):

  1. Johannes (*) 1. 1. 1622, s. IIa.
  2. Isaak (*) 27. 4. 1627, s. IIb.
  3. Abraham (*) 26. 3. 1631, s. IIc.
  4. Elisabeth (*) 22. 2. 1634.

IIa. Johannes Nierstraß (*)

Eschweiler (ref.) 1. 1. 1622, † ….. 15. 8. 1705. ∞ ….. Catharina Thüren.

Children:

  1. Isaak * ….. † ….. ∞ ….. 5. 12. 1697 Maria Heretz.
  2. Abraham * ….. † ….. ∞ ….. 1. 4. 1750 [actually 1700, see below] Maria Eschenbrücher.

IIb. Isaak Nierstraß (*)

Eschweiler (ref.) 27. 4. 1627, † ….. ∞ ….. 9. 5. 1650 Katharina Horden.

Children:

  1. Theodor * ….. † ….. ∞ ….. 2. 5. 1678 Susanna Holzmacher (4 children).
  2. Maria * ….. † ….. ∞ ….. 1678 Theodor Peltzer in der Girdau.

IIc. Abraham Nierstraß (*)

Eschweiler (ref.) 26. 3. 1631, † Eschweiler 20. 11. 1721, dye works owner. ∞ I ….. 10. 8. 1659 Anna Bündtgens, * ….. † ….. 29. 3. 1674, daughter of the married couple Johannes Bündtgens and ….. ∞ II ….. 27. 10. 1674 (?) Maria Blanche, * ….. 24. 8. 1632, † ….. Daughter of Johann Leonhard de Blanche and Mechtilde [actually Katharina, see 3. below] Düppengießer (∞ 25. 2. 1630).

Children 1st marriage, born at Eschweiler:

  1. Johannes * 30. 5. 1660, † ….. ∞ ….. Arnolda Barbara Lynen (6 children).
  2. Elisabeth * 15. 10. 1661, † …..
  3. Leonard * 19. 1. 1664, † ….. 7. 10. 1669.
  4. Isaak * 28. 10. 1666, † ….. 28. 4. 1668.
  5. Isaak * 16. 8. 1668.
  6. Jakob * 22. 2. 1670, † Köln 10. 10. 1751, ∞ ….. 7. 3. 1698 Johanna Katharina Schommartz (9 children).
  7. Leonhard * 22. 1. 1671, † ….. 20. 4. 1769, moved to Maastricht, still descendants. ∞ Eschweiler 13. 4. 1713 Agneta Holtz.
  8. Anna Maria * 9. 1. 1674.

Children 2nd marriage, born at Eschweiler:

  1. Abraham * 16.10. 1675 (Taufzeugen: Schwager Stefan Blanche, Neef Schimmerts und Schwester Megtell), † Köln 6. 1. 1765, ∞ ….. 1706 Maria Mintha Herstatt (10 children).
  2. Jan Godfried * 20. 4. 1678 (baptismal witnesses: Neef Diedrich Peltzer and Godfried Recklinghaufen and Nicht Maria Nierstraß); † Cologne ….. 1746, chemist, ∞ ….. 28. 1. 1708 Susanne Blanche.
  3. Catharina * 21. 11. 1679 (baptismal witnesses: Neef Caspar Steffens, sister Catharina Nierstraß and sister Catharina (H?)önen), † ….. 19. 3. 1681.

First of all, a few corrections should be made: Abraham Nierstraß, the son of Johannes (IIa, 2), did not marry in 1750 (that would not be very possible!), but in 1700, on 5 December (cf. H. F. Macco, Beiträge zur Genealogie rheinischer Adels- und Patrizierfamilien, vol. III: Geschichte und Genealogie der Familien Peltzer, p. 149). Perhaps there is also a mistake in the case of Leonhard Nierstraß, son of Abraham (IIc, 7), who was allegedly born (or baptised?) on 22.1.1671, namely that he was not born in 1671 but in 1672. This would fit much better with the fact that his sister Anna Maria was born on 9. 1. 1674. [unclear why this should be so …]


2. Birth date of Maria Blanche

The alleged date of birth of Maria Blanche (second wife of Abraham Nierstraß) is probably not correct either. She is said to have been born on 24. 8. 1632 as the daughter of Johann Leonhard de Blanche and Mechtild Düppengießer, who married on 25. 2. 1630. Macco (op. cit., p. 75, note) states: “Hans Leonard de Blanche, son of Stefan de Blanche in Aachen, married in his first marriage on 25 February 1630 to Katharina Düppengießer, daughter of Gotthard Düppengießer in Aachen, with whom he fathered four children:

  1. Mechtildis, (*) zu Aachen am 24. August 1632.
  2. Gottfried, (*) zu Aachen am 22. Dezember 1634.
  3. Stefan, (*) zu Aachen 6. Mai 1637.
  4. Katharina, (*) at Aachen in August 1640, ∞ on 24 Nov. 1661 with Hermann Hoen.”

From this it follows that 24 August 1632 was the day of baptism, not the day of birth. Then, however, not a daughter Maria, but a Mechtildis was baptised on this day! The wife of Abraham Nierstraß was undoubtedly called Maria, as the following statement in the marriage register of the Reformed parish of Mülheim Rhein (the knowledge of which I owe to an informal communication from Dr. jur. O. Merckens, Berlin-Charlottenburg) proves: 28. 1. 1708 “Jan Godfr. Nierstraß, Abraham N. and Maria Blanche legitimate son, with Susanna Blanche, daughter of Abraham Bl. and Maria Seitzerau”. But then Mechtilde, who was baptised in 1632, cannot have been the later wife of Abraham Nierstraß, because the latter was demonstrably called Maria and because a “Sister Megtell” appears as godmother to their eldest child (born in 1675), who cannot have been anyone other than Maria’s sister, who was baptised in 1932. But when was Maria born? Because among the 4 children de Blanche mentioned above, a daughter named Maria is missing!

In view of the regularity in the succession of these 4 children de Blanche, Maria cannot have been born between 1632 and 1640, but must have been born either before or after. Since her parents married in February 1630, it would be quite possible that an older child (but forgotten in the baptismal register?) had already been born to them in Nov./Dec. 1630, who would also have joined the series of children normally and with an interval of almost two years. If Maria was born before 1632, then her approximate date of birth can only be assumed to be autumn 1630. There is no other possibility — unless Maria was born after 1640, because in this case she would join the line of children just as regularly (but downwards). However, since Maria gave birth to her youngest child in November 1679, she would have been 49 years old at that time — if she was indeed born in the autumn of 1630! This is not an impossibility — my step-grandmother gave birth to her first child at the age of 48 years and 7 months! -But (because the childbearing capacity of women generally comes to its natural end at the age of 45 at the latest) it is such a rare case that one would not want to assume something similar with our Maria Blanche, at least not without further clues, such as Maria’s confirmation date. This leads us almost inevitably to the conclusion that Maria Blanche was born around 1642/43.


3. Blanche-Düppengießer marriage

This result receives valuable confirmation from a completely different source. Macco (Aachener Wappen und Genealogien Vol. I, p. 39) states the following (partly repeating what has already been said above): “Junker Stefan de Blanche married Mechtildis Engelbrecht in Aachen, of whom Hans Leonard v. Blanche, † on 12 Sept. 1662, married Katharina Düppengießer in the first marriage on 25 Feb. 1630, and Margarete Peltzer in the second marriage on 25 Aug. 1652”. As “children, all of whom were baptised in Aachen”, he then lists the four already mentioned, except that in the case of Gottfried, who was baptised in 1634, he adds: “married in Düren on 2 February 1659 Maria, daughter of Johann Hupertz and Katharina Mewis”. This shows that Hans Leonhard de Blanche gave his eldest daughter and his second son the two leading names (Stefan and Mechtildis) derived from his own parents. This corresponds to the strict form of the leading name custom. But then one may conclude that Hans Leonhard de Blanche gave his eldest son and his second daughter the two leading names derived from his parents-in-law as first names, just as strictly according to custom. Since the father-in-law (according to Macco) was called Gotthard Düppengießer, we can find this already confirmed as true; for the eldest son received the name Gottfried, which is synonymous with Gotthard. For the church recorders at that time translated the dialect first name “Goert” alternately with “Gotthard” and “Gottfried” into written German. From this it can be concluded that Gotthard or Gottfried Düppengießer always called himself “Goert” and had himself called “Goert”, because otherwise it would not be easy to explain that his first name was once Gotthard and then Gottfried again. This change in the written German form of the name presupposes that it is not the name actually used in everyday life, but a “translation”. Macco (Beiträge III, p. 75) informs us of the name of the father-in-law, but not that of the mother-in-law of Hans Leonhard de Blanche. However, since it can be concluded that this mother-in-law’s name was probably Katharina and that the actual first name of the father-in-law was Goert, we can safely refer to a married couple named Goert Düppengießer and Catharina, who are documented in records about 20 years before the de Blanche-Düppengießer marriage (1630), as the parents-in-law of Hans Leonhard de Blanche. This is indeed the case. Macco again provides us with the necessary information (Aachener Wappen und Genealogien, II, p. 70): “Christoffel Pillera (son of the married couple Christoffel Pillera and Maria Auwercks), 1587-90 deacon of the Reform. Gemeinde in Aachen, ∞ Katharina Pluymacker from Maastricht. Both were dead in 1612.

Children:

  • a) Katharina ∞ Goerd Düppengießer, Kaufmann in Metz (1614).
  • b) Arnold the Younger in Aachen and his 1st wife Sara sold several parcels of farmland at Montenacken near Maastricht to ….. on 22 November 1612.

That this married couple (already married in 1614), Goert Düppengießer and Katharina Pillera, must really have been the parents-in-law of Hans Leonhard de Blanche, is confirmed by the following observation: Since the mother of Katharina Pillera, wife Düppengießer, was also called Katharina (Pluymacker), the Düppengießer-Pillera couple must be expected to have an eldest or second daughter named after this mother (Pluymacker), Katharina, in accordance with the customary name. This, however, is the later wife de Blanche, whose name was indeed Katharina!

Thus it is clear that the de Blanche-Düppengießer couple named their four children (counted by Macco) strictly according to the leading name custom. This would not be the case, however, if they had given the first name Maria to an eldest daughter (assumed to have been born in the autumn of 1630)! Accordingly, Mechtildis, who was baptised in 1632, seems to have been in reality, or — if one nevertheless wants to reckon with the possibility of a child born in the autumn of 1630 — in 1630. If one nevertheless wants to reckon with the possibility of a child born in the autumn of 1630, only a child who died prematurely could have been born in 1630, who (if a son) would have been called Gottfried, or (if a daughter) Mechtildis. Thus there can be no doubt at all that Maria (de) Blanche, the second wife of Abraham Nierstraß, as a child of Stefan de Blanche and Katharina Düppengießer, can only have been born around 1642/43.

Objections from sceptics who would point out that Goert Düppengießer was a merchant in Metz in 1614 and therefore could not be claimed as the father of Katharina Düppengießer, wife of de Blanche in Aachen, can easily be refuted by pointing out that Goert Düppengießer’s wife was an Aachener and that he himself only came to Metz as a result of the second expulsion of all Protestants from Aachen in 1614. In addition, the names of the godfathers of all four de Blanche-Düppengießer children, which Macco did not give, must provide valuable information for the reliability of our genealogical classification. If there are any doubts at all in this respect, then they can only be accepted in the sole direction that Macco’s information is not absolutely reliable. Since Macco tells many incorrect, misleading and inaccurate things, those statements of his which can be proven to be correct must of course also be suspected of being unreliable as long as they have not been verified.

4. Maria Nierstraß

That Maria Nierstraß née Blanche was undoubtedly a daughter of Johann (Hans) Leonhard de Blanche is evident from the fact that not only “brother-in-law Stefan Blanche” (the son of Hans Leonhard baptised in 1637!), but also “sister Katharina Hönen” appear as godparents for her children. This latter godmother can be none other than Katharina de Blanche (daughter of Hans Leonhard), who was baptised in 1640 and married Hermann Hoen (Hönen) in 1661. In addition, Maria Nierstraß-de Blanche gave her only daughter Katharina — strictly according to custom — the leading name derived from her mother Catharina Düppengießer. If Maria does not “bequeath” her father’s first name Johann Leonhard to any of her sons, this is very understandable because her husband Abraham Nierstraß already had a son named Leonhard from his first marriage. But at least her father’s first name, Johann (Jan), is given to Maria’s second son, who is also given the second name of her brother Gottfried (who married in 1659 and may have died in the meantime) and thus a typical “catch-up leading name”. If a true leading name is lost in one generation due to the early death of its bearer (or if not enough sons and daughters were born to accommodate all four leading names left by the grandparents), then such a lost leading name is made up for by the siblings of its bearer in their children, i.e. in the following generation. It is clear, however, that in the marriage of Nierstraß and Blanche the custom of leading names was effective.

The same is the case in the first marriage of Abraham Nierstraß to Anna Bündtgens. This can be seen from the fact that Abraham gave his eldest son (Johannes) the first name of his father-in-law Johannes Bündtgens, but his second son — and when he died in 1669, also his sixth son born in 1671 (or 1672?) — the leading name Leonhard, which came from his own father Leonhard Nierstraß.

5. Nierstraß origin

The eldest son of Leonhard Nierstraß, Johannes (IIa), who was baptised in 1622, was still single at the end of 1651, but by 1668 at the latest he was married to Tringen Thoren, who (according to Dr. Rübens) is called “Catharina Thüren” in the master list, which is of course the same thing. Both can be seen from two entries in the “Gerichtsprotokollen Geilenkirchen” (Staatsarchive Düsseldorf, Vol. 33 and 34), which I owe to Dr. jur. Otto Merckens, Berlin-Charlottenburg, and which read as follows:

18.12.1651 “Johann Nierstrat von Eschweiler, single” buys land at Grotenrath.

7.10.1668 “Joannes Nierstraed in Eschweiler and Tringen Thoren uxor” sell all their inheritance and property situated in and around Nierstraß, as they inherited it after the death of their parents Johann Thoren and Mechtildis, item their share of the inheritance which they inherited from their grandfather blessed Thewis Thoren” for 85 ‘2 Rthlr. [?]

According to this, Tringen Thoren came from the village of Nierstraß, located in the municipality of Geilenkirchen between Bauchem and Gillrath. And her husband’s family also seems to have originally come from there and thus to bear a “name of origin”. We will come back to this later. In an article “Nierstraßer Sprudel” (in “Heimatblätter” 1933, No. 16, supplement to the Geilenkirchen daily newspaper “Westdeutsche Grenzpost”), one reads about the location of this place: “If you walk from Geilenkirchen via Bauchem in the direction of Gillrath, you will notice a steeply sloping hillside to the left, which is partly covered with high forest and bushes, but partly with meadows. It is nothing other than the upper reaches of the Rodebach valley. At the bottom of this little valley, on the border between heath and field, lies the small but quite unspoilt village hidden between extensive orchards and willow enclosures.”

After the valley path that leads through this lowland and cuts off a bend in the country road, the village was given the name “niedere Straße”, in dialect “Nierstroot”, from which the present form “Nierstraß” then developed.

Since Johannes Nierstraß was the son of Leonhard, but his wife was a daughter of Johann Thoren and Mechtild, we must expect one son each named Leonhard and Johannes, as well as a daughter Mechtilde, among the children of the couple. According to Dr. Rübens, however, the Nierstraß-Thoren couple had only two sons: Isaac and Abraham. Accordingly, it seems as if the custom of leading names was not in practice in the Nierstraß-Thoren marriage. But that only seems to be the case. For one thing, it can be seen that both sons bear the first names of the two brothers of Johan Nierstraß. And secondly, we only know these two sons of the couple, but not even their dates of birth or baptism. So we have to reckon with the possibility, even the likelihood, that the Nierstraß-Thoren couple had more children (some of whom may have died at an early age) whom we do not know for the time being, and for whom the custom of using leading names was applied. In any case, the apparent non-application of this custom to the children of Johannes Nierstraß cannot be a counter-argument to our conviction that all the sons of the previous progenitor, Leonhard Nierstraß, were named in accordance with the custom.

6. Naming custom

With the children of Isaak Nierstraß (IIb) we find this custom in full force again. For Catharina Horden, the wife of Isaak Nierstraß, is attested (according to Macco, Beiträge III. Peltzer, p. 140) by her marriage certificate as a daughter of the Sittard preacher Theodor Hordenius. Theodor Hordenius died in March 1613, so Catharina, his daughter, must have been born in 1613 at the latest and was at least 37 years old at her marriage (1650), at least 14 years older than her husband, who was born in 1627. It is possible, indeed probable, that she was born even earlier and was already about 40 years old in 1650. But then it is again very understandable that she had only two children, Theodor and Maria, who were probably born around 1651 and around 1653/54. These dates of birth would fit perfectly with the dates of their marriages: Theodor married on 2. 5. 1678 (would have been 27 years old) and Maria — since her oldest child was baptised on 16. 7. 1679 — must have walked down the aisle with her husband Theodor (Diedrich) Peltzer in mid-October 1678 at the latest: she would then have been about 24 to 25 years old. Of course, the case could also be the other way round, that Maria was born around 1651 and Theodor around 1653/54; however, this would not change the situation in the least, that Theodor was the oldest (only) son and Maria the oldest (only) daughter of Isaak Nierstraß. Theodor, however, unambiguously bears the leading name of his maternal grandfather (Theodor Hordenius). Then — according to the strictest form of the leading name custom — it must be concluded that it must be concluded that Theodor’s sister Maria bore the patronymic of her paternal grandmother. Consequently, the mother of Isaak Nierstraß, whom we do not know for the time being, must have been called Maria! This gives us an important clue, which we will return to later.

In any case, this Theodor Nierstraß again named his children strictly according to the leading name custom. For his wife was (according to Macco, Beiträge III, Peltzer, p. 149) a daughter of the married couple Johannes Holzmacher and Johanna Jansen. And the married couple Nierstraß-Holzmacher had (Macco loc. cit.) the following children:

  1. Isaak, (*) zu Aachen am 28. 1. 1679.
  2. Johanna Katharina, (*) zu Aachen am 8. 9. 1680, ∞ Aachen (ref.) 4. 7. 1713 Diederich (Theodor) Peltzer zur Girdau [?], * Stolberg 17. 12. 1684, Sohn der Eheleute Theodor Peltzer und Maria Nierstraß.
  3. Johannes, (*) zu Aachen am 5. 11. 1682.
  4. Helene, (*) zu Aachen am 17. 9. 1684.

Of these children, the eldest son bore the first name of his paternal grandfather, the second that of his maternal grandfather, the eldest daughter the first names of her two grandmothers (Johanna Jansen and Katharina Horden), and the youngest daughter probably had a catch-up leading name. (Perhaps Katharina Horden’s mother, whose name we do not know for the time being, was called Helene?)

Similarly, Maria Nierstraß (∞ Theodor Peltzer) named her children exactly according to the naming convention, as can be read in Macco (loc. cit. p. 155). In view of all these detailed findings, one can no longer doubt that the naming custom was already in force and practice among the oldest known generations of the Nierstraß.

Theodor Peltzer, who was already a widower when he married Maria Nierstraß (Macco, op. cit. p. 154), must have been Maria’s second husband and therefore also a widow. In the inheritance book of the Geilenkirchen court 1655 — 1675 (Staatsarch. Düssd., Bd. 34) one finds (fol. 400) the following entry under 10. 11. 1681 [sic]: “Arnold Schommarts on behalf of his father-in-law Isaac Nirstradt of Eschweiler as authorised representative” sells a part of a tree garden in Hünshoven. This Arnold Schommarts was undoubtedly the first spouse of Maria, and since she was already married to him in November 1671 [sic], she must therefore have been the eldest, born in 1651, of the two children of Isaac Nierstraß. Arnold Schommarts became a cousin of Abraham Nierstraß by marriage to Maria (IIc) and is therefore undoubtedly identical with the “Neef Schimmerts” (reading error for Schommerts!) who appears as godfather to Abraham’s eldest child of his second marriage (IIc, 9) on 16 October 1675. He then died between 1675 and 1678.

7. Leonhardt Nierstraß & Maria Fliegen von Eßwiller

And now read the following extract from the marriage register of the Reformed parish of Randerath: “28 Octobris Av. 1619 Leonhardt Conen von Nerstradt and Maria Fliegen von Eßwiller (were copulated).” There can be no doubt that in this couple we have before us the progenitors of the Nierstraß family; for:

a) The wife comes from Eschweiler (”Eßwiller”), and therefore the couple may have lived there since their marriage.

b) In Eschweiler, the first representative of the name Nierstraß is only Leonhard Nierstraß, who has had children baptised there since 1622. The surname does not exist there before that. Therefore, the first bearer of the name must have moved there from outside.

c) Leonhard Nierstraß in Eschweiler was reformed, the same applies to the bridegroom in Randerath in 1619, otherwise he would not be in a reformed marriage register.

d) Leonhardt Conen, who married in 1619 and came from Nierstraß (Nerstradt), could also have been given the “name of origin” Nierstraß as his surname in Eschweiler. For apparently he did not have a real family name until then — since he had a patronymic (Conen) as a personal name in Randerath.

e) The eldest child of Leonhard Nierstraß was baptised in Eschweiler in 1622; this fits very well with the marriage that took place in 1619. It can then be assumed as fairly certain that an eldest child was born to the young couple as early as 1620. It must also be assumed that another child was born around 1624/25 as well as around 1629, because this would create the “regular birth rhythm” that can be observed again and again in the series of children. One of these three children missing in the baptismal register of the reform. Eschweiler parish must have been the “sister Katharina Nierstras”, who is the godfather of the youngest child of the second marriage of Abraham Nierstras (IIc, 11) in 1679. She may have remained unmarried, for she appears here under her maiden name and not (like Maria Blanche’s “Sister Catharina Hönen” with the same child) under the surname of one of her (presumably) husbands.

f) Finally, as the last and most important link in the chain of evidence: the woman marrying in 1619 actually bears the first name Maria, which we had already deduced earlier (cf. section 6, paragraph 1) as the presumed first name of the mother of John, Isaac and Abraham Nierstraß. For now the names of the children of Abraham Nierstraß (IIc) also prove to us that his mother was really called Mary: Abraham not only names his eldest son Leonhard after his (Abraham’s) father, but also gives his second daughter (IIc, 8) the leading name Mary as her second first name. With this, however, it may already be seen that the 1619 in Randerath were the progenitors of the Nierstraß family in Eschweiler. This would explain why Johannes Nierstraß (IIa) decided to bring his wife Catharina Thoren (Thüren) from Nierstraß: he had family connections there through his father, who came from there, and naturally came to Nierstraß more often. It was during these visits that he met his future wife.

8. The “Conen” surname

The question now is whether the surname “Conen”, which Leonhard Nierstraß used in 1619, is a genuine patronymic, i.e. the genitive of his father’s first name, or whether this surname is only patronymic and was already used by Leonhard’s father. In the first case, we would have to conclude that Leonhard’s father was called “Con” (Coen, Konrad). If this were true, then we would definitely find a son of this name among Leonhard’s children. However, since Leonhard has several sons, but none named Conrad, we may assume — until proven otherwise — that Leonhard’s byname “Conen” was no longer a true patronym. After all, with the help of records in the Düsseldorf state archives (such as the Geilenkirchner Erb- und Gerichtsbücher), it will also be possible to determine Leonard’s parents and his other ancestors with this epithet. Since Leonhard married in 1619, he must have been born around 1590, his wife around 1600 at the latest. Which of Leonhard’s two sons bore the decisive leading names cannot be determined with certainty for the time being. Only in the case of the oldest, Johannes, who was baptised in 1622, can it be assumed that he bore one of the two leading names; but whether this led to Leonhard’s father or father-in-law, we do not know. It might be important to know this later, if around 1600 a Johann Fliegen in Eschweiler or a Johann Conen in Nierstraß could be found in the records. “Wilhelm von Nierstraidt”, who (according to information from Dr. jur. O. Merckens, Berlin-Charlottenburg) is mentioned as a landowner in Hanrath (- Hatterath in the Geilenkirchen district) on 27 December 1591, is most likely not the possible father of Leonhard, because otherwise one would have to find the first name Wilhelm among the children and descendants of Leonhard Nierstraß.