The Genealogy of Johann Sebastian Bach Is also the Genealogy of All Bach Musicians

The Bach Genealogy. Does this genealogy start 1619 with Veit Bach? Or is this genealogy even older, starting 1504? It goes without saying: On this Bach genealogy page only "real Bachs" are permitted. And that is to say, the two guys in the pic above are Bachs too. All of them are? The Bach Family of Musicians Genealogy. Correct.

 


 

The Johann Sebastian Bach Family Tree – and Just the Family of Musician's Tree

 

Just not to waste your time: with a click here you get to the family tree of the family of musicians without tons of text. However, the family history of the Bache is more than just a diagrammatic plan. By the way, the "e" at the end of the musician's name is a back then plural form of Bach. That is how they were called back then. Not the Baeche ( ... which you Americans have problems to pronounce anyway) and not the Bachs ( ... which for you Americans and yes, the rest of the world, is much easier). So, "Bach" was one of the first brand names, early trade mark for quality music. Even when the musician in that position hasn't had the name of Bach anymore, he was called a "Bach". That is – how it was in Thuringia back then.

 

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The Bach Genealogy Actually Is More Than Complicated. Way More!

 

This is Hans, a Spielmann. Not our Hans. Because that would be"Hans the Spielmann". In the Bach genealogy this little inconsiderable word in front of "Hans" makes the difference – and doing scientific research – this is of real importance.

 

The genealogy of the family of musicians around in a large circle around Erfurt is not complicated. It is even much more complicated. It has ever been. And my be, just maybe it will remain forever. Often this pedigree is constructed wrong, whole branches are added or forgotten. Or controversial or not documented. Here are documents, there someone seemed to be among them. Scientists have researched, biographers kept out of it. But not all of them.

 

What actually is that complicated? There's everything on Wikipedia?! Those who approached the genealogy of the most famous family of musicians in the world, faces, if he or she does not want to build his research on ours a long and exciting way. A family history of over 500 years and so complicated, that habilitation treatises have been written about it and the Federal Cross of Merit has been granted. It is a genealogy that builds on an added research of many and as late as today, with the help of nowadays modern methods of the internet era and the results from the early genealogy combined, leads to an almost correct family tree of this family of musicians. With that research you meet everything, what you can imagine in a "Indiana-Jones-Film" as well. Absurd ideas are coming up, there are conclusions no scientist wants to follow and a grave desecration. In a family bible from the 17th century a page has been cut out with a razor blade, there are research results faked with without an theories came up, which nobody had thought of for 300 years. Who belongs to the family – who does not? Exciting for those, who want to research it and for those, who want to experience Bach history very close. And the change over the centuries. Like not only the Bach genealogy changes over the centuries but as well lost music pieces show up and the news on the Thomascantor change every ones in a while.

 

It is about Veit. It is composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. But the handwriting is from Bach's granddaughter – it's that simple with the Bach genealogy.

 

Testimony against testimony, both documents are composed by a Bach and created with a distance of seven years. Welcome to the depths of the Bach genealogy.

 

Nice, if you mark where you found Bach in a century old church book with a red pencil. Than it's not that hard for the next researchers – a real thick marker would have been even better. What a fun when it comes to Bach Genealogy.

 


 

Neighbor's Rocky

 

Here it's getting a little arrogant - however, with a smile. We try to modify it. My wife Renate and I are proud like neighbor's Rocky, that we have put it together and publish it on this web portal until eternity. That is designed to tell those, who are interested deeper in Bach's genealogy don't have to start from scratch and have to research, what several people earlier already found out. A second advantage is here until deep into the future for interested folks, that hope, wish or believe, they belong to the famous Bach family of Musicians, to recover a priceless treasure box. A third option is that we offer our research to all scientists, professional or amateurs, which research in the matter of Bach in the future, maybe especially regarding his genealogy. Here it's about the most complete and largest genealogy of the family of musicians of Johann Sebastian Bach. With a click here you are almost there.

 

The genealogy of the Bachs began with Veit Bach, but this genealogy is older by definition. Veit Bach died 1619. In Wechmar in Thuringia. The genealogy of the famous Bach Family of Musicians began with him. In the year 1619. But the origin of this family date back until the year 1504. Proven in a document. And this document dates from a time, when Johann Sebastian Bach hasn't yet created his "Ursprung". And probably didn't know from this document at all. Why should he anyway? Where that birth of a first Bach of this family of musician actually happened and who he was, is not handed down. Church books of that time are lost. In many a book or beautiful family tree, in lists or in more attempts, to arrange the genealogy of this family, mistakes are obvious. And because it's looking so corny, to show an empty box or a branch or a position with the year of 1504, but nothing in addition, the genealogy just begins somehow in Hungary. At least it is what Johann Sebastian said. Better, he wrote it down.

 

Everybody's name is Bach and they are all musiciansplus you will find all of them in my Bach genealogy.

 


 

With Whose Borrowed Plums Do We Adore Ourselves?

 

The three most important works regarding the Johann Sebastian Bach Genealogy.

 


 

Who Are the Important Researchers in the Bach Genealogy?

 

On position one for us stands Helga Brueck, as her research led to a sensation. She managed, what the other scientists with the famous names didn't even mention in their publications: the Bache in the USA, which – actually it's no big surprise - were linked very much to music in the New World and many of them even made their living with music. We have to thank Helga Brueck as well for researching around Erfurt so much and analyzing documents together with Christa Bach, so that as a result it was possible to add one branch to the Bach family tree which already Spitta named in his famous biography. Without the work of Helga Brueck this work wouldn't have been possible to accomplish in 2012. Here we want to mention our genealogist, Christian Hoske too. Also without his help and support it would not have been possible to make this classification of the Bindersleben Bache. It was a team game – no individual performance, especially none of Renate and me alone. Next? Frickel is one of the honored Bach genealogy specialists and that is what they confirmed him with the Federal Cross of Merit. A book which reads like the "Who is Who" of the Bachs, is collected by him in a life work plus he published it on his own expenses. Among the established Bach science Herrmann Kock with his standard work regarding the Bach genealogy gets highest respect, although it was published earlier than Frickel's work. Plus we do not want to forget Ragnhild Siegel, who has brought that work of her uncle together from a perfect manuscript to a scientific expertise with many hundred pages, which they published. To complete the "Big Five" of the Bach genealogy, a fifth author is of importance. His painstaking research regarding the beginning of the Bach family led to his professorship. Günter Krafft has researched unimaginable detailed regarding the question, whether Veit Bach, the ancestor of the Bache, came from Hungary – or just spend some time there.

 

The Bach genealogy has found out one Bach branch , which is accepted on a scientific basis. However: is there a second Bach branch in the USA? With this question, the Bach genealogy gets really exciting.

 


 

And We? My Wife and I?

 

My favorite picture in the middle of a Bach genealogy: it's the one half of "we": it's me.

 

We found out all that again. Of course: had we known earlier where to look, whom to ask and how to accomplish - it's a lot easier when you look back. For instance to find the manuscript of Professor Krafft, was only possible with two hints of a future publication 50 years ago in two books, one of Geiringer and one of an other author, who's name doesn't get into my mind currently. But this mentioned book was never published. So if a book has never been published it's very hard to find. Surfing the internet and researching for hours finally led to the son in law of this scientist and a next research led to the University of Halle and there to the manuscript. 600 pages typed with a type-writer, filmed on microfilm and than squeezed to a hand size microfiche film. To find it, to scan it, to read it after that, to interpret it... you get an idea of what we did. Some of the words were almost not readable anymore after this process of minimizing and copying on different media.

 

Frickel did an unbelievable job but his book of course sold as an opposite of a bestseller. How do you find it, when Google delivres almost no results, including the second hand bookshops, as you don't know its name and you don't even know whether there is such a book. Similar adventure: the find of a text fragment regarding the affiliation of the Bindersleben branch, which draw our attention particularly. Hundreds of magazines called "Gartenlaube", a forerunner of our nowadays magazines, is what we thinned in the University of Heidelberg - without any success – however as a component of the success it was of great significance. The importance of these 22 indications of different value is only to recognize if you compare them with the two indications, that make Veit Bach the ancestor of the Bach Family of Musicians in Wechmar.

 

The second branch in the United States of America. Without a research on the internet for months – plus you don't actually know what you are looking for for hours and days and weeks – the connection of this branch of the Bache and the origin of the family would just not have become public. Especially, because nobody from that branch even tried to make any contact to Thuringia or to Leipzig from the US. That is just because Johann Sebastian Bach played no big role in the history of that story. How come? Bach wasn't always as famous as he is today. Nowadays no student misses the classical composers in school, neither in the United States nor in Germany. But like nobody in Germany knew Johann Sebastian Bach until Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy reperformed one of his most brilliant works, it needed some time in America to discover his brilliance. But that was a different date. That is probably the reason, that this second American tribe with their research two generations earlier than the current one did not see any noteworthiness in a relationship with Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

The research as well, to bundle this collection of finds, is an adventure and sort of bizarre. It sounds unreal. Because who thins the internet to check whether you might find a Veit Bach born in the South Sea?! However we had done just that. Not with the term of South Sea. But with the research of Bachs in the USA. We are avowed USA fans and so I just wanted, that there were relatives, that is to say real descendants, of the ancestor Veit Bach living in Amrica. I just willed it. This wish would not only Bach enthusiasts and genealogists shake their heads. Hour after hour of research were crowned by one session of nine hours of googling. And there it showed up. The hint. Indirectly. With the title "Von der Apfelstädt und der Gera an den Missouri". From Helga Brueck.

 

A picture of Johann Ambrosius Bach and his brother. Both looked so much alike, that even there spouses didn't know who is who. I didn't come up with that, but if it's true this a picture of the father of Johann Sebastian Bach and his uncle. See how gunny Bach genealogy can be.

 

There is the story about the origin of the Bache. From Hungary, from Pressburg – or was it in Thuringia? We have researched expertises and arguments meticulously and "dug out" adventurous lecture. We found Korabinsky on the internet – but it wasn't easy to find out, who he really was, who much expertise he had in the matter of Bach – and the check, what he created with his nonsense and who many biographers he had fooled, plus how many Bach enthusiasts and Bach readers too. The quality of his finds are like the percentage of iron in spinach, which doesn't contain more iron as anything else in the vegetable department. Scientists have shifted a comma – millions of children paid for that with millions of traumatas. Aside of that: even scientists in Bratislava, the back then Pressburg and not even a single author even with minimal importance still states the theory that the Bachs originated from Hungary. Plus for the bean counters, which I am too, that Veit moved from Hungary is okay. However, that the Bachs as a family spring from Hungary, is nonsense.

 

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One of the first brand names for quality in the world: the Bache from Thuringia, Germany.

 


 

And Finally Here It Is: the Johann Sebastian Bach Genealogy

 

On my website you will not only find the most considerable Bach genealogy, that is to say the most members of the Bach Family of Musicians of 1504 with their ancestor, which died in Wechmar in 1619. It's is foremost: the most accurate Bach genealogy. This family tree exists as an original only one time all over the world. All others are wrong – or copied from this one, at least in major portions. However I should remind you, that 90 to 95 % of our knowledge is researched by the genealogy specialists earlier plus a big chunk of data could be added by us because Bachs found us and mailed. Thanks to the internet. However: you are cordially invited to publish it, to transfer data from it, to spread it as a whole or just in parts. Have a lot of fun with that.

 

Just some entertainment coming with the Bach genealogy section, until you read below the final picture in this chapter. A miss is as good as a mile: Nor has Johann Sebastian Bach composed the St. Matthew Passion at the age of two months, nor has he been born on that day, because date of birth was the 21st of March in the year 1685. Not May.

 


 

Technical Stuff Regarding the Johann Sebastian Bach Family Pedigree

 

Several times on my way to this website, the Bach family tree was a challenge, better the family tree of the "Musicalisch-Bachische Familie", which actually is the family tree of the Musical Bach Family. I wanted to display the first five generations after Veit electronically and that gave me a hard time. I wanted to draw it the old-fashioned way. But with every new find the drawing until that point was spoilt. It started with pencil and paper, continued with WORD, a software and finally I failed with a 3 D software, actually I tried it out with Sketchup because the gigantic amount of data. I wanted it in 3 D to make it unbelievable attractive. For all IT geeks – I am no computer guy, please judge on this information.

 

The challenge coming with a family tree is, it has been for centuries and will be forever the fact, that it's either displayed too detailed, so you can read the entries – but you need a 12, 18 or 24 feet wide piece of paper – and that shows the front line very quickly, when descendants find themselves "at foot No. 8" at the very left lower edge. I wanted to solve that challenge on an electronically base – and I had another headache with it. A very long time. there is no software to display a family tree like I want it. That is to show the whole pedigree plus to zoom to the place of interest. Both in one level.

 

Here you see the family tree of the Bach Family of Musicians, the family of Johann Sebastian Bach. However you can zoom into this work. Up to a clearly arranged display of two or three generations.

 

Actually you can't discover anything. It's not finished yet, but honestly, you will never get a better view here. Now you "have to" change to Flickrbut even if you do that right now, you won't find anything there. Until today, there's just a technical dry run to discover. Because - it's a technical dry run now. After that, much much work will start ( ...not yet online - will follow shortly).

 

How actually does it work? How does it work for those, who are not on the internet "for five hours every day"? Probably all of those know someone, who can help in this situation. Or they know somebody who can. With one click you get to our diagrammatic plan. In high resolution. Just click on the picture and chose for the highest resolution there. Now you are able to check the family tree by scrolling vertical and horizontal. It's a little inconvenient, that it's still not possible to navigate with a "hand" like on Google Maps through a pdf file. This diagrammatic plan is the first option to discover the Bach genealogy. In the close future, we provide more via Ancestry.com. With our offer you are able to check on that family tree in a way you are accustomed. Experienced genealogist, whether professional or as a hobby probably prefer the ancestry.com way. However, folks like me, and I am not the genealogy person in the team, I like it the way above. Clearly arranged. Okay, there's one disadvantage: you either see the broad picture, or you experience the detail. So, it probably needs some time, a few minutes, to enlarge the plan a little, navigate the place you want larger, and then zoom it out.

 

A page without the master? Without Johann Sebastian Bach? On a Johann Sebastian Bach website? No way. Never ever. It goes without saying, that he is present on the page about the Bach genealogy.

 

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