Gottlieb Schuetz's Baptismal Certificate and Certificate of Good Standing in the Church

These are baptismal documents for Gottlieb Schuetz, the second great-grandfather of Bill Dean, whose family provided the document. A son of soap manufacturers Hans (John) Schuetz and Magdalena Luthi, Gottlieb was born in 1838 in Canton Berne, Switzerland. He married Anna Parli, also from Canton Berne, in 1863 and immigrated to Humboldt, Nebraska in 1870. Their daughter Maria (Mary) Schuetz, born in 1867 in Switzerland started the Dean family line marrying German-born Dirk Sutorius in 1889. Sutorius' daughter Emma, born in 1890 married a recent emigrant from Germany (1908) Edo F. Harms in 1914. All three generations lived in Humboldt, Nebraska in close proximity with various relatives (Emma Sutorius's uncle John Schuetz lived right next door to her family according to the 1930 census).

The document on the left is a baptismal certificate that in that era most probably served as a birth certificate, identifying parents (Eltern), witnesses of baptism (Zeugen) and date and place of birth down to the district (Amtsbezirk) and parish (Kirchgemeinde). The document on the right is probably a proof of baptism and good standing in the church required for the marriage ceremony. Issued on November 10, 1863, the document predates Gottlieb and Anna's marriage certificate by two weeks.

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