POST 88: DE-STIGMATIZING ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS AMONG THE UPPER CLASSES: THE CASE OF MY THIRD GREAT-AUNT, ANTONIE PAULY NÉE MARLE

Note: This short post is about Antonie Pauly née Marle, my third great-aunt or my great-great-great-aunt, regarding whom I made an interesting discovery. This finding touches on a quaint but satirical practice members of the upper class might once have employed to de-stigmatize public disapproval of an illegitimate child.

Related Post:

Post 56: Reflections of the Paterfamilias Dr. Josef Pauly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regular readers will recall I have often written about my Pauly relatives. In Post 56, I wrote about the paterfamilias Josef Pauly (Figure 1), using his personal memoirs. With his wife Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (Figure 2), he bore nine children, eight of whom were daughters and all of whom have been the focus of earlier posts. The subject of this publication is Josef Pauly’s mother, Antonie Pauly née Marle (Figures 3-4), who was born in Pless, Germany [today: Pszczyna, Poland] and married to Zadig Pauly. (Figures 5-6) For most followers, I expect the discussion about my third great-aunt to be of limited interest, thus I encourage readers to focus not so much on who she was but on how and what we learn about the time in which she lived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my younger cousins recently asked me about the notation below Antonie Marle’s name in the Pauly Stammbaum, family tree. (Figure 7) Being unable to decipher the writing and understand the German abbreviations, I turned to two friends who often assist me in interpreting and making sense of German documents and texts. Their translations were roughly identical, but one explication was amusing in its revelation. Let me explain.

The circled section of the Pauly family tree in Figure 7 reads as follows in German: 

Antonie MARLE

1850-93, Posen

Unehel. Kd. v. Fürst Pless [=uneheliches Kind von Fürst Pless]

(daher: Königen v. Tost)

 

In English: 

Antonie MARLE

1850-93, Poznan, Poland

Illegitimate child of Prince Fürst from Pless [today: Pszczyna, Poland] (Figure 8)

(therefore: “Queen of Tost”)

 

 

One correction I want to note before delving into the significance of the notation below Antonie Marle’s name in the Pauly family tree. Antonie’s year of birth is incorrectly noted on the Pauly Stammbaum as 1850, when in fact she was born in 1820. The correct information can be found on a Marle family tree in the Pinkus Family Collection archived at the Leo Baeck Institute showing Antonie’s parents and seven surviving siblings. (Figure 9) Further confirmation of Antonie’s date of birth comes from a Polish gentleman who contacted me through my family tree on ancestry and has accessed various census records from the 18^th and 19^th centuries from the archives in Pless registering births there. And, finally, the third source for Antonie’s year of birth can be found in the on-line Posen “Einwohnermeldezettel,” residential registration form, for Zadig Pauly and Antonie Marle. (Figure 10)

 

 

 

Both friends who transcribed and translated the notation on Antonie Marle agree that the sobriquet, “Queen of Tost,” was meant in jest, for amusement. Tost, known today as Toszek, Poland, is 50 miles or 80km north of Pszczyna, Poland.

One friend suggested Antonie’s father might have been Henry, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen (30 July 1778, Schloss Pless-23 November 1847, Köthen), who would have been only 42 years of age when Antonie was born, thus a theoretical possibility; Henry was a German prince in the House of Ascania, ruler of the non-sovereign principality of Anhalt-Pless.

My second friend suggested something I am more inclined to believe because of its mischievous implications. This gentleman is an experienced genealogist and in his years of doing ancestral research he has on multiple occasions come across family claims that a child was the illegitimate son or daughter of a Prince or noble; upon further investigations my friend found all these declarations to be fiction, complete fabrications. While there seems no reason to doubt that Antonie Marle might have been the result of an illicit affair, it is more plausible to believe it was the outcome of a tryst with a commoner or person of equal social standing. What I find so quaint is that her family could so easily thumb their nose at society’s mores by claiming Antonie was the illegitimate child of an affair with a monarch or sovereign, thus enveloping her in a mantle of respectability and superiority. No doubt, this fiction was an option only available to members of the upper classes.

Why Antonie Marle’s moniker was the “Queen of Tost” rather than the “Queen of Pless,” where she hailed from, is unclear, though possibly her biological father was from there. This is mere conjecture, and something we will likely never know.