A Gypsy in the family?

Van Gogh

A query from a grand-daughter prompted me to revisit a family legend - that one of our ancestors was a gypsy.
I've always been a bit sceptical about this, but maybe, just maybe, it's true.

 
When I was in Germany some years ago, I visited the village of Bad Grund, because I knew the Niewand family had lived there at some stage. At the Lutheran church of St. Antonius, I was allowed to look through the church registers, with the help of the Social Worker. We found a record in 1719 of the birth of a daughter, Dorothea, to Hennig Heinrich Niewandt and his wife, Gesa Maria. Unusually, no surname was shown for Gesa. The name is unique in the parish records, suggesting that she was in some way foreign..

Later entries record the baptism of three more children (one of them my ancestor). BUT after the first entry, Gesa's name does not appear, a blank space was deliberately left where the mother's name should have been entered. Gesa Maria had somehow offended the pastor, and the deliberate omission of her name suggests some kind of excommunication. There is no record of a marriage between Hennig and Gesa, either, which suggests they may have married elsewhere.

I looked up "Gesa" and it appears to be a Romani word meaning day or days. It's also a female name still in use today, probably of German origin, possibly a variant of Gertrude. 
So it's  possible that Gesa Maria was a Romani, but I really have no proof. How she fell from favour with the Lutheran Church is a mystery, perhaps she did a little fortune-telling among the villagers?

For centuries Romanies were universally disliked, feared, and even persecuted - you can read more about them here.

 They've also been romanticized, as in this photo of a Russian gypsy girl, and their music continues to influence popular music to this day. Django Reinhardt is perhaps the best known Romani musician, but flamenco music also owes much to the Spanish Romani.

 
Gesa Maria was probably born around 1700 (Which would make her 19 when Dorothea was born in 1719). She was my great-great-great-great-great grandmother. Given that I now have great-grandchildren, she has ten generations of descendants, numbering in the hundreds. Not bad for a lady who was persona non grata with the Lutheran pastor back in the 1720s !



Breaking news
My new textile blog is ready! There's a link over in the sidebar (under my picture) It's taken ages to set up- creating a satisfactory header was a headache, cos I'm hopeless with Photoshop, but I've finally got something I like.

My other idea, for a textile gallery, didn't work out, so I'm in the process of creating photo albums on Flickr.
To see what I've done so far, click the Flickr on the sidebar.