If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row
Would you be proud of them or not
Or don't you really know?
Some strange discoveries are made
In climbing family trees
And some of them you know,
do not particularly please
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row
There might be some of them perhaps
You wouldn't care to know
But there's another question,
which requires a different view
If you could meet your ancestors
Would they be proud of you?
author who knows
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Welcome to the Smallcalder Family Web Site, many hours have been put into this research & documentation of these Surnames and of course my ancestry from the line of Hans Schmalkalder year 1460, any other Information would be gratefully appreciated, this is all on going research.
The Surname, Just a Brief History of the surname, from the information I have found out the Surname arrived in England Circa 1800's with a Charles Augustus Schmalcalder, he was the start of the English Family Line, and he was born in1781 Stuttgart, Neckarkreis, Wuerttemberg. Now that we have reached so far back into time, where did the name Originate from? Often surnames were named after Occupations, near buy Towns or Land-Marks, Occurrences or such. So was the name SCHMALKALDER given there name by the Nobles of Hess en-Nassau, the earliest recording of this Surname is in the 12th Century. all though in this area of Germany, there is quiet amazing co-incidence, take a look at a map of Germany. We see the total country laid out before us. Almost directly in the centre, in the province of Hess en-Nassau we find a place called SCHMALKALDEN. The word schmal means "narrow." At one time Schmalkalden was a small principality in its own right, and was located in a narrow mountain pass just west of the Thuringia forest. Since it is not too far from the metropolitan Rhine-Mainz region, we might wonder if this is the original homeland of the Schmalcalder Family, Surely, Europeans might say the same about the gigantic Rhine River over there that we say about London, The River Thames over here, "Go to the heart of England & prosper" Through the centuries this metropolitan area hasalways been a magnet for young adventurers and many passed through on there way to America and some I might say not speaking or understanding our Language were fooled by unscrupulous Captains into believing that they arrived in America and in doing so ended up in the Capital City London
"Historia Schmalcaldica"
"Historia Schmalcaldica" which had been written almost 300 years ago is a book on the town Schmalkalden, Germany. Accordingly, the city of Schmalkalden derives its name from a local brook called Smalcalde, a combination of the German attributes "schmal" and "kalt", or -- in English, "narrow" and "cold". In the first book of 6, on page 36, the author Johann Conrad Geisthirt notes that he found several Schmalkalder families:
1) Among the scientists, a Christophorum Fiedericum SCHMALCALDER born at Stuttgart, named at Frankfurt on the Oder River on 16-Jun-1685.
2) Wilhelm Ullrich SMALCALDER [sic], "Geheimbder Rath" at Stuttgart.
3) David SMALCALDER, "Juris Utrisuque Doctorem", a J.D. at Marburg (N of Frankfurt on the Main River).
4) H. Christian Günter SMALCALDER of Gotha who is named at Hall in Saxony in 1694 in connection with a doctoral examination.
5) Bartholomaeus SMALCALDER was an important man as "Amts Schultheiss" (chief justice/administrator) at Eisenach in 1575. He was sent to Gotha in 1584 to settle a dispute.
6) Georg SMALCALDER held a post at Eisenach in 1598.
7) The author mentions a family at Ohrdruff and a Schmalkalder family at Mühlhausen (home of the revolutionary Thomas Müntzer) listed, this is very interesting, hopefully this will develop into more.
A number of Schmalcalder, Schmalkalder and Smalcalder Family's have been Listed on the from the 1600's in the area of Wuerttemberg, Eastern Germany
About Charles Augustus Schmalcalder
From the information that I have been able to find, he was born on the 29th March 1781 Stuttgart, Neckarkreis, Wuerttemberg, Germany, and Christened as Karl August Schmalkalder on the 31st March 1781, his parents were Wilhelm Christoph Conrad Schmalkalder and Walburga Ruhlin, it seems that he anglicized it to Charles Augustus Schmalcalder when he arrived in England, Circa 1800's, established himself in London, and Married Anne Cochran in 1804, St.Andrews, Holborn, London, they had Nine Children, he was a Mathematical Instrument Maker, and had a Business at 82 The Strand, London, later No. 400 this is were he developed and patented several Mathematical Instruments, most famouslyThePrismatic Compass, there are a few of his Instruments still being displayed at the British Science Museum and various other Museums. His son John Thomas Schmalcalder carried on with this Business and stayed at 2 Fairfax's Court off 400 The Strand, London were he made Mathematical Instruments and Optical devices, where at one stage he was being listed as "Optician by special appointment to His Royal Highness Prince Albert", Over the years the name has altered, and often was spelt how it was pronounced and now is currently Smallcalder
With many thanks to Peter Vogel @TeamUnwelt, Michael Geisler and Verein fuer Familien- und Wappenkunde in Wuerttemberg und Baden
This Study is not a Pedigree chart of one particular Family line but is a look into all the occurrences and variants of the Surname "Smallcalder" so far we have established that Schmalcalder changed to Smallcalder in the 1900's but there are some variants which are as follows:
