Monday 27 June 2016

Genealogical Oddities (XLIX): C19th Anglo-German Military Musician in Galicia

On 5 June 1806 at Ferrol's parish of San Julián, the chaplain of the Navarra Regiment of Volunteers christened a child Felipe Marcelino, the son of Don Maximilian Chase, musician of said regiment, and Doña Martina Pien. The child's paternal grandparents were stated as José Chase, native of Germany, and Ana María Ulbrich, from Corcubión in Galicia; the maternal grandparents, Pedro Pien and Paula Fernández - she possibly a native of Ferrol, though at this point the entry is unclear. This record was the subject of a delayed entry into the register on 19 September 1825, presumably at the behest of the father; or, perhaps, Felipe had followed in his father's footsteps and was then serving in the same regiment? The entry raises some interesting questions, not least of which is, how an Ulbrich family came to be in the Galician town of Corcubión, and also - assuming the entry is not in error, and that it genuinely was Maximilian and not Ana who was born in Germany - what Maximilian's origin was, given that to the best of my knowledge Chase is not a surname native to Germany.

SOURCE: Military Parish of San Francisco, Ferrol, Baptisms 1815-1835, Page 247 verso; Navy Museum Archive, Madrid