Arboreal Identity of the German Nobility: Family Tree of Philipp von Kerssenbrock and Catharina von Adelebsen (c. 1625)
Abstract
This family tree presents the joining of two German noble families in the mid-seventeenth century. Each ancestor is depicted by his or her heraldic shield, which shows the weight given to the nobility of the lineages in the construction of the family identity. “Germanness” appears insofar as these lines come from German territories. Such ancestral depictions were important means by which the German nobility shaped itself as a group.
Source
Source: Family tree of Philipp von Kerssenbrock († 1668) and Catharina von Adelebsen († 1653), c. 1625. Photography: © Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk. Publication only with permission of the photographer. With thanks to Dedo von Krosigk and Anke Hufschmidt for pointing out the image source and for providing the photograph.
See also: Anke Hufschmidt, Adelige Frauen im Weserraum zwischen 1570 und 1700. Status, Rollen, Lebenspraxis. Münster 2001 (= Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia XXII, A XV).
© Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk
Further Reading
Paul Münch, Lebensformen in der frühen Neuzeit, 1500 bis 1800. Berlin: Propyläen, 1992.