1985 My father, Carl-Gustaf Strokirk wrote a book about our family`s life in Germany during the middle age.
Ätten Strokerke under åtta århundraden. Del 1. Medeltiden 1200 - 1600.
In English the titel would be The Clan Strokerke During Eight Centuries part 1 It covers the years 1200 - 1600. The book rely on data in archives which my father has got from other researchers and also directly from German authorities.
During the middle age there was a lot of fighting about politics and about religion in the Mecklemburg area, where we first find the Strokerke family, and different rulers came and went. The Strokerke people seems to have been near connected to the rulers and were probably also dependent on them.
About 1150 the Germans started to colonize the area and a letter my father got from "Holsteinische Gesellschaft fur Familienforschnung" sais that two villages with the name Strokirchen were founded at the colonization sometimes between 1180 and 1250. One is situated near a place named Rehna and north east of the town Schwerin, wich was an important town in the district of Mecklemburg and still is. Mecklemburg now belongs to Germany. Here German historians think we find the earliest estate for the nobel family named de Strokerke. Near a place called Hagenow, south east of Schwerin, the other Strokerke estate was situated and it became later a farm.
Already 1230 we can find the name, de Strokerke, together with the two villages named Strokirchen in a register over villages that had to pay taxes. The two villages seems both to have had connections to a monastery. The monasteries were situated at Zarrentin and at Rehna.
During the centuries many members of Strokerke families became nuns and monks in the two monasteries but also in other monasteries in the district. (I only use the term monastery as in Swedish we have the same word for monastery and nunnery so it is a bit confusing for me and we know that some of them contained both a nunnery and a monastery, for example the one in Ribnitz.)
One can wonder why so many persons in the Strokerke family became priests, monks and nuns but as the church in the middle age had very much power both economicly and politicly and also engaged many people, I think it was a way of making a carrier.
In both of the villages there lived a family named Strokerke or de Strokerke who were probably related. They were probably lower nobel families. They had a family weapon which we still use. On the shield there is a picture of a church and over it a helmet with three rye straws. Stroh is the German word for straw so it must come from a church built from clay and straw, a very common building method for houses still during last century.
From the "Rehna family" we have just a few facts about some single persons during the centuries but the "Zarrentin family" is easier to follow. There are gaps here and there in the father - son chain though.
1295 a man called "Nicolaus I Graf zu Schwerin und Wittenburg" became the ruler of the western part of Mecklemburg. We know that Johanne Strokerke was in Nicolaus I:s service as an officer. (It can be so that he gave his estate to the monastery of Zarrentin to come in a better position and get the job as an officer, but that is only my fathers theory as it was usual to do so at that time. And there is also a document dated 1316 which sais that several people gives their estates, which they had earlier been given from the ruler, to the monastery of Zarrentin. And Johanne Strokerkes name stands on that document but it is not clear what he has given or done. Perhaps he was only a vitness.
We also know that Johannes brother, Gottfrido Strokerke became a monk, in the "klarissen" monastery of Ribniz. Johanne Strokerke and his wife Margarete had seven children, five boys and two girls. The family later moved to Lü beck and we know that Johanne 1345 was a member of the town council of the "Hansestadt Lübeck". He died 1346. Two of his sons, Hermanus (later called Heyne) and Vicko, became officers. Hinrikus became a priest, Engelkinus, a jeweller and Petrus is only known as a "bü rger" so we don´t know which proffession he had. The girls (no names known) became nuns in Rehna.
In Lü beck the family lived for centuries as, among other skills, different craftsmen and they must have done well as they often got leading positions and owned houses which i think we can still find in what is left of the old parts of the town. But the family must have kept near contacts with their old home area as we know through several bying and selling contracts that they also owned houses and estates in that area. (It is only 30 km from Lü beck to Rehna and 60 km to Zarrentin.)
The Hansa, a market association between a lot of towns in several European countries, has been very important to our family and you can find Strokerke descendents in many former Hansa towns in Europe. Many family members changed the spelling of their names to Strokerken, Strohkercke, Strohkirch, Strokirch, Strokarch, Strokärch and so on. One reason can have been that there was no standard spelling at that time but it can also have been an adaptation to the different languages in the districts or countries they moved to. For example, the four cousins who went to Sweden in the beginning of 1600. They later spelled their names Strokirch and our branch, coming from one of the cousins, Evert, later changed to Strokirk. Another branch coming from his cousin Michel, later became nobelmen even in Sweden and their name is now von Strokirch.
"Mecklemburg-Schwerinisches Geheimes und Hauptarchiv", Schwerin.
Official letter to Carl von Strokirch, Lidens gård Korsberga:
Research about the family Strokerke in older tax registers.
Official letter dated 31 aug.1923: Inform. about the same family and its origin and about the two places Strokirchen, referring to Mecklemburger Urkunden Buch, summary from "Steuer und Geldregister" for some places during the fifteenth- sixteenth- and seventeenth centuries.
"Staatsarchiv Schwerin", Schwerin.
Official letter to Carl Gustaf Strokirk dated 5 april 1982: Inform about "Landdbede, Kaiserbede und Tü rkensteuerregister" for Testorf, Lü ttow, Zarrentin, Brü tzkow, Vitense och Rehna, 1496 - 1616.
@Staatsarchiv Lübeck".
Official letter to Carl von Strokirch dated 28 aug. 1925: Inform. About "Topografisches Register" (about real estates) and "Genealogische Register des Staatsarchiv zu Lübeck": T.R.: 1352, 1376, 1377, 1380, 1381, 1383, 1394 and 1611, 1617, 1618, 1621, 1643, 1644, 1645, 1650, 1667, 1668 and 1693.
"G.R.Lübeck": 1608.
Official letter dated 16 dec. 1926 till Carl von Strokirch from S.A., Lü beck: Oberstadtbuch. 1621, 11643, 1644, 1667 and 1686.
Kämmeri - Bü rgerannahme - Buch von 1591 - 1663, Lübeck: 1610.
Wette, Jahrbuch 1610/Hochzeit. Zehnten-Pfennig Rechnungsbuch 1580-1574, 1644 (about inheritance tax).
Niederstaatbuch1644. Genealogical table for Jochim Strokerke.
"Archiv der hansestadt Lübeck".
Official letter to Carl-Gustaf Strokirk dated 20 april 1979: Personenkartei 1352: Johannes Strokerke, five sons two daughters.
"Mecklenburgisches Urkunden Buch".
A collection of documents from the years during eleventh up to fifteenth centuries, collected in Schwerin, now in the library, "Kungliga Biblioteket", in Stockholm.
Lübecker Urkunden Buch, Lübeck.
Collection of documents from the middle age. The library "Kungliga Biblioteket", in Stockholm.
Das Zehnt Register des Bistums Ratzeburg - "Registrum Raceburgense". The origin in "Grossherzogliches Archiv in Neu- Strelitz". Collection of documents for all places that had to pay tax to the church of Mecklenburg the year 1230, represented in Jegerow.
"Kolonisation Mecklenburgs im 13 jahrhundert" with maps over the course of events as supplement.
"Bidrag till Skandinaviens historia", Carl Gustaf Styffe 1859.
"Abrechnung Raven Barnekow über die von ihm fü r König Albrecht verwaltete Vogtei Nyköping" 1365 - 1367, "Primo Strokirken cum socio". Report on King Arbrechts campaign in Sweden. "Mecklemburgische Geschichte" Hans Witte, Wismar1909.
"Geschichte von Mecklemburg", Otto Vitense, Gotha 1920.
"Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde" Wilhelm Hess.Rostock.
"Ein Schweden König aus Mecklemburg" Werner Knoch, Dresden 1934.
"Stammtafel des Mecklemburgischen Fürstenhauses " 1920.
"Albrecht, Herzog von Mecklenburg, König von Schveden", V.A. Nordman, Helsingfors 1938.
"Bo Jonsson till 1375", Doktorsavhandling, Sten Engström, Uppsala 1935.
"Die Ordentlichen direkten Staatssteuern Mecklenburgs im Mittelalter", Adolf Brennecker. Marburg 1900.
The chapter "Tü rkensteuer" in "Deutsche Geschichte" IV, Johan Büler 1950.
"Die Entstehung der ritterschaftlichen in Mecklenburg", Fritz Brinker, Rostock 1940.
"Lübecker Familien alter Zeit", Genealogiche Nachrichten, G. Dittmar, Lübeck 1858.
"Handbuch Genealogischer Bürgerlicher Familien", Görlitz 1928.
"Geschichtliche Bibliographie von Mecklenburg" 1935, Finanzverwaltung.
"Deutsche und niederländische Personenbeinamen in Schweden bis 1420. Beinamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte". J.B.Sundquist, Doktorsavhandling Lund 1957, sid 318 "Strokirke, Strokerken" (12 different sources).
"Schleswig - Holsteinische Geesellschaft fü r Familienforschnung und Wappenkunde in Kiel". Official letter 31 mars 1983 to Carl-Gustaf Strokirk. Information about two places Strokirchen founded at the colonization 1180 - 1250, seat for the original noble clan Strohkirch.
"Die Hansa", Dietrich Schäfer, Leipzig 1902.
"Die Deutsche Hansa", Theodor Lidner, Leipzig 1902.
"Vom Werden und Wesen der Hansa", Fritz Rörig, Leipzig 1940.
"Bundesarchiv Koblenz". Official letter 28 April 1982 to Carl-Gustaf Strokirk.
Letters from Kurt Lempe, genealogist Koblenz: 24 May 1982, 4 juni 1982, 3 juli 1982, 3 Aug. 1982, 9 Nov. 1982, 12 nov. 1982, 4 Okt. 1983. Lemke has produced data about Strokerke descendents from following sources:
"Veröffenlichungen zur Geschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck", Lübecker Neubü rgerlisten 1317 - 1345. Dominia Margarete Strokerke 1345.
"Oberstadtbuch BV, 634, 1356, Stadtarchiv Lübeck": Margarete Strokerke; buying of a building site together with Heinrich Strokerke.
"Stadtarchiv Lübeck", Trese externa III, sept.7 1351: Data about the sons of the widdow of Johanne Strokerke.
Recessen der Lübecker Bürgertestamenten des Mittelalters,1351 - 1360.
"Revaler Stadtbü rgern im Archiv f.d.Gesch. Liv- Esth- und Curlands": Strokerke - Kyrke (Reval) Nicolaus, 1389.
"Bede-Register in Brü tskow", 1469 - 1477, Bundesarchiv Koblez "Strokerke".
"Lübecker Ratsurteile", 1441 - 1500 "Kauf. Klagepunkte, Eideshand". Reval 1485, mai 18, Gherdt Strobirck.
"Goslaer Schlossregister von 1501": Niedersächsische Familiengeschichte, Hamburg 1928, Henning Strokercke".
"Die Lauenburgische bauernschaft in der ersten Hälfte des 16 Jahrhundert nach den Geldbederegistern im Kieler Staatsarchiv", Ratzeburg 1525, Jochim Strokarcke 1525, Hans Strokerke.
"Die Mitglieder der Thorner Bäckergesellenbrü derschaft 1543 - 1615. Archiv fü r Sippenforschnung", Görlitz 1930:"1548 Nicolaus Strokerke".
"Contributionsregister des Kneiphofs in Königsberg (pr.)" vom Jahre 1622 -städtische Vermögensteuer- Strokirche Jacob, Strohkirch Peter.
"Ätten Strokirch (Strokirk)" Oscar Fredrik Strokirk, Örebro 1920.
"Svenska Släktboken" Gabriel Anrep, Stockholm 1875.
"Svenska adelns Ättartavlor" Gustaf Elgenstierna, Stockholm.
"Gårdar och Människor. Några historiska siluetter", Anna von Strokich-Fridner, Töreboda 1947.
Material from Carl von Strokirch´s genealogical research, Liden Korsberga.
Toppi Strokirk