I try to learn as much as possible about Germany and German culture because I have so many ancestors who came from there. I am doing my best to understand the common people and their place in history.
A lot of this revolves around the German language and specific words. So seeing this description on a genealogy mailing list for Pomerania immediately got my attention.
The word? Instmann. Instmann, writes Alan Moll of Atwater, Minnesota, is a German word for a type of rural agricultural worker.
“An Instmann was a rural worker. Usually he had a long-termed contract with the landowner or farmer and was therefor[e] regarded (socially) as a bit above a farmhand or day-labourer.”
Another fella, Jim Pioch, thinks the English equivalent is best described as a tenant farmer.
My great-great grandfather was described as a robotnik, a Polish and Slovak word for worker, and an Arbeiter, the German word for worker. Some have claimed that at the time he lived, the word Arbeiter meant day laborer.
ajh
AARON HILL’S NOTEBOOK 