The bog blog

I spend a lot of time--a LOT of time--in fits and starts researching my family's genealogy. I don't know precisely why this interests me so much. Perhaps it's when I find out that the origin of the name 'Viele' (the middle name of five generations of 'Steves' in my family) comes from the German word 'vil' meaning 'bog'. And that Cornelise Volkertsen Seylemaeker Viele (the Dutch scion of the Viele line in the Albany and Schenectady area of NY State) was living near Oldenburg Germany when he emigrated to New Netherland in 1636. My brain got cranking and I googled bog+Oldenburg+Germany and found out that indeed there are many bogs in the area. In fact there are bogs all along the coastal plain that comprises modern day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Before extensive land reclamation by dike construction, villages were built on mounds that were surrounded by bogs. The first hit when you do that search in google is 'A Face for German Bog Man', a link to a paper published in Science. If you follow the link, you will see that my family is descended from Bog Mummies.

Wikipedia has the following light to shed on the matter:

Bog bodies, which are also known as bog people, are the naturally preserved human corpses found in the sphagnum bogs of Northern Europe and the British Isles. Unlike most ancient human remains, bog bodies have retained their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. These conditions include highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen, combining to preserve but severely tan their skin. Despite the fact that their skin is preserved, their bones are generally not, as the acid in the peat dissolves the calcium phosphate of bone.

The German scientist Dr Alfred Dieck catalogued the known existence of over 1850 northern European bog bodies in 1965. Most, although not all, of these bodies have been dated to the Iron Age...Some of the most notable examples of bog bodies include Tollund Man and Grauballe Man from Denmark and Lindow Man from England.

As it happens, there is a Mummy Museum in Oldenburg Germany.  Take a look.

Ever since the Iron Age, the bogs in these coastal areas have been used for digging peat, which is used as fuel. In fact, abundant peat fuel was one reason the Dutch had a booming economy in the 17th century, commonly referred to as 'the Dutch Golden Age.' With all that peat mining, you can imagine that once in a while, peat diggers have come across bog bodies.

My husband Tim now calls my ancestors 'Bog People.'  A few hours later, I managed to find out that his ancestors, way back in the 15th century, were residents of the Bavarian Forest in what is now southern Germany. So he is descended from 'Lederhosen People.'