The Wends (Sorbs) of Texas, an Interesting & Relatively Unknown Story

[@jon4thtx919]

I am a Texas Wend! My family came over in the Ben Nevis in 1854. After the civil war my 3x grandfather moved the family up north to Fedor (Fee-Dor) and lived and farmed that land for years until 1870 when he sold 1 acre of land to the Lutheran congregation for $5 for them to build the church, which is still there. We then moved further north to another Wendish settlement of Thorndale. Where my 2x great grandfather was a Charter member for the St. Paul Lutheran in Thorndale, along with a pioneer farm of the area and later on the head of the Thorndale State Bank. My 3x great grandfather was also a pioneer farmer of the area here and the first elder of the St. Paul Lutheran here in Thorndale. My family has been in the area since then. If you’re in the area on September 22nd we have our annual Wendishfest at Serbin. It’s always a great time. And I’ll be set up doing Wendish living history of the 1850’s and 60’s in Serbin.

[@elaineburch5397]

Oh how my heart aches to return to Texas. But until my parents days are over here on earth I will be here caring for them both. You will never know how much your videos are truly appreciated

[@secretsoftexas6872]

I'm glad that you are able to be of service to your dear parents. What a great thing you are doing!

[@pamelagoodson9034]

May God bless you and give you strength as you undertake your responsibilities.

[@dbkapo1]

Yhank you... Greeting from Serbia..

[@ettajfan5882]

I could listen to him read the phone book, he's got such a wonderful quality to his voice. Soothing and calm.

[@chelseabeck2402]

Thank you so much for sharing about the Texas Wendish Heritage Museum and a couple of Wendish churches! We are so excited to share this gem with our members!

[@secretsoftexas6872]

Thanks for watching and sharing. I really appreciate it.

[@TheComputerGeek]

My ancestor was one of the Texas Wends who survived both the cholera outbreak and the yellow fever outbreak in Galveston. I grew up hearing this history of my family. Fills my heart with pride!!

[@skyking4501]

Man this is a great video. Thank you for taking us to places we will never get to see otherwise...

[@pamelagoodson9034]

Thank you. Your videos are a treasure for Texas history.

[@secretsoftexas6872]

Thank you for the kind words. It means a lot to me. I've got more Texas treasures on the way soon.

[@rutee4614]

There is another sister church of the Wends, near Fedor & Lincoln. It's parish is Leobau (pronounced Lee-Bow). The original church was moved to a different location, but the centerpiece is still in the "new" church & the old school building was still there, last I remember. There is not much to see, however I wanted to mention it as it was a church I went to often. The church is Christ Lutheran Leobau.

[@sparky5860]

Thanks for sharing

[@concretecowboy4212]

Thxs 4 sharing

[@z-z-z-z]

i love the way you start your videos with a map; very nice touch. i just watched your pecos river video, and you pronounce it - "pay cuss." as a fellow texan, we can poke fun at each other. i'm fixin' ta check out some of your other videos...

[@factsoverfiction7826]

Very nice.

[@fukutube7916]

Greetings from Corpus Christi Texas

[@johngorentz6409]

I've visited the church and museum at Serbin, and also stuck my head in the door of one other Wendish church in the area, but not the others you' showed. It's good to see. I'd like to get back and visit more of that country.

[@sweetpeach6583]

Fascinating vídeos thank you for showing us the Texas we never knew about!

[@patrickmuller4953]

Greetings from Lusatia

[@Shandina1]

Congratulaton Srbi !

[@MaryJaneHancock]

Thank you for posting. Learned a lot. Planning a visit.

[@robertpaunovic1767]

Bravo

[@KristVladic]

Pozdrawiam z Polski Serbów Łużyckich. :)

[@dorothygale5896]

My mom was a Wend. Mattiza.

[@cag9871]

My mother is from Serbin. Names are Malke, Noack, Fritsche are a few.

[@juliannyca]

It's still funny to see those family names there, which are quite common here in Lusatia.

[@EricV-lq3jq]

Can you list other ones, even uncommon ones? Are there many? or like in America there's typical handful

[@велимир-ю4я]

I’m a Sorb from Oklahoma!

[@jrranch9712]

Texas Our Texas

[@hannealbrechtsen461]

Beautiful church

[@seejayyou4462]

Great video! Thank you for making it. I am a descendant of the Texas Wends and enjoyed watching. By the way, Fedor is pronounced like "fee-dore" or "fee-door." :)

[@OffbeatTravels]

So interesting, never knew there was so much history in TX!! Thank you for enlightening us with such great videos. Please check out our KZbin channel and enjoy an off beat journey with us!!

[@soulie2001]

My family is Wendish and was apart of this movement.

[@tracybrown512]

It’s one of the registered historic painted churches. The columns inside were painted with turkey feathers

[@rafalkaminski6389]

Lusatia is a name for sorbian (wendish*) land. I guess it goes from luża that means 'swamp'.*wendish is a general german name for all slavs (that live alongside with the german).

[@malaxes]

@serbs-sorbs-among-slavs Slavic languages often have this same words with slightly different meaning. In Polish ługi probably means damp areas but in Sorbian and Serbian could be forest.

[@ЗоранХулк]

​@@malaxesLug-little forest in Serbian🇷🇸. "Wends" is a name for a Slavic tribes mainly from Luzatia(easten germany).Luzatian Searbs(Sorbs on german variation)

[@SerbskiUkrainer]

"Wenden" as a name is exclusively for those Slavs the germans also call Sorben. The germans call the Baltic Serbs "Sorben" in order to always further divide Serbdom. Venezzia also comes from the maritime Serbs, as well as the Venetes in Bretagne.

[@robertrobski1013]

I read some old Chronicle that Saxons and other Germanic tribes fled to British isles because they were systematically raided by wends

[@SerbskiUkrainer]

Saxons were also slaughtered by carolus magnus, earning him the name of hammer of the Saxons.

[@SerbskiUkrainer]

Interestingly enough, the Saxons can be associated with "Sax", like in Scramasax, a knife, the Serbs with serbian "Srp", french "Serpe", a billhook and the Scythians, with the scythe.

[@alistairknox5381]

My English grandmother never let on that her father was a Prussian of Wendish descent from lower Lusatia: a 1926 shipping register has his birthplace as Gross Libolye(which is interesting as the German version is Gross Lubolz). The record also states that he was literate & spoke German, his daughter English of course. He and his brother Constantin(who was interned in WW1) have quite a number of British & South African descendants. Now l know why my father resembled a Polish aristocrat connected to the British royal family...Having grown up during the Cold War in a paranoid anti communist era, it was quite a surprise to find Slavic descent on both sides: my mother's one Afrikaner grandmother was descended from a Czech Sudetenlander immigrant from Zakupy/Reichstadt.

[@keithstevens5614]

According to some sources Sorbs were the White Serbs, white meaning West, so Western Serbs. They were also one of three main groups collectively known as the Wends.

[@michaelbildstein4895]

I was missing sorbian language, or real wendish people. If you come to eastern Germany, you can see the great culture live. In April the documentary film "pola nas wona rěka Hanka" was in the cinema, it will soon be available on DVD. German radio stations have frequently broadcasts for wendish (RBB) and uppersorbs (MDR) these great cultures are still alive. On Witaj rěčny centrum you can learn the language online.

[@SerbskiUkrainer]

Respectfully, we should call them Serbs, instead of the german distortion "Sorben". They established Serbin, not "sorbin".

[@xxxgnxxx]

Good point 👍

[@MarcDufresneosorusrex]

I want to honor the West Slavic people wherever you are, thank you for being what and who you are; remember your ancestor's exodus out of "Egypt"

[@POLSKAdoBOJU]

They were a West Slavic people, not German. They still speak dialects related to Polish to this day.

[@MarcDufresneosorusrex]

@@POLSKAdoBOJU oh , thank you for this clarification

[@KeiViolet]

@@MarcDufresneosorusrex They are not Sorbs but Serbs/Srbi, Germans gave them name Sorbs because they couldn’t pronounce their name for there is no vowels in the word Srbi between S, R, and B. They are related to Balkan Serbs but lost touch over 1000 ago due to exodus indeed but from Germans who slaughtered almost the whole nation, now they live like Native Indians.

[@SkyForceOne2]

@@KeiViolet too much bias, alternate history, ignorance and emotion coming through your comment. wishful thinking. Only thing very likely to be correct is that they are somewhat related from before 2000 years, but so is almost everybody in europe.

[@ЗоранХулк]

​​@@SkyForceOne2Greetings from Serbia🇷🇸. The Serbs from Lusatia are indeed directly related to the Serbs in the Balkans. 1400 years ago, that migration took place, among other things, due to constant conflicts with Germanic tribes, and this was not invented. Dervan, one of the sons, led part of the Serbs to the Balkans .Serbs had similar migrations later under, for example, Arsenine Čarnojević during the Ottoman occupation of Serbia, so the Serbs repopulated the parts north of the Sava and Danube rivers, and a part even ended up in Ukraine (Donbas) and practically returned to their original state.Original state,before Searbs migrated in to central Europe was betweeen Kaspian and Black sea, mainly around swampy-muddy delta of river Volga in to Kaspian sea.Because of that ancient habitat some arheologist think that Searbs have a Sarmatian part of dnk...

[@Elonmuskasseater69]

Cool