Page 192 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Margareth Lanzinger

total of three times: his second wife was Ursula Mayrin, the widow of an
innkeeper from Oberwielenbach near Bruneck, and his third wife Maria
Kettenhammerin, the daughter of an innkeeper from neighbouring Win-
nebach. These three marriages are further evidence of the frequent profes-
sional endogamy. Mayr bought several houses, was mayor and held other
important offices. In 1743, after the death of his second wife only one year
after their marriage, he sold the Weiße Rössl Inn to his brother-in-law An-
ton Jäger and worked as a merchant and freight forwarder.
Of his 23 children, 13 were still alive when he died in 1776 (tla, vbi 1776,
123–213). The subsequent lives of two children from his first marriage are
known: the eldest, Josef (born 1728), settled as a merchant in Munich. The
second-born daughter, Maria Agnes (born 1729), was abbess of the con-
vent of Säben, near Klausen. A son and a daughter from the third marriage
also pursued ecclesiastical careers. Two daughters were married in south-
ern Germany: Maria (born 1749) to the merchant Josef Anton Fiorenti-
ni in Landsberg in Bavaria, Barbara (born 1759) to a watchmaker in Augs-
burg.Ursula(born1764)marriedtheimperial-royalpostmasteratSillianin
present-day East Tyrol. Ignaz (born 1761) appears as a student at the death
of his father. Michael Mayr (1754–1830) inherited the Innichen estate. He
had been educated as a merchant in Munich and then acted successfully as
a merchant and freight forwarder in Innichen. He also married a daughter
of the apothecary in Innichen: Antonia Theresia Maria Rauscher von Stein-
berg und Rauschenfels. The following generation had fewer children. The
profile of activities and marriage patterns were comparable: the son who
took over the property, Josef (1792–1867), was again active as a merchant
and freight forwarder and held important public positions. The younger
brother Michael (1798–1835) was also a freight forwarder and had settled
in neighbouring Niederdorf. Maria Anna (1795–1883) was the wife of the
postmaster in Schönberg. There are several villages with this name, in East
Tyrol, but also on the Brenner Pass. The Mayr family thus developed sev-
eral core areas over three generations.

Andre Kopfsguter: from Butcher to Innkeeper and Freight Forwarder
Finally, I would like to take a look at three generations of the Kopfsguter
family. Their history reads like a strategically planned ascent: Andrä Kopf-
sguter (?–1727), the first of these three generations in Innichen, came from
the market town of Sillian in what is now East Tyrol. He was a blacksmith
and only an inhabitant of the market town, not a burgher. It was his son
AndréKopfsguter (1702–1784) whobecameaburgher ofInnichenin1726

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