Daily AncestorKnecht
A Knecht was a farmhand or male servant who lived and worked on someone else's farm, in German records usually a young unmarried man.
A Knecht belonged to the household staff of a farm, receiving board and wages and sleeping on the farm. Together with the female Magd, he was part of the Gesinde, the servants of a household. Unlike a Tagelöhner, he was not hired just for the day.
In older texts Knecht can also mean a soldier or simply a young man, but in a church book it almost always means a farmhand.
As seen in a recordDeath register of a German parish, 1830s
Peter Hollerbach, Knecht bei dem Bauern Mathes Ruppert, led., 24 J.
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Daily Ancestor. "Knecht." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/german/knecht. Last checked 2026-10-28.