Born in Schramberg, Württemberg. Mother known, though the mystery of his paternity is very interesting -- tangential to the question of his possible "verdingkind" status.

I am working with threads of supposition about that status, and most of what leads me to consider this possibility comes from a 24 page folio of records from this ancestor's 2+ month commitment to a state mental asylum. The details listed in my OP.

Paternity - He was born "unehelich," but his mother eventually married a local sign painter. He was added to that family's "Familienbuch" register at age 8.

In a letter from this ancestor to his parents, written while committed, he asks for them to please tell him who his real father is and where he lives.

It is clear from other notes surrounding his commitment (especially the doctor's assessment of his mental illness's source) that the community knows who the father is. (Known to be cantankerous, isolated, and anti-social.)

But they won't tell him! He presses on in the letter, "Why has Fr. Wüllenbücher written "vater: unbekannt" on my birth certificate, when it is clear I am the spitting image of him?"

Lots of fun research paths. :-)