Friday, June 2, 2000
The sun didn’t wake anyone up at 3:15 am, because it was a rainy and overcast day. Today is the day we’re doing our Genealogy research at the Archives in Neustadt, located across the street from the Church. This city is on the mainland and is much larger than the city of Burg. We had no problems finding it, as I had noted, from the initial ride to Fehmarn on last Wednesday, that it was exit 13 off the Autobahn. Last year, we had gotten lost and were late for our appointment and I was determined to get there on time this year. We found the church easily (tall steeples always help!) and Frau Ehler was just going into the building as we drove by. We said hello, and went off to park.
Parking seems to be difficult wherever we go in Germany. The town was crowded with lots of cars on small, narrow roads. There is a reason the cars are so small. Wherever they can, people park along each road, leaving only one lane open, at times. A lot of the streets are only one way. We found a parking lot, over by the Penny Food Market, about 6 blocks from the church. We are often confused as to the rules of parking. But from the sign, it looked like we could park there for 3 hours. Everyone had a blue, timer card on their dashboard and we found this card in the door pocket, provided by the rental company. This card has a little dial to set the time that you park and place this card on the dash. This is apparently so the police will know when your 3-hour limit is up. Everyone does it!!!
Once inside the Archives (a small research room in the building across the street from the Church), we said our hellos to Frau Melitta Muhl-Ehler. It was good to see her again, as we had met her on last year’s trip. John had us go to work immediately as our time was limited to only 4 hours. Tressie started working on their family lines in Fehmarn. John gave me some simple look-ups to do for other people that use this website. Poor John, as we found our names that we were looking for in the old records, we had to continually call him over. We could find the names, as they were underlined in red pencil, but we could not read any of the information in the handwritten old records. John is the only one of us who is skilled enough to read this information written in old German. So for four hours, we had to continually interrupt him, so he could read the records for us.
Archive in Neustadt where Fehmarn church books are kept
Frau Ehler opened the Archives on a day that was normally closed, as a special favor to John and it was very much appreciated. Actually, this worked out better for us, as last year, other researchers were using some of the books that John wanted to look in. This year, we had no one to compete with for the records and we had the room to ourselves. As researchers, we tend to get excited and noisy with our constant talking. So, it was for the best, that we had the room to ourselves.
While looking at the records, John found the marriage record of Johann Ferdinand Baade (son of Gottlieb Baade and Anna Dorothea Tietz) and Elise Helene Lehmkuhl (daughter of Johann Peter Lehmkuhl and Catharina Margarita Wohler) on the 3rd of April in 1874. This is our Grandfather’s Grandparents and our entry into the Fehmarn ancestors. Seeing this handwritten record was very exciting for me. John and I have also found the house they lived in on Suderstrasse in Burg and just seeing the place they lived and being in the town they lived in has been very exciting for us. These are the things that make your research come alive, and keep us coming back to Fehmarn for more information and experiences.
JOHN- “I had so much research, that I
wanted to do and probably accomplished 80% of what I had planned to do.
As I did last year, I spoke with Melitta about hiring her to do some of
the research that I really needed. This
time, she is going to transcribe the Petersdorf Birth Records from 1696 to 1764
and the Marriage Records from 1704 to 1764, because the microfilm available in
America is unreadable. We found the
original records are clear and easy to read (The filming available in America
was overexposed.). This is a lot of
work, and should take her about a year, but is very important to me, as this is
a block of time that prevents me and many others from finding their ancestors
before 1764.
As a gift to Melitta Muhl-Ehler, I presented her with a CD disk of my Fehmarn Family Database (readable in several formats). This disk contains all of my research on the Families that I have done over the last four years, and also, more importantly, the life-time work of research of others who have given me their information. These generous donations have helped me pass information on to many others thru my web site. She was most grateful for this gift and I was happy to share this with her.”
TRESSIE-
Just before 1 pm, when our four hours of research time was up, a gentleman came into the room, and seemed to be waiting patiently for Frau Ehler, as she was busy helping us. He was quiet and we were trying to finish up before our time was over. When we packed up, John noticed that he was looking at a record book from one of the churches of Fehmarn and made a comment to him about our ancestors. John then realized this was Detlef Rahlf, a distant cousin of ours, whom John had talked to many times on the Internet, through e-mail. They had never actually met in person, until today.
We had plans to meet with Detlef tomorrow at his uncle’s estate, Rosenhof in Westermarkelsdorf. John was excited about this meeting, because they had arranged to trade genealogy information. We made the arrangements about the time and got his address. After saying our good-byes, we went back to the car to put away our research and went off to find a place to eat some late lunch.
As usual, we walked around too much, trying to make up our (four tired and hungry) minds. No such luck. By the time we found a nice restaurant, it was 2 pm and they were closing! We walked to a bakery, and found some fresh sandwiches and drinks. We found the first bench, sat down and ate our quick meal. We were just too tired to continue looking.
John and Alan went to the Volks Bank, next to the bakery, to exchange more Traveler’s checks (at an exchange rate of 2.06 DM for each 1 US dollar), while Tressie went to an antique store she had noticed. I went to the bakery, and a small grocery store that I saw in the opposite direction. When we had all finished, we called each other on the family radios, and all met and walked back to the car. It had already been a long day for us.
When Alan asked for help in getting out of Neustadt, his 3 tired passengers just started laughing at him. We are champions of getting lost!!!….. and he wanted our help!! We almost made it out of town with no mistakes, until we started to get on the Autobahn, and mistakenly turned onto a side road and ended up on a small dead-end dirt road. After turning around, we were really on our way, this time.
It was almost 3 pm, and we had another mission. John wanted to see the Peter Wiepert Museum in Burg. So we drove fast to make it before they closed. When we drove past the museum, the door was open and we were relieved that we had made it. We went around to a large, free parking lot behind the St. Nickoli Church and walked back to the main street. By the time we reached the door of the museum, they had closed, locked it up and were gone!!! What luck. Tomorrow was another day… and we were coming back. (The sign on the door said they were open on Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm.)
So, we went walking in pursuit of food, but found a bookstore instead! In Niederlechner’s, John bought some maps, a few books and a calendar (all about Fehmarn) for about 64 DM. This included the new book by Karl-Wilhelm Klahn on Fehmarn history. Then John, Alan and Tressie went to another bookstore to find more books about Fehmarn, while I went to the Jen-Market for water and fresh fruit. Amazingly, John found another book about Fehmarn that he didn’t have. I didn’t know there was any left that he didn’t have!
Finally, on the way back to the car, we found some restaurants a block off the main street, behind the Stolz’s department store. We ate at the Karoffelhauf (Potato House) and our meals were excellent. Alan and Tressie had pork with mushrooms, John had a flounder fish dinner and I had a potato and vegetable casserole. This was a small restaurant off the beaten path, therefore the waitress spoke no English, but we did very well. It was an excellent meal.
By this time, we’ve had a long day, and we were
exhausted…….. but do we go home?….. NO !!
We went driving in an industrial section, found a local tourist sight,
the Meereszentrum (an aquarium that was closed) among other things.
We decided to find Ostermarkelsdorf to look for a cemetery.
We found small towns, with quaint homes.
Off to Hinrichsdorf, looking for another cemetery, but still no luck.
Windpark near Lemkendorf
Finally we were back at our room, exhausted and ready for bed.
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