Saturday, June 03, 2000

Today we have an appointment to meet with Detlef Rahlf, whom John originally met thru the Internet.  Back home, John had realized he was a distant cousin of ours, but after speaking to him at the Archives, he realized that we are much closer in relationship.  Detlef is probably one of the closest relatives we have on the island.  We have a common ancestor, Tönnies Rahlf, born in the 1700’s.

 Our appointment was at 9 am, at his uncle’s estate, Rosenhof in Westermarkelsdorf.  This farming estate is now used by the family to rent out vacation rooms, and has 11 such rooms.  This estate has tennis courts, sauna, solarium (indoor pool), trampoline, color TV’s, a children’s playground, breakfast service, and much more. Set in the countryside, they also have various farm animals such as pigs, geese and a horse. Almost all of the large old family estates and many of the houses in the cities rent rooms (zimmers) and apartments out to traveling vacationers, mostly other Germans.

 We arrived promptly at 9 am, and found Detlef waiting for us at an outside table in the front yard. We said our hellos and re-introduced ourselves and promptly got to work talking about our genealogy research.  Detlef had his Rahlf family information printed out for John, and he exchanged this for a copy of John’s Family Database on the CD disk.  Then Detlef showed John a large printed family book on the Rahlf family ancestry that was over 200 pages long, and printouts about the Haldermann Family taking this family line back to the first Haldermann on the island.  John was excited and convinced Detlef to make copies at a later date and mail it to him in America. 

John & Detlef Rahlf trading family information

 John is always looking for family genealogical information on any family line with their roots in Fehmarn.  He adds this information to his database, which will be available on a CD soon.  Currently, his database has 48,000 individuals in it, all related to Fehmaraners.

  
Rosenhof in Westermarkelsdorf

  After leaving the Rosenhof Estate, we returned to Burg to view the Peter Wiepert Museum.  Admission to the museum is 3 DM per person and it appeared to be very quiet.  Apparently this is not a major tourist site for most vacationers.  But we are very interested in the history of the island, so we were excited.  In the museum are possessions from mostly the 1800’s…… documents, furniture, photos and portraits of various islanders, old photos of the town of Burg, clothing of the early times, household dishes and other items, tools, and of course a few family charts.  This was very important to John, so he read some of this information onto my small tape recorder, as no photos are allowed.  We spent at least an hour in the museum and thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

    
Tressie, Alan, and John at the Peter Wiepert Museum

  For lunch, we walked over to a small place we saw with a cute name, called the Internet Café.  When we got there, we found out this was no restaurant!  They served beer and sodas, and had 4 computers set up, where you could use them to get on the Internet for a fee (3 DM for 15 minutes, 4 DM for 30 minutes, etc.).  This was a great.  We sat down and I e-mailed a note to our Mother, with a copy going to a friend at work.  Tressie also e-mailed to a friend, and with-in 15 minutes, we were on our way again.  I found out, the café is open on Sunday till 11 pm at night, so we’re going to try to e-mail again before we leave.

 Still being hungry, and it being 2 pm, everyone agreed on fast food.  We went to McDonalds, where John, Alan and Tressie ate lunch, very inexpensively.  I don’t care for McDonalds, but I do like grocery stores, and being 1 block from 4 grocery stores, I couldn’t resist the urge to shop.   Neukauf’s was not here last year, so I chose this new store for my market experience.  This was the largest and nicest grocery store that I have been to in this area. 

 John constantly tells me that I’m odd.  He says “Most people shop for their groceries where they live!!!”  I enjoy cooking and baking, so I like to see the different food items available in different areas that I visit.  Germany, of course, has the most different food items, for me to see.  I bought some fresh fruit, cheese and salami for my lunch.   And I found some new candy items to bring home for my grandchildren and friends.

 Before meeting the others, I found a cart on the corner selling strawberries.  I had noticed a local field of strawberries growing on the island, and this stand was selling some of those berries.  I had to have a container of these fresh strawberries.  This was my lunch!  No hamburgers at McDonalds for me.

 After lunch, we went to Petersdorf to find Frau Elher’s house.  John had a gift for her that he forgot to give her yesterday.  We walked around and found her house, and left a computer program disk with her son, so she could access the database disk that he had given her the day before..  Then we decided to walk around the town.  It’s only a small area, so this is not much walking.  Most of the towns are small enough to walk around, except Burg.

 Allan and Tressie went off on their own adventure.  They had heard that an “Osterkamp” worked for the Polizei (police) in Petersdorf.  This is a family name from Alan’s family lines that come from Fehmarn.  So while John and I were walking, they went in pursuit of an Osterkamp.

 ALAN- “I was walking, looking for the police station, when this couple came out of the field, through a gate.  They asked me something, and I asked if they needed help with the gate. I started to talk to them about trying to find an Osterkamp.  The wife spoke a little English, and they knew of a Frau Osterkamp.  The husband drove me to my car, where I picked up Tressie.  Then we followed the man to a house, where a woman on a bicycle was leaving.  She was Frau Osterkamp, but she and the helpful man spoke no English.  The next thing I know, they’re talking about the Burgermeister (Mayor) and we’re knocking on another door in the same neighborhood.  No one answered, so we walked around to the back, where we found people sitting in the backyard, enjoying the sun. 

 The next thing I know, we’re talking to the Burgermeister of Westerfehmarn, Klaus Osterkamp, and he speaks perfect English.  He’s going to take us to see a friend who does genealogy research, but first, we must pick up John and Judy.”

  We made our way to the Petersdorf Chruch cemetery, and were waiting for Alan and Tressie to pick us up, as we were going to visit someone they had just met.  Suddenly, we see the car coming, and in front of it is a man on a red motor bike…… and we find out it’s the Mayor!!!!!  We introduced ourselves and we’re off and driving.  Alan and Tressie can sure find the connections!

 We drove off to Sulsdorf to visit with a friend of the mayors, but she was not home.  We talked a little about America, and found that Klaus had been to Florida, to visit the Florida Keys and had lived in California for a short time.  He started talking about people that had gone to Iowa, and these were also friends of John’s – the Gossels.  We also spoke about our family names of ancestors.  These are all names that are familiar to both Klaus and John.  John explained that he has a website for Fehmarn Genealogy research, and the purpose of this trip is to do further research.  Klaus invited us back to his home, where his family and some friends were having a backyard Bar-B-Q.

   
Alan, Burgermeister Klaus Osterkamp and John

Klaus made some phone calls to help locate some people for us.  He called Karl-Wilhelm Klahn, who is a historian of the island.  He was very busy and could not see us at this time, but this was understandable. 

  John showed our ancestor chart to Klaus showing all our old family lines.  He immediately started to make phone calls to friends, and found someone to talk to John about our Wohler line.  Before we knew it, we were at the “Hof Anno 1856” estate.  It’s the home of Herman and Rafaela Wohler.  This is the family line that John had a dead end on, so he was very pleased to meet this young couple.  Rafaela went inside her home and came out with a large framed family chart that had been hanging on her wall.  This information provided John with two additional generations of our Wohler family line, from a time period that we have no records available to us.  After seeing this information, John figured out, the Wohler’s were close cousins of ours.

 
Hermann and Rafaela Wohler with John and Judy

  Klaus excused himself, as he had to go back to his family Bar-B-Q.  Before he left, he had arranged for us to visit his great-Aunt, Frau Gerda Plath to further discuss the Osterkamp genealogy.  She has some information and was willing to see us on Sunday morning at 10 am.  At this time, he also mentioned that he would speak to a local newspaper reporter about our trip. 

 We talked to the Wohler’s and their friend, Karl Detlef about some of the family names on the chart and about common ancestors.  It was a most productive visit.  After exchanging addresses and e-mail addresses, we were off again.

 Dinner was at the Stadtcafe, where we ate at the tables inside, as it was a bit cool for us to eat outside.  As usual, the food was quite good.  Afterwards, I went back to the room to work on this article, as I was behind in my writing and very tired.   But John, Tressie and Alan decided to do some sightseeing at the Strand.

   
Beach at Burgtiefe

   TRESSIE- After dropping Judy off at the rooms, we drove to Burgtiefe and saw the sailboats and the Sudstrand (beach).  We walked along the beach, and I collected more stones.  Alan took off his shoes, rolled up his pants and waded into the cold water.  Back in the car, we drove thru Sahresdorf, Meeschendorf, Staberdorf and on to the lighthouse at Staberhuk.  We took photos, and were on our way again.  Back to Burg, thru Katharinenhof and Vitzdorf……. And home to our beds to sleep.  Blessed sleep.  

Alan at beach

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