Monday, May 28, 2001
We were up early this morning, about 4:30 am, as I had
forgotten to close the drapes and the daylight woke us up.
By 5:30, we were both up and about.
John was on the computer, entering new information (from a report given
to him from Max-Otto Rauert) into his database of Fehmarn families.
After getting ready for the day, I wanted my turn on the keyboard so I
could work on this journal.
Breakfast was at 8:30 a.m., and we were out the door
shortly after that. We decided to
go to the Volksbank on the main street of Burg to exchange our American Express
Travelers Checks for Duetsche Marks.
This is an easy and convenient way for us to get our DM. (Before we left
on this trip, we had ordered Deutsche Marks from American Express on the phone,
and received them in the mail within 1 week.)
Be sure to bring your passport for identification, when you do this.
We paid a small bank fee of about 8 DM’s for this transaction.
By 9:30 a.m., we were at the Burg Rathaus for our
appointment with Dieter Klahn and his uncle, Karl-Wilhelm Klahn.
Dieter was waiting for us on the front steps of the building.
Before we went in, Herr Klahn crossed the street to join us and we all
introduced ourselves. We
immediately went upstairs to the Archive rooms and tried to talk.
There is the slight problem of the language barrier to
deal with, but John could understand most of what they were saying because he is
so familiar with the records. Dorothee
and John, both had tried to find a translator for this meeting, but they were
both unsuccessful. Finally, last
night, at the last minute, we found out that Tressie had talked to the Mayor of
Westerfehmarn, Claus Osterkamp and he gave us the name and number of someone who
would come over to help translate. Herr
Klahn called for us, but he was not there, so we started without him.
Herr Klahn began showing us the different kinds of
records that the Archive’s have stored in the 5 or 6 different small rooms.
We were in awe of all the books, boxes and stacks of records that we saw.
There were civil records from the City of Burg from 1874 to 2000.
These included all the birth records, marriage records and death records.
There was a whole room with the Danish – Fehmarn records back to the 14th
Century. We saw the old issues of
the Fehmarnsches Tageblatt (local newspaper) and where they organize the
clippings in the files by categories. There are land records and police records
for Burg. Best of all, we saw the
Collections of Family histories done by other archivists, such as George Lange
and Max-Otto Rauert.
While we were in that last room that houses all the
collections, Johannes Störtenbecker, who works for the City of Burg, came in to
help translate for us. This was a
big help for us, as we had a few questions we wanted to ask.
We were then given the opportunity to do some research in the collections
of family histories. By this time, John was so excited and grateful to be given
this chance to look in these records. Soon,
both of us were looking up information that John needed for some of people who
have contacted him on his website.
JOHN IN ARCHIVES
By 2 p.m., it was getting late, and we had to say our
thank you’s and bid everyone good-bye. How
can you possibly show enough gratitude for the generous and gracious treatment
we received from Herr Karl-Wilhelm Klahn and his nephew, Dieter Klahn.
Both gentlemen have our sincerest thanks.
After a late lunch at a local bakery on the main street,
we went back to the car and returned to the room. We had to recover from the excitement of that meeting. John
was still excited! This was a major opportunity for John to get some important
information for his database. I
could tell John was already hoping to make another visit to these Archives next
year! Back in our room, we rested
for a short time before we went out again to do a little shopping.
First stop was the bookstore, Niederlechner’s by the
local market square. We purchased
some of Karl-Wilhelm Klahn’s books, some maps of the island, and some picture
books about Fehmarn. At 2 other
shops, we purchased small Fehmarn flags. John
has had many requests on his website for merchandise from Fehmarn, so he gave me
the task of finding a few items that will later be sold in a “Fehmarn Store”
on this Genealogy website. Items will be sold in limited quantities, as we are
new to this and don’t really know what you the public are interested in
purchasing. We’re guessing at
this point. So….. Look for this new feature on the this website now. (Any
comments from people who use this website would be welcome… Thank-you.)
When we came back from shopping, Dieter Klahn was waiting
for us in Anne’s living room. He
had brought over a copy of all the house marks from earlier times in Fehmarn
that he promised to give to John. (The
house marks were the symbols that the families used to mark their houses,
livestock, church pews, etc.) This
information would also be very informative for his website. Everyone was pleased
with this morning’s meeting, and again we thanked him, and said our good-byes.
Our hostess, Anne Claussen-Mackaprang, has been taking
phone messages for us each time we leave the house. It seems John has gotten
very popular this trip. People who
have been helped by his website, and know that he is on the island are calling.
Sometimes, when we come back to the house, there is a phone call for
John. Yesterday’s phone call was from Silke Löser, who invited us over to her
home. We had arranged to meet her
at 7:30 pm.
So by 7:15 p.m., we were in the car and running again.
We arrived at the home of Silke Löser and her husband, Werner.
Silke had previously contacted John through his website for information
about her family history. She knew
very little until John sent her pages and pages of information back to the
1700’s on most of her Fehmarn lines, with one line even going back to the
1500’s. She wanted to meet John
and thank him, so we accepted her invitation and went out to their home in
Niendorf. John set up his computer
to show her copies of the birth and marriage records of some of her ancestors.
She was amazed to see this and even more amazed that John could read the
records. You see John cannot speak
German, being American born, but he can read it, especially the older German
script.
Silke Löser of Niendorf
We had a great time with Silke and her husband talking
about Genealogy. We also talked of
the Internet and our frustration with contacting the family and friends back
home. Silke offered us the use of
her computer, so we could send e-mail. She
has AOL, so I signed in as her guest, and guess what? I had my account online…. in German!! With a little help reading the buttons and screens, John and
I contacted the family back home in Florida, USA. Typing on the keyboard is very different in Germany, as the
symbols are in different places, the Y and the Z are interchanged, and there are
lots of extra keys that I have no clue about! It slows me down, but it doesn’t stop me!
Soon, it was close to 10 pm. and we were on our way back
to the room. More work & little
sleep.
J
Tomorrow’s plans; A visit to the Archives in Neustadt with Dorothee’s tour group.
Click here to continue on to Tuesday
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