Tuesday, May 29, 2001
We were up very early again. John gets to enter data on the computer early in the morning
(till 5:30 a.m.) and I get it my turn while he gets ready for the day.
This is starting to become our daily routine!!
Breakfast is a very relaxing time in the morning for us,
as we don’t have to deal with ordering, reading the menus or waiting.
We just tell Anne the time we want to eat each morning, and it’s on the
table. She’s wonderful.
We can eat slowly, talk about the day and relax before we are off and
running again.
By 7:30 a.m. we were out the door, and on our way to
Großenbrode to meet with Dorothee’s tour group for a day of genealogical
research at the Church Archives in Neustadt.
We rode on their bus to the archives to meet with Mrs. Melitta Muhl-Ehler
for a day of researching the church records for ancestors.
This was not the normal day that the Archives are open. Because of size
of our group and as a special favor to Dorothee Gossel, Mrs. Muhl-Ehler opened
the doors on this alternate day. We
were given from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to do our research.
Everyone was told to bring their Family Charts that John
had printed for them and had given to them last Friday, when we first met.
This helped locate family lines that they would be researching.
John started Norma and Dennis Keesee who were researching the family
names of: Riessen and Maas; Margaret Bredekamp was researching the Wildfang
family name and the cousins, Roger and Wayne Nolting were looking for their
family name of Noltings of Großenbrode. Harvey
Prinz was researching the Buntzen family name in Burg and Tressie Hughes was
looking for the Schwartz family in Großenbrode
It took John a little while to get everyone set up and looking thru the
hand written Church records (primarily births, marriages & deaths).
Then,…. anyone who found a promising entry had to call John over to
read it for him, as the writing is in old German script.
This script is even hard for the Germans to read.
John has taught himself to read this style of writing fluently and with
great proficiency.
The Nolting's researching in the church books
Mrs. Muhl-Ehler had arranged for several volunteers to
help some of our group and this turned out to be a big help to John.
A young man was helping Harvey and Margaret with their research.
He managed to get the Wildfang family back an additional 6 generations
for Margaret. Another woman was
helping Tressie with her Schwartz family line.
There was a slight language barrier, but when the family charts were
spread out on the tables, everyone could see where the research needed to be
done. John had done a great job on
these charts.
Dorothee took the rest of the group out shopping in the
stores of Neustadt. Not everyone
was interested in doing the research, which worked out fine, as there is limited
space at the tables. During the course of the 6 hours we worked, some people
took short breaks to eat, but the excitement of finding our individual family
names in these hand-written records keeps you working at a frantic pace.
During the course of the past year, John gets lots of
requests for information on different Fehmarn families.
Most of the time, he can link to his database of 71,000 names and help
them, but once in a while, he is stumped.
When this happens, he files these requests away until we go on this trip.
At the Archives, he puts me….. and Alan and Tressie, to work on solving
these mysteries. John tells us what
church book to look in… such as Burg, births from the late 1800’s, and we
sit at the tables looking from page to page until we find the right family name.
Then John comes over, reads it and we take notes.
Later, when we get home, he’ll contact those families and give them any
information that we found. Sometimes,
we cannot find any information because the dates supplied are not in the time
range of the books available.
I took a break to go to the Bakery a block away, for some
Danish and later, John and I went out for a quick sandwich and drinks.
People from our group were wandering back at different times, and this
made for a very busy and sometimes noisy gathering.
We were very grateful that Mrs. Muhl-Ehler had given us our very own day
for research. This way, we didn’t
bother her regular patrons with our talking and comings and goings.
It can get quite noisy when there are about 10 excited Americans
researching in one room!
Our group doing genealogy research
With John’s research for others completed, Tressie and
I went out for a walk and some shopping. John
and the others were diligently working till the end.
John even had some time to start writing down information to add to his
database. On Thursday, the regular
day that the Archives are open, John and I plan to go back for further research,
so we are far from done.
After 3 p.m., the whole group assembled in a large
meeting room downstairs and waited for the bus to come and pick us up.
Mostly, everyone sat and had conversations among ourselves.
This was a very interesting group of individuals and we enjoyed their
company considerably. Harvey Prinz
is retired and is the editor of a German newsletter, “Infoblatt” in
Davenport, Iowa. His wife Norma,
was once a paralegal and did the research with a passion.
Vera Fuller is a widow, born a Mackaprang, (a very old family name from
Fehmarn) she was the only one of her siblings that had never visited the island.
This trip enabled her to see her ancestor’s homeland and I think she
really enjoyed herself. The 2 Nolting couples are related and are farmers in Iowa.
Margaret Bredekamp said it took 40 years to talk Emil into this trip;
they are also farmers in Iowa. Tressie
and Alan Hughes live in Washington State and this is the second trip to the
island for them, as they traveled with us last year.
(See the Journal from 2000 for all the details on that trip.)
The bus picked us up about 4:30 p.m., and we were on our
way. The weather this day was
overcast and had become very, very windy. Dorothee
had our bus take one last drive over the Fehmarn Bridge, and we felt the strong
wind push on the bus. Warnings were
posted forbidding campers and like vehicles from crossing the bridge due to the
wind conditions.
Back at the Am Wind Hotel, Dorothee invited us to join
the group for a special dinner that she had catered by her local butcher.
We sat with her, for almost an hour talking about the island, family, her
tours and other things. Dorothee is a take charge, get it done - type of woman, with
a little craziness thrown in. If
you have a problem; Dorothee will solve it.
My mother says I’m like that also, so I like her very much.
We were served for dinner, sliced ham steaks with a cream sauce and
fried potatoes with onions….. 3 servings in all! The Germans try to feed you too much! They brought out Ice cream for dessert and then a shot of
liquor for all, which you down in one swallow!
Dorothee says this is the traditional way to do it.
I just about died!!!
After dinner, Dorothee’s parents, her in-laws, the
Gossels and Ruth Mackaprang came in to meet the group.
We had met the Gossels and Ruth Mackaprang, 2 years before on our first
trip and it was wonderful to see them again.
Ruth sat down with Vera Fuller, as she had met Vera’s brother years ago
and they both were showing each other pictures of relatives in the Mackaprang
family. They both seemed to enjoy
the visit considerably.
Ruth Mackeprang & Vera Fuller looking at family photo's
Before we said our good-byes, it seemed like half of our
group brought out their cameras and there was a lot of picture taking going on.
Dorothee’s group was leaving in the morning for Hamburg and this would
be the last time we would see them. So
of course, saying Good-bye took about 30 minutes!
We have made a lot of new friends and will remember them with fond
memories.
Group at Dinner
By this time it was after 9 pm, and we had to cross the
Fehmarnsund Bridge. We were a
little nervous, as the strong winds were very noticeable. This is a high suspension bridge and we could feel the wind
wiping around us. Our little rental
car was rocking and swaying as we drove across.
Last stop…. The Internet café to check our e-mails
from home and write to the family and friends.
We finally heard from home and everyone was fine.
John sent an e-mail home to check on his dogs and house, and I sent
e-mail to our group of family and friends.
It’s easier and quicker than sending individual notes to 10 people.
Some of our family is replying to our e-mails so we have a small contact
with home.
“But Mom…. They burned the phone booth….”
We decided
not to bother with the phone calls this year, because we found that someone had
set a fire in the international phone booth (I’m sure there are others, but we
are just too busy to look). Phone
calls are expensive and the e-mails are easy. Also, with the e-mails we can tell
everyone back home that we are OK…. all at once.
This nights Internet activity only cost 4 DM for the time used.
We went home to Anne’s house and did more typing till I fell asleep!!
J
Tomorrow’s plans: More photos at the cemeteries & a meeting with a local couple.
Click here to continue on to Wednesday
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