Darcy and Jerry Boock and Marilyn Boock and Fred Schmidt, have reported on their return home of their visit to relatives in Germany several weeks in September and October, 2008. The first account is by Marilyn Boock Schmidt; following Marilyn's account is Darcy's account.
Ancestral Families in Europe
by Marilyn Boock Schmidt
I want to share with you thoughts of our wonderful ancestral families in Europe. Darcy and Jerry, correct me on errors and someone please forward this to Ken and Pat Graupner as a computer glitch erased their name from our list.
Our stays with Darcy's cousin Renate Marquardt in Bergkamen and her second cousin Ingrid Musial and extended family in Oldenburg were warm and loving, one house filled with books, the other with "schnick schnacks".
At Kattenvenne our great grandfather, Frederick Aufderheide's great grandfather, Johann Hinrich Johann aufr Heede ( 1749 -1816) was married twice. Our hosts Gerhard & Helga auf der Heide and brother Reinhold and Eliz. auf der Heide are from Johann's first wife, A Brewen and we come from the second wife's line, E. Oberdalhaff. Most of the second wife's children/grandchildren left for America at a time when half the population of that area moved away, devastating those remaining, we were told.
Great great great grandfather Johann (mentioned above) left a notebook containing his trading, which persons owed him money and what he owed others. He noted news and illness cures he heard of during his travels. In his wagon he took linen made from flax to the salt mines at the coast, to trade (smuggle?) for salt. Is that why Norbert would say on coming home from work, "Another day at the salt mines." Johann did well financially with his trading and was able to erect fine buildings on his property. We were given a few pages of translation along with copies of the original in old German script.
The brothers Gerhard and Reinhold are truly Aufderheides with their hair coloring, fair skin, light eyes, freckles, humour and inquisitive minds. How I wished that Grandma Emma, Norbert and Gertrude could have met them. Their wives are warm and loving. Reinhold was first born, is now 80 and was raised to become the next generation's farmer, lived his whole life on the original farm, was taught the rural German while his brother Gerhard, younger by 13 years was taught a city German (high, low, Platdutch?) Gerhard became principal of a large local school.
The first morning Gerhard took us on a long walk through a neighborhood of new homes built on property the brothers sold, on past the subdivision to point out the Middle Ages properties belonging to brothers Johann, Gerd, Dierk and named because of the growth of heather and of borderland/marsh. Thus our ancestor's name became "up de Hee" once last names were needed As we took photos of one old barn/house we were invited in and given a tour, the present owner being the attorney for the Catholic school board, a wise, learned old man. The attached barns have now become part of the living space. On our hike we could see in the distance Reinhold's farm house, surrounded by heather as this year he's being paid not to produce a crop. In the background are high voltage power lines sending power from the thousands of northern turbines to the country's electric grid, which also powers the many trains.
A country lane, 2 blocks in length separates the two brother's homes. As we walked the lane approaching the original family farm we made out the writing on the beam over the door: family name, year and a quote of blessing. (a common practise in those parts) Reinhold's gardens are beautifully neat, "Like my father kept the grounds", he said in German. Reinhold and his wife speak no English but they chatted to us and we to them not understanding each other, but enjoying the conversation anyway. We were given a tour of their home, also an attached barn/house made more recently into living quarters. The bottle of "schnapps" welcomed us to their home.
Reinhold and Eliz. have no children and younger brother Gerhardt & Helga's son is well educated, travels the world with his job and so has no interest in maintaining the family farm. The farm will now be going to Eliz.'s nephew and family who are already living in a house on the property. Their charming blond 9 year old son was busy pushing a wheelbarrow filled with straw for the animals.
Reinhold, with his bright red hair, has a sense of humor. When touring an outdoor museum of old buildings he cracked the teacher's ruler as we were too boisterous, he got the pump working, sharpened his pocket knife on the old wet stone. He brought me a bouquet of heather from his farm, which I've pressed, promising half to Darcy. He enjoyed our visit so much that he missed an afternoon of card playing to spend more time with us, unheard of behaviour! Twice he saluted with a "Hei Hitler" and a big grin. Unfortunately he has health problems which make it impossible for him to want to travel.
His younger brother, Gerhard, is retired from his teaching career, speaks English, is interested in family history and plans to come to Minnesota next fall with his wife, Helga. Last fall they visited Aufderheide's in Indiana, arrived home to be greeted with Darcy's message of their New Ulm connections. Their house, built on auf der Heide farm property, is filled with books. The family donated land for a large community centre which was a busy place when we toured it. Everyone knew Gerhard as they gave us a guided tour of Katttenvenne, Ringle, Lienen, Lengerich and Gehrde.
The brothers told a few WW 2 stories:
a bomb dropped on their land, destroying one of their houses and the Am. bomber crashed, The flyers parachuted to safety, but one of the survivors had the last name common to the area and so he was beaten by the locals.
When foot soldiers came looking for food young Gerhard pointed to where food was hidden and he was beaten by his father.
When the family along with their neighbors found shelter from bombs in the village, young Gerhard pointed with glee to planes passing overhead, thinking it great fun to see airplanes.
A photo and story of our visit appeared in the local news paper after we left. Today the locals ride their "comfort bikes" complete with baskets, into town for groceries, to the train station and to visit family members. It is a peaceful, rural setting and with tears we hugged our new found relatives goodbye and continued on our journey.
In Gehrde, the Schapekahm home town, the mayor himself arranged for an interpreter, gave us a tour of the church, the grounds and treated us to goodies of coffee, kuchens and schnapps at his chamber table. He's interested in genealogy and in promoting his village to tourists. He led us to the original Schapekahm farm and our visit with him was recorded in Gehrde's weekly paper. All this was the result of Darcy's inquiry of a key for touring the village church!
In Bordesholm Wolfgang and Ute Boock's home is filled with reference books and his ancient maps which he's found at flea markets and published into a booklet complete with descriptions and has also published a book of old family correspondence. He's a history buff and took us to sites of battles between Denmark and Germany over the centuries. They led us on tours of Osdorf, Neudort, Borghorst, Lubeck and Gettorf, just missing the Prince of Denmark attending a concert there. They introduced us to curryworst. How Grandpa Arthur Boock would have enjoyed the visit. We do have Danish blood in our veins, as Grandpa told me as a child. A direct connection between Ute Boock and our New Ulm Boocks is yet to be determined, yet their warm hospitality will not be forgotten.
Wolfgang and Ute also plan another trip to the US, promising to visit us in Canada and with New Ulm relatives.
My mother's ancestral homes of Meldorf and Ropersdorf were memorable as were our visits by train to Berlin, Wittenberg, Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Aschaffenburg.
Needless to say we are tired but wake up at all times of the night with delightful memories, memories that need to be shared! Photos to follow.
Marilyn
Ancestral Families in Europe: Addendum
by Darcy Kleeman Boock
Marilyn, You sure have a flair for story telling. I couldn't have expressed myself as well as you did regarding the wonderful visits with our relatives in Germany.You didn't mention that we also heard classical music in Renate's house and that she is also an inventor and writer, and that "Schnick Schnacks" are actually knick knacks, but everyone probably figured that one out. Ingrid's husband retired from a military career after 31 years and was quite rigid when we first met him, but loosened up quickly. They said they would never consider visiting the USA, but by the second day were already making plans to visit in three years.Gerhard and Reinhold have retained the original Johann auf der Heide surname, at least Gerhard has. And when he answers the phone the emphasis is placed on Heide, not Auf as it has transpired in the USA. Johann Hinrich Johann aufr Heede's (1749 -1816) 1st wife was Anna Maria Brewe (Brewen was a typo) and his 2nd wife was Anne Marie Elisabeth Oberdalhoffs. I strongly agree with Marilyn that we had such a warm welcoming by Gerhard and Helga and also Reinhold and Elisabeth even though they didn't speak English. The funny story I remember about Reinhold is that for some reason we were talking about thieves in large cities and started mentioning the more dangerous cities in the USA and then Reinhold added, "and Cowboys". I'm sure he has seen a few movies with cowboys robbing trains, which prompted his response. We had a really good laugh about that one. Reinhold speaks Platt Deutsch and Gerhard Hoch Deutsch, but they easily understand each other.We also visited Fritz Beineke on his farm. He is a direct descendant of Sophie Beineke Aufderheide's uncle. While I was there I received a copy of the Beineke Family History (did you also Marilyn?) that Robert Rau of Cincinnati, a descendant of Sophie's brother, compiled in 1994. I have an email out to Robert now and am anxious to hear back from him. The Wiethoff farm was also pointed out to us as the neighboring farm to Fritz.Gerhard and Reinhold's father Gustav was also a writer and wrote a book about his days in WWI, which is of course in German. I am hoping that Philip will have time to translate it once he retires. What do you say Philip? I think you would find the story very interesting. Gustav was captured three times by the French, and escaped three times, the final time making his way home, which was especially difficult because he had to cross the Rhine River.It is Wolfgang Boock who ties in with our family, not Ute (she was a Witt), although she is the extractor of records and has helped us tremendously in both our Boock and Oelrich research. It is because the church records don't go back far enough that we can not prove the connection between Wolfgang and the rest of you Boocks. His ancestor came from the small village of Neudorf and so did Christian Friedrich Boock's ancestors, so there has to be a connection. We were also warmly greeted by Wolfgang and Ute and had a wonderful time touring with them. It was very difficult for me to say good bye to them as well as Gerhard and Helga. I am a real sap, so yes tears flowed.There are so many things to sort out yet from our travels and many photos to download to my computer and get copies made to send back to Germany and Thank Yous to write. But now I have time to do that, since I retired in June.So now we need to get busy and plan that Aufderheide/Boock and related families family reunion for next fall! Who all wants to jump in the boat with me?Darcy
Monday, October 20, 2008
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