Living IN the Land of our Forefathers

We are loving being in the land of our forefathers! We are receiving many blessings from our Heavenly Father as we engage in this Family History and Temple work.  Miracles come, some quickly and some after we toil through the "4th Watch".   For others we must be patient and wait on the Lord's timetable.

Debbie is literally in this Rapeseed field.  We love these beautiful yellow fields.

We are fully engaged during our days at archives and parishes and then updating the data that we have gathered in our computers during the evening before we forget what we have just discovered.  Some nights we are traveling to the next city or village to be ready to start again the next day.  We were also able to spend a holiday day at the Freiberg Temple this past week.  Our weekends are filled with visits to friends, new and old, and to attending our Church meetings.  While we are in the towns of our ancestors, we try to take a few minutes and acquaint ourselves with old family sites.

We enjoyed staying in an open missionary apartment for two nights in Frankfurt.  We felt right at home, including visiting our Frankfurt ward on Sunday.  We realized that we had many friends here besides the wonderful missionary couples, many of which have gone home.  We were able to eat one of our standard simple meals, bratwurst on baked bread while in our apartment.

Before we began the first leg of our "research", we took a walk through the cemetery in Frankfurt as we often did on our mission.  This time of the year is beautiful with trees, bushes and fields in bloom.  We also met one of our dear friends on the way back from the cemetery.  What a good way to get started.

Debbie by the tree in the cemetery in full blossoms

Debbie with Jonette Vaughan, a dear friend in the ward whom we had missed in Church the previous day. She was riding her bike to work as we left the cemetery and we had this joyous reunion.

Our first stop was in the Magdeburg archives, four hours north of Frankfurt.  We traveled there on that first Monday.  As we mentioned in our last blog, we are helping on a school project for our grandson, Ashton, taking photos with Flat Stanley, our two dimensional friend.  The following are a few of the photos that we have taken with Flat Stanley.  It identifies some of the things that we enjoy in Germany and a few places that have been part of our journey.  The due date for Flat Stanley photos has passed, so this will be the last time to include them in our blog.

Germany with Flat Stanley

In front of a castle that we found as we were nearing Magedeburg

In the rapeseed field near the castle.

In front of an old Church in Magdeburg, first built around 900 AD

Eating an ice cream cone, one of our favorite activities

In front of an "Autobahn" church, accessible from the freeway for those who need a quick visit.

With us at an Italian Restaurant in Nürnberg.

In front of the Regional Archive in Nürnberg

In the Church Book in Betzenstein

By a few of the "Church Books"

Outside of the Marion Fortress in Wurzburg, It was a castle, the residence of the Prince Duke until the 1500s

In the courtyard of the Wurzburg Marion Fortress

Inside the Fortress looking out

No Flat Stanley, but a view of the Residence Palace of the Prince Duke, an amazing place.  This was a view from the fortress above.

At dinner with Cristian in his house, the house built by my great grandfather

Another photo without Flat Stanley, but a view of the many different garbage cans for the Germans to  segregate their trash.  We learned that true garbage has a cost to have it disposed.  Recyclable or bio garbage are collected for free.  Therefore economics helps keep the country green.

Our Sunday dinner at the hotel near Betzenstein with food that we bought on Saturday

With our colored hard boiled eggs, stored at room temperature. Great to take for food on a trip.  These lasted until Thursday night.

Friends, new and old

As we prepared for our trip, we had opportunities to communicate with several individuals who had seen our names in Family Search, actually my mother's name. She has been putting in many, many names into Family Tree.  Two of these are residents of Germany and we made arrangements to meet them on our first weekend here.

The first was a man who discovered that we were doing work for his grandmother.  We were excited to visit with him on our first Friday afternoon, after leaving the Nürnberg archive.  He lives in a little town, Herzogenaurach, that is the world headquarters of both Adidas and Puma, athletic shoe companies.  

 Just as a side note, we learned that Adidas and Puma were founded by two brothers who had been running a shoe business for athletes for the 1936 Olympic games in Germany.  They had a parting of the ways and each continued on in the athletic shoe business independent of the other.  The two companies are now two of the largest athletic shoe companies in the world, based in the same small town. 

World headquarters of the Puma athletic shoe company

When we arrived for our visit, Manfred was excited to meet us.  He had developed a large printout of his genealogy and ours and how they came together.

Manfred and his wife with the printout of our genealogies and the link together

Tom and Manfred comparing our genealogies

We found that his grandmother's sister had married a Rueckert.  They had known this family very well.  It was related to the same family that we had visited in Buchheim while on our mission.  This was an older gentleman who had fed us well and shared many family photos.  Manfred showed us some photos of the family, including one that I had photographed from our earlier visit.  It was a wonderful visit and we have discovered one more family that are our friends in Germany.  We have since continued to email and share photos and other information.

With Manfred ands wife and one of their sons.  The other took the picture.


The next day we made a visit to Dr. Detlef and his wife in Wurzburg.  That is why we took time to visit the Wurzburg Fortress before our scheduled visit.  He had also connected to us through some common family members.  Once again, we were very well received in their home.  We found that they were experts in German and Bohemian genealogy.  Her ancestry comes from Bohemia.  They tried to help us with our line into Bohemia from my mother's genealogy, which has never been resolved.  Again we have continued to email and they have offered to try and help us more on this.  I have sent them all that I know about my great, great grandpa, Samuel B. Hartmann, who came on a boat from Bohemia to the U.S. in the 1860s.  We have never been able to tie into his parents in Bohemia.

We also found that Dr. Detlef has worked quite a bit with the Fritz Magerlein Familienregisters.  In fact he shared with us a full electronic copy of one of the books ((300 pages) in Welbhausen, a village where we have many ancestors.  These are all unexpected benefits and blessings that we have received beyond our earlier plans and expectations.  God is Good!

Tom with Detlef and Martina

While in the temple on May 1, we asked if they could do a baptism for Debbie's great great grandmother Müller, so that we could finish up the temple work for her on this trip.  We have hope that this may help us to find her birth records and parents.  The temple worker that arranged for this baptism to be done, also helped Debbie through the veil on a session later that day.  The name that Debbie was doing work for, was also a name in her genealogy.  We arranged to visit with them after the temple closed and reviewed the extensive genealogy that they have been working on in Germany, close to the birth place of Margarethe Müller.  As we reviewed it, we did not find any connections but we will meet with them again next week to pursue this further.

As a side note, her mother had learned to play the organ from the Tabernacle Choir Organist, Alexander Schreiner.  The Schreiner family was baptized by my grandfather, Johann Adam Rueckert, during his mission in Nürnberg, Germany in 1903.

Debbie with Elder and Sister Lindsay, workers in the Freiberg Temple

Finally we have the privilege on this trip to stay in the home that my great grandfather had built in the 1800s.  This is the home where my grandfather first heard the gospel.  We have developed a friendship with a Romanian couple, Cristian and Marianne, who now own this home.  We will be staying in this home on most of the weekends that we are in Germany on this trip.  We have a great love for this couple.  They have been so good to us and Marianne is cooking way too much food for us.

Debbie and Marianne as they met for the first time on this trip

Cristian and Marianne

Grilling our Saturday lunch

Cristian and Tom, Grillen partners

Delicious barbecue lunch with Cristian and Marianne

 19th Year Anniversary of our Temple Sealing

Sometimes we receive blessings that we had not even considered.  While planning this trip I did not even think about our April 30 temple sealing anniversary which we try to celebrate each year.  This year we visited a parish in Betzenstein on Monday morning and then drove to Freiberg to go to the temple the next day, since May 1 was a holiday.

That left us with an open Monday night and the following day in the temple, which was perfect for our unplanned celebration.  When we arrived in Freiberg, we saw a restaurant extending into a pond.  We decided to celebrate there.  It was a delicious dinner. We then enjoyed a walk along the neighboring park area.  We loved the time to ponder and reflect.  It couldn't have been better if we had planned it.  We then had a meaningful time in the temple the next day, including meeting the Lindsays.

Entrance into the SchwanenSchlosschen, which means Swan Castle

Anniversary Dinner, great salad for Debbie and Schloss Schnitzel for me..

With the pond behind us, a beautiful setting

On the side of the Freiberg Temple Angel Moroni and the German Flag together

Land of our Ancestors

One of the benefits of being in Germany to research family history is experiencing the actual places that our ancestors lived.  We have loved this opportunity during the past two weeks. After our mission, we found an old journal that showed another address where Debbie's dad had lived.  This was different than the house that we had identified at that time, perhaps it was a house that he lived before immigrating to the U.S.  Anyway, after our day in the temple, we went to Poststrasse 58 in Erfurt and looked for the apartment building.  The street still exists and is near railroad tracks that were identified in his history, but the address 58 is no longer valid.  However, we found a building that seemed to fit the criteria of the description.  Here follows photos of the building where we think that Debbie's dad was born.

An old apartment building on a corner, with a commercial area adjacent

Debbie on the steps of the apartment building where there was a butchers office on the main floor. 

When we were in Muhlhausen we read the journals of Debbie's great grandfather Stoll, who joined the Church in Muhlhausen.  We were staying in the old town part of the city and on one afternoon, after our review of the parish books, we searched out the addresses where Grandpa Stoll had lived.  We found 3 out of 4 of the locations. All were within walking distance of the "old city".   The second was right next to the entrance of the old city, just up the street from the St. Petri Church.  This is the house where Debbie's grandmother was born and the Church in which she had been baptized as an infant.

Feldstrasse 55

First apartment for Berthold Stoll, after moving out of the home of his  in-laws

Next home was again with his in-laws at Petristeinweg 1b

Address was 1b, this is close enough

St. Petri Church on the same street

They than moved to Mittelstrasse 135.  This is the home where Berthold Stoll joined the Church.

House number 135

Address is Mittelstrasse 135

Mittelstrasse today.  The smallest building in the back of the picture is 135.

Current map of Muhlhausen.  The red stars show the homesites that we visited.  The lower right circle of road surrounds the old town.

After we visited the Betzenstein parish we drove through the actual village where my great Grandfather Steger's family came from, which was Weidensees.

Beautiful rapeseed field in the area

Dandelion crop almost as yellow as the rapeseed

Rocksdorf, original home of the ancestors of my Grandmother Schlerf.  We were able to identify many Schlerfs in the parish records that were not previously in our family tree. 

Debbie amidst the rapeseed near Rocksdorf

Finally we come to the homes of my grandfather.  He was born in Hochboch and early in his life moved to Steinach a.d. Ens.  Since we are staying in the home in Steinach, I decided to take a Saturday morning jog between the two houses.  Google maps shows the distance to be around 7 kilometers, making a round trip to be over 8 miles.

I left without knowing how to arrive at Hochboch, since I did not want to take the main roads. I wanted to experience the open farm land that stood in between.  In the end it took me almost 2 hours and I believe I went around 10 miles.  That said, it was a delightful experience to enjoy and ponder the surroundings of this beautiful spot in the world.  As you can see from the photos, I arrived at the home in Hochboch and arrived back at Steinach.  There was mainly just farmland in between.  This was an experience that I will not likely repeat, but also that I will not forget.

Beautiful farmland in the area where my grandfather was born and raised.  Rapeseed fields to the left.

Finally arrived at the Hochboch 4, home where my grandfather was born

Rapeseed fields in the 4 miles in between the two houses

After more than an hour and a half, arriving back to the home where my grandfather was raised, where we are staying on the weekends

Actual Family History Research 

Of course the main purpose of our trip is to do family history research, this varies by location.  I wanted to just point out some of the details of what we have  accomplished so far with the help of the Lord.

We started our trip in Magdeburg where we are able to access many of  Debbie's ancestors records by microfilm.  Our first priority was the Moeller line, which has been so difficult.  Based on promptings we received earlier, we determined to look in Gebesee for the marriage record of Johann Georg Moeller and his wife Maria Margaretha Hauss.  We found the record but were unable to identify birth records for either of them.  In Dachwig we were able to identify death records for each of them and also for Georg's mother Margarethe, but still no birth records.  We were able to identify other children and relatives from their marriage.  We were stuck and prayed for ideas.  One of the administrators of the archive suggested that we look through the registers of neighboring parishes.  I selected 4 of the neighboring parishes and the administrator suggested one more, a little further away.  Debbie proceeded to look through the microfilm for each of them.  As we were about to give up, she found the birth of Johann Georg in the last parish or on the "4th watch" (see Mark 6:48).

Debbie holding the microfilm of Bad Tennstedt where she finally found the birth record of Johann Georg Moeller

Birth Record of Johann George, born to a single mother, Margarethe Müller

We tried the same approach for his mother, Margarethe Müller.  We have a good idea of her birth date based on information in her death record.  However, after looking through about 14 different microfilms, we have determined that there is more for us to learn, including patience with the Lord in resolving this mystery.

We spent 3 days at the Magdeburg archive and were able to extend other lines of Debbie's ancestors, especially of Bernard Motz, where we were able to identify many, many Motz in one of the parish records.

On Friday we went to the Nurnberg Archive for Tom's ancestors.  We only had a half day that day and weren't sure what we would find.  There we are able to access original books, alphabetical cards or lists and digital copies by computer.  We had asked for a few things ahead of time for our first day, including some alphabetical indexes for Marktbergl, where many of my ancestors are from.  We only asked for four names for three hundred years.  We were amazed when they wheeled in the following cart.

Each of these boxes were full of handwritten alphabetical cards for periods of time.  Debbie went ahead and started identifying and copying them.  We only got through half of the boxes that day, the rest will have to wait for another visit in a few weeks.

Debbie taking photos of hundreds of cards with valuable information that is already extracted out of the original books, a treasure.

While Debbie took those photos, I started on one of the original books for Fuchstadt, where one of my shortest lines ends.  I was able to find the Harnisch line and additional information for multiple generations.  What a blessing.  It took me all four hours and there is still more to do.  A line that was previously lost has been found.

Tom, reviewing the old original books of Fuchstadt

The next Monday we started in the parish of Betzenstein, home of many ancestors of my grandmother Schlerf.  Once again we were able to find handwritten alphabetical cards.  We picked up some that we had missed a year ago and added to that with other names.

Debbie taking photos of the handwritten cards

We also found original records that my cousin Gloria had requested.  We had time also to take photos of most of the marriages and death records for about 200 years.  Gloria will search through them in detail and pull out additional missing information.

We left Betzenstein and went to Freiberg  to visit the temple on Tuesday, a German holiday.  Tuesday night we went to Muhlhausen, where we spent the next two days working with the man responsible for the records.  He has been the most helpful of anyone that we have ever met in Germany.  Once again he spent two days with us, searching out various lines within the 6 different parishes for which he has responsibility.  During most of these two days, Debbie was extending the family line for Sharon Tristani's ancestors, a wonderful lady that we had met a few weeks ago in Orem.  This is a great blessing for a wonderful lady who has dedicated her life to doing family history work in Muhlhausen.  We were also able to find more records for several of Debbie's ancestor lines, especially the Trautmanns, that we were able to extend back into the early 1600s, about 3 or 4 generations.

Dr. Kublik and Debbie searching through old original books for ours and other ancestors

We finished our week in Sülzburg, searching through the books of Rocksdorf, where we found many more Schlerf names.  Unfortunately, the books only began in 1686, so our progress was stopped at that point.

This was the first two weeks of our research.  We have more scheduled for the next 3 and a half weeks and have great anticipation of the names that we can be guided to identify.  Overall, we have literally taken thousands of images, all of which need to be identified and organized for our future family history work.  We feel so blessed to be able to participate in this work.  It brings joy to our hearts and great satisfaction to our souls.  

As promised in general conference by Elder Renlund, when we participate in Temple and Family History work, the Lord blesses us in many other ways.  Just during this trip, we have seen one of our children return to activity in the Church, including personal visits with a bishop and counselors.  This is something that we certainly could not do on our own but the Lord is able to do all things and he will do all things in His time and in His way.   

As we travel from village to village we have listened to the recent conference several times.  We are finding that many of the talks are relevant to what we are doing right now, especially the talk from President Nelson about revelation.  As we listen and we ponder, we are learning and hopefully will be able to receive additional revelation in this great work.