Surreal Georgia

November - Month of the Deceased; Tribute to Louis

It's November again. A month, we use to think of our beloved family members and friends, who are deceased. A month, we use to bring flowers and wreaths to their graves and light candles, that brighten the night on the graveyards.

And when you can't go there, you can bring virtual flowers. Yesterday I found an interesting site where I found a lot of graves of my Eriete family. Here is one, just as an example: Louis Albracht,  who went to Erie with his twin brother Henry. Both were born in Rhoden in the beautiful Dukedom of Waldeck. Louis was a carpenter and reconstructed the Lutheran Church in Erie, Henry was an engineer. Both constructed sturdy brick houses at French Street 309 and 310 after they attended and survived the Civil War. Their nephew Carl Reins died in Tennessee, but both brothers were lucky and came back to Erie. Louis married Lena Curtze. He died in 1910. 

Here is a picture for Louis from where he is born:

I'm sure he can see all this from his cloud in heaven.

Findagrave.com is a wonderful site, where you can find a lot of information about your family. And it's a wonderful way to send virtual flowers. Thank you for this! Theanks to the people who made this site and thanks to those who helped with all the pictures of tombstones.

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Tombstone of Louis: Picture shot by my cousin Mary Kappelt Skol at Erie Cemetery

Rhoden: Old Postcard owned by my Aunt Louise Klapthor of Erie

 

Special for Jim

... whose ancestors are from Dehausen, Waldeck. Dehausen is a very small village in the northern part of the former Dukedom of Waldeck. It has only about 150 inhabitants and so it has got the nickname „Heckennest“, which means „nest in a hedge“.

Dehausen

During the second half of the 19th century also some families from this village immigrated to the USA or to the nearby Ruhr-Valley, because life was hard in Waldeck at that time. Here are the USA-immigrants of Dehausen as far as it is remarked in the church-records:

• Johann Karl Wilhelm Martin Kaufmann, master shoemaker, * January 29, 1836 at Wettesingen in Hesse, and his wife Johanna Henriette Friederike Frese, * 1841 at Dehausen, married on September 9, 1863, went to Amerika after 1863.
• Karl Friedrich Ludwig Schaefer, born September 8, 1854, at Dehausen went to America in 1870. There he married Karoline Scharf.
• Karl Christian Schaefer, born out of wedlock on June 24, 1869, at Dehausen went to America in about 1884 at the age of 15.
• Georg Friedrich Schmidt, born on January 28, 1824, at Dehausen, married Christiane Tepel from Neudorf on August 13, 1848. The couple went to America after 1848.
• Friedrich Schnare, born on August 3, 1810, at Hoerle married Wilhelmine Hauck, born 1814, on April 13, 1834. After 5 of their children had died they went to America with their remaining 3 daughters in 1851. Their son, Wilhelm, is born after their immigration in Iowa. Friedrich Schnare's brother Wilhelm, who also immigrated, lived in Hörle until he went to America. Therefore he isn't remarked in the church-records of Dehausen. He also went to Iowa. And there must have been a third brother, Christian, who also immigrated to Iowa.

The Schnare-farmhouse at Dehausen in 1902

From Friedrich Schnare there is still a letter handed down, which is in the possession of the today living family Wilhelm Schnare from Dehausen. When Friedrich Schnare wrote this letter he was 63 years old and already 21 years in the USA. The letter is written in German, so I’m trying to translate it partly:

Davenport Iowa North America, April 4, 1873:

Dear brother and dear brother-in -law, also sister-in-law and children!

I feel forced writing a letter to you, because I would like to know if you are all well. With the help of God we are still all well and as far as I know also the rest of the family. But I must say that I can’t work as much any more. I can’t plow and harrow any more, because I can’t breathe any more after only a short time and I have to use a cane for walking around. But during summer I can work with the machine, which is torn by two horses, because I can sit on it. But I wouldn’t be able to scythe any more. ...

I’m also still able to bring the grain to town. We have had a lot to bring to town, all in all about 1000 bushel of barley, which is about 65 Cents or sometimes 70 Cents per bushel. We have harvested about 1100 bushel wheat, which is 1 Dollar 15-25 Cents. We have about 560-70 bushel of oat, each 26-28 Cents. ... Cattle are also cheap. Last fall I sold 4 oxen and a cow for 200 Dollars. The oxen were 3 years old, the cow older. We have had 43 cows and oxen, which have been very fat. ... At the moment we have 8 cows for milk and this summer there will be another 6. Butter is about 20-25 Cents at the moment. Pigs have been very cheap this winter. A 100-pound-pig is living about 3 Dollars and 40-50 Cents, slaughtered 2 Dollars. I have sold 31 living and 7 slaughtered pigs. Also the next year we will have 40 pigs. ... We have 11 horses, 8 for working, ... I’ve bought a threshing machine together with my two sons-in-law for 480 Dollars. Threshing lasts more than a month. My son Wilhelm likes threshing. He takes 2 horses, sometimes even 3 ... Wages are very high. A worker gets 1 Dollar a day, sometimes even 15-25 Cents more, during harvesting even 3 – 4 Dollars. This summer I spent 200 Dollars for wages. My farm laborer Friedrich Grebe gets from March 1, 1873, until now about 170 Dollars. My maid gets 75 Dollars for 8 months of work. A lot of laborers could come, they all would get work here and my daughters would like to marry a man from our homeland. Friedrich Grebe wants to stay at us. Karl is working at the neighbor-farm. Well, dear brother, you wrote last year that you would want my son Wilhlem to come to your house, but this is impossible, because he has to do all the hard work alone, because I’m not able to do such work any more. Perhaps some time Heinrich Kronenberg and my son Wilhelm will come to Dehausen before Heinrich will marry. Wilhelm and Heinrich are like brothers. I’m very glad, dear brother, that you sent me a picture of you. I put it onto our commode, so we can see it always, also the picture of our brother-in-law. I wonder about the fact that you are still able to walk. ... Your son Karl told me that he is still in California. I’ve written a letter to him, but he hasn’t answered yet. If there will be an answer I will let you know. You wrote that you would have also almost emigrated, if the French would have come to Germany. It would have been a pleasure for us, if you and your family would have been here. Please come and take also your daughter with you! We have been curious about the war, but fortunately it was won by Germany (the German-French war of 1870/71). Brother Wilhelm lives in Iowa-City, 40 miles away from here. We use to visit him every summer and he has been here two times this summer. 2 hours with the train and we are there. Christian (Schnare, younger brother) lives in Toledo, Tama County, and has 330 acres of own land, but he is 150 miles away from here. He visited us last fall for 8 days, but since then we haven’t heard anything of him. He has sold his big and expensive farm and had a loss of 700-800 Dollars by selling the farm after such short time. But he is well again.

We send you all our love, my wife, my son and me.

Your loving brother Friedrich Schnare

The Schnare-farmhouse today

And here is a very short history of the descendants of Friedrich Schnare in Iowa:

Johann Friedrich Schnare, born in 1810, immigrated to Iowa in 1851. His official immigration-record isn't handed down, but a letter instead, which is today in the possession of Wolfgang Helbich, Professor of American History at Bochum, University of Bochum, Germany. Friedrich Schnare, his wife Wilhelmine and his 3 daughters went to Davenport, Iowa, where they bought a farm, which was in the possession of the family at least for 3 generations.

William (Wilhelm) Schnare, their son, is already born in Iowa in 1853. His address is Blue Grass, Scott County, Iowa. William married Fannie from Iowa, who is born about 1860 and died after her 70th birthday. William died much earlier on September 9, 1910, at the age of about 57. The couple had 3 children: Frederick, Amanda and Alfred.

Frederick (Fred) Schnare was born on December 4, 1882, and died on September 9, 1918, exactly 8 years after his father's death at the age of only 36. Maybe he was a soldier in WW I, but he is buried in Blue Grass, where he spent his entire life. So I don't think he was a soldier. Frederick married Lilian Breede and had two children, John Kenneth Schnare and Lucille Schnare. Adress: Blue Grass, Scott County, Iowa.

The second child Amanda Schnare was born in about 1884. She married Fred Illian, who was born in 1869. Their daughter Florence Illian was born in about 1916. In 1930 Fannie Schnare, Amanda's mother and widow of William Schnare, is living in their household. Adress: Blue Grass, Scott County, Iowa.

The third child Alfred Schnare was born on December 12, 1888. He first married Elsie, who was born in about 1899. The couple had a son, Clarence Schnare, who was born in 1918. But they have been divorced after 1918. Alfred married his second wife May, who was born in about 1998. It seems as if the couple didn't have had any children. Also Elsie married again: Craig L. Bragg, born about 1888, who adopted Clarence Schnare. Elsie and Craig had another child: Dorothy Bragg, born in 1926. Adress: Blue Grass, Scott County, Iowa.

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Sources:

Waldeckische Ortssippenbücher, Band 70, Dehausen; Friedrich L. Hübel, Waldeckischer Geschichtsverein e.V, Bad Arolsen, 2003

www. ancestry. com

"Wichteln" for Bloggers

Secret Santa – a wonderful idea from Erieblogs...

I wish I could participate, but I'm afraid that this isn't possible, because Amazon Germany is not Amazon US and so it might be difficult or impossible seeing wish lists from each other or shipping the present. *sigh*

At us we also know something similar. You know, I'm a teacher. In most classes our pupils do it at Christmas time. It’s called „wichteln“ after the „Wichtelmaennchen“ or „Heinzelmaennchen“ of Cologne, who always did something good to the people of Cologne during the nights:

"The little house gnomes are said to have done all the work of the citizens of Cologne during the night, so that the inhabitants of Cologne could be very lazy during the day. According to the legend, this went on until a tailor's wife got so curious to see the gnomes that she scattered peas onto the floor of the workshop to make the gnomes slip and fall. The gnomes, being infuriated, disappeared and never returned. From that time on, the citizens of Cologne had to do all their work by themselves."

Well, this story originally was a criticism of the Prussians on the lazy Rhine-Landers. But who cares today about this origin!

This is a diorama of the "Heinzelmaennchen". Look, there is the Cathedral of Cologne in the background!

Back to our Christmas-Wichtel or Secret Santas: During Advent time every day another pupil gets a little present from a classmate. There were drawn lots before this action starts who has to present whom. And on the last day before Christmas everybody has to guess who was his „Wichtel“, which means who made the present.

So let's wichtel, Erie-bloggers!

The Heinzelmaennchen-well in Cologne. Do you see them? And the tailor's wife at the top?

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Pictures: Public domain

Source: Wikipedia

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinzelm%C3%A4nnchen

Amish or Waldecker Creamed Cucumber Salad?

Today when I surfed the Internet I found a site with Amish recipes from Pennsylvania. I was very astonished when I saw a recipe of Amish Creamed Cucumber Salad which is very similar to the cucumber salad my grandma Anna Albracht taught me to make.

Here is the Amish recipe from http://www.anniesrecipes.com/Kitchen/amish-recipes/pennsylvania-dutch-creamy-cucumbers-recipe.htm:

"1 c. sour cream, mayonnaise or yogurt, 3-4 tbsp. vinegar, sugar to taste, 1 med. onion, sliced very thin for each 2-3 med. or lg. cucumber

Prepare wilted cucumbers: slice thinly, soak in salted water. Rinse and drain. Mix above ingredients. Pour the dressing over cucumbers. Refrigerate a few hours to give flavors a chance to blend."

And this is the recipe of my grandma Anna Albracht from Waldeck:

1 c. sour cream, cream, fat reduced cream or yogurt, 5-6 tablespoons lemon juice or 3 tbsp. vinegar, 1 onion, 1 sliced cucumber and abt. 3-4 tbsp. sugar, some salt

Prepare the cucumber like in the above recipe by slicing it very thinly. Then spread about 1/2 tbsp. salt all over it and wait until the cucumber has produced some juice. Put the juice away and press the cucumber slices a bit so that some more juice goes away.

For the dressing FIRST put the vinegar or better lemon juice and sugar into a bowl, then add cream (stir well, the cream will become a bit thick), then add the hashed onion and if you like also some fresh dill. You can vary the recipe also with a 1/2 tbsp. of mustard you can mix into the dressing.

You should try it, it's quick, easy and very tasty in summer and winter. I love cucumber salad! By the way, it's best with cream and lemon juice, forget about the vinegar and the yogurt if you are not on a diet at the moment.

You can use the same dressung also for other kinds of salad. It's always yummy.

Well, I think this is the same salad like people make it here in our village. The few differences are not bigger as they are from family to family here in our region. I would like to know more Amish recipes. Perhaps I would discover some more commonalities. By the way, I can understand the Amish language. I found some examples in the Internet. It's a German dialect which still can be understood very well in Germany and I'm sure I could immediately talk to Amish people. It's a pity that I can't experience it. But perhaps some day, when I will visit Erie. This is still my dream.

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Pictures: Taken by Georgia, all rights reserved

Links:

• http://csumc.wisc.edu/AmericanLanguages/search_clip_type.php?clip_type=PennDutch
• http://www.anniesrecipes.com/Kitchen/amish-recipes/default.htm

Swapping

Only a short note: Megan has posted a super idea! Swapping! Please read about the idea at her blog.

Swapping means that two people (or more) who live in different countries exchange a parcel with stuff, which is typical for their country. Megan thought that it would be a good idea for next Christmas time exchanging parcels with Christmas decoration, candies and cookies or whatever you like on Christmas and whatever might be typical for your country.

I think: This is a really good idea!

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!

I wish all my American friends and readers a wonderful day! Have nice picnics, barbecues, fire works and parades! I wish I could be there watching the fire works in Erie...

Very special greetings from Germany!

Who Brought the Chicken to America?

How did chickens come to America? Of course by the Spaniards, who brought their chickens on their ships to America! Nope!

An international team of scientists found out by DNA-analysis of fossil chickens from Chile Domestic fowls came about 100 years earlier than the European immigrants. Probably the chickens came with people from Polynesia, which is a group of over 1000 islands in the Pacific.

Picture: Comparison of a European Chicken (left side, white Leghorn) and the American Araucana Chicken

The Spaniard Francisco Pizarro investigated that chickens were already a part of the Inca-heritage, when he arrived at Peru in 1532. Alice Storey and her colleagues now proved this deliverance. The team examined fossil chicken bones and came to the result that these bones were from the 14th century. So the first chickens on the American continent are about 600 – 700 years old. The team also compared their DNA with those of living chickens in Polynesia and experienced that their DNA was very similar. So these ancient Chilean chickens must have been originally from Polynesia.

But on the other hand it might be that chickens have been brought several times to America, also European chickens. Until today there are two stems of chickens, Polynesian and European chickens, which didn’t blend.

Picture: The wild Bankiva-Chicken

And where from came the first chickens in the world? Our Domestic fowls descend from the Bankiva-Chicken, which only produces only about 20 eggs a year. Today this kind of chicken still lives in India and Indonesia. It became a domestic animal later and changed its appearance. Maybe domestication has taken part in China about 8000 or 9000 years ago. Founds of old chicken bones seem to suggest this. Later first proved verifications are from the Indus-Valley about 2500 B.C., so it seems that domestic fowls spread first over South and East Asia. First European founds are younger: For instance in Switzerland domestic fowls lived there not before about 500 years B.C. Chickens spread all over the continent not before the Romans, who began breeding chickens for producing meat and eggs in huge stables.

Picture: Magnificent rooster

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Sources: t-online, Wikipedia

Pictures: Public domain

Day of the Missing Child

In Germany there are more than 1600 children missing at the moment. Every month 6 to 8 children disappear.

The Children’s Commission of the Bundestag reports this today, because today is the Day of Missing Children. These children have had accidents or are victims of crimes, have run away from home or have been kidnapped by one of their parents. Every day there are 200 to 300 new cases of missing or found children and every year there are 50,000 children reported missing. Most of them were found or come back within a few days. But in each case parents suffer badly when their child is missing. In August there will be a hotline in the entire EU parent can call when their child is missing.

Today in Hamburg there have been arisen 100 balloons with the pictures of missing children. Later candles have been lit, each candle for a missing child. This day is celebrated in Germany since 2003. Ronald Reagan invented this day, when he celebrated it in 1983 for the first timein memory of the six year old Etan Patz, who disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his way to school.

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Sources: t-online.de, http://www.vermisste-kinder.org/

Picture: Public domain