[Craig Kilby's recent comments deserve to be made a permanent part of the record, so he will become the guest writer for this note. His original note was slightly edited.]
My first trip to Germany was in 1985 with my mother to visit my brother and his family, who then lived in Heidelberg. We knew that, due to the work of a Catholic Priest in the 1920s, one line (Kern) had come from Freudenberg, in Baden. We drove to this little town and asked a man if he knew any Kerns. He said, "Yes, the whole town is full of them." We knew this Kern's wife was a Kettinger, and we asked about that name. "Oh, only one Kettinger Family, living right there", as he pointed across the street. It was raining, but we knocked on the door anyway, uninvited. An old couple lived there with their single daughter. They invited us in. They pulled down the old family bible and sure enough there was our couple. Satisfied with that, we STUPIDLY did not copy anything from the bible at all. DUMB DUMB DUMB!
[On my next adventure] I knew from church records here in St. Louis that some of my ancestors had come from this general area. Since the people in the group I was with were all avid genealogists, this was helpful. Somebody directed me toward the little town of Borgholtzhausen, where one of the families had come from. Unlike John's case, the church was open, and empty, and I took pictures. This was a Protestant Church.
But the records of this church were at the Regional Library, in Beilefeld. I was put in touch with a Notary Public (which is more of a para-legal in Germany that what we consider a Notary to be here), who drove me to the library one day. He got me started on the church book and I was moving along quite nicely, finding lots of new ancestors. I took a break and when I returned to the book I became completely lost; however, this is where I learned that the family name stayed with the land, not necessarily the husband. So, the Pohlmann family suddenly became, in reality, Kemner. I was relating this experience that evening to one of the host families who had invited me over to tea (they were hosting the parents of one of my best friends). At the mention of the world POHLMAN, his eyes lit up and he picked up the phone and made a quick phone call. When he hung up, he said, "Let's go to Dr. Pohlmann's. He has the full genealogy. He is the Veterinarian for the German Equestrian Team." So, off we went on a 30 mile drive, and we were greeted with wine and schnapps at the handsome home of Dr. Pohlmann. He did have a full genealogy, going back to the 1400's. It was prepared during the Third Reich, when such things were mandatory and created a sort of genealogy fad in the process. He was kind enough to run a copy for me, although it was handwritten in old German script. I had it translated when I got back home. But it was my family.
My third and last attempt was in 1991, while hosting a Youth Bridge exchange to Berlin. We had a rather slow day, so I went to the Prussian History Library. I was treated like an alien from another planet, and got no help at all. So I left. Later that evening, the person I was staying with laughed at me. He said, "You can't just go into a library like that without some credentials, introduction, etc. Why didn't you tell them were a state representative or something?" Such an idea is, of course, ludicrous to Americans, unless one is visiting a special collection which is privately held. He picked up the phone and left them a message. The next day, there was a message on his machine saying, "Of course he can come back!" But I didn't have time to do so. The point being, if you are going to visit an institution, you need to set up the appointment ahead of time. Having credentials, degrees, titles, or "documents" of some sort will greatly enhance your chances for entry. I hope everyone has as much good luck as did I, though I really just fell into most of it. Planning ahead would certainly be a better idea.
Craig Kilby
(19 Jan 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.