The German Handshake Packet mentioned in the last note is available to members of the Sacramento German Genealogy Society:
Sacramento German Genealogy Society
P.O. Box 660061
Sacramento, CA 95866-0061.
The charge to Society members is $5.00 (for one immigrant ancestor). Applicants for the Packet who are not members of the Society must join the Society. Last year this was $20.00 for that year's dues. The reason one must join is that a person is introduced as a member of the Society. With membership, there are four issues of the Journal, " Der Blumenbaum ".
One thing that I can vouch for, which Craig Kilby confirmed, is that you need to be prepared for the surprise turn of events. Some of the things that you had planned on will not pan out. There will be more than enough surprises to compensate you. Some of the ideas that have been mentioned in the past few notes will be a help to handle these unexpected events.
To give an example, in Gresten, Austria, after being kindly treated by Florian Berger, who showed us the ancestral farms and introduced us to the current owners, he said that he would try to get the mayor to have breakfast with us the next morning. He did, and a two-hour talk fest followed over breakfast. This was made possible by the interpretation of the high school teacher. (Florian had to work.) That evening there was a three-hour dinner with the mayor and Florian (including schnapps). When chances like this come your way, you will want to take advantage of them. The mayor more than compensated us with his stories and gifts of a book and a plate.
On our last evening near Trupbach we attempted to meet with Lars Bohn of that village. Earlier we had tried to contact him through email to a friend of his. We had not any answer. So we drove over to Trupbach to call at his house, but there was no answer. Our plans were made that, after breakfast the next morning, we would leave the area, so we could make an appointment that Saturday evening. The next morning while planning our departure, we had a phone call to the breakfast table. (That surprised the hostess of the inn besides us.) Lars had just found the note that we had left at his door. (He had been home the evening before but the doorbell was not working.) He invited us to come by Trupbach, which we were delighted to do. We were justified, for we got the royal tour.
Moral: Have a little flexibility in your plans, and a little spare time to take advantage of these opportunities.
Along the way there will be some pleasant surprises that have nothing to do with genealogy or history. Some of these will stay with you as long as you have a memory.
(24 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.