We were with Lars Bohn in his home in Trupbach. One of the very first things that he told me was that he had rummaged in the attic and found some of the notes his historian father had left. One notebook was of a personal nature. It was the genealogy of Udo Bohn, Lars' father. Lars had compared the names to the names in the " Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia ", by B. C. Holtzclaw. There was one name that was common to his father's ancestry and to some of the Germanna people . This was Tillmann Hofmann of Eisern. I said, "Lars if that is correct, than you and I are cousins." I worked out the relationship and found that Lars and I were sixth cousins with one remove.
Tillman Hofmann was the grandfather of Johannes Hofmann, 1714 immigrant, and Johannes Heinrich Hofmann, 1743 immigrant, and of Johann Wilhelm Hofmann, an immigrant to Pennsylvania. All three of the younger men were brothers. The fourth and last brother, who did not emigrate, was Hermann.
Lars has one room in his house which he calls his museum. He does have some older things in it, many of which have a personal connection. There is an Edison cylindrical phonograph, two reed (or pump) organs, other musical instruments, tools used in the haubergs, yards and yards of linens, clothing, and books. Lars likes his cousin's wife so much that he gave Eleanor a bonnet that had been used by his great-grandmother.
Lars and Eleanor struck it off very well because they sing hymns together, Lars in German and Eleanor in English. The tune is the same and the words say essentially the same thing. Some of these hymns originated in Germany, some in America. Lars belongs to one of the Free Protestant Churches of a conservative nature. They have a modern church on a hilltop in Trupbach.
Lars wants to do another illustrated history book on the houses of Trupbach. He knows all of the houses and has hopes someday of owning one of the old houses. So as we took the tour of the village, he could tell us who lived in each of the houses in 1713. Of course, he knows everyone in town, having lived there all of his young life.
We went to lunch together in Freudenberg. On the previous trip, we visited this village twice for photographic purposes, so we did not break out the cameras this time. Freudenberg is very picturesque as you can tell by the photos on the freudenberg.html" target="_blank"> Germanna pages .
That evening, Eleanor and I went into Siegen to the Schwarzbrunnen restaurant. This is one of our favorite places in Germany. The place is in the old city, only two doors away from the house where Reubens was born.
(15 Jun 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.