I have mentioned the " German Life " magazine and James M. Beidler before. The last issue of the magazine has an article by Dr. Beidler about a family which is known to descendants of the people in Nassau-Siegen, namely the Daub family. Members of this family appear in the Church Books of several villages, including Oberfischbach, where Rev. Haeger was the pastor.
Beidler wrote a book about the Daub family several years ago, and this came to the attention of Rudolf Daub, who wrote to James and said he was interested in communicating with Daubs in America. James soon found out that "Rudi" (Rudolf Daub) lived very close to Eiserfeld, the home of James' ancestor Daub. James had researched four generations before his known emigrant ancestor by using the LDS microfilms of the Siegen Evangelical church.
James invited Rudi to attend the family Reunion to be held in a few months. In response, Rudi showed interest and sent James much information that James did not have about the early Daubs. Rudi had been able to extend the line back into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries using Guild Records, which were not available in America.
Rudi did announce that he would come to the Reunion. On a Monday, Rudi's wife called and said that Rudi would arrive at the Washington airport on Thursday. Then Rudi's wife, Helga, said that Rudi did not speak any English. She had written all of the letters that had gone to America which appeared to be from Rudi. James thought this would not be any problem as he expected Helga to come with Rudi, but she said that her duties as Chairman of the Free Democratic Party would prevent her coming.
At this point, James admits there was a long pause before he said, "Oh." Helga responded, "Don't worry, Mr. Beidler, everything will arrange itself somehow." Rudi did stay a week with the Beidlers and everything did work out, even though James' knowledge of German was almost as lacking as Rudi's knowledge of English.
There are several morals in this story. First, do not avoid contacts with Germans. You may be very pleasantly surprised by the friendships which can develop. Second, due to their position and access to information, you may learn new information. Third, you do not have to have a perfect knowledge of German.
(23 Aug 04)
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.