A-Z Blogging Challenge - The letter G is for Germany!

In 2017, there was a challenge. I heard about it from jillballau blog and more information can be found out about it on the A-Z Blogging Challenge (which was at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/) page itself. However, as I was testing links I found the A-Z Blogging Challenge link is no longer working *frown*

Many people had done this challenge in April 2017, but I’m a rebel and do things when I have time, so I’ll do mine now. I’ve been working on it over many days, and was hoping to get it all done before posting BUT it’s taking me a lot longer than I expected. I’ll do a few posts now and work on the rest. I know I have about ½ of this challenge done in draft format, so not too bad.  J

What can I say – I’m an original. So, here I go…

The letter G is for Germany!

Germany is country in Europe my paternal grandfather, Mathias Schmitz, was born in. From the information I have, he grew up in Mendig or Niedermendig. This is from my father’s cousin, but on some of the paperwork I have he lived in Koblenz and another says Niedermendig

This is where Niedermendig and Koblenz are on the map.
Credit

If we zoom in on this point in the map, we can see how the names come up. 

Showing Mendig, Neidermendig, Obermendig and Fallerstrabe in Germany.
Credit - GoogleEarth

My grandfather, Mathias/Mathew, lived here until he was in his late teens when he set off to the US to live with his Aunt and Uncle in Brooklyn. He arrived and lived there for a few years before filling out his application for naturalization to the USA. Notice the place he was leaving from, the names of whom he was living with and who he was going to see.

April 1926 Ship Manifest for my Grandfather (line 16). It clearly shows his father's name and area he came from and where he's going in the US. 
Credit Ellis Island.

April 1926 Ship Manifest for my grandfather on line 16. It shows who he's going to stay with and other things about him.
Credit Ellis Island

May 1930 Ship Manifest for my grandfather (line 15). It shows again where he stayed when he was in Germany.
Credit Ellis Island.

He did go back to Germany, twice, before returning to the US after each time. The 1930 was his last recorded travel to Germany – I've been able to find. Notice the place he was leaving from and the name & address in Germany.

Part of the manifest in his May 1930 when he was returning from Germany.
Credit Ellis Island. 

This the last time, that I've been able to find, that he came back to the US from Germany. After this he refiled the paperwork for his naturalization to the USA again. The number of years lapsed, so he had to redo the application again. This time he did get his US Citizenship awarded to him.

Mathias/Mathew's first declaration in 1926
Credit INS

Mathias/Mathew's second declaration in 1934
Credit INS

1939 when he was able to swear the Nationalization oath and become a citizen
Credit INS

Over this time he met my grandmother, Jean, and they got married – twice. Once in the court’s office (in January) and the second time was in the Catholic Church (in March of the same year) and both were in New York City.  Notice where he lived and my great grandparent’s names.

First marriage in Jan 1934 in NYC offices page 1
Credit FamilySearch.org

First marriage in Jan 1934 in NYC offices page 2
Credit FamilySearch.org

First marriage in March 1934 in St Monica's Church in NYC page 1
Credit FamilySearch.org

First marriage in March 1934 in St Monica's Church in NYC page 2
Credit FamilySearch.org

If you look at his mother’s last name on the certificates, it's Kelperich. I've found the Kelperich name comes from Hausten in Germany. As you can see, its not far from Niedermendig and Hausten really. 

The map shows Hausten and Niedermendig which is not really that far.
Credit Google Earth

 Then in August of the same year, they welcomed their first child, and my father, Matthew.

When my father was about 18 months old, my grandfather’s aunt and uncle took him back to Germany to visit and meet his relatives there. Only for once they got him there, they decided to keep him. It took the US state department to get him back home as he was a US citizen.

1935 My father in the front, with his uncle (who was to sign his marriage certificate) and his aunt who my grandfather mentioned on his ship manifests. Copyright of picture Jo Ann Fitzgerald.

Now comes World War 2…  Because my father says my grandfather served in the military in the medical corps during the second war. However, I’ve found no records about it so far. So is he wrong or maybe his parents lied to him? We will only know when we find proof, which we haven't yet.

What I do know, is where the death records have my grandfather dying is Castle Point, NY. My father says he visited him there and my grandfather was getting medical treatment there due to serving. Castle Point has a VA hospital because I’ve been there to visit another friend of mine.

This  shows my grandfather's birth and death and where his last residence was in 1981.
Credit SSDI and Ancestry.com

Could reading this force my grandfather's hand at enlisting to the US Army? The article goes on for a few pages
(Find My Past).
Credit: 1936 March 7 Syracuse Herald Hitler moves into Rhine Page 1

However, questions remain – Did he serve? If so, where did he go? 

Or was this how he served?

1945 WW2 Nuernberg list cover
Credit Fold 3

1945 WW2 Nuernberg list
Credit Fold 3

I need to put on that investigating cap again.

What else?

When my uncle died, he had my father’s cousin visiting – from Germany. This is where I met them when we came to the ceremony for my uncle.

Schmitz Reunion in 2002 after my uncle passed away. The man and woman on the left are from Germany.
Credit Helmut Schmitz

He showed us the house that’s apparently been in the family for hundreds of years.

The Schmitz house in Mendig Germany. Its been in the family for hundreds of years.
Credit Helmut Schmitz

The Schmitz house in Mendig Germany. Its been in the family for hundreds of years.
Credit Helmut Schmitz

The Schmitz house in Mendig Germany. Its been in the family for hundreds of years.
Credit Helmut Schmitz

The problem is now, no matter what I try, no one returns my emails which is sad. I hate losing the connection I wish I knew more about.

If you want to read a tiny bit about some history of the area, this is covered under another blog topic. 

Blog Challenge- Poor Man's Orange - Religion within the family

In an earlier post, I mentioned a challenge thrown out among one of my genealogy groups. The challenge, mentioned in Family Tree Frog's blog, used the movie Poor Man's Orange which centers on a Catholic Irish Family.

When I went through ideas regarding a post, One of them was a post about religion within my family.  Then I thought about religion within my family and I have to admit, I never really think about it when thinking about my research on my family. I've always been told we're Catholics and no more or no less.

Hubby's Family
With my husband's family? This was a major hurdle due to the family's background on both sides and there's been many ideas and reasons why parts of his family have flip flopped. It makes from some really good debates and ideas which have been batted around each time its brought up. Think of a cat with a mouse on a rope - its the same idea as here. I'm not sure if hubby has blogged about it yet, but you can look to see if he has here.

My Family- Paternal
Anyhow, getting back to my family. My paternal side I knew was Catholic because of the crosses in my grandmother's apartment she had when I was growing up. Further, my Uncle John, went to church every weekend hail or shine. I think the only weekends he hadn't gone was when he was really sick or they closed the roads. I still remember when I would stay with my grandmother, she would always say "John will be here after he goes to church." and she looked forward to those times. Sometimes I would even get to see my cousins if they were with him.

Part of St. Patrick's Church (Credit Picture: FB Group)

When it came to my grandmother and uncle's funerals, they were at the same place - St Patrick's in Newburgh, NY. I knew my uncle would have his services there, but to my knowledge I never saw my grandmother go to church which shocked me when I learned her services would be there too. It was only when I started doing my research I was told they allowed my grandmother to have her services there because of my uncle. She hadn't been to a service in years prior to her passing. Again, this was new to me.

Further, when I started to dig back into this part of my family history, I found my father had made his communion when I was sent a picture of him when he was a little boy from his cousin who had it in some family pictures. I didn't know who it was until I sent it to my father asking and he replied back "Its ME!" and my mouth dropped open.

My Father in the late 1930's or Early 1940's (Credit: Cousin Krzysztof)

Then when I found out the population of Polish people that were Roman Catholic I knew it had to be true. Add this to my finding my grandparent's 2nd marriage certificate in St Monica's Catholic Church in NYC, and my great grandparent's marriage certificate, in Russian, in a Catholic Church. This one talks about church banns and how my great grandfather was of a different parish, but still had the banns done in BOTH churches. This was very unique apparently. This meant our association with the Catholic Church went back centuries on this side of our tree!

My Great Grandparents marriage record in Russian (Credit Polish Archives)

My grandfather's side, even though he and my grandmother got married in a Catholic Church, could have converted over to Catholic. I haven't done much research on this side as yet, but it should be interesting to find out more.

St Monica's in NYC (Credit & Google)

My grandparents wedding certificate with Church name (Credit NYC Archives)

My Family- Maternal

Jules and Annie's headstone (Credit: Findagrave)

Now onto my mother's side. On my mother's paternal side, her grandmother, Annie Larsen, I'm not sure what religion she was growing up, although  Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark  was and is the main one in Denmark - the country she comes from. Her and my great grandfather Jules, were married by a Justice of the Peace, so this wouldn't be a clue either. Lastly, I would like to add, while these were all facts, I know Jules was Catholic and they were both heavily into the church AND are actually buried on the church grounds - St Mary's Church in Washingtonville, NY. It could be she converted or just started to follow the Catholic ways after they married.

Picture of St Mary's from their FB Page

As I said, Annie married Jules in a civil ceremony. Jules has always been an interesting creature in my opinion. He was raised in Belgium until he was 1 by his mother who was a servant when she became pregnant. His father was drafted into Belgium's army as a rifleman. However, when he found out about Jules' mother having Jules, he married her. The documents were recorded like they were Roman Catholic and the main religion in Belgium is Catholic. Besides, the documents I found going back to the 1700s all were Catholic in wording. Add this to him being heavily into the church in the USA and being buried with Annie and on the grounds of St. Mary's Church in Washingtonville, NY and I could say the whole line is Catholic.

Jules' Birth Record and info on father from Belgium Archives

Although, some of the cousins off of my line, were either in Catholic or in different religions which was interesting when I was looking at the different people. Some of these are below from a my cousin Jacqueline in Belgium.

Bertha Emma Barbara Verhaeghe known as Sister Maria Rufina

Jean Amand Verhaeghe in his office at church before his death

Picture of Oskar Verhaeghe as priest

Pic of Remi Eugene Verhaeghe as priest

Pic of Remi Leon Julien

Lon Ostrzycki's Church where he is the pastor. Lon's sons, cousins are all priests and/or ministers.

My mother's maternal line is a bit easier. I found my mother had made her communion when we went through her box of papers. Inside a small bible was the picture of her as a little girl and I asked her about it. She didn't remember where, but confirmed it was at her communion. Then when I would go back and ask about her mother, she didn't or wouldn't say much at all. Talking to my cousins and other relatives, I found my grandmother - her mother - was committed in part because of her going around blessing everything she could see, touch, feel, etc. and this was every day and all day.

Then when I went back to my grandmother's mother, I found they were Roman Catholics and Polish. As I've already mentioned above, this was normal to the people of Poland in religion. As I found other cousins, we agreed with the Roman Catholic religion aspect and they had gone back farther - to the 1700s - and found the religion had gone back that far as well. What's even better, is with my grandmother's other siblings, they are still keeping with the religion - my cousin Jason goes, and a few of my mother's cousins and their children all go and are reverends and priests in the south of the US.

With my mother's grandfather, the questionable Apolonius Jagodzinski/Leo Barry/Leo Berry (among other names) I found he came from the Galicia region of Poland. This is one of my brick walls as he changed names, and disappeared for periods of time which I found when I had is alien file pulled and sent to me.

My Takings
Growing up, mainly under my mother's care taking, I was told I was baptized (at St. Patrick's) but never had really gone to church. Growing up, I called myself a Roman Catholic but was mainly a community religion type of person. If someone I was around was going to church, I'd go with them not caring which religion it was.

If asked if today I go to church, I would say honestly - No, I don't. Why? Mainly because when the times for service are on, I'm usually busy doing other things. If they were easier to get to (the churches are only here and there and I'd have to travel to get to a Roman Catholic one) and have times when it would be better for me to attend I would. I do try and catch the Pope's online services for main holidays though.

I never take or put anyone's religion against them. However, if they decided to try and use it as an excuse to do something bad or unjust, then that's something else altogether. However, religion is NOT to blame - the person is.

I learned this by doing research of countries histories in Europe - Like Poland. Before it was attacked, Poland was one of the places on earth that it didn't matter what religion -if any- you had and accepted your unconditionally. This is how it should be no matter what.

September 11th
I do have to put this in here as most people put religion in with this event.

In fact, when September 11th happened, I was working with a Muslim on a few problems we were having at work with a computer program. He stayed away about a week as everyone was having problems with emotions. I as just glad my family was safe and felt for others who weren't. Anyhow, he came in one day and I sat down and I went back to working with him just like before. He sat there and I could tell he wasn't comfortable. I asked what was going on and he told me he felt like I was blaming him.

I looked at him straight in the eye and asked him if he had anything to do with what happened even though I knew he hadn't. He said No. Then I asked him what the problem was then? His mouth dropped open in shock. I told him I knew he hadn't had anything to do with it and whatever was/is going on there would be figured out there, but didn't have anything to do with us and what we were doing. I could see he still wasn't convinced and I asked him what else I could do to make him more comfortable and he couldn't answer. I told him when he figured it out to let me know, but I didn't - and still don't - blame him. In fact, I felt bad for him because of what others did made him feel like he had to stay away from people. That's just wrong.

In Conclusion
Religion can be many things to all of us.  Some people take the book, whichever they are using, and can use it for good or bad - just like anything. People use this for an excuse and that's all it is. An excuse.

Credit

You can read one thing and disagree with it and that's fine. However, what I'm seeing more and more is people disagreeing and then things turning nasty with name calling and being verbally attacked. That's just not something that should be done. Its not right. Different views on things (religion, political, taxes, traffic) makes us all different, but just because someone thinks or believes different things shouldn't make them a target for hate that's exploded in the last year.

And that just isn't right - at all. For anyone.

Anniversary of 9/11

Today's post is about memories of those who are innocents that have passed and those who stand up for others to protect them in civil duties.

On 9/11 I was in my home in bed asleep. I had been working many hours and would go to bed early to rise early to be at work. My husband, who had decided to stay up a bit later, decided finally to go to bed. In fact, this was one of the years we were actually going to be at normal times for many people - by 11pm usually we were in bed or getting ready for bed. On this night, we decided to go to bed early - me by 10:30pm and my husband at about 10:45pm. Later we would find out he had just turned off the light in our bedroom as one of the planes hit the Trade Towers.

Taken from http://world-visits.com/2011/11/world-trade-center-attack-911

Anyhow, at about 1:30am, our telephone line rings and as everyone knows, a phone call at that point of the hour - unless it was someone in my family that gets confused with the time zones AND had figured out how to get my phone number - its bad news. On that morning, a friend of ours who knew I grew up in New York, called me because she had fallen asleep with the TV on and woke up to turn it off and found out about the attacks in New York. She called me right away almost hysterical. I couldn't understand what she was saying but I had to try and calm her down. Then she just told me to turn on the TV and hung up the phone.

We got up and went into the living room and turned on the TV and did what most people did that day - sat there stunned. I'm not a morning person and it wasn't exactly hitting home what was happening. When it did, we sat there asking what everyone else was asking - why?

My Relatives
Then it occurred to me I had a nephew who worked down there and we had first responders in the family. I ran for my computer as I knew the telephone lines would be a mess and if anyone could get anything out to me it would be that way. I turned on my emails and had a FLOOD of emails about

One of my niece's husbands

what was going on. I learned most of my immediate family were fine but what about the others? My cousin? I then sent out an email asking about them...only to find that no one knew.

It took a few hours, and as my manager wasn't going to be in that day, I was it for the IT side of things, so I had to go in. I grabbed a few books I bought for our upcoming trip to NYC in about 6 weeks because I knew people were going to have questions. Once I got on the train going into the city, I was calling people asking about my sister, my nieces' husbands, and my cousin.

By the time I was almost at work, I found all were fine except my cousin. That wouldn't occur for a few more hours before I found that he had left the job at the World Trade Center - I believe it was building 5 - about a month before.

Waiting time

One of my other niece's husbands who was in the fire department

The big question was there - would they get sent down to help with the clean up or set up to help the people who were harmed? No one knew and they were all on standby in case they were to get sent down. I know my one sister, who is a nurse by trade, was on call. I asked her not to go down -
something I don't do because I know its her job to help injured people. My big fear? That whatever was in those buildings would harm her and take her away from her young son, Eric. She didn't believe me and told me she would think about it but I knew she wouldn't - if asked she would be right down there.

She knew people who were in the rubble. She knew the priest who was the first person killed. She knew one of the men who were carrying the priest as he was her friend's husband.

Traveling to NYC
As I said above, we had plans to go to NYC within weeks of 9/11. We had planned to walk around NYC and act like the tourists we are - something I don't really like doing as I feel like a jerk in my own state doing that. This was the one time I had agreed as I hadn't been down there but a few times myself. I bought books, wanted to see the balloons for the Macy's Parade, and go to a few museums. My husband, who was the bigger tourist because of not being in NYC before, had the longer list of things to see. One of them was the World Trade Center. I figured we could plan it just right to go in the morning and have a breakfast or brunch up there. I then bought the tickets and had them sent to my mother's house. They arrived a few weeks before 9/11.

Our tribute of 9/11 including the 2 World Trade Tickets we bought before the event happened

We did end up going to NYC, but I wasn't looking forward to it because of what had happened. Everyone was scared and tender about it. And not only those in the US either. At the time of the attacks I was working with a Muslim at work, and we were working on a programming problem for one of the computer systems. Then 9/11 happened. He was sooo uncomfortable the days after the event, I had to stop him and had decided to talk to him about it. I asked him what the problem was. He was scared about how I and others would treat him. I told him I know him and I would treat him like I always have. I couldn't say what others would do though. I asked him if, since he had been there that day, I had treated him any differently than any other day and he replied no, I treated him like any other day. I told him if anyone could be upset with him it would be me, but how could I be upset with someone I know didn't have anything to do with it? Unfortunately, he decided after that to be reassigned and I never saw him after that day. Now that's really sad that someone, who had nothing to do with the events actually ended up changing the way they worked or lived because of other idiots.

Anyhow, we did go to NYC, did the tourist thing, and took the pictures. However, once you got down past a certain level, all you could smell was - death. At first I didn't know what it was and as we got closer to what was the World Trade Towers, I figured out what it was. After all they were still burning at that point. Walking around the area was really sad. After awhile I was glad we had other tours booked and planned so we could leave that area.

First Responders
As I mentioned, I knew we had first responders in the family. My sister was a trained nurse and worked on an ambulance where she lived as a volunteer. My nieces both married men who volunteered or worked with the fire department near where they lived. Would they get sent down - who knew. Thankfully, none of them did. I know they all wanted to go down because they wanted to help as everyone did. However, for the family's sakes, I'm glad they didn't because of what was in those buildings.

Toxic debris
 I knew, deep down, there were things in those buildings who were going to make people sick. The pit of my stomach kept telling me there was something very toxic happening and people were going to be very sick. I had visions of the people from the Atomic Bombs in my mind.

The sad part is now we know we were right - it wasn't the Atomic Bomb toxic, but it was much worse because you couldn't see it or tell if it was going to affect you or not.

Genealogy and First Responders

As I'm slowly finding my family, I found there were many other first responders I never knew about. My cousin on my paternal side - actually he's my 1st cousin 1 time removed - Stanley Wojtkowski or

Stanley "Stash" Wojtkowski picture from http://www.poulsonvanhise.com

Slash. I've only just found him through records. He was a New Jersey State Trooper and I found he
had died in 2012 - 3 years before I could meet him. I can only wonder if he had done anything to do with the World Trade Centers and was is now known as 9/11.

Then on my maternal side, we have first responders too - in Pennsylvania. Again, I never knew anything about these men until just recently. The first one I found - my first cousin twice removed married someone, Sam Woncheck, who was a cop in one of the smaller towns. I had found my first cousin and her husband through many newspaper clippings and left it alone. Then a few months ago, I received an email from someone in the family and I am now corresponding with his son. Both of these men were cops and the son or my second cousin one time removed, was actually the Chief of Police in the same small town as his father. In fact, by the newspaper clipping from Charleroi Mail, it states Steve Ostrzycki and Sam Woncheck were there when a friend of the family died suddenly. What it doesn't say is Sam Woncheck's son was there as well.

1960 Caption about my relatives being on hand when a fellow Fire fighter dies. 

Where would we be without First Responders?
Have you ever stopped to think where we would all be without the first responders? Most people need to stop and think about these people at least once a year - 9/11 could be the best time - and be thankful to them as they do it for the love of the job and not for the money. Just take a few minutes to stop and think about all the times you've heard about them on the news or about an accident because like it or not first responders were there and they were the first ones on the scene to help, console, or even hold people in death. They were there for them all.

I'm lucky enough to not only have military men in the family but also first responders. In fact, I had a sister who became an EMT for a short time and I've been the first aider and safety person at work a number of times. It must be those genes where if we have something in the family, its sure to show even if you don't realize it until after the fact.

Taken from http://www.colonial-gardens.com/blog/2014/07/honoring-our-first-responders-with-summer-bed-and-breakfast-special-in-williamsburg-virginia.html