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. 

A Comment on a User Comment

Hi All.

Recently I've had a inquisitive person ask me the following question within the comments:

Is this why you left New York? on Requests for more information in NY and NYS

The person is asking in relation to the Requests for more information in NY and NYS from Reclaim the Records about my ancestors in the past.

Me in 1997 after flying over 40 hours to get to Australia to marry and live here permanently

The answer is - No. I left New York and New York State before I started doing my family history research. The reason behind me leaving the US for Australia? I met my husband online and we had decided to settle in Australia.

We had to pick a country and upon us looking at livability Australia seemed to be the overall best choice for vacation/holidays per year and our lively hood.

View on now nearly 20 years later 

After taking such a long time to GET a job the first time, I thought I was on my way. However, since then I've been retrenched or my position cancelled within the companies I've worked for TWICE. This last time was the real winner as it was a decision from above and the way they had things done was not a good feeling for me in my position. However, I carried on and could be satisfied I fulfilled my job to its full completeness and there is nothing for anyone to complain about whatsoever. I can be proud of that.

1998 from the BAN magazine at P&O.

In say this, since then, I have had an OUTSTANDING tough time finding a position. I don't know why as everyone has always been more than happy with my performances and ethics, but for some reason they just don't want to hire me.

I've done something outside the box and hired someone to come through and look at my resume. They said I did everything right, but they wanted to really pare it down and reword a few things... now, once I get my classes under full control, I can then apply for positions. I'm hoping in the next week or so I can get to do this.

However, I'm not very happy because I'm starting to think with me being from outside of Australia, employers are not looking at my job performances but at where I lived 20 years ago and are judging on that regardless all of the experience I've had here in Australia.

Its been really tough but I'm hopefully I might have some luck soon.

Requests for more information in NY and NYS

I was born and raised in the state of New York. I didn't realize until I started to do my family history, both of my parents were born in New York too. I knew growing up my paternal grandmother was born in Poland and we had German from some place in the family. Then I did ask a few things and

1939 picture of paternal grandfather Mathias

was told we had Polish on my mother's side and Irish mixed in there some place. As you do, you take it at face value when you are growing up. My parents, other than my asking, never spoke about their family histories because it just wasn't done. My paternal grandmother, and the only grandmother I can remember having a true relationship with (as the other was in a mental hospital), talked when we were together every now and then about her family - Damn Russians or Ruskies, about how her family was killed in Poland, my family and cousins are all gone from there, my Dad's brother died fighting in a war in Poland, how Germans/Nazi's and the Gestapo would come to town and how they were treated, and about how she had great times in the rivers with her cousins and how they were the last ones to leave Danzig - they closed the gate right after then as they crossed to the ship to sail to the US.

When I decided to start looking, I knew it was going to be tough because of all of the historical fighting but you just have to keep chipping away at it a piece at a time. Now, over 15 years later, I've found cousins, and know a bit more about those ancestors.

Taken from http://www.dhses.ny.gov/oem/contact/images/oem-regions-old-vs-new.jpg

There is still one area that confuses me - New York City and New York State. I've tried to request my grandparent's information and it sounds simple. You look at the guidelines, say you want a certificate for genealogy purposes, and pay money. However, that's not always the case.

New York State Dept of Health (Vital Records Section, Genealogy Unit) or form DOH-4384 form says:

The first point I met as I told them they were deceased and the dates, I told them their social security numbers, and their birth dates. Point 2 is about the number of years to wait for both birth and death which is what I was after.

The details:
These are about my grandparents on both sides. My grandmothers were born in the years 1910 and 1912. My grandfather's were born in the years 1906 and 1909. The birth records would have needed to be before 1938 as I did the request in 2013 (2013 - 75 = 1938). As you can see, I should have been able to receive these forms.

The death records were the ones I was worried about because of the dates. My grandmothers died in 1999 and 1988. My grandfather's died in 1975 and 1981. The death records would have needed to be before 1963 as I did the request in 2013 (2013-50=1963). As you can see, these requests would have been asking for the 3rd point, which is does.

As for the marriage documents, I would love these as well and had requested them. One set of grandparents were married in 1934 and the others in about 1935. One set I was able to obtain from a natualization documents and FamilySearch film I ordered in. The other one I wanted and the 50 year rule applied (2013-50=1963) and these I should have been able to be sent due to the marriages being prior to this date and both parties being deceased.

A Letter about my request they send every 6-12 months. Dated 2015.

Instead I get a letter stating before they'll release ANY of the information I need to show direct linage to them. I can't do this only because my parents haven't released their birth certificates to me, so I'm stuck. I do however, get a letter about every 6-12 months about them needing more information. Above is a letter from them in 2015 about my request.

However, I emailed the county my ancestors lived in, thinking I would have a similar problem to this for my requests for my maternal great grandparents information. This one came as a shock as within a week I received an email back stating they would go look and would I need it all or just sections? I was shocked. Within 3 months I had the full set of documents plus one more family member they had found for me sent to me AND it was FREE. I was shocked.

I thought I was the only one going through this, but talking to others on different Facebook pages I found I was just like many others.

The past 6 or so months, I've been following the Reclaim the Records requests. They've been trying to get files, which should be released to the public but isn't, for awhile too. They are getting the same mixed responses as I am. I felt this was comforting and full support their efforts.

I'm going to take some excerpts of one of their emails they've sent out to tell you about their "A Tale of Two Records Requests"

Six weeks ago, we submitted two records requests to two different government agencies, and so far we've had two wildly different responses and experiences. And yet both of these agencies are supposed to be operating under the same law, the same forty-year-old New York State Freedom of Information Law. It's amazing how different two agencies can be.

And then the email goes on about the best:

We are happy to report that, so far, New York's Department of Health has been excellent about this request. They have clear FOIL instructions online on their websites, for would-be records requesters. They acknowledged the receipt of our records request within five business days, as required by law, and assigned a unique tracking number to our request. They let us know that they would need twenty more business days to do some more research into the matter, also as allowed by the law. They then responded again and gave us a timeline for a potential records release, with a projected date of March 18th. They included in that notice a direct phone number for their legal department. And when we then called them up, they were very helpful about our request on the phone.

Which is great as its in the system and should get something back - a yes or now. Not a need more information after having the information for months.

And then the email goes on about the worst:

The City Clerk's Office never responded with any kind of acknowledgment of our request, even though they are required to do so within five business days. They don't have any FOIL information at all on their website for would-be records requesters, nor do they list their Records Officer on this public listing of all New York City FOIL contacts. which is very unusual for a city agency. We had even sent them a friendly "heads up" e-mail (you can read it online here) two weeks before the FOIL request was made, letting them know that a request would be coming their way soon. They never replied to that e-mail.

We then sent two follow-ups to our official FOIL request, one on January 14th and one on January 29th. Again, they never responded at all, in violation of the law. We've tried calling them, at multiple official New York City phone numbers, and we've left messages, and they all go unanswered. We even thought about using their website's general purpose Contact Us form, but it only allows a limited number of words and will inactivate the form's Submit button if you try to post more than that -- hardly a way to submit a public records request.

At this point, a total non-response to a records request from an agency is considered, under the law, to be the same as a denial of a request, except with extra bonus points for not following the rules. 

So, we had our awesome attorneys at Rankin & Taylor write up our Constructive Denial Appeal letter, and it went in the mail over a week ago.

 Again, this is the same state but just different people responding to the requests. What the hell New York? Get with the program and start doing your job. Don't keep people guessing and release the information, by law, you are supposed to release and don't just hold everything up. If you cannot release certain information state why but give the information you can.