Sometimes, when you throw a question out into the universe,
you get a response. In January of 2008,
I asked a series of questions for the Carnival of Genealogy. Though my paternal grandmother, Anna, was born
in the United States, all her ancestors were born in the Stolp district of
Pomerania. At the time, because I didn’t
(and still don’t) speak German, finding the information seemed head bangingly
impossible. So, it’s fifteen years later, and guess what? Some of my questions now have answers. I am reposting that January 2008 entry along
with my found answers.
Of Mothers and Daughters and Dinner Parties — Part II
The 41st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy asks the
question: If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they
be and why?
When my great-grandmother, Emma Gleffe Schröder, first set
sail for the United States in 1906, she knew that she would probably never see
her father, brother and sister again. It's not known if Emma's mother, Pauline
Gleffe, was alive at the time of Emma's departure, but in the German letters
that were saved, Pauline is not mentioned.
Emma arrived at Ellis Island with her husband, Leo, and
their two sons, Wilhelm (Willy) and Max, on April 1, 1906. Speaking no English
and being sponsored by Leo's brother-in-law, Karl Kollat, Emma and Leo settled
on the outskirts of Clyde, Ohio. There they found other German-speaking
families, and just as important to Emma, a Lutheran Church that she could walk
to each week, to listen to the German service.
For my second dinner party, I would choose Emma and her
mother, Pauline, as the last two ancestors to share a meal with me. Though I
would love to see the land where Emma grew up and where Pauline lived her life,
I know exactly when and where this dinner party would take place.
There are very few things my grandmother told me about her
mother, Emma. But the one thing she did say was that her mother was a good
cook. My dad has also told me the same thing of the grandmother that he called,
“his buddy.” So I am inviting myself to Sunday dinner at the Schröder house in
Clyde, and Emma and her mother are doing the cooking.
Once they get used to the idea of being together again, I
can imagine the two of them clucking and speaking in German, with my
great-grandmother translating for me. I would be madly scribbling down recipes
and notes and helping with whatever menial chores the two women would assign
me.
I WOULD ASK PAULINE (with Emma translating)
What date were you born?
2 Oct 1849 at Klein Gansen,
Kr. Stolp, Pommern, Prussia (Full Name:
Pauline Albertine Mathilde Gleffe) [i]
What are the names of your parents?
Friedrich Wilhelm Gleffe and
Johanne Helene Wilhelmine Bujack[ii][iii][iv]
What date were they born?
Friedrich Wilhelm Gleffe was
born 20 June 1815 in Klein Gansen, Kr. Stolp, Pommern, Prussia[v]
Johanne Helene Wilhelmine
(she went by Wilhelmine) was born 22 Sept 1819, Klein Gansen, Kr. Stolp,
Pommern, Prussia[vi]
What is your husband's full name and date of birth?
Wilhelm Gottlieb Gliffe DOB: 17 January 1852 Goschen, Kr. Stolp,
Pommern, Prussia[vii]
What are the names of his parents?
Friedrich Gliffe (sometimes
Gleffe) and Henriette Bastubbe[viii]
When and where were you married?
Do you remember your grandparents?
What were there names?
Gottfried Friedrich Gleffe
(he went by Friedrich) and Katharina Anna Zoschke[ix]
Christian Friedrich Bujack
and Dorothea Luise Jahnke[x]
Tell me a story about your grandparents.
Tell me a story about Emma when she was a little girl.
I WOULD ASK EMMA
Who were your paternal grandparents?
Friedrich Gliffe and
Henriette Bastubbe[xi]
What do you remember of them?
What do you miss about your homeland?
Who was Albert Tuschy and how are the Tuschys related to the
Schröder family?
Albert Tuschy was the
brother-in-law to Emma’s husband, Leo Schröder (Schrader in the U.S.) He was married to Leo’s sister
Bertha Eva Adeline.[xii]
Albert acted as informant in
the death of his mother-in-law, Caroline Wilhelmine Quetschke Schröder
(10 April 1895, Gaffert, Kr. Stolp, Pommern, Germany)[xiii]
Albert also acted as informant in the death of his
father-in-law, Wilhelm Heinrich Schröder (4 March 1917, Budow, Kr. Stolp, Pommern,
Germany.)[xiv]
Tell me about your in-laws, Wilhelm and Karoline Quetschke
Schröder.
What was the trip to America like?
What is a favorite memory you have of your mother?
What is a favorite memory you have of your father?
Tell me a story about your daughter Anna as a child.
What is your recipe for your Christmas log roll?
I would give them some private time to talk, to cry and to
laugh. Then later, sometime in the afternoon, Emma's daughter Anna would stop
and drop off her 7-year-old son. For I have chosen to have my dinner party the
exact summer that my father stayed with his grandparents during the week.
[i]
Evangelische Kirche Budow Taufen (Evangelical Chuch of Budow, Baptisms), 1849
No. 121
[ii]
Ibid
[iii] Evangelische
Kirche Budow Taufen, for Augustine Philippine Franziska Maria, 1852 No. 20
[iv]
Ahnenpaß (Ancestral Passport) of
Margarete Gleffe, from the Research of Jörg Glewwe, Nov. 2020
[v] Ibid
[vi] Ibid
[vii] Evangelische
Kirche Budow Taufen, 1852 No. 5
[viii]
Ibid
[ix] Ahnenpaß of Margarete Gleffe, from the
Research of Jörg Glewwe, Nov. 2020
[x] Ibid
[xi] Evangelische Kirche Budow Taufen, 1852 No. 5
[xii] Standesamt
Budow Heiraten (Marriage Record Civil Registry for Budow) , 1887 No. 3
[xiii]
Standesamt Budow Tote (Death Record Civil Registry for Budow), 1895 No. 16
[xiv] Standesamt
Budow Tote, 1917 No. 7
©30 Jan 2008 & revised 1 Dec 2022, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
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