Saturday, June 5 - Oelschuetz

Saturday we had arranged to visit the Winklers currently living in Oelschuetz.  So, how did I know there are Winklers living in the village?  Several years ago, when I first had the idea to visit Oelschuetz, I used Google to search for an online telephone book for Germany and found http://www.dastelefonbuch.de/ .  To search this "white pages" you enter the last name and then in the second field, either the Ort (village - in this case Oelschuetz) or the PLZ or postal code (04808 - which I knew from my research).

I had brought pictures and documents I wanted to share with them, so I spent Saturday morning organizing that material so I could quickly find the Kansas pics, the relative pics, the genealogy files, etc on my PC.

Fred drove to Trebsen for waters and a small gift for the family. When we arrived, they invited us in to visit. We realized later they probably didn't know what we really wanted and we didn't know what to expect from them either.

We started by sharing family records, then to put them at ease, I showed them photos of the area in Kansas where our ancestors built a grist mill in late 1850 or early 1860, followed by photos of our home and surrounding area. The son found us on Google Earth and I exclaimed "Fred, we're home - and you're double parked!" referring to his car parked beside mine in the driveway. That seemed to break the ice a bit. We still did not find a common ancestor, but our ancestors and theirs both with the name of Winkler lived in the small village of maybe 15 houses at the same time in mid 1800s.  I am still thinking there must be some connection. 

Anyway, then we toured the huge family garden, followed by coffee and cake back in the house.  After that, they showed us around the village so we could get some photos of the former Sun Mill area.   The mill is in ruins today, but so is the Winkler mill in Kansas. 

Following that excursion, the husband worked in the garden while the wife drove us to some surrounding villages where we explored the countryside and visited some local churches and cemeteries. 

Remember, in Germany cemetery lots are "rented" for say 20 years and if the family is not around to pay for a second "lease" the lot is re-rented to another family.  We did find some related names, both family names and other surnames we recognized of people who came from Germany after our relatives and settled in the same Kansas village.  Here are some of the names:  Winkler, Kunze, Buchheim, Wetzig, Heller, Kuhne, Oehmichen. 

When we returned to the house we were invited to rest in the shade and then to stay for BBQ supper.  We visited in the garden over a beer or two and learned lots about life in this part of the world during the lifetimes of our new friends. 

So how did we communicate?  They had some english and we have some German language.  Complex ideas were diffcult and the dictionary came out fairly often, but simple questions and illustrations worked well.  (Note:  In our B & B, the children were younger - middle school and high school, and the younger folks had quite good english language skills acquired in school in the last 15 or so years.)  Older folks grew up in the post war era and have little english. 

For supper, the son cooked brats on the grill accompanied by potato salad (cold), and home grown tomatoes and cucumbers. 

We had a great time and the family was very gracious to us.  We thank them for taking the time to help us get to know the village and the region.