Hi Martin, I have had some good luck with finding distant cousins in Europe. Yes, it is possible that Anna received packages in East Germany during the 1950s. I have found out that my greatgrandmother also sent packages, and that the relatives, when found, remember this. But is Gath the surname you should be looking for, for Anna's descendants? I have had success with finding descendants with a limited surname like that. In my letters, I would say that perhaps they would pass it on to someone in their family who was interested in family history, if it is not of interest to them. Some people were excited to find their American relatives, and even had someone who remembered something about the long ago immigrant that they had heard. Other letters were thrown away, I'm sure. But I have visited some of the found relatives! It may be easier if the family had lived in one place for some generations. Some of the heimat books for certain areas have lists that show not only who lived where in 1945, but even where they are now (when the book was published). Some groups of villages were deported to specific places, and they still live in the places in Germany to which they were deported. When you look through some of the magazines of the German-Bohemians, you see reports from a number of specific towns in Germany -- because so many resettled there. Linda ----- Original Message ----- From: Martshep@aol.com<mailto:Martshep@aol.com> To: GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com<mailto:GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2006 11:10 AM Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Finding distant cousins in Europe! Hello, I am interested in attempting to locate some of my cousins who probably still remain in Europe. This is what I have: Peter Bubak, his wife Anna, and their five children emigrated to Tarentum, PA from Gutwasser (in the Wald near Hartmanitz) on the steamship EMS arriving on 12/15/1884. In Bohemia, this Bubak family moved around. They were in Gutwasser for just 11 years, having moved there from Krombach/Schanzendorf in 1873. They moved to Krombach (speaking German there) from Zarican, East of Czaslau in 1834. Before 1834, the family had Czech first names and lived in what I believe was a Czech area. These immigrant children went on to live a long time. Among them was Frederick Bubak, my great grandfather who died in Butler, PA in 1960. The last of these siblings died in Tarentum, PA in 1970. In the 1950s, Frederick corresponded in German with his first cousin Anna Bubak Gath, who lived in Krombach probably until the 1945 expulsion. (I have tracked Anna down in the Austrian census until 1922.) Unfortunately, the correspondence is lost, but I do have a 1953 portrait of her which was taken in Zittau, East Germany. I was told by my Aunt Charlotte (who grew up in Fred's house) that Fred would send care packages to Anna during the 1950s. I am not sure that this was really possible during the Cold war. Was it? Or perhaps she made it to West Germany? Based on Anna's 1953 photo, I'm wondering if she might have relocated in nearby Zittau, Germany after 1945. I checked the German telephone book, and there are only about 30 Bubak listings in the whole of Germany. I plotted these out on a map to see which Bubaks lived in proximity to Bohemia. Is it appropriate to send a search letter to these people, or is there a better way to locate Bubak cousins presently with us? I am open to any suggestions and insights that you have. Thank You, Martin ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== Forgotten how to UNSUBSCRIBE? Visit http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/mailinglist/mailinglist.html<http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/mailinglist/mailinglist.html>