Hello Ray - The ethnic publications I mentioned earlier have been started after the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans, starting in 1945. The first one did not appear until after 1946 in a crude format. They are the communications media they use to provide news to the citizens of the former villages in a given district. If you need an example of what they contain I'll gladly scan a page of the ones I subscribe to. Write me a summary of whom you are looking for and I will consider what you can do. Send it to Frank@soural.com Frank -----Original Message----- From: rtklapka@aol.com [mailto:rtklapka@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 11:27 AM To: GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Writing possible cousins in Europe Dear Mr. Soural, In your message of 19 Mar 2006, you mentioned the existence of local town Heimatbriefs or Heimatbotes prior to 1946. Did these account go back to the 1800s? If so, I would be very interested since my Grandparents were born in Rostitz and lived before emigration in Udanky or Undanks. They emigrated in 1909 and 1911. Sincerely, Ray Klapka -----Original Message----- From: Frank Soural <frank@soural.com> To: GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 14:29:52 -0500 Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Writing possible cousins in Europe Hello All. There is a way to do that. Here is how: Every district in Bohemia and Moravia that had a substantial German population, prior 1946, has a monthly or quarterly Heimatbrief or Heimatbote in which subscribers get to announce birthdays, deaths, marriages and generally keep in touch with one another. It lists names, current addresses, their house numbers back home and maiden names of the ladies. It is the practice to have each village in a district represented by a Caretaker (Ortsbetreuer) who assembles all messages for his village and gets them ready for the printing presses. He/she is usually someone from that village who knows the history of the families. So that is as close as you can get to finding where a branch of your family now lives in Germany. I am intimately familiar with two such publications, The "Mein Heimatbote", of which I am a subscriber, issued monthly by the "Maehrisch Schoenberg" district association of former German inhabitants of the district and the "Schoenhengster Heimat" by the Schoenhengstgau German Sprachinsel (linguistic Island) which includes cities and villages like Alt Moletein, a village that has Celtic roots going back to 400BC, Landskron, Maehrisch Truebau, Zwittau, Hometown of Oscar Schindler of "Shindlers List" fame and of course Hohenstadt my Hometown (born and raised).Both districts are located in Moravia. If you are looking for cousins in those two districts write me a note. We have been successful in bringing together two families. Every other Sudeten district should have these periodicals that could be contacted. The problem is finding their mailing and contact addresses. If anyone knows of such "Heimat" publications let me know I'll put together a list for posterity. Frank -----Original Message----- From: KarenHob@aol.com [mailto:KarenHob@aol.com] Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2006 1:14 PM To: GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Writing possible cousins in Europe ....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. ---------------- Back in 1993 I found over 140 ancestral surnames in the German phone book. I selected the ones that lived in Bavaria and sent out 50 letters. The letters were in German with an English translation on a second page. First it explained that I was looking for familes with ties to an ancestral birthplace in CZ (there still was a CZ then). I said that I was interested in learning about the family history and in perhaps meeting any cousins who might want to meet me. I explained who I was, who my parens were, what my work was, who my husband was and what my daughters do. (Germans like to know "enough" about anyone who is asking them for personal informatiion.) I included family tree information on the ancestors from the specific birthplace in Bohemia who came to the US in the 1869-1870 at the bottom of the letter. The data included: Name, DOB, House number, parents names, and a little bit of history about the families who came to the US (where they settled, what happened there if it was interesting). I included information going back to about 1793 with the trade of each ancestor listed (two were Richters and one was an Ortsamtmann). I made sure that part of the letter had no English in it. I started the letter with the comment that I could read German but I could not write it very well. (A friend did the German version for me.) I kept the language simple with short sentences and I kept the letter short enough to fit on one page. I was able to fit the family history stuff on the same page but would have put it on back side of that page if needed. I sent out 50 letters. I received 16 replies. About 5 of the replies cam by FAX!!! If you have a FAX number be sure to include it. Some FAXed replies may have no other contact information so be sure to keep a master list of names and addresses on letters sent out. That way you can reply to a FAX with a FAX or you can send another letter. A FAX can actually be cheaper than a letter. If there are FAX numbers given in the German phone book for any of the contacts it may be worth testing if the response to FAXed messages is better overall than the response to letters. Of the 16 replies I received there were several that were from people who had their mother's name -- they were illegitimate, some born during WW I, and their mothers had worked as servants in another household. They knew little about her prior history. However, the town in which their mothers worked were all within a few miles of my ancestral birthplace. One of the replies came in English from a man whose family had special ties to house number 21 in Mariafels although they lived in another village. They . also had family lore about ancestors who were Richters and family members who had gone to America. They sent me a lot of information and even some photos!! I scanned the photos and returned the originals although they did not ask me to do that. My sister and I went to Germany in 1997 and we visited this family in Regenstauf. It was an amazing experience!! One of the women who was born with my ancestral maiden name looked so much like my grandmother and mother that they could have been sisters! The young man who had written me had the same family profile. They called some of their other relatives living in Germany (one in Bad Windsheim) so we could speak to each other. They served us some typical Bohemian village meals and we really enjoyed listening to the sing-song dialect they spoke -- though it took real concentration to try to understand. Fortunately the one fellow could translate. It was a wonderful visit and we are still staying in touch. Since our visit two of the women are no longer able to communicate well -- Alzheimer's disease. One of them was living at the family home when we were there and her memory of family back in CZ was still clear. She did not talk much but she had her own collection of photos she wanted us to see. Not only is it worth it to make the effort to establish contact with cousins it is important to do it SOON. The people who were expelled from CZ are getting pretty old and they will not be around much longer. The younger generations who have not become active members of Heimat organizations have little interest in their roots in Bohemia -- they consider themselves German. Some may want to find their roots as they age but right now all they can tell you is that they don't know anything about "that". One reason may be because their elders never talked about it much -- it was something they wanted to forget. We all know of ancestor's whose standard reply to questions about where they came from was, "Why do you want to know that?" or another "non-answer". I don't know if that was the case with my cousins in Regenstauf. I do know that when we showed a deep interest in what had happened in Bohemia / CZ they were very eager to tell us about it. If you plan to write to possible relatives in Germany or Austria you should know that Germans in general are reluctant to speak to strangers. Austrians may be more responsive but I have no experience with them. Some of them may read you letter and pass it on to someone else who may / may not be interested in giving a reply because they preferred not to talk about the past. Some also may have been suspicious that the letters were from someone who "wanted something." One of the relatives my cousin telephoned when we were in Regenstauf said that he had also received my letter. He did not reply. My guess is that it is better to send out many letters (at $1 or more each) than to send out too few if the response I got (16 out of 50 is 32%) is an indication of what might be expected. I also think it is very important to stay in touch as much as possible with all the respondants -- even thouse who cannot help but who were willing to reply. You never know when they will visit the US and even if you cannot go to Germany to meet them you may find they are eager to meet you. My Regenstauf mother and son came to visit several times and the first thing they wanted to see was the family homestead farm near New Ulm. They came one year during the Heritagefest and that was the high point of their travels -- learning how the old traditions still meant something to German-Bohemians in Minnesota. That kind of visit could probably "loosen more tongues" about the Heimat than any other experience. Alas! The Heritagefest is no more. Karen ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== Would you like to see messages that were posted before you joined the list? To browse the archives, go to: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L/ -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.2.5/284 - Release Date: 3/17/2006 -- No virus found in this incoming message. 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