First, I received boxes of material that originally belonged to my great-grand parents (Johann and Theresia (Mueller) Holl) and my great-aunt (Barbara Holl) and found the following obits. Please let me know if any of this might be of use to someone: Mrs. Harry Schmidt (died in auto accident, July 1, 1969) John f. Schroeder (4/27/1880-Jan 7, 1970) Carl Reinhold Steinberg (1/6/1884-1/1/1970) S. C. Page (Lincoln Co. pioneer) 2/4/1888-6/8/1969) Emil J. Geyer (4/8/1882-6/4/1969) Amalie Gronemeyer (daughter of the Rev. John Hahn, pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church) died 8/12/1965 Memorial cards for the following: Ernest Friedrich Obermueller (12/4/1872-8/8/1961) Martin Luther Stover (10/26/1884-12/22/1960) William Otto Lebien (3/17/1869-1-29/1961) Ervin E. Schultz (12/24/1896-9/22/1959) William H. Schroeder (4/1/1878-10/6/1947) Herman Kowalke (5/10/1859-1/6/1947) Funeral sermons for Olga Geyer (funeral 6/18/1974) and Herman and Mildred Meier (funeral 9/29/73) Second, I will use this opportunity to express my genealogical glee. A couple weeks ago, I visited Lincoln. While I was there, I visited my father's first cousin, Marguerite Gabelmann, who is 93 years old. I contacted her in the hopes of viewing some old family photographs. Not only did she show them to me, she GAVE them to me--several boxes. Not only that, but she led me down to her basement to look through about 10 boxes of letters and more photographs--which she also gave me. She told me that her children were not interested in any of it. She has congestive heart failure and could go anytime. It has a happy coincidence that I contacted her now, before everything was sold at auction to strangers. I am particularly excited, because the materials will hold many clues to two paternal lines that I have made little progress on. My Holl great-grandparents must have saved every letter they received. There are many, many letters from my g-grandfather's siblings in Germany, beginning in 1870, when my g-grandfather immigrated from Upper Franconia. There are also many letters from my g-grandmother's relatives in St. Louis and Alton, Illinois, plus old tax documents from the 1890s, papers related to my g-grandfather's land claim in Kansas, German prayer books and hymnals (including one that belonged to my g-g-grandmother and stamped 1847) and more stuff I haven't even gone through yet. It is a genealogists dream come true. I have begun to sift through the letters. A casual survey has already revealed some very interesting family stories. Many of the letters are in old German script. I read German, but the script is difficult and may take lifetime for me to decipher. Going through the letters made me realize that we have lost something with e-mail and telecommunications. No one rights letters anymore. What evidence will future genealogists have about our generation? I, for one, am going to start writing more letters. Scott Holl Researching: Paternal lines Holl (Oberpreuschwitz bei Bayreuth, Bayern, Germany) Müller (St. Louis) Wolting (Rußfort, Niedersachsen, Germany) Tiemann / Meyer zum Vorwalde (Dahlinghausen, Niedersachsen, Germany) Maternal lines: Walters Quillin Harshbarger Walls Crowe

How exciting, Scott - truly a genealogists dream come true. Why write "real" letters?? I save my emails. Someone will someday inherit stacks of floppys and CDs! Only thing missing will be the handwriting - and I do have some of that also. Glenda *************************** Glenda Garrelts Mattes Dover, Mass DoverGGM@zK-State.com PLEASE SAVE THIS ADDRESS ----- Original Message ----- From: "sholl58" <sholl58@rcnchicago.com> To: <KSLINCOL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 09:55 PM Subject: [KSLINCOL] Some obits plus a genealogist's glee Going through the letters made me realize that we have lost something with e-mail and telecommunications. No one rights letters anymore. What evidence will future genealogists have about our generation? I, for one, am going to start writing more letters. Scott Holl