Hi, Liese: Sorry I haven't been in touch sooner, but as soon as we got back from our trip, we were back in the thick of summer school, getting school ready for Fall, and a surprise gall bladder attack which left yours truly heading for the second surgery in six months! All better now (well, mostly!). We had a GREAT time in Europe! Five countries in 21 days was a bit much, to be sure, but we did have a ball. We started in England visiting friends in the little town of Colchester, about an hour from London. From there we went to Holland for a couple of days, then Krefeld, then South to Lake Lucerne, Switzerland; back to Germany for a visit with our German friends in their hometown of Kamen; on to Hamburg for a day where we caught a plane to Stockholm to visit our Swedish friends for about six days, then back to Holland for a couple of days in Amsterdam and the flight home. A lot in a short time! Our visit in Krefeld was a trip and a half! It is a very interesting small city, quite industrialized, and not very much happening culturally that we could see in our short time there. I was not able to "steal" a phone book, but I do have a contact there who might be able to do so for us. Our first night there, we went to dinner at a local corner tavern and struck up a conversation with a young couple seated at the same table as we were. When he learned we were American tourists, he wanted to know "What are you doing in Krefeld; everyone here wants to leave!" He knew of the 13 Families and the history, and was somewhat impressed that someone had returned to visit. One day while my wife and our friends that we traveled with did other things, I took the car and went looking for the "Stadtarchiv" - that is, the city archives. Lo and behold, I found them with essentially no German and lousy maps! Anyway, I found a staffer who had some English who helped me locate someone who had a bit of information about the Op den Graeffs. Turns out that what I got was the German version of Neipoth's article on the Op den Graeffs and a second article on the 13 families. I did purchase copies of them, but haven't had time to get them translated yet. You know so much more about this, Liese, or anyone else on the list, do you think it is worthwhile to get them translated? Or are the translations available adequate for most purposes? One of the documents is in Neipoth's handwriting, as best I can tell, and is a bit difficult to even read, let alone translate. But if you feel it would be valuable, I can find someone here to get that translation done and send you copies, or I can send you copies of the original German versions. As I may have mentioned, both my wife and I are involved with barbershop harmony singing. She belongs to Sweet Adelines and I sing with a chorus of SPEBSQSA. As we know, the Internet has become a great point of contact for many purposes, including genealogy AND barbershop harmony, and to make a long story short, we located a German Barbershop singer before we went over, and made contact with him. He was immensely helpful in planning our stay in Germany. He lives about an hour from Krefeld and he and his family met us in Krefeld. We went for dinner to an old-time German beergarden, and had a wonderful time there. We did visit the Burg Linn Museum, but could find no one who knew anything about the windows, so perhaps that is a lost cause. Someone sometime may have more luck, but I was not that person! We also traversed "Philadelphiastrasse" and took pictures of the notice hanging from the street signs at each intersection with yours truly's ugly mug there to show reality (or frighten the children or something)! We had read of a place called "Philadelphia House," supposedly constructed to commemorate the emigration of the 13 families, but had no luck finding it. While I was researching the archives, our friend walked Philadelphiastrasse from one end to the other looking for Philadelphia House, to no avail. Even though the products of the journey to Krefeld were somewhat slim, it was a thrill to be in the location from which our common ancestors emigrated. I do hope to return someday, and hope to learn a bit more German so that a followup visit could be somewhat more productive. If time had permitted, I had wanted to try to visit Aldekirk, not far from Krefeld, but it did not permit. Again, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. Let me know your preferences on this. David Updegraff

At 06:18 PM 9/20/2000 EDT, [email protected] wrote: >Hi, Liese: > Dorothy Streeper paid to have Neipoth's document translated many years ago. I'm sure it is in my files. However, I won't have access to them for another week, maybe two. I'll report later. Maurine Ward >haven't had time to get them translated yet. You know so much more about >this, Liese, or anyone else on the list, do you think it is worthwhile to get >them translated? Or are the translations available adequate for most >purposes? One of the documents is in Neipoth's handwriting, as best I can >tell, and is a bit difficult to even read, let alone translate. But if you >feel it would be valuable, I can find someone here to get that translation >done and send you copies, or I can send you copies of the original German >versions. > > >David Updegraff > >