June 27-28, 2001
 |
|
 |
| A Word from Your Editors
Birthdays & Wedding Anniversaries Gossip/Klatsch (formerly Dies und Das) Links Schwenk Reunion Chairman's Report A Word from Uncle Don - Traveling to the Heimat My Favorite Grandma Midi Music Mini Mall |
 |
The SchwenkNet Newsletter has been issued on a monthly basis since April, 1997. The only exceptions to that were the months of January and April of this year. Beginning this month, this newletter will be issued on a bi-monthly basis, the next issue being in July. At this time, we plan to create a separate page which will list all the birthdays and wedding anniversaries for the entire calendar. This will be a linked page. You will see what we mean in June.
Sometime in late 1998, we began printing a series of autobiographies
of many of you. We simply asked an individual to write a brief story of
his/her life, and it was done. Almost no one declined our request. From
what feedback we received, it seemed that these were interesting to the
readership. The only reason this column has not appeared for many months
now is that we simply stopped asking. We will try to do better. Thank
you.
|
1. Duff Schwenkbeck of Buffalo, NY celebrates his 30th.
Birthdays and Wedding Anniversaries in June 4. Loretta Andrews Broeker near Niagara
Falls turns 33.
Want to see how these and other Kids are related to you? Click here for those who are descended from John Schwenk and his immigrant siblings. Click here for all others. Want to see a gallery of pictures of most of these 66 Kids? (227 KB).
|
 |
 |
| Gossip/Klatsch (formerly Dies und Das) |
 up stuff |
(Editors' note: The underlined persons are Konrad's Kids.)
Charlene Laur Soos in March began a search of the ancestry of
her Johannes "Hans" Laur born 1622, a weaver in Laichingen. He was known
as "Ulmer Hans" and born in nearby Ulm. One of his daughters, Ursula, married
Georg Schwenkbeck in 1689, thus Hans is an ancestor of at least 80% of
us Konrads Kids. The records in Ulm reach back nearly one century earlier
than those in Laichingen, and so it will be very interesting to see what
Charlene digs up from the Ulm microfilmed church records...In April, Gordon
Schwenk of Boise won the Rockie Award for the second consecutive
year for a yellow page ad he created as a graphics artist for US West...John
Schwenk of Pasadena flew to Wheaton, Illinois near Chicago in mid-March
to visit his two sisters Clarinda Schwenk James and Arlene Schwenk
Judd...Philip Ruopp of Laichingen, a student at the U. of Ulm,
works part time as a photographer for the local newspaper, Schwäbische
Zeitung in Laichingen. A photograph taken by him appeared in an article
in late April featuring Heidi Schwenk, a long time employee of the local
Konrad Schwenk Linen Company which honored her for her 40 years of loyalty
to this 50 year old linen processing firm. Heinrich C. Schwenk, a co-owner
of this firm and grandfather to Philip, was quoted in this article saying,
"It is probably easier for one to stay married for forty years than to
work for the same company that long." Heidi is the wife of Hans Schwenk,
Heinrich's wife's brother...Irene Röcker Rehse, also of Laichingen,
recently acquired Paint Shop Pro, a graphics editing program, which
incidentally was recently the most frequently downloaded program on the
Internet according to zdtv.com. According to her penpal and PSP tutor,
Don
Schwenk in Idaho, she is making great progress. Perhaps for the July
issue, she will consent to some of her artwork being displayed here...Milton
Schwenk and wife Joann of Yakima, WA returned home in early April after
spending two months of relaxation in sunny Arizona...Nikki Schwenk Cartney
bought an old house in Verona near Pittsburgh, PA early this year and is
in the process of modernizing its interior...Rodney Schwenk
is now a flooring contractor in Boise, ID. If you need his services, here
is his card. 
...Jim
Schwenk and wife Mary of Wausau, WI and his sister JoAnn Schwenk
Carlson of White Bear Lake, MN flew to Sunnyvale, CA in mid-March to
visit Kathy Schwenk Axtell and family, the daughter of Jim and Mary.
From there, they returned home by car via The Grand Canyon and Sedona in
Arizona, Santa Fe, New Mexico. In Ireton, Iowa, they found the cemetary
where their Grandma Faringer Schwenk (daughter in law of John Schwenk,
immigrant) was laid to rest in 1917, and took a photograph of her gravestone...In
April, Gudrun Hilsenbeck and companion Markus of near Neu Ulm, Germany,
flew to Ecuador in mid-March where they spent three or four weeks traveling
throughout the land...Richard Schwenk and wife Caring are still
on the road visiting supporting churchs in the eastern half of the USA.
July 1 is the official date of his retirement after 43 years of service
as an agricultural missionary in SE Asia...Uschi Gorzelany in the
tiny hamlet of Kochstetten SE of Stuttgart, is a student at an agricultural
school in the nearby city of Münsingen, the home of Uli and Dieter
Schwenk. Uschi and her family have invited Don Schwenk to stay
at their farm for several days at the end of May during his three week
visit to this part of Germany (see accompanying article). Uschi commutes
to school on her Moped. She is not yet age 18. In Germany, one must be
18 or older to apply for a regular automobile driver's license...Michael
Rehse of Laichingen traveled in April with history classmates to Mt.
Vesuvius in Italy. Late in April, he and his girlfriend Bettina traveled
to Bodensee (Lake Constance) on the Swiss-German border for an outing...Gerd
Schwenk of Laichingen as well as Rudi Schönfeld, wife Rita
and son Bastian of Leutkirch, have invited Don Schwenk to visit
their homes during his visit in June...
Who of
you plan to attend the Schwenk Reunion in the Black Hills of South Dakota,
June 27-28, 2001? Remember, all descendants of our Konrad Schwenk
and their spouses are welcome - whether online or not. The Black
Hills is a spectacular part of America to see, to visit. Spend a week or
so there, and two days of that vacation meeting and mingling with your
blood kin.
Click here for a really great map
of the region..And also, don't forget to send
us news pertaining to what is going on in your lives...See you
next time.
Links
This is a link received May 1 from a Hilsenbeck cousin. Take a look.
It is interesting. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/daughters000420.html
This has to do with a recent newsbroadcast on ABC News. This is what
it said in part:
April 21 — It may be the world’s largest known family tree. Researchers
from Oxford University in Oxford, England, have identified seven ancestral
matriarchal groups from which all Europeans appear to be descended. These
maternal clans form the root of a family tree that has sprouted millions
of individuals.
Every European, according to the study, can trace his or her evolutionary history back to the seven ancestral mother groups, also referred to as the Seven Daughters of Eve.
http://www.thumbsplus.com/
will take you to the homepage of ThumbsPlus (Cerious Software, Inc). ThumbsPlus
is a remarkable image viewer and organizer program.
http://www.paintshoppro.com/
- This is where you can download as shareware an excellent image editing
program.
Schwenk Reunion Chairman's Report - Reprint
I am happy to report that the plans for the Schwenk Reunion in 2001 are progressing nicely. The exact dates for the Reunion are Wednesday, June 27 and Thursday, June 28, 200l. Many days off in the future, I know, but we also realize how our time flies, and now is the time to plan for this, one of the greatest of Konrads Kid's Occasions! All of us joining together for a visit, totally and literally "off-line", nothing virtual about it! It's truly the real thing!
In the December SNNL I mentioned that the reunion would be somewhere in the Rapid City area. I hope you "clicked" on that map that Don provided up above in Gossip/Klatsch, when he was gossiping about the Reunion. The Schwenk base of operations will be The Sylvan Lake Lodge which is situated at the edge of Custer State Park and is within easy driving distance to the scenic area of the Black Hills (Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Wind Cave, The Badlands, not to mention the totally awesome scenery of the Black Hills, and many more sites to behold). If you have never ventured "Out West", this area will provide you with one of the best scenic tastes of what the West is really all about!
At the Sylvan Lake Lodge we will have the use of a dining and meeting room at the lodge so that we can meet as a group. There are also rooms in the lodge and individual cabins at reasonable rates for lodging. For those of you who love to camp or have an RV, there is also a campground nearby. Sylvan Lake is a beautiful spot with clear water for swimming. There is playground equipment for children and plenty of hiking trails for individuals or families to pursue. As the days and months do bring us closer to the Schwenk Reunion 2001, I will be informing you of more facts and highlights about the area and the Schwenk Reunion itself. Most everything that we need for a wonderful get-together is ready and waiting for me to finalize.
In order for me to continue with this planning, I will need
your help. Please contact me, Jim Schwenk, at this address :
jamesrschwenk@earthlink.net
with an email message, telling me three things: 1. If you will be
able to attend the reunion. 2. How many in your group? 3. What kind of
lodging you would prefer?, (a lodge room, cabin, or camp ground.)
Also include any questions you might have, and I will respond. You can
see why it is imperative that I have this information so that I can tentatively
reserve lodging and meeting room size at this time. PLEASE WRITE
ME ASAP! at: jamesrschwenk@earthlink.net
Note to AOL users: When upon clicking those email
links above you find the symbols %20 in front of the address, simply delete
those symbols.
A Word from Uncle Don - Traveling to the Heimat
In January, I decided to travel again to SW Germany where so many of my distant Schwenk kin live. I will fly to Stuttgart where I will arrive on May 26. Uschi Gorzelany and a friend will meet me there early in the morning and take me to her home in the hamlet of Kochstetten where I will be the guest of Uschi and her family for about 5 days. If you recall, she was my guest here in Idaho last August. Kochstetten is about 2 miles NW of Mundingen (map) where our common ancestor Conrad Schwenk (1773-1867) and wife Felicitas lived and raised five children. As you can see, Uschi did not fall far from the tree.
After Kochstetten, I will travel to Laichingen, the cradle of our Schwenk ancestry, where I will be guest of Dieter and Irene Rehse and then later of Heinrich and Ruth Schwenk. And there will be many distant relatives and some other acquaintances, many of whom I've never met personally, who I will visit in this area between Stuttgart and Ulm. Sooo, look for a travel report in the July issue.
My Favorite Grandma (Reprinted by popular demand from
the Feb 1999 issue of SNNL)
By Don Schwenk
She was born on May 26, 1749 in Laichingen and christened Anna Ursula after her maturnal grandmother. Her father was Andreas Ostertag, a farmer and councilman. Her mother was Anna Maria Mangold. Anna's mother was Anna Ursula Mangold born Schwenkbeck, the daughter of Georg Schwenk, the so-called founder of the Schwenkbeck Clan. He was the son of Andreas Schwenk b. 1641, the son of our common Stammvater Conrad Schwenk. She would have known her Grandma Anna Ursula, but I doubt very much if she knew of that Schwenk ancestry nor would have cared. Just surviving was difficult enough in those days let alone being interested in one's ancestry - which of course has pretty much been the case until very recent times.
We know nothing of her childhood. She did have two sisters and one brother who survived and married there in Laichingen. How she learned in 1771 that a Conrad Schwenk, a recently widowed linen weaver in Feldstetten, was looking for a wife, we'll never know. Conrad then was a councilman in Feldstetten and perhaps he knew Andreas Ostertag. Conrad had married in 1731, but his wife could not bear children. In any event, Conrad and Anna Ursula became acquainted and married in Feldstetten on October 29, 1771.
This was not your ordinary marriage. Oh no! The groom was age 69; the bride 22. Before the wedding, the Feldstetten pastor took the pains to counsel the young bride and her parents on exactly what she was getting into. He then filled an entire page in the church marriage register describing the counseling session; he noted that the groom was childless and that he had sufficient assets to take care of the bride upon death. And then he had the bride and groom sign this document and had the parents of the bride sign it as well. This is the only time I have ever seen such a document in all the research I've done in this part of S. Germany!
Conrad was born in 1702 in Feldstetten, the son of Bernhard Schwenk. Bernhard was the son of Andreas, b. 1641, the son of Conrad 1601. Thus, Conrad and Anna Ursula were 2nd cousins twice removed. I am certain they were unaware of this kinship - not that it would have mattered.
On April 15, 1773, a baby boy was born to them. They named him Conrad.
He is my ggg-grandfather and the one who in 1797 settled in Mundingen and
became the local innkeeper and brewer. In May of 1775, a baby girl
was born who was christened Anna Maria. She died two years later. Conrad
Sr. died two months after this baby girl was born. Six months later, the
widow Anna Ursula married a local fellow Jacob Hilsenbeck, a brewer and
innkeeper. He was her age. They brought four children into the world. Only
one survived infancy. Then in March of 1781, Jacob died suddenly of illness.
Now the widow had little Conrad and a 3 year old Dorothea to take care
of. And so six months later (the required period of mourning in which
one could not remarry), she married Jacob Hezler, another brewer/innkeeper
from nearby Machtolsheim who then moved presumably to the Inn/residence
left to her by Jacob Hilsenbeck. They brought 3 babies into the world,
one of which survived. Then on July 20, 1789 while in childbirth,
Anna Ursula passed away.
I have named her my favorite grandma mostly because of the extraordinary
difference in age between her and Conrad Schwenk. I can't help being unendingly
grateful to her for consenting to marry that old childless widower, for
where would I be if she had turned down his offer?
| Midi Music Mini Mall |
 |
Some Webpages contain hidden imbedded links to midi files. That is,
soon after you open the page, music begins to play which is usually entertaining,
but the visitor has no control over this. Here, we will give you the freedom
of choice. If you choose, simply click on the links and adjust the volume
according to your preferences. A tip: If a large window opens containing
the midi file, simply minimize it so as to allow the continued reading
of the newsletter while the music plays in the background. If that doesn't
work, right click (Windows users) on the link, then select Open in New
Window.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Don's favorite) |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
Note to AOL users: When upon clicking those email links above you
find the symbols %20 in front of the address, simply delete those symbols.
