Thanksgiving - 2023
Often American origin stories are mixed into the mythology that surrounds Thanksgiving. And as is the case with most federal events these days, there is no universally accepted value that underpins Thanksgiving. But pushing all of that aside, Thanksgiving remains one of my favorite times of the year. For me, it is the quintessential family moment. This year, just days before my 50th birthday, I am reflecting on family backwards and forwards. This is the last Thanksgiving occurring before we become “empty nesters.” A new part of our journey and family story is opening up before us.
Some of my earliest, most developed and favorite family memories are associated with Thanksgiving. For most of my preteen years, we spent the long holiday weekend in Des Moines. Memories of traveling in the Winnebago flood back. On one trip in particular, I remember the motorhome breaking down after we got off the highway. I must have been younger than five, so I don’t recall the details, but I do remember Grandpa Harry appearing with the car to rescue us. I remember the stories of food, more than I remember the food, but Grandma Phyllis likely worked for months preparing the feasts. Other little flashes of memory remain, like watching my dad and Grandpa Harry taking the air conditioner out of the window at the store, preparing for winter.
Thanksgiving, Chanukah, my birthday…they have always gone together. Family and celebration. Just writing this now, I recall on what must have been my seventh birthday, receiving a “Fabulous Fred” and programming “music” on it, forcing my uncle Michael to listen while he was trying to nap between meals. Those days always began with a Texas Donut. My family still begins Thanksgiving with donuts.
Over the past few years, I have used part of Thanksgiving to take stock of my family tree. This year, I thought I would try to capture it in writing. It has been an extraordinary year for recovering and celebrating my family tree. At Thanksgiving time last year, one brick wall, my Great Great Grandmother, Sofie Dampf, was still impenetrable. And this year, through her, I’ve gone further back in history on this part of my tree than on any other. This breakthrough is still fresh, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I believe I could be back to the 14th century through the (new to me) Guggenheim and Weil family lines. The Guggenheims, because they were a famous family, are well documented as is the Weil family which is a rabbinic dynasty that began in the 1300s.
I was able to get there, back before Sofie Dampf, because I found living cousins (also new to me) who had information that I didn’t. I have mostly focussed on, as we say in our house, “the dead people.” I have spent the last couple of years building a family tree that currently contains about 800 people. I have been immersed in the stories of the dead. But along the way, I have now met about a dozen living relatives that I didn’t know before.
I wrote in a previous post, that when my Grandfather, Harry Oster served in the military in WWII, he trained in an elite intelligence unit whose graduates came to be known as the “Ritchie Boys.” Harry’s first cousin Eric Metzger was also a Richie Boy (his obituary mentioned his service and then I found his name in Sons and Soliders. And then last month I began corresponding with Diane Metzger and Sandy Honeyman, Eric’s two daughters, my 2nd cousins once removed. Last weekend, we had a zoom meeting with them and others from our line of the family. It was great to meet and I look forward to our continued connection and learning about their branch of the family that was lost to us. It feels a little bit like ours was the lost or banished tribe and we didn’t even realize it.
With the information that Sandy and Diane had about their father’s military service, and what we know about Harry’s service, we determined that they likely overlapped at Camp Ritchie for two weeks in November 1943. Given the size of the base, the barracks and the dining hall, they most definitely were reunited during that time, probably having not seen each other since Harry left Stuttgart in December 1937.
Diane shared a list with me that came from her Aunt Lotte. The list was the family record for Maier Dampf. I was able to corroborate the list with an entry in the Würtemberg Family Register.
Maier Dampf family record ~1865. First wife was Sarah Guggenheimer, second was Fanni Auerbacher.
Maier had two wives, Sara Guggenheimer and Fanni Auerbacher. With these two wives, Maier had 20 children. The list above was likely submitted around 1865 when only 15 of the children had been born. The third child, with his first wife Sara, was Sofie Dampf, my Great Great Grandmother who had been a brick wall. Her mother Sara Guggenheimer was born in Lengenau, Switzerland where the famous Guggenheim family originated. I need to do some verifying, but I believe I see a line back to the 1300’s. Sofie’s great-grandmother was Sara Marx Weil (my 6xGGrandmother), born in 1720, and even though there seems to be a historical gap in her pedigree, a documented hypothesis links her back to a rabbinic dynasty that began with Rabbi Yehuda Weil, born in 1360.
In April, Debbie and I toured around parts of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. There too we met some living relatives. In Lithuania, Debbie and I visited Kaunas where we shared a meal with Liuba Stulgaityte, my 3rd cousin 2x removed, and her daughter Daina Stulgaityte, my 4th cousin once removed. There is a photo of our meeting in a previous post. It has been a treat to connect on a basic human level with people with whom I share an ancestor. In this case the shared ancestor was Gx4Grandfather Tevel Bolnick, born in 1820.
In October, I was invited to give a presentation to the Minnesota Jewish Genealogical Society on our trip to the Baltics. A video recording is here.
I have made a lot of progress in recovering my tree and some of the stories of my ancestors since last Thanksgiving. And I still have so many open questions…a lifetime of work still ahead.
Some open tasks and questions that I want to tackle this year:
Build out and verify Guggenheim and Weil lines
Unsung Hero Jerome Mendelson - who was this guy that gave affidavits of support for Grandpa Harry Oster and several of the Schwarzschilds and Metzgers?
Find a death record or other proof of existence for Bernard Oster, Grandpa Harry’s Brother.
Lotte Lutufman - A “Cousin” living in Australia connected to Ernst and Elsa Ostertag who sent a letter when I was born.
Translate more Letters from Europe to Elizabeth Rochlin
Sam Kiss - Fully translate Yiddish Letter to Louis Locketz that mentions family
Explore the Mondry/Pokorny line from Rebecca Frank
In this time of Thanksgiving, I am especially thankful for my family. Over the past year I have gained a few new names through this ongoing project…Guggenheim…(who knew I am a Guggenheim!)…and Weil among others. I also gained a few new relatives. Even in challenging times, life is good.
Debbie, Emma, David, Adina - Thanksgiving 2023
Some Locketz’s, Schwartz’s and a Kealy - Thanksgiving in MN, 2023
