You gotta love Tante Margret!

My in-laws rarely spoke about their life back in Germany. I had asked a few questions throughout the years but I only got the incomplete names of their parents and the information that they all had died young, one grandfather having been killed in World War II. Unfortunately, as often happens, I did not seriously get into family history until after the passing of my parents and in laws. My hubby's only uncle had also passed and then it occurred to me. Tante Margret, his wife!

My husband thought quite a bit of her and so did I. An interesting, smart, talented, energetic, opinionated, and feisty woman  who could be counted on to spill the beans on everyone, I thought she would be a good choice to interview. I was right. Over our periodic Rummikub and Gin Rummy games (she cheated and we all knew it) I would question her.  She knew some about her late husbands family and offered to loan me a photo album he had kept. Within that album was a family ledger that her husbands maternal grandfather (my husbands great grandfather) had kept. Bingo! I now had the names of some of my mother in laws ancestors and photos of my husband as a child that even he had never seen.

I scanned the ledger, blew it up on my computer screen and with some internet tutorials on old Germanic script I was on my way.  Margret turned out to be a great resource that I went to again and again. She was my bridge back to family in Germany. You gotta love Tante Margret!

Otto's Kränzle's "Famlien Stammbuch" (family ledger) can be viewed by clicking the tab up top of the blog. or just click HERE!