My Corner Online

 

Reitz Genealogy | Johann Heinrich Reitz & Anna Margaretha Wolf | Johannes Heinrich Reitz & Marie Katharina Fischer | Adam Reitz & Margaretha Anna Michel | Olga (Ollie) Agusta Reitz & Edward Henry Geile |

Michel Genealogy | Jacob Michel & Johannen Marien Friederiken Ruhl | John Heinrich Michel & Katharina Nungesser | Johann Heinrich Michel & Maria Siebert (John & Mary Michel) | Margaretha Anna Michel & Adam Reitz | Olga (Ollie) Agusta Reitz & Edward Henry Geile |

John Bergman Research | Uncle Dan, John Michel's brother

THIS IS MY WORKING GENEALOGY BIOGRAPHIES, PLEASE DO NOT COPY AS FACT. Some photos are personal and should not be copied and republished; other images are okay. Documentation I collected as proof to support facts (i.e. dates, relationships, etc.) are available for your use. I share freely, but please do not abuse copyright or perpetuate any information without supporting facts that may or may not be in error. I try to mark in red my questions or documents I need to look for, so your assistance in making this a complete collection is always appreciated.

 

 

Pioneer Genealogist John Bergman

 

We start this page with a tribute to John Bergman, our pioneer genealogiest for our Rietz and Michel family lines. Much of the information provided on these pages was due to his research which was obtained from his typewritten notes. John traveled to Germany on August 15, 1939, to meet with distant relatives. He was caught in Germany when Hitler came to power and had to make his way to England to get a ship home.

 

This is an excerpt of a writing by our pioneer genealogist, John Bergmann: Now we come to a suprising find by myself which happened on 15 August 1939 when I arrived in Raibach, Hessen Darmstadt, to visit Reitz ancestral home. From railroad station in Gross Umstadt, I had walked to Raibach, then on next morning with a Heinrich Fischer had ridden on bicycles to Semd, the village from which Maria Seibert had come. I met distant relatives (this was 89 years after she had left), then rode to Gross Umstadt to visit a very old great grandmother by name of Mrs. J. Walter who was a godchild of Maria Seibert and to whom Maria probably had written many times up to her death in 1895. How astounded I was to find in her living room displayed many pictures of Reitz daughters born in St. Louis, Mo. all sent before 1895. Then she gave me the letter which Maria Seibert had written in March 1851 to her father in Semd in which she describes her travels to Mainz, steamer to Koeln (Cologne) train to Antwerp, sea voyage, steamboat trip up from N.O. (11 days) arrival at St. Louis levee, being taken to residence of John Tempel because she had had a badly burned food on steamboat coming up from N.O. This letter I still have now 126 years old. She also gave me a letter writn to her in 1893 by Elisabeth Zachelmayer Michel (widow of Heinrich Michel, eldest son who had died 1887) in which failing health of Maria is described, also the nearing completion of St. L. Union Station at 18th & Market.

 

Note: I would love to see copies of these original letters

 

(this page under construction)

 

 

Copyright Cheryl Rutledge-Brennecke
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