In Search of ..... myself? Part 2

Then I asked myself, "Why isn't there ever anything written about us of German descent?"

There are Polish Americans, there are Irish Americans.  Italian Americans.  So on and so forth.  My grandparents, who spoke Low German at home amongst themselves and with a few others well into the 1980s, never fell into being hyphenated Americans.  They were Americans, and they didn't appreciate it being advertised they still spoke Low German, thank you very much!

Of course, two World Wars have something to do with this.  In my church history book I talk about Rev. Justus Lohrmann, Pastor Lohrmann's son who almost stood trial in WWI, down in Southern Illinois.   (The man who was not American enough in WWI lost his son in WWII.  Justus was born in Richmond, Michigan.)  Whenever I would ask questions about the war years, my grandparents refused to talk about the "German" question except to say that one never, ever spoke German except when sure it was safe.  I've also heard the local stories of the farmer of German descent, whose family has been here since the 1830s, and the zealous milkman who dumped out into the ditch "that German milk."  Germans are racists, horrible people, uneducated, unrefined, you name it.  I know, I've heard it -- and gotten the treatment to go with it.  We're still immigrants, 4 and 5 and 6 generations later.

My family ditched "Germany" between 1840-1871.  Sometimes I have found towns, sometimes not, and some of the places seem to be those not found on maps.  When I ordered the Busia book, I also ordered two maps from the Polish Art Center.  I have looked for years for old maps showing old place names, and these are from the 1830s-40s.  Some of these place names are: Woderik Vorfonen,  Brandenburg, Schwaneburg/Schwanburg, Kadlow (Kartlow perhaps?) (Pomerania), Schmarsow (Pomerania), Pasewalk (Prussia), Rossow bei Prenzlau (that family originally moved to Germany from France!), and Schwerin.  These are the names written down in family records and sometimes church records.  For you see, all I have to do to go visit multiple generations of my family is drive down to Sterling Heights, Fraser, and Clinton Township, to some obscure cemeteries, and there I find generations going back to my 4th great-grandparents or so.

But these names -- they aren't all from Germany.  Some appear to be in modern day Poland.  Then there are the last names... I have been told by real Germans that some of my family names, like Rohrbeck, isn't German at all.  "Never heard of it before.  Are you sure it isn't Rohrbach?"  No, in the few records that have shown up from Germany (Schwaneburg area) it is very distinctly "Rohrbeck."   So tell me, do these people look German to you?  (My great-grandma is in the back row on the left, picture taken in 1929.  Grandpa and Grandma Rohrbeck are in the center, both of whom were born in "Germany" or "Prussia".)

So in the end I'm left with the question that all Lutherans learn in Luther's Small Catechism :  "What does this mean?"

Well, a few thoughts.  On my mother's side, I come from a long line of Lutherans, and German would have been the language of the church.  (Some Reformed/Calvinists show up also, but the language was still German.)  Lots of border changes, Prussian Union of Churches, etc, and throw in some moving around (Grandpa Rohrbeck and his siblings were born in different towns in "Germany") did nothing but confuse the nationality.   Throw in a couple wars and goodbye any records that may have been.  In many respects, I'm no further than when I started trying to work on "the family tree" over 20 years ago.  I have more questions than answers when it comes to "what am I?"

Stay tuned for Part 3.