In 1978 and 1979, Richard Thelig, a German Immigrant, translated the Adams Church families did not know the names of the villages where their ancestors came from in Germany. Now we can pinpoint the exact location of the village of origin of some 150 immigrants to Adams Township. That Church book revealed that many had come from the single village of Wachendorf and attended church at Heiligenfelde one mile away.
Likewise, Mr. Thelig's translation of the Huntersville church book reveals that many families in the Batesville area came from the Engter Bramsche-Venne vicinity just north of Osnabrueck. The Hubble"s church book reveals a variety of places of origin for the families of that church. Other church books remain to be examined, translated, and studied for more information.
As a result of the translation of the church books, contacts are being re-established with communities in Germany. In 1985, I traveled to Heiligenfelde, Germany, presented a copy of the Adams Church book to the Pastor, and gave an interview to the local German newspaper about the origins of Ripley County immigrants in the Wachendorf Heiligenfelde area. I tried to meet relatives of several Adams Church families and returned copies of letters to one lady that had been written by her great aunt 75 years earlier. She in turn gave me a photograph of Sophie Rohls at her home south of Sunman.
I also traveled to Engter, the home of some early Huntersville families, to find my own third cousins, the Dreyers, still living on the old homesteed built by my great-great-grandfather. Our families had not communicated for 75 years, yet we both had photographs of each other's grandparents taken at the turn of the century.
In 1986, Professor Antonius Hoffmann of the Emigration Instute at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, came to visit both Oldenburg and Huntersville, Indiana for a large-scale project evaluating German letters, documents, and church records. He too is interested in linking the communities and families on both sides of the Atlantic. Detlef Goldmann of Heiligenfelde whom I met on my visit to Germany also came to visit Adams Church in November of 1986.
Phyllis Bergman Rhodes, a descendant of the Behlmer and Selke families, recently traveled to the Heiligenfelde-Barien area to meet her 4th cousins, the Segelkes. Keith Selke of Indianapolis had provided the research which re-established these family ties. A few families may have maintained some contact with their roots in Germany through the years since immigration.
This is potentially just the beginning of further communication, and exchanges for both sides of the Atlantic. We have much in common, and have had over a long period of time.
Some of the oldest human questions are "Who are we?" "Where did we come from?" "Why do we behave as we do?" "Where did we get our ideas?". Partial answers to these questions are to be found in the homelands of our ancestors.
There are places and communities back in Germany and else where where our forefathers lived that still exist. Although times have changed, they still eat some of the same food our forefathers ate, live in the old ancestral homes modified from the original barn-houses, use and cherish some of the old furniture, cultivate their fields meticulously, and plant flowers everywhere. Some still even intermarry among these same families that have also intermarried over here.