“Family Archaeologist” explores a century of family letters, diaries, and artifacts, and how they illuminate history and our shared humanity. To get an overview of the blog, click: “Welcome to Family Archaeologist”
LATEST BLOG POSTS
A World War II Draftee—70 Years Ago
Seventy years ago today, my grandparents and newly married parents faced a foreboding task, one that was shared by just about everyone in America with a young man of draft age in the family.
Facing Death: A Veteran’s Day Tribute
Lt. Frank Ebner Gartz DOB 1924 This Veteran’s Day, I’m remembering two relatives who each served in one of the two world wars. World War II My dad’s younger brother, Frank Ebner Gartz, was a navigator in the last year of World War II. He trained stateside from January, 1943, through December, 1944. On [...]
Happy 70th Anniversary, Fred & Lil
Fred and Lillian Gartz, Nov. 8, 1942, outside church Seventy years ago today, my Mom and Dad vowed to stick together in good times and bad, in sickness and in health. Those vows were tested across the decades, but despite life’s pummelings, they stayed together to the end. This post was originally published last [...]
A Millennium of Germans in Transylvania
This post was originally published on my blog on February 1, 2011 Evangelische (Lutheran) Kirche Neppendorf (near Sibiu)Historically, the Gärtz family church TRAVEL TUESDAY Church as History On the second day of our 2007 roots-finding trip in Romania, my brother, Bill, and I met up with Renate, church secretary of the Evangelische Kirche Neppendorf, [...]
Landing the Dream
This post was originally published on Jan. 11, 2011, and the the references to the 100th anniversary are based on that date. Today is the 100th anniversary of Josef Gärtz, my paternal grandfather, arriving in America, losing the umlaut over the “ä” and becoming Gartz. My guess is that he didn’t record his first impressions because [...]
Atlantic Crossing in Winter
Friedrich der Grosse from NorwayHeritage.com This post was originally published on Jan. 5, 2011. Crossing the North Atlantic in the heart of winter was a grueling experience, as Josef reports in his diary. The first and second days were fine, but the other ten days we had very stormy weather so that not a [...]
Out to Sea
12/30/1910—First page of letter from Josef to Lisi on F. Missler stationery This post was originally published on Dec. 31, 2010, 100 years to the date that Josef Gärtz boarded the ship for America. Once Josef arrived in Bremen, and his path to America seemed clear, he wrote to Lisi. Not only had Friedrich [...]
Threats to the Dream-Vienna to Bremen
This is a repost, originally published on 12/28/10. Josef wrote both in his diary and to Lisi about his terror atop the train from Pressburg (Bratislava) to Vienna, one corroborating the other, but each using slightly different language. In the diary he wrote: I thought the sharp wind would throw me under the fast train like a [...]
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