Many namesakes and theirs descendents who wish to learn more about the homeland of their forefathers, and wish to walk on the track of their roots. Some namesakes from USA and Australia have used this occasion.
In his book The ancestors and descendants of Johann and Anna Marie Bohnsack writes Dr. Theron Odlaug from Bannockburn /WI e.g. about his visitation in Mecklenburg:
As
a result of my year long Internet correspondence with Siegfried I decided, at
his invitation, to arrange to visit Siegfried and take him up on his offer to
visit the villages of my Bohnsack ancestors. In October I was scheduled to take
my annual business trip to Japan. It turns out it was less expensive to fly
around the world then to fly roundtrip Chicago to Japan. Therefore I arranged to
fly from Osaka to Hamburg via Frankfurt. I arrived in Hamburg on a Thursday
night and after a poor nights sleep I took a train to meet Siegfried and his
wife Christa in Wismar, Germany.
I
arrived in Wismar mid-day Friday and they were both there to greet me. I took an
immediate liking to them as we walked into the city center and to the Alt
Schwede for lunch.
Siegfried
ordered this lunch for us of Schweinebauch with Rotkohl (red cabbage) which he
said was a Mecklenburger specialty. I must say after a week of Sushi et al it
was mighty tasty!
From
Wismar we drove northeast to the villages of Kaegsdorf and Rerik (Alt Gaarz).
First we stopped at the church in Rerik. Part of the original church is from the
12th century. In this church our Johann Bohnsack was baptized. The church is
very close to the sea shore.
From
the church we went into the village Kaegsdorf. Here Siegfried showed me one of
the Manor homes (which had been converted to a restaurant), where the farm day
laborers would have to report for work each day (6 days of the week). Nearby was
one of the few remaining cottages (Katen) where these farm laborers would life.
Siegfried thought that our Bohnsacks probably lived in a similar cottage during
their years in Kaegsdorf.
As
we left Kaegsdorf and drove to Steffenshagen, Siegfried told me how hard is was
for our people to work and live under such conditions. He thought they had few
opportunities to walk on the nearby beach. lt is easy to understand how the
chance to own ones own land in America would have been so attractive to Johann
Bohnsack.
Steffenshagen
is the church in which Johann Bohnsack's grandparents were married and where his
father Christo-pher was baptized. It is easy of Vorderbollhagen where they lived.
We did not go to Vorderhollhagen as Siegfried said that all the old farmhouses
had been taken down in the DDR (the former Communist East Germany) time to make
room for Socialist style apartment buildings. Construction on this church was
started in 1273 and the altar is from the 16th century. The baptismal font is
one of the oldest in northern Germany and is believed to be older then the
church itself.
Leaving
we headed farther southeast to the outside of Bad Doberan to Althof. In Althof
Siegfried had arranged for a Frau Wissman to show the chapel were he thought
Johann and Anna may have been married. We also visited the ruins of an old
monastery that had been abandoned in the late 1,6th century. We were sure as we
walked among the ruins that Johann and Anna's children had played there over 150
years ago. Frau Wissmann really surprised us
as
we walked into the chapel as the had prepared the church as if for a wedding.
There were bouquets of grains and candles burning along the center aisle and
throughout the church.
Nearby
was the Herrenhaus now converted into apartments. After leaving Althof we went
to Retschow where Jo-hann's wife Anna Heincke was born. Here there were a number
of the traditional Mecklenburg farm buildings. The roofs are made from thatch
and at the comer of the roofs are decoration with horses heads?typical for this
region of Mecklenburg and here in Retschow we see another one of the Katen ?
maybe Anna's parents lived here or close by?
As
it was getting late in the day we continued south to the City of Guestrow where
Siegfried and Christa lived. They took me to my hotel and we agreed to meet
again in the morning. The next day Siegfried drove me to Parkentin and there we
found the retired pastor of the Parkentin church. He lived right next door to
the church and was happy to give us the key so we could visit the inside of the
church. It was great fun to be able to explore on our own.
Return to Guestrow we went to Siegfried and Christa apartment where Christa so so nice to prepare dinner for us. On Sunday afternoon after visiting the daughter of Siegfried and her family, I returned via the train to Hamburg. The next morning I flew via London to Chicago, knowing that I had two new Bohnsacks friends in Guestrow, Germany and also, with a deeper appreciation for our Bohnsack ancestors, and their life in Germany."
Note:
More information on the Bohnsack Ancestors of Dr. Odlaug can be found at
his web site at http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/o/d/l/-dr-theron-E-Odlaug/index.html
Meanwhile there are many offers in the INTERNET for Mecklenburg to prepare those trips.
I have selected a few homepages with references for settlements and villages from namesakes in Mecklenburg,
in relation to the destinations to those
places.
The position of the places is obvious from the following map: