My friend Herr Wessels from Bassum, Germany has been a great source of information over the last couple months. He’s also taken the time to teach me a lot about the region, naming practices, and has given me a glimpse into the society my ancestors lived.[singlepic id=4 w=320 h=240 float=left]
Originally, his thought was that my GG Grandfather, Friedrich Rathkamp was born in Neubruchhausen, but after some more digging, he really hit a home run. It turns out Friedrich’s birth name was Hinrich Friedrich Rathkamp, who was born in the very small town of Oeftinghausen, about 25 miles south of Bremen. Herr Wessels has sent me pages of the local history book which show my ancestors have lived in this town since before 1600.
It’s pretty amazing to have this flood of information all at once, especially since I was stuck at their emigration for years. All of a sudden I know exactly where they came from, and I also have a slew of other ancestors to process.
I took German for a couple years in high school. It’s pretty obvious I should have paid more attention, because I have to read through his emails and documents a few times before I get a good feel for what they say. There are a lot of documents he’s forwarded, and I’m always afraid I’ll miss an important detail.
Showing that the human element of genealogy always trumps names and dates, Herr Wessels actually met Walter Rathkamp in Oeftinghausen. From what I can tell, Walter is my third cousin. The picture below is taken from Walter’s front yard, and shows the Rathkamp farm and blacksmith shop.