Please sign in to post.

Black Forest ancestoral search...

My wife and I will be in the Black Forest in early September for 4 days. We are staying in Gengenbach. My wife's grandfather and grandmother emigrated from the black forest in the late 1920's. Years ago my wife's father (now deceased) and my wife's uncle had taken my wife's grandfather back to Germany and finally, after he died in 1993, they scattered his ashes from an 11th century tower in the town where he grew up (his last request)...a town called Huasach.

Seems as though Huasach is only about 20 minutes from Gengenbach. My wife's uncle told us that there are still relatives in Huasach...in particular, an 88 year old who is the first cousin of my wife's grandfather. I have their names but am stumped on how to find their address. We would like to contact them by letter to see if they be interested in meeting us. I don't want to appear to be too pushy....that might scare them off. Any ideas on how to go about doing this? Thanks Rick

Posted by
138 posts

Hi Rick, Do you know or speak German or know someone who does? Perhaps you can contact the post office in Huasach and get their address from them. It might even be possible to send a letter to the town with just their names and they will get your letter. Personally, I don't think you are being too pushy. You should try to meet this relative. But if it doesn't work out, you should still go to the town that has been so meaningful to your wife's family. Walk the streets they had walked on and see with your own eyes what they saw. Imagine what it might have been like when they were there. It would be a spiritual connection.

Posted by
4090 posts

We did an ancestral search in a small town in Germany just south of your village, Hausach. By googling my relatives' rather uncommon name I found 2-3 people with the same last name in the town. I chose the one who owned a business I found online so I could mail a letter (also translated into German with the help of 2 friends) and photocopies of my great grandfather's reisepass to that person's address.

An alternative would be to send your inquiry to one or two of the churches in the town since that's where the oldest records are, or used to be kept. It turned out the person I sent the letter to wasn't directly related to me, at least since the 1300s they said, but he took my letter to an official who found my relatives. We communicated and they had a little family get together for us where about 30 people came to meet us, some bringing more pictures and documents of my great grandfather. It was wonderful. I wish you all the best on your search.

EDIT: none of my older relatives spoke English so it's important that if you do contact someone have your letter translated. I tried to write my letter myself but my German friends here needed to fine tune it...

Posted by
2393 posts

My father did this with several of his cousins. They had been communicating with a German relative via email prior to the trip. It was a very small village - they were big news - story & photo in the newspaper even the mayor came to meet them.

The population in 2013 was 5746 - A letter sent to the name, town & post code should arrive to the proper person. From everyone I have talked with and read Germans, despite being very private people, in general love hearing from their American "cousins".

Hopefully you or you can find someone to write you letter in German.

Posted by
2393 posts

If you do use google translate keep your sentence structure simple (think Sally, Dick & Jane) and do not use contractions nor slang.

Posted by
19271 posts

First, it might be beneficial to have the correct name of the town. It's called Hausach. It is on the rail line from Offenburg to Donaueshingen (goes through Gengenbach). It has about 5700 population and the postal code is 77756.

This ( from Wikipedia) might be the tower to which he was referring, "Um 1100 wurde in der Mitte der Gemarkung die Dorfkirche erbaut." (The Dorfkirche or village church was built around 1100 in the middle of the Gemarkung [district?].)

If Google translate is as bad at translating your letter from English to German as it is translating from German to English, look out.

Posted by
101 posts

Thanks for all your help and thanks you Lee for the education. I knew the correct spelling..I just had a brain lapse...nice to be corrected however

Posted by
63 posts

Richard, if you have at least the last name of your relatives, you can google the German telephone book. You also need at least the name of the town. The website is: http//www.dastelefonbuch.de.
Last name first, then first name, then location. I just tried it, it worked perfectly; gave me address and phone number of a relative. It asks "Wer, Was" (who/what) and "Wo" which means where. The "what" could be a business or hotel or whatever. You could also check the churches/parsonages to see if they can help you.

Posted by
101 posts

Thanks Anna..It worked !! I think. We will send a letter to the address and see if it gets there.

Posted by
63 posts

Rick, I'm so glad it worked! Put the ZIP or postal code in front of the town name on your envelope (and "Germany" below the address.) You probably already know this - so, just in case.