Tuesday, December 9, 2014

THANKYOU!

For your donations to the Vassel Family Organization Fund

Because of the kindness of your donations to the Vassel Family Organization Genealogy Fund, you have also been donating, behind the scene, to the mission of Bruno and Cari Vassel in Germany. Your donations have been sufficient so that I have not had to ask for any additional money from Bruno and Cari this past year. Thank you so very much!

The family history effort continues to move forward. I have scanned and attached many family pictures on www.familysearch.org on the Vassel, Elmer, Edwards, Kessinger, Hill and Davies family lines. You can log in for free, and see the pictures in Memories as well as under each person that has photos attached. Such fun!

I marvel at the genealogy records that are becoming more and more on the Internet. A really great discovery was the church records of the town of Gröben just south of Berlin, Germany which has provided information back into the 1500s on our 4th – 7th Dreeke-Drewike great grandparents and their families. Ordinances for 116 people from this town and surrounding villages have been turned into the temple. See the records at:   http://kirchenbuch-groeben.de/

Another link gave me information about 232 descendants of our Vassel line that went to Turkey during the French Revolution. These names have also been processed through the temple system.

I have worked with Bruno and Cari to identify the correct Kessinger family line ln Karlsruhe, Germany and we are pleased to nail that down. I am also working through the information Bruno, Cari and I found on our 7 week research trip in 2013.

I just keep praying the Lord will give me a few more years of health and wisdom to keep this great work moving forward! It has been fun to communicate with Elizabeth Smithson and Cayr about helping with the research work. My sister Elisabeth Vassel Anderson and I really enjoy Skyping and working together on the hundreds of names in the two Greiner books we have from Germany. Bruno and Cari were able to attend a couple of Greiner family reunions in Germany this year, and in the process met family members who gave us new information on the Greiner families who moved to Brussels, Belgium and Hungary. I also found Vassel families in Slovakia from records that have been indexed and are online in www.familysearch.org.

I have been sorting hundreds of letters and photos in preparation for writing the Bruno Vassel – Mary Elmer book with will be a companion book to the Vassel-Kipke of Brazil book Vera kindly encouraged me to write with her help. Onward and upward.

Thank you so much for keeping the bank account with sufficient funds so that I can cover the various costs associated with genealogy research!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Friday, June 6, 2014



D-Day is still very poignant in the memories of the French!

In 2010 I wrote to the Genealogical Society of Normandy, France for membership because I have a number of direct-line ancestors who came from the Normandy area of France. I received the following reply which I have translated using google translate:

Good evening, Madam, 

We are always very happy to have members of the New World, from Canada or the United States. In fact, we will never forget the effort and sacrifice of Americans for the liberation of France in 1944. Especially me who lives near Sainte-Mère-Eglise and whose village Sébeville, was liberated during the night of June 6, 1944. Annually, the U.S. military comes and skydives alongside their British comrades, Canadian, French, and even now, Germans and they are wonderfully welcomed by the population. 
I have created your account GeneaBank:
(Personal account information)
Cordially, 

Jean-Jacques BREGUET 
President of CEGECAL 
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:34 PM 
Subject: Cegecal - Registration GeneaBank 
FRENCH:
Bonsoir, madame,

Nous sommes toujours très heureux d'avoir des adhérents du Nouveau Monde, du Canada ou des Etats-Unis. En effet, nous n'oublierons jamais l'effort et les sacrifices des Américains pour la libération de la France en 1944. Surtout moi qui habite à côté de Sainte-Mère-Eglise et dont le village, Sébeville, a été libéré dans la nuit du 6 juin 1944. chaque année, les militaires Américains viennent sauter en parachute à côté de leurs camarades anglais, canadiens, français et, même, maintenant, allemands et ils sont formidablement accueillis par la population.

J'ai créé votre compte GENEABANK :…
.
bien cordialement,

Jean-Jacques BREGUET
président du CEGECA

Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:34 PM


Elisabeth Vassel in front of the church at Neuilly-le-Malherbe, Calvados, Normandy, France when we visited Europe as a family. The village of our ancestors back into the 1400s.