Hartmut has saved the day — again! If you’ve read my prior post about the Schmidt family of Müggenburg, you’ll know that my knowledge about this branch of my family (my mother’s father’s father’s side) is wholly thanks to the efforts of one local historian, Mr. Hartmut Wegner of Mönkebude.

When Hartmut read that post about how I’d traveled to Müggenburg and met a man named Bernd Wackrow (who I imagined could be a distant cousin), he was inspired to do even more research on my behalf.

The depth of Hartmut’s generosity and kindness is hard to fathom. He actually drove down to Müggenburg himself, found and spoke to Bernd, and then went back to his computer for several days of desk research. How many hours he spent scrolling through scans of old church records, I’ll never know. But in the end, Hartmut cracked the mystery and, in the process, revealed to me a family tree much larger and more complicated than I’d previously known.

The photo above is hard to see, but it’s a print out of a new family tree that Hartmut made, spread across five pages on my floor. This new tree shows that Bernd and I are fifth cousins: I am the descendant of Wilhelmine Friederike Wackrow (my great-great-great grandma, mother of Wilhelm Schmidt) and Bernd is the descendant of her sister Maria. Before she married in 1853, Maria gave birth to a son in 1845 named August who took his mother’s maiden name. That was Bernd’s great-great grandpa. Had that name not been passed down, I wouldn’t have thought to knock on Bernd’s door 177 years later.

And that’s the contingency of history for you. One small change, one small decision can have a ripple effect for centuries. My ancestors decided to seek work elsewhere — across the Atlantic in North America. Had they not, my ancestors would have worn the same military uniforms as Bernd’s ancestors. We all like to think of ourselves as individuals, freely choosing the path our lives take. But none of us are immune to the sweeping course of history. We all get caught up in its currents.

I am writing this post today with a very full heart. I am exhausted from my travels (on top of my jet lag, I’m recovering from COVID). But I am feeling extremely grateful to Hartmut Wegner for unlocking several mysteries about my family from Pomerania. Without preservationists like Mr. Wegner, our world would be missing the depth and perspective that history affords us. We are in your debt, Hartmut!