When my sister went to Germany with her husband to visit the in- laws, he took her on a side trip to Denmark from which our grandfather emigrated to the U.S. As soon as she saw it, she inexplicably burst into tears, apologized, saying she didn’t know what was wrong with her. My wise brother-in-law told her “Why of course you would have these deep feelings — this is your Heimatland.” I wondered: in your travels in, and living in Europe, did you experience that almost mystical feeling of deep affinity for a place?
The short answer is that I don't think I've ever been close enough to any of the ancestral places to feel that specifically. I feel a little bit of that in Iowa and Minnesota (and I wonder if I'd have that feeling in western PA), but the last of my ancestors came to the US about 1890, but the bulk of them were here by 1870, and I've got a few who were here in the 1700s, before the Revolution. I'd love to be able to visit some of these places specifically, especially East Prussia.
It's odd, because I will feel "at home" almost immediately almost anyplace, and over the years, Chicago, where I grew up seems more and more foreign, though on the rare occasions I am there, things are just instinctual - I know how to get around, and, say, get a good meal even if I don't know the restaurants specifically. The funny thing is, as much as I've travelled, I don't know that I've been close enough to where my family came from to feel like I instinctually belong. I've spent a lot of time in Bavaria, but my mom's family is primarily from northern Germany - near Hannover, Mecklenburg, and in what's now part of the Kaliningrad oblast of Russia. My dad's family is Swedish, Norwegian, with some southern British thrown in, and I've never been to Sweden or Norway, and in the UK, I've only managed to get to London. However, years and years ago, I "met" a Norwegian girl from Trondheim online (she's into tech as well) and eventually, we saw pictures of us and both of us were shocked at how much she and I looked alike. I do have an interest in genealogy, but with my Norwegian side being Johnsons who settled in Minnesota, I didn't really expect that I'd ever get beyond the "coming to America" part without professionally researching it. Well, about a year ago, a couple of matches panned out online, and I have connection to where in Norway they came from. It really was no shock that they came from around Trondheim. *L*
The East Prussia stuff is interesting too, because I wonder how much it would feel like "my home", especially considering that my relatives left mostly in the 1860s, and the Germans were driven out after WWII. I get photos from the area on Instagram and showed it to a friend who grew up in the former Soviet Union, and he was shocked at how German (and still nicer) the area looked as compared to, say, where he grew up in eastern Ukraine. But a lot of that visual heritage is crumbling as well.
Oh my goodness! My German brother-in-law was from East Prussia, and always proud to tell people that. After years in the Arbeitdienst, being drafted into the German regular army, escaping the Eastern Front by capture by the British in Italy, years more in POW camp in north Africa ... finally to go home ... but by then he had no more home. It had become part of Poland. Heartbreaking. So I’ve become interested in East Prussia too, my dear one’s lost home place.
When my sister went to Germany with her husband to visit the in- laws, he took her on a side trip to Denmark from which our grandfather emigrated to the U.S. As soon as she saw it, she inexplicably burst into tears, apologized, saying she didn’t know what was wrong with her. My wise brother-in-law told her “Why of course you would have these deep feelings — this is your Heimatland.” I wondered: in your travels in, and living in Europe, did you experience that almost mystical feeling of deep affinity for a place?
Anyway, thank you for sharing these photos!
The short answer is that I don't think I've ever been close enough to any of the ancestral places to feel that specifically. I feel a little bit of that in Iowa and Minnesota (and I wonder if I'd have that feeling in western PA), but the last of my ancestors came to the US about 1890, but the bulk of them were here by 1870, and I've got a few who were here in the 1700s, before the Revolution. I'd love to be able to visit some of these places specifically, especially East Prussia.
It's odd, because I will feel "at home" almost immediately almost anyplace, and over the years, Chicago, where I grew up seems more and more foreign, though on the rare occasions I am there, things are just instinctual - I know how to get around, and, say, get a good meal even if I don't know the restaurants specifically. The funny thing is, as much as I've travelled, I don't know that I've been close enough to where my family came from to feel like I instinctually belong. I've spent a lot of time in Bavaria, but my mom's family is primarily from northern Germany - near Hannover, Mecklenburg, and in what's now part of the Kaliningrad oblast of Russia. My dad's family is Swedish, Norwegian, with some southern British thrown in, and I've never been to Sweden or Norway, and in the UK, I've only managed to get to London. However, years and years ago, I "met" a Norwegian girl from Trondheim online (she's into tech as well) and eventually, we saw pictures of us and both of us were shocked at how much she and I looked alike. I do have an interest in genealogy, but with my Norwegian side being Johnsons who settled in Minnesota, I didn't really expect that I'd ever get beyond the "coming to America" part without professionally researching it. Well, about a year ago, a couple of matches panned out online, and I have connection to where in Norway they came from. It really was no shock that they came from around Trondheim. *L*
The East Prussia stuff is interesting too, because I wonder how much it would feel like "my home", especially considering that my relatives left mostly in the 1860s, and the Germans were driven out after WWII. I get photos from the area on Instagram and showed it to a friend who grew up in the former Soviet Union, and he was shocked at how German (and still nicer) the area looked as compared to, say, where he grew up in eastern Ukraine. But a lot of that visual heritage is crumbling as well.
Oh my goodness! My German brother-in-law was from East Prussia, and always proud to tell people that. After years in the Arbeitdienst, being drafted into the German regular army, escaping the Eastern Front by capture by the British in Italy, years more in POW camp in north Africa ... finally to go home ... but by then he had no more home. It had become part of Poland. Heartbreaking. So I’ve become interested in East Prussia too, my dear one’s lost home place.