One excellent benefit (or challenge) to any genealogist when getting married is that a WHOLE NEW WORLD of family research opens up to you.
My husband's maternal grandfather had already researched his family history and that of his wife, and he and I sit down regularly and share new discoveries and talk about the past. But the paternal side of the family is not interested in family history, so I have a blank canvas before me! Or one great big brick wall actually.
My husband's paternal grandparents, who are now both deceased, have a very interesting story. He was a German POW, captured in the dying days of the war, and she was an English lass. They fell in love when he was interned near her home in Dorset.
The scarcity of available German information, and the common surname, has made tracking down his origins and ancestors a challenge.
Walter Ernst Lehmann was born on 28 September 1926 in Lu:bbenau, Brandenburg, Germany. His parents were Ernst Lehmann and Hedwig Nowusch. He had a sister, Charlotte.
And that is pretty much all I know from before he was conscripted, sent to the front, and captured.
I'm the latest Lehmann, but I do wonder if I will ever know where my new name came from in the same way I know about my own ancestors.
This
is a post for the April A-Z Challenge. This Challenge will cover each
letter of the alphabet, one per day (except Sundays) for the month of
April. I didn't register my blog with the organisers, but I'm going to
follow along anyway. You can too! See www.a-zchallenge.com for more information. Labels: A-Z Challenge, Lehmann, Nowusch