The Haf Brothers ~

When mom returned from my Oma's, (Liselotte Haf née Kaiser-Saule ~ 1913-2010) memorial service in April of 2010, the above original photo and  newspaper article were among the many photos and documents mom hand carried back with her. My Oma had a treasure trove of family history I hadn't seen before and I am so grateful that mom brought the entire box of all these treasures to me before she passed away in July of 2010.

For the last four years, I have wanted to know what this newspaper article said . . . thanks to a wonderful kind friend and blogger, Barbara Schmidt over at  Barbara Schmidt - Genealogy - Ahnenforschung - Family Research - Corporate History, she offered to translate this newspaper article for me . . . thank you so much Barbara!

The newspaper article is about my grandfather, Adalbert Haf ~ (1907-1968), his family, his brothers, the Great War and WWII . . . the loss of many of his brothers in the family due to the war. Mom had told me that there were nineteen children in the family . . . two of which I believe may have died at birth or were miscarried.

Original photo and newspaper article ~

Left to right ~

- Grandfather of yours truly, Adalbert Haf (1907-1968) , Karl Haf, Mathias Haf, Maxmillian Haf, and 

Ludwig Haf. 

My guess and I do not know for sure, that this may have printed in the local Augsburger Newspaper. There is no date or name of newspaper.

Headline ~  Eight Sons wore the field grey coat ~

Below the photo ~ Five Sons of the family Haf, which are under weapons right now. 

Eight sons of the parents Adalbert and Emilie Haf, living in Augsburg, Kurze Wertachstrasse 16b (that's the address), have been enlisted for defending their fatherland in 2 wars. Four of them stood in the world war 1914-1918 at different fronts. The oldest son went missing 1916 on the Romanian battlefields. The second son contracted a heavy tropical disease with the fighting troops in the Orient and the third son got gravely wounded at the west front. The fourth son returned healthy from the west front, but died shortly after the end of the Great War of a tragical accident back home. In the current war the four younger sons and a fifth who already served in the Great War were called to the flags (meaning: called to the troops). One was part of the crusade in Poland and afterwards went on the mission west. Three of them battled at the Maginot-Line and one is serving as a shooter in Poland. Those 5 sons who are shown in the picture above were brought together by a coincidence in their hometown after being separated for a year. One grandchild of the parents suffered the heroic death in September 1939. The aged mother, who gave birth to 17 children, carries the mother cross in gold.   

Even though the article does not mention names (and how I wished it did), I gleaned so much information from one newspaper article that I didn't know before. I am currently working on a book for my Haf-Kaiser (maternal) side of the family . . . German research is frustrating and difficult to say the least but I am learning so much about my family . . . this article and photo will happily fill several pages of my book.  It's Genealogical Random Acts of Kindness such as Barbara helping to translate documents like this, that help discover the stories and events that happened in your ancestors lives . . . thank you again, Barbara! 

From this article, I also discovered that my great grandparents, Adalbert (1868-1952) and Emilie Haf (1871-1944) lived in the same building that my grandfather, Adalbert, my Oma, my mom and her brothers lived in on Kurze Wertachstrasse 16a . . . and I was born at that address. I was able to see this wonderful building when mom and I visited in 1967 . . . Oma resided there until she went into a nursing home.

~ After recent remodel (2013) ~ 

~ Prior to remodel ~ this was the entrance to my Oma and mom's home . . . also where I was born ~

Photos taken by my cousin, Marion ~ 2013 ~ Thank you, cousin. 

Three Years Blogging ~

Another year has passed and my Blogiversary is here once again! It's hard to believe it passed so quickly. I had big blogging dreams for 2010, but as non-genealogy life stuff happened, I didn't blog as much as I would have liked. I appreciate those that have visited and left comments for me with the few posts I did manage to get out there. I also discovered a cousin, Russ Worthington over at A Worthington Weblog . . . so blogging has been very rewarding and I appreciate the friendships I have made.

I have learned so much in the last three years and I say a big thank you to many of my genea~blogger friends who have helped, supported and guided me and just made it fun to be here. In the very beginning, my writing really needed help. Thanks to Thomas for giving me the opportunity to do the "May I Introduce To You" interviews at GeneaBloggers, my writing improved greatly and I am now a little more comfortable with posting.

I still consider myself a "newbie" researcher and family historian with a very long way to go . . . but, I am very excited to get back into my research in 2012, and with that, I hope to have more to blog about here . . . here's to a new year of sharing with you and keeping up the search.

   

Google Reader is not updating my blog posts ~

Evidently I am having issues with Google Reader and Facebook!

If fellow bloggers are following me by way of Google Reader, could you please check to see if the last post to show up in your feeds was my 11-27 post of my granddaughters birthday. 

If so, you may want to unsubscribe to Ginisology and then add me as a new subscription. When you unsubscribe you will be asked if you want to subscribe, when I clicked on that it did not work. When I did a copy and paste of  my URL...www.ginisology.com...into the "add a subscription" box, it did work for me and continues to do so thankfully! 

Your feedback is welcome. Thanks ~

                                                                     

Jamboree Memories 2010 ~ Arrival and Friday's Events

The Southern California Genealogy Society 2010 Jamboree was an incredible event. I met so many new bloggers and met up with many that I had met at last years Jamboree. I really hope those that were not able to make it this year can make it next year! It sure would be nice to have all geneabloggers together.  I already have the days marked on my calendar!

I haven't had a chance to post sooner, trying to get back into the swing of things and reality! My granddaughter is graduating fifth grade on Monday, June 21, 2010, there has been a school activity each day this last week, so this post is a little late coming.

Thursday afternoon/evening June 10th, 2010 ~

After getting settled in our room at the Burbank Marriott Hotel, I headed down to the "Bloggers Lounge" to meet Cheryl from Heritage Happens...we had met at last years Jamboree. We had a bite to eat together in the Daily Grill catching up on everything and sharing our plans for our next few days ahead.

Jamboree 2009 (don't have a photo of just us this year so I am using last years photo this year!) 
Gini Webb and Cheryl Palmer

After a bite to eat we met up with footnoteMaven creator of Shades of the Departed, Becky Wiseman of Kinexxions, Miriam from AnceStories, Randy Seaver and his wife Linda (Angel) of  Genea-Musings and Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie in the "Bloggers Lounge", Thomas from GeneaBloggers was just checking in. What a great time we had just sitting around and chatting with each other. It's actually much more fun doing that than classes!

Cheryl Palmer, footnoteMaven, Gini Webb

Jamboree 2010, bloggers lounge

Thursday evening

Linda "Angel" Seaver and Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie 

                Thursday evening - Jamboree 2010

Becky Wiseman and Cheryl Palmer                                                                Gini Webb and Becky Wiseman

Friday - Jamboree 2010

We were also able to pre-register for the Jamboree on Thursday evening to avoid the large line on Friday. That sure made it nice and we were able to just head straight for classes Friday morning. We got our name tags (pre-beads and ribbon) - (2 photos above taken on Friday), Syllabus and welcome bag. The bag was very nice to carry lots of stuff around in! I also brought my rolling backpack for my laptop, by the end of the Jamboree, I had stuff everywhere.

Friday June 11th, 2010 ~

Got up bright and early Friday morning...didn't sleep but a few hours! Our hotel neighbor (non Jamboree person) decided to get up at 3:30 a.m., put heels on, clop around relentlessly, and bang things all over the place until 6 a.m.. I wasn't going to let that get to me, nor lack of sleep was going to get in the way of a great Jamboree day!

Amy Coffin, Holly Hansen, A.C. Ivory, Cheryl Palmer, and Thoma MacEntee

Steve and I had breakfast in the Daily Grill (courtesy of Marriott Hotel due to our noisy neighbor). I then met up with Cheryl and the other bloggers in the "Blogger lounge" where we had the GeneaBloggers meet up. Thomas over at GeneaBloggers, Amy at We Tree, Denise from The Family Curator and Joan Miller of the Luxegen Genealogy and Family History blog created the wonderful GeneaBloggers bag with lots of goodies in it, all I can say is we were very lucky geneabloggers! Thank you Thomas, Amy, Denise and Joan for all you did for us! 


Cheryl and I headed over to have our photos and documents scanned by Ancestry.com, what a wonderful job they did, they scanned each and every photo and document I had, and put it on this cute little thumbdrive, absolutely free of charge...thank you so much Anecstry.com! I love it. 

 Ancestry.com thumbdrive holding all of my precious Haf photos and documents

Jamboree 2010

 After dropping our photos and documents off to Ancestry.com, Cheryl and I did a bit of walking around the exhibit hall. We sat with Janet Hovorka from The Chart Chick and Generation Maps, with Janet's help, I was able to make my own pedigree chart using ChArtist. I love the program and plan to use it more often. The possibilities are endless and it's very user friendly. 

Then it was time to attend Lisa Louise Cooke's "What You Must Know To Save Your Research From Destruction" class.  I realized how important it is to have a "Genealogy Directive"...great class. You can download a free copy of the the Genealogy Directive by going to her site Genealogy Gems, after scrolling down, on the left hand side, click on Directive for OGS and print your own copy...thank you Lisa.


Directly after Lisa's class, I headed over to a class Thomas MacEntee was giving on "Google Docs". I learned quite a bit in this class but I really need to work with it and become familiar with all of the applications it has to offer. 


After class, Cheryl and I stopped by Ancestry.com and picked up our photos and documents that were scanned for us. Several of the other bloggers were not attending the Chris Haley banquet that evening so we all went across the street to a Greek restaurant and had dinner. It was nice sitting around exchanging cards and chatting. After dinner we all ended up back at the bloggers lounge and hung out together for a bit...great way to end a pretty exciting day.









                                                                                                                      

The Kreativ Blogger Award ~ Thank You, Carol!

What a pleasant surprise to receive the "Kreativ Blogger Award" today from Carol and her wonderful blog "Reflections From the Fence" - we share the love of RV'ing! It's always fun to read about Carol's "RV" traveling adventures and whats going on with "Tana."

Thank you so much Carol - I am very honored and grateful to have been chosen.

The winner of the award has to list seven things about themselves and then pass the award along to seven other bloggers.

Here we go:

1. My family means the world to me and they come first. Grateful that my Mom is my best friend, the one I can trust and count on. She is an amazing Lady.

2. I love spending time with my precious grandkids, what we learn from them, is priceless.

3. The friendships I have here in the blogoshpere and with my "non" genealogy friends, have made me a very rich girl and I treasure them.

4. Although fairly new, I am extremely passionate and very serious about the preservation of my family history~ genealogy for generations to come.


5. I love to make my own cards using pretty papers and writing with my huge selection of different colored pens!


6. Surrounding myself with positive, supportive and geniune people. I love helping others when I can.

7. Camping and going to the desert in our RV coach. It's nicer than my home - just kidding but it is nice!

It was very difficult to pick just seven, each and every blogger out there has their own wonderful unique Kreativness. Here are my seven~

1. Herstoryan ~ Herstoryan

2. I Never Knew My Father ~ Sandra Taliaferro

3. Georgia Black Crackers ~ Mavis Jones

4. Heritage Happens ~ Cheryl Palmer

5. Elyse's Genealogy Blog ~ Elyse Doerflinger

6. Life From The Roots ~ Barbara Poole

7. Kick-Ass Genealogy ~ Katrina McQuarrie

There are so many more I would like to list here but I had to leave some for other bloggers to choose from! Enjoy - each blog is full of interesting reading enjoyment, information and family stories.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month~ Surviving Breast Cancer~

Breast Cancer Awareness ~ I am joining

Apple in Sharing how Breast Cancer has effected me and my family.

In May of 2000, I was diagnosed with very early stage Breast Cancer...a life changing experience.

I never expected to hear those words, "you have breast cancer!" At that very moment I had what you would call "an out of body experience." I could hear my husband asking the Dr. questions and then several people came rushing in and were re-assuring me that I had plenty of people around me to help me get thru this. All I could think of was - this is it for me. I was scared beyond words.

I was a very blessed girl, I had a Lumpectomy with eight weeks of radiation and five years of Tamoxifen. Besides a small scar, you cannot even tell. It was caught so very early and I was followed very closely, and still today I am checked regularly.

The support and love that I received from my family, my friends, co-workers was incredible and I know that their love and support helped me heal and get thru what I feel was the hardest time in my life. My husband went to each and every treatment and Dr. appt. with me and it made all the difference in the world. My daughter and six month old grandaughter were living with me at the time, each day when I would get up and get ready for my treatment, I would see the smile on my grandaughters little face, she gave me strength and courage - I knew I would be fine! It's been nine years for me...each day is a celebration!

Self exams and yearly mammograms are so important. Had I not done a self exam, the outcome may have been much worse. The cancer was not detected by my mammogram I just had four months earlier, I found the lump myself! One in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, its an epidemic.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't worry, but I can tell you that you look at life so much differently. You embrace your family and friends and just life itself. I love life and it is good to me. I don't sweat the small stuff as much (still working on that!). I have so much gratitude for all that I have.

Also, becoming addicted to genealogy and doing my family history has made an incredible difference in my life too, I look at "family" so much differently. One of the things I found researching my paternal line, my great aunt Virginia...my namesake, passed away from breast cancer ! I was blown away when I received her death certificate!

The friends, support and love from the genea-family community is priceless and I am blessed to be a part of it. I almost didn't post about this, but I feel it is important to share in hopes to helping others.

It is fitting that October is Breast Cancer Awareness and Family History month, they both have changed my life...I am here to share! Thank you Apple for your support and sharing how breast cancer has effected your life, your friend is in my thoughts and prayers. Hopefully we can help others avoid this terrible disease.

Thank you for nominating Ginisology!

Ginisology has been nominated for Family Tree Magazines Top 40 Genealogy Blogs! I am lucky enough to be listed amongst the 12 most creative, helpful, informative genealogy blogs in the Personal/Family Category and I am very grateful, Thank you! Ginisology is fairly new and to be on that list is quite a surprise and honor!

If you haven't voted yet, do head over and vote for your favorites in each category, and you can vote more than once, it's ok! Every blog is unique and has so much to offer, it's tough picking them. You have until Nov 5th, 2009.

Also, please check out footnoteMavin's wonderful poll roll here, she has made it very easy, thank you fm. If you haven't had the opportunity to check BeNotForgots geneablogs in a cloud of nominee's, head on over, as always Vickie is so creative and she did a beautiful job of showing us off, thank you!

Voting is open, good luck to everyone.

Jamboree Memories Continued~

I know I am the last to post my great experience at the Southern California Genealogy 09 Jamboree ! Before I knew it days have passed and I am behind. Work, medical appointments, eating and sleeping have gotten in the way, how dare they!

All I can say and I know it has been said so many times but I had a fantastic time. I know that many people feel that Disneyland is the "happiest place on earth" (sorry Elyse, I know how much you love Disneyland, but for the weekend I think you will agree!) it was the "happiest place on earth" to me. What meant the most to me was meeting the other Geneabloggers. They are an incredible group of people, I feel as if they are more like my family than just fellow Genealogists, they are that too but what warm and giving people, they care about you, all of them. I learned alot, not so much in the way of researching or about an ancestor but more the realization that Genealogists get you, support you and realize how precious our family, friends, life, ancestors and descendants are.They truly get it.

I also learned that I have a long way to go, it's not a bad thing but a good thing, I am very excited to learn something new each and every day and my love and passion for Genealogy grows stronger each day. I am looking forward to retirement one day soon so that I can delve into Genealogy and put meat on the bones of my ancestors and break down Brick Walls! I realized how important it is to get involved in local Family History Centers and Societies.
We arrived late on Friday due to traffic and off site lodging issues, we handled things quite fast and headed over to the Jamboree and we met Elyse, what a sweetheart and an inspiration! Elyse didn't have transportation to and from her Aunt's house and we wanted to help her with that. We were so glad to do it. I didn't want her to have to worry about buses or bikes. It worked out great and I had the wonderful opportunity to get to know her a bit. Thank you for letting us ole folks hang out with you! Your Aunt was so sweet, I really like her. I owe a huge Thank you to my husband Steve, he drove us around and carried stuff and hung in there.

Since it was so late in the day Friday I missed meeting many of the Geneabloggers but I checked in and received my Gift Bag that Thomas and Denise had put together for all of us. They did such a fantastic job on the gift bags and I was like a kid at Christmas! The muffins were great and I really enjoyed the chocolate ( I am a chocoholic!) and having the Roots Magic program was a real prize. I am planning on doing that this weekend hopefully and am so excited.

Elyse, myself and Hubby walked over to the Convention Center and while on the way I had the honor of meeting Sheri and Cheryl. Cheryl over at Heritage Happens has a special place in my heart, Cheryl gave me the courage and support to start my own blog! I owe being there and being able to experience the Jamboree to her, thank you Cheryl. We chatted for a few minutes in the Convention Lobby and I then decided to register so that Saturday A.M. I could just walk right in and get to the business of having fun and attending the lectures.

Then a very special moment came for me, I met DearMYRTLE, what an honor!! She is so sweet and wonderful. She is my idol and role model and someone I look up to. I was in awe that I was lucky enough to be chatting with her. She is so down to earth and so warm. DearMYRTLE was one of the first Genealogy Blogs I came across and followed daily. She is one of those that you just want to be in her club! DearMYRTLE makes a huge difference, thank you DearMYRTLE for all that you do.

After meeting DearMYRTLE and registering, Elyse, myself and Hubby left and took Elyse home. We all knew we needed to get a good nights sleep for a full day of fun, lectures and meeting new Geneabloggers, I was so excited I didn't sleep all night!

Got up at 5 am, got ready and headed out to pick up Elyse and be at the Jamboree by 8 am to attend our first lecture: Ancestry.com. It was good, we were the first to preview the new commercials coming out soon. I do like the new ones much more than the old. They are with real people not actors.
The "Son of Bloggers Summit" was the next lecture and it was so much fun. Everyone was there in one place. Meeting Thomas was very special to me, what an honor, I had been looking forward to that. Thomas is my mentor, his knowledge and support and warmth is priceless. He is always there for me and all of us at a moments notice. He continues to encourage and teach me to be a good blogger (I have much work to do!).

footnoteMaven, like Elyse, I was speechless, and didn't know what to say! It was truly an honor to meet footnoteMaven. footnoteMaven is another that you just want to be in her club! I adore her and she is so warm and supportive. I still have a smile on my face and have her cute little card on my desk. footnoteMaven's blog was another one of the first genealogy blogs I followed long before having one. I checked it each and everyday and couldn't wait until the next time she would post. She also helped me at the Geneabloggers dinner, I brought a photo album with a photo that I wasn't sure would be "good" posting material, I first showed it to Thomas, he said follow me and took me over to footnoteMaven, she assured me that it was. She advised me in what direction to go in. I will be posting this photo down the road but have a bit of research to do first. It will be an interesting post and she has offered to help me, what a lucky girl I am!!! footnoteMaven is an exceptional lady and I have so much respect for her. Another role model and idol. Thank you footnoteMaven.

Elizabeth has an awesome blog, I love reading her posts! How she captured the Jamboree is priceless! She is incredibly talented and I had the honor of having lunch with her and Amy and getting to know them, they too are some of the first blogs I followed and they both encouraged me to start my own by just reading their posts. Amy's Texas shaped waffle was her trademark to me and I love her blog.

Randy Seaver and his beautiful wife Linda, joined Elyse, Hubby and myself for dinner Friday evening and it was an honor to spend time with them, Randy amazes me and I have learned so much from him. It's pretty cool that we live in the same city, I want to attend some of the meetings at the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe sometime soon. I have much to learn from Randy. Thank you Randy for help you have given me in the past.

Janet Hovorka, Generation Maps, thank you so much for my chart, I know it's supposed to be a working chart but I framed it and hung it on the wall! I am proud to show it off and have family and friends see it. It was a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to having charts printed in the future for me.

Lisa Louise Cook, dynamic lady and I so enjoyed meeting her and having dinner with her and her daughter at the Geneablogger dinner. What a great time we all had. The dinner was so much fun, all of us writing our trees out on the table from memory!

Here I am Leslie, I had no idea that the same lady I was first to follow on her blog (proudly!) was sitting so close to me! How I wish we would have met. I am so glad you were there. One day we will meet in person, in the meantime, I am following and enjoying reading your blog!

There were so many there that I didn't get a chance to meet and chat with. Maybe next year. I continue to read your blogs as you post. Craig Manson, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Katheryn Doyle, Dick Eastman, Stephen Danko, Leland Meitzler, Jean Wilcox Hibben , Paula Hinkle. Susan Kitchens, George Morgan, Drew Smith, Diane Wright, Thomas Kemp, IIIya D'Addezio, I apologize if I have left anyone out.

This was my first ever Genealogy convention, it was a great experience and opportunity to learn and grow in my own family history. Thank you to the Southern California Genealogy Society for putting on such an excellent and well organized Jamboree, count me in for next year!

Wordless Wednesday~

Source: Digital photo held and taken by Steve Webb 6.27.09

~ Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2009 ~


I have fallen behind and am still getting organized, a post will be coming soon about the greatest time I had at the Jamboree...

Jamboree Memories!!

First of all I want to thank Thomas at Geneabloggers and Denise at The Family Curator for all they did for the Genea-bloggers, the gift bag they had put together was wonderful, the beads Thomas provided, I wore proudly! The Muffins Denise made were so good! The Genea-bloggers dinner was incredible and spending time with everyone was priceless. Thank you Thomas and Denise, thank you!

Just arrived home from the 2009 SoCal Genealogy Jamboree and I can tell you it was fantastic. I had the best time and met so many people...fantastic people! I had the Honor of meeting DearMYRTLE and footnoteMaven! Incredible Ladies!

I have taken photos and brought home lots of reading material. My favorite treasure is the complimentary chart from Janet at The Chart Chick, "Generation Maps", I have already been to Target, purchased a frame and will be locating a wall to hang it on! I love it. I will take photos of it and share it here. She can really do beautiful things with charts.

I have to unpack, organize, download photos and then I will be ready to post my experience and finds! All I can say is that Genealogy People are the best people on the planet, they get it! I also want to list everyone but want to make sure I don't forget anyone so I will be including that in my post too.

I am still on a high from the weekend, looking forward to next years Jamboree already!