A feelgood story to share ...It pays to explore a bit...

[Christine in Herts]

Last September, I was able to photograph the naturalisation documents (H01/152/5977#10620) for my niece's Gx2-g-father, Moses/Morris MARKS, held at TNA in Kew. From that I was able to get the specific DoB and read the PoB as "Himbach, Germany" (the specific place was not intelligible in the censuses, just the country).

1861 RG9-2142 fo33 p9
1871 RG10-3081 fo60 p1

Knowing Germany's habit of having a website for every place, I experimented, with a bit of googling as well, and found this site:
Willkommen auf der Startseite der Gemeinde Limeshain
from which there was a link to:
Geschichts- und Kulturverein Limeshain (local history and culture society)
which included a contact e-address for the chairperson. I sent an email explaining that I was researching Moses/Morris MARKS, shoemaker, who had been born in Himbach 4 Mar 1834.

I received very amiable replies, saying that they would pass on my request to a member with specific interest in genealogy. They also sent me a booklet about the town, plus a booklet about their recent celebration of their town's 950th anniversary. Eventually (while I was away on holiday, this last fortnight) I received an email to say that they had found a lady researching the history of the Jewish presence in the area. When I got back, there was an envelope with:

1. her family-tree info for the MARKS/MARX family (parents, more siblings, grandparents, uncles/aunts, cousins, cousin's children), some with snippets of extra detail, and going back to the name of the patriarch who had selected MARX as the family surname in 1815,
2. a copy and her transcription of the parents' 1830 marriage record
3. a copy and her transcription of a 1905 letter, written by Moses/Morris from his son's house in London (the address matched the 1901 and 1911 census address) to the Bürgermeister, requesting a copy of his birth certificate.
4. a print of a ?scanned photo of each of the graves of Moses/Morris's father and mother

There was also a handwritten addendum, which indicated that the info I had sent to Germany in support of my enquiry had unravelled a puzzle for her: she had a sibling of Moses/Morris who was described as fourth child of the marriage, but she could find only two older siblings for her, including Moses/Morris, whom she had recorded as eldest child. The 1861 census showed an older sister in England with Moses/Morris as well as a younger brother about whom some info was already known.

I really feel that I hit the jackpot there - largely through the generous help of some people in Germany, whom I've never met, but who took the time to find someone who would have relevant information for me - and then sent it to me at no small expense.

I hope I may be able to make the smallish diversion from one of our possible routes when travelling in Germany on holiday, so that I can visit Himbach, and, possibly, meet the lady who was kind enough to give me such a big chunk of information, just for the asking.

Christine

~~~~~~~
In this context, researching: FRIEDMAN/FREEMAN (England, Oz, Pikallin in Lithuania), MARKS/MARX (England, Oz, NZ, Himbach-Limeshain in Germany), COHEN, JACOBS JONES, GOLDSMID, & GOLDBERG (Lithuania)

[Kit]

That's great Christine. You received a lot of information but you also, by your query, solved a problem for someone else. She probably feels it was a fair trade.

[BridgetM]

How exciting, Christine! :D

It is encouraging to learn there are generous people out there .... & some may even be distant relations!

[Loopy Linda in La La Land]

A similar thing happened to me, also in Germany, great isn't it.

Happy Hunting

Linda

[Guest]

thats good to know , gives me encouragement.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

My word, what a lot of information!!

[chich]

How wonderful...what a nice post...

[Little Nell]

Lovely to read a positive post about the helpfulness of others and information obtained!

[Chr1s]

It’s great to hear how much you have been helped through someone else’s generosity.

I have to echo this with a similar story.

I only joined this forum a few weeks ago, but one of my posts was spotted by a young lady in Germany, who happens to be researching some of my ancestors because of their history in her home town. She immediately joined this forum (and will most probably see this post ;)) and we have been in regular contact since. She has helped me to identify and confirm several ancestors and their relatives, and even to put me in contact with a living cousin of my late grandmother. Last year her mother wrote a seven page article on my 3x gt grandmother! I think I have been of some help in her research too, and I hope to be of more help when I can go through photos held elsewhere in the family.
Every time she writes there seems to be some exciting new information.

As Christine says, I too have hit the jackpot, through the generous help of new friends in Germany, who have spent vast amounts of their time researching my ancestors, and maybe one day I and my family can visit the town in Germany and thank the ladies who have been so helpful.

It seemed such an impossible task to trace German ancestors who lived in modern day Poland, but so many new doors have opened for further research.

[kylejustin]

It seemed such an impossible task to trace German ancestors who lived in modern day Poland, but so many new doors have opened for further research.

tell me about it. it's not just trying to figure out what the town is called now, but what records survived, and who has them.

[Christine in Herts]

JewishGen has certainly been a useful source of likely info. Their Shtetl finder is very helpful. I just haven't followed it up as much as I might because it isn't my tree, and I don't want to be spending my niece's money when she's saving up for her wedding in 18 months.

Christine