Meeting with the German Emmerts

Oct. 3, 2002

On Pat's first trip to Neckarelz, she met the town historian. Before leaving for this trip, we wrote to him confirming that we were coming and asking for his assistance in meeting with some of the Emmerts in Neckarelz; he forwarded our letter on to them, so they already knew of our presence. In order to meet with as many Emmerts as possible, we arranged for a private dining room at the "gasthaus" where we were staying, and set a time for the meeting. We asked the Emmerts with whom we had already made contact to pass the word. We weren't sure how many would show up and what would happen at the meeting, but 30 people (not counting Peter,Toni, or the four of us) showed and it turned out to be a great evening.  My thanks to Ed Manning, who served as the event photographer.

We had a room full of people, with most ordering dinner and staying until about 10 pm. Some stayed as late as midnight.

Gil attempted to give a short talk (in German) welcoming them to the event and explaining why we were there. Pat had made a chart showing the Emmert family tree It begins with Hans Emmert, Johann Phillip's grandfather, and goes until the current generation, with both the German side (in some detail) and the American side (only the direct line from Hans through Johann Phillip to us). It showed the Neckarelz Emmerts how they were related to each other (which some of them didn't know) and to us.
 

Pat is adding information to the chart. Toni and Pat were very diligent in recording what people knew about the family history.

An intense discussion of family history documents. Some people brought family bibles and other family records.

At least three generations showed up. Here is Kurt Zimmerman with his son Gerd, daughter-in-law Birgitta, and granddaughter Pia, who is being held by Pat.

The evening is winding down.