Witajcže K’nam
The following is another letter discovered in the digitally archived issues of the “Serbske Nowiny” – the Upper Sorbian-language newspaper that our ancestors read. I wish to thank Dr. Gerald Stone for translating the article into English. “Serbske Nowiny”. 15 July 1871. pages 221-222. A Letter from America....
The Wendish Research Exchange is looking for volunteers who can transliterate handwritten German into printed German. Knowledge of the German language is not required, although could be helpful. We have copies of old diaries that we would like to translate, and the first step in that process is...
“Passengers on the Ben Nevis and Their Families” has been an effort to decipher the document that has come to be known as the Ben Nevis List and put forth the most complete and accurate information about the Wendish families aboard the Ben Nevis. It also includes those...
To all current members of the Texas Wendish Heritage Society: You are entitled to access the Wendish family tree in the Genealogy section of the Wendish Research Exchange! Click the “Genealogy” tab at the top of the first screen, and then click “continue” at the bottom of the...
Many people of Wendish descent know the name Fedor Soder, the man who gave his name to the community of Fedor, Texas. Dr. George Nielsen, Rev Gotthilf Birkmann, Rev. Robert Hartfield, and Dr. George Engerrand, among others, have mentioned him in their research. Thought to be Jewish, he...
The Wendish language and the awareness of being Wendish were slowly dying in the minds of the descendants of the Wends who migrated to Texas. Rev. Herman Kilian wrote the last Wendish obituary on the occasion of the death of Emma Christiana Schubert on 15 May 1906. It...
The 2015 Wendish History and Knowledge Extravaganza (WHKE) was held on 14 March in the newly renovated Kilian Building. Speakers included David Goeke of San Antonio, David Zersen of Austin, Joyce Bise (our Executive Director), Wilbert Noack of Northrup, Ken Kesselus of Bastrop and Kathe Richards of Austin. A delicious coffeecake...
Walter Penk, acclaimed Veterans Administration researcher into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), will be the speaker at the 16 August 2015 General Membership meeting. Since this year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, I have asked him to speak to us about what...
Texas Wends, especially those who trace their families back to Prussia, should consult Dr. Georg Alpermann’s book, Höfe und Bauern in Klitten (Homes and Farms In Klitten) for possible information about their own family. It identifies homes and farms in the villages of Klitten, Jahmen, Dürrbach, Kringelsdorf, Ölsa,...
The Wends or Sorbs of Germany are an originally Slavic group in what is now southern East Germany, in the area called Lusatia (Lausitz), around the cities of Bautzen and Cottbus. They were surrounded and infiltrated by the German expansion to the east in the middle ages, and...