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This
Homeland Letter and Postcard Translation
Assistance Program has proved to be
instrumental not only to learn primary
insights into past family matters but
also to make genealogical connections
with others.
If you would
like to volunteer to translate for the
Letters from the Homeland Translation Assistance Program
Contact the Coordinator:
Alex Leeb.
And as always, your contribution is always
appreciated!
When the ancestors left
the Homeland for different parts of the world, it took close to
4-5 months before they communicated with relatives and friends
back home. When communication did begin it was on a
regular basis, every month or every second month. They were
excited to be able to hear about the new life in the new
country. And those who immigrated were happy to also learn
the situations in the Homeland.
The village people's
education was limited and their letters weren't professional
written. At the beginning their letters were only one page.
They didn't know what to write to fill a page and many sentences
were repeated. For example; "...My dear brother in-law and
my dear sister in-law. This must've been repeated about four or
five times on one page. Rather using second piece of paper,
they wrote on both sides of the page but after writing a few
letters they began using two pieces of paper. Some letters were
adorable.
Submissions:
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Only letters and postcards written in
original “Frakturschrift”
will be accepted for translation, no books or documents.
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All submissions indicate
permission is granted to DVHH Project to have your
translation [including names & addresses mentioned]
published on the internet at www.dvhh.org and will remain the property of
DVHH.
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All submissions indicate you are the owner of
the original letter / postcard or have authorization from
the owner for submission.
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You understand the letters will be translated
by volunteers and make no claims about the accuracy or style
of the translation.
Submit your letters or postcards to “Sandy1936“
and your letter will be translated and published as soon as
possible.
We ask the readers to honour the copyrights of
each item submitted.
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Archives
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Written by
Gisella
- Year 1913
Submitted by
Debbie
Burns
Temesvar
My dearest Bandi (Andreas)!
I received your letter, and wish you all a very
Merry Christmas Season and
also to my friend Anna, greetings to her
also.
It would be so wonderful if I could be with you. My
dear Bandi, please write
to me and tell me that you still love me like you
did before.
My dear Bandi, now I go back to the other girls and
entertain with them, but
I don't feel comfortable because you are not with
me.
When I see others walk hand in hand, then I feel
like hiding because of my
worries.
Now I close my letter and I'm waiting for your
reply.
Good bye.
Your dearest
W. Gisella.
Translator notes -
(Bandi
= nickname for Andreas, - a pet name, a term of
affection)
Hungarian Translation into German by Maria
Bocsardi Herlett
German Translation into
English by Alex Leeb
Written by Anna - Year 1913
Submitted by
Debbie
Burns
Date:
September 28, 1913Anna (Fichtner)
c/o
Fidtler Miklós,
Tiroler
Strasse 28
Temeswar
My dear Bandi!
(Andreas)
I tidied and
cleaned everything yesterday, so nothing will
stand in our way any more. If everything
would be here, what I asked in the letter, then
I could be on the way. We get
the separation papers from the attorney Dr.
Rosenberg, are you convinced now that I love
you. I administered my hardest decision.
How is it going my dear Bandi? Where do
you like it the best? I like it the best
over there with you my darling. Your mother
agreed that I'm coming? Write me
immediately.With hugs and
thousand kisses, your Mucika.
Greetings to
Elisabeth and mother.
Your
sister/brother and greetings your faithful Anna.
Translator notes -
Off the
record; Mucika, Hungarian for "darling -
sweetheart.
Hungarian Translation into German by Maria
Bocsardi Herlett
Written by Andreas Bauer - Year 1954
Submitted
by
Dennis Bauer
Date: October 7. 1954
Pest County,
Hungary
To: Herrn Jakob Bauer
Lincoln Highway
Fallsington Pa. USA
Dear Jakob and your family !
I must write you that I received a package from
Stamford (CT), actually from my dear
brother Joseph's son, Jakob Bauer.
It weight 18 pounds. He wrote that you gave
him $20.- to mail to me. He knew we do not get
much for that in our country. So he bought
several pieces of clothing (good quality) for me
and my children and mailed that to me.
So dear friend Jakob and your family,
thank you for remembering us. It is sad we do
not know or have even seen each other, but still
the heart that lives in the family Bauer
also lived in my brother Kristian, your
cousin (sic, should be “your father”). Dear Jakob and Family thank you. My children and
I send you and your family, friends that we have
in America, our best wishes.
Greetings from my family and me, your uncle
Andreas Bauer.
Szob 1954, 10-7
My children are
Sanyi, Mariska, Iren & Szob
Note: Translated
for Dennis J. Bauer (grandson of Jakob
Bauer) by Eva & Adam Martini of the
Trenton Donauschwaben Club on 28 October
2004.
Andreas & Family were originally from
Palanka, Batschka and relocated to Szob
before the genocide in Yugoslavia.
Written by Binder (1)
- Year 1932
Submitted by
Debbie Burns
Date: March 9, 1932.
Binder Adolf
17 – Gasse, No 26.
Temesvar, Neufreidorf
Romania
Dear brother in-law and sister
in-law!
It sure has been a long time and
it sure is strange for me to take a pen in my
hand and write a few word to you. But Elisabeth
won’t have it otherwise unless I promises to
write to you again. So we probable get an answer
from you.
I don’t know brother in-law and
sister in-law, we only have friends in America, absolutely no relatives with us.
Not even two months go by, that we don’t get a
letter from them.
We are supposed to get visitors
from Portland. If you still remember
Spring Jakob, you went to school together, he
talked just about you and my sister Elsa,
who is 22-23, years old. We never received a
single letter and we don’t know the reason, why?
Dear brother in-law and sister
in-law, there is a lot to write but I won’t
write all at once.
First of all, I am retired and
have been on pension for two years. Our daughter
has been married for 3 and a half years already.
We have our own home and we are living together.
We seem to healthy, only I have stomach problem
and the miserable cold which we have now and all
the work to do. Which makes a person not feeling
good.
I just finished writing a letter
to Niki. He never writes and mother is
complaining about one of our letter to Niki,
she said that he was rough with her. So I wrote
him a nice letter, to find out, what is going on
amongst them .
Now I am closing my letter.
With best regards and kisses,
from all of us to you.
If you don’t answer now, then I
won’t take another pen in my hand to write to
you again.
Adolf
Translator's notes -
Freidorf - appx 2-3 miles South of Temeswar
(in 1932), today it belongs to the city of
Temeswar. Also the home of Johnny Weißmüller
"Tarzan."
Written by
Binder (2) - Year 1932
Submitted
by
Debbie
Burns
Date: unknown
Binder Adolf
17 – Gasse, No 26.
Temesvar, Neufreidorf
Romania
Dear brother and sister in-law!
It’s been a long time since I
last wrote, but enclosed is a family
picture for you. So I waited until I received a
letter from you, but nevertheless I didn’t find
the time until today to write to see if you are
still alive and what you are doing, especially
the children.
How big is
your family, are they very big? We would
love to see them while they are alive not only
on the photograph, they must be lovely children.
Dear brother
and sister in-law, have you been thinking coming
home? How does it feel in America? Also here,
there are bad hardships. But there are people
who come back and stay here and returned
again.
Dear brother, if you still
remember your school colleague Ohring (?)
Jakob he is also in
America, in Portland, he was there
before the war, then he returned at the age of
14. He immediately was forced to join the army.
In 1924, he left with the family to America
again. Now his wife passed away and he didn’t
want to get married to a girl one in America,
Now he is coming to visit us and will get
married to a girl from here. He still has a good
memory of you.
We were in the Filoggi
street, and I looked for his family and Elsa
is also his daughter, we had no problem finding
it. We all were happy and visit together and the
children are going to write to us today.
Dear brother and sister in-law,
why don’t you write to us at least once a year.
You don’t know how often I think about you and
my heart is yearning for you. I have no
relatives here and a mother and a brother in
Budapest and one brother in America and
nobody writes to me. From
Niki we seldom get a letter. From mother
more oftener, but that is a letter which we
always have to worry. Now she wrote again, she
is not feeling well and is very sick since
Christmas. She fell and got a cold. Niki
has no work now, and that’s how bad it is now. I
have to write you what happen to mother. Now she
is at Niki’s place.
Already it is the fourth time he
left her. When
Elsa got married, she was at our place
for the wedding. Then the youngest from his
children also got married, Mother didn’t find
out until she came home. Then he told his
mother, “now, all my children are secured and
looked after.” But she is too old for him, he
doesn’t need her, now he found himself a younger
girl.
Mother complained because she
raised the children for 21 years and did all the
work. He started to drink but to this day she
never received a penny from him. He always talks
his way out of it, because he has no work and
unable to pay. Now it’s really hard for her. Now
she is old and is unable to work, and she wants
to come to our place. I really want her, even Adolf
wants her but it’s too bad because she is in Hungary, and we are in
Romania and
she needs her willpower. I will look after her
but the trip will cost lots of money and Adolf sure is not happy and the cost will be
22 to 23 thousand lei. Not very many have lots
of money and don’t give you anything. She could
stay at our place for one month. Last year she
was at our place. Then we extended it and the
cost for every month was 600 lei, but she only
received money for 3 months, then she had to go
home. Now I don’t know what I should do, if she
becomes sick and they are her children, I should
write and ask her if she still wants to stay
with you.
Dear brother, don’t you want to
write a letter to her and comfort her,
after all she is our mother. You know she is
forgetful and really sick. She says, if you only
would write to her once. Now I’m closing my
writing, With many regards and kisses to every
one of you.
From all of us, write soon.
Elsa, Adolf, Elisabeth
and
Luci
Translator's notes -
Neufreidorf - appx 2-3 miles South of
Temeswar (in 1932), today it belongs to the city
of Temeswar. Also the home of Johnny Weißmüller
"Tarzan."
Written by
Johann Ingrisch & Marie Durr Ingrisch
- Year
1921
Submitted by
Jody
McKim
Merysoara (Mercydorf)
Dear
Niki, we received you
letter with much joy. It was your first letter to
your grandparents and we thank you with our hear for
that. For that, I am sending you the picture for a
memory on your first letter. Frame it and if you
look at it, remember on your grandparents, your
grandfather made it in 1919, for Christmas, it is
much nicer in nature.
Dear
Niki, I heard you are
a good student. I would like a favour from you.
I am old already and it seems I don’t know how to
start.
Your grandmother and I, were born
in March, I am 70 years old and your Grandmother is
only 66, years old, how come?
Best regards from your
Grandparents.
(Johann Ingrisch &
Marie Durr Ingrisch)
Owner notes:
This was written on the back of a picture of a
little model church. Grandma Honich had
the photo in a nice little gilded frame. The
photo and letter is in possession of Jeanne
Honich of St. Louis.
Submitter notes: Grandma
Honich was
Theresa Ingrisch (of
Mercydorf) who
married Joseph Honich (of Neubeschenowa). Their
son Nicholas "Niki" b. 1908 in Mercydorf,
who this note is addressed to.
Written by
Anna (1) - Year 1932 & Written by Recser
(Reiser) Year unk -
Submitted by
John
Reiser
Two
letters from
John Reiser's father, who came
from Bruckenau.
Bruckenau
Dear nephew
and Elis(abeth)!
It gives us a
heartfelt feeling to write a few words. God
the Almighty gave you the children and gave
you a healthy life to live. Dear
mother is so happy that you are back in the
homeland dear nephew. We all are still
healthy and hope the some from you.
Heartfelt wishes.
Anna
-----------------------------------
Here we are
sending you a picture. Hans (John)
is missing, because he was not at home, when
we took the picture. Their son photographed
us while he was on a visit.
Heartfelt
greeting and kisses, from all of us.
Recser
(Reiser)
-------------
Written by
Anton Stemper
- Year 1913
Submitted by
Barbara Hilderson
Date: Jan 12, 1913
"Firensvaros,
Stemper Anton
Ferencvaros, Temeswar
Dear children !
With sad heartfelt, I take my pen to write you a
few words, and let you know that grandmother
passed away. She was sick for 14, days
before she died. She gave her greeting and
kisses to all of you. She claimed that she
was still healthy. I wanted to write while she
was still alive, but she never survived. Eight
days before I wrote, she never spoke and she
only was breathing through her nose. The I asked
her, "mother is something bothering you?' she
doesn't know, she replied. Then she laid down
and spoke with a low voice, I had to hold my ear
to her face, so I could understand her. At the
end we could see that she wanted to talk, but we
couldn't understand her.
Grandmother passed away on the 8th, at 10:30,
and on the 9th she was buried. She was
buried with the club (CWL) and the music(*1) and her coat. It cost 60 fl. and the total come
to 80 fl. I gave the death certificate to Barbara(*2). She
should take the money out from her club in
Baratzhausen(*3). Now
she is taking the money out and doesn't give
anything away. But nobody and nobody wants
to keep it. But when it comes to take
something, they all are there. But I hope that
God will give us our health. It was nice
and dry at the funeral, it was a nice funeral.
But now the last 11 nights it snowed two (2)
(shoes high).
It will be gone by July. Your parents are also
healthy. Phillip, was drafted into the
army. It is uncomfortable. We have 5 Joch
(acres) of wheat. One is our own, and two acres
of corn, we leased. 5 1/2 Joch (acres) our own,
1 1/2, we leased, all total of 11 Joch. We have
two working horses and a filly, 9 months old, 80
fl. in value. It is totally uncomfortable here.
We butchered 2 pigs (hogs), and 4 of them died
on us. They were two months old, it cost us 30
fl. and the two we butchered were 30 fl.
Breselmeier Franz, also died and old
Schwarz Toni. July should also write
and let us know about her husband, is he still
working, did they get something, if he is
coming, so July can keep herself occupied
through her lifetime. What are the grandchildren
doing? Are they still healthy? Why don't you
send your total income of your money it will
pay interest. But you have to pay taxes, but the
guarantee would help, that
should never happen.
Greetings to everybody, old and young. Wishing
you good health, until next time. Grand
mother was 86, years old.
Anton Stemper
Translator's notes -
*1: music (yes, at some funerals, the band with
be in the procession, all the way to the
cemetery)
*2: (Bewie, dialect for Barbara)
*3: Baratzhausen (village, 5Km NE, from Knees)
Ferencvaros,
Temeswar is Ferenczváros, Hungarian for
Mehala one of the suburbs of Temeswar.
Written by
Sussi - Year 1922
Submitted by
Klara Bischof
Dater: December
10, 1922
Kalatscha,
Jud. Timis.
My dear husband Jakob!
I want to write to you before
Christmas, because it is getting closer to
Christmas. Then I won’t have much time to write
to you, my dear husband. The children have grown
since you left for America over a year ago. They
both are doing very good in school. Josef,
is singing in the Christmas choir and Elisabeth, is an Angel in the Christmas Pay
at their school.
Your parents are still in good health. Your
father is preparing everything for butchering
next week. Your father told me the swine (pig),
weighs close to 200 kilo. He plans on doing lots
of sausage this year. He said, “…I have to make
lots of sausage, just in case my son Jakob,
comes home from America..” When he said
that, tears came out of his eyes. Your parents
miss you so much, especially at Christmas time.
My dear husband Jakob,
we will miss you for Christmas, I wish you could
be here with us and spent time with the
children. Mrs. Nuss, asked about you, her
husband passed away suddenly last month from a
heart-attack. Her children are all married and
moved away. Mrs. Nuss, visits us every
second day, she is only and likes company.
Mr. Joschka’s dog was
killing some of our chickens, so your father
told Mr Joschka, he better shoot the dog,
before he makes Paprikasch with the dog. Mr.
Joschka shot his dog the next day. Now we
get more eggs from the chicken.
My dear husband Jakob,
how are you doing in America? I hope you
are healthy and you eat lots. Mrs. Schwartz
told me, there are many people in America from
here, they work hard and make lots of money,
then they come home again. I hope this is what
you want to do, come home again and buy a house
for your parents. If we have money left, maybe
we will send the children to school in Temesvar, for better education.
My dear husband Jakob,
I have to close now because I have to go and
feed the animals and milk the cows and make
supper for you parents and us.
I miss you so much my dear
Jakob, and
pray to God, we will see each other again soon.
Kisses from all of us.
Your wife, Sussi
Written by Theresia Lambing - Year
unk
Submitted by
Julie Agne
Date: unknown
Theresia Lambing
With heavy
regrets, I have to inform you that my dear
husband passed away, on August 3rd.
Dear aunt, I would like you come down,
because I don't know what to do. I am
half recovered, it was a hard shock for me.
Josef and brother-in-law. were in
Philadelphia to visit his parents. I
am alone, I haven't given Anni anything yet,
I am waiting for you.
Greeting and
kisses, Good bye
Written by
Submitted by Jody McKim
24 April
1960
From:
Irma Unterweger
Str. Tudor Vladimirescu 81,
Pancota
Regime Timis, Rumania
(aka:Pankota/Pâncota/Pîncota)
To: Michael Unterweger in NY
My dearest,
Here is my second letter to you. I want
to inform you our dear father and your brother
Jossi (Josef),
died on 13, October 1959.
After the funeral, I wrote a letter
covering everything, six months have
passed and I haven’t received any answer
yet. I wonder about my letter if you
received it or did it get lost; I don’t
believe you forgot about the
bereavement.
2. - Now I will try a different way to
write to you and hope you will receive
it. And if you don’t answer it. –
So, in God’s name, - I did my duty,
wrote you twice and notified that Jossi
died. Very sad, he had a hear
attack during the night. It only took a
few minutes and I loved him so much. now
I lost Jossi. He was only 58,
years old, he was only 10 month in
pension and he still could be with us.
It is sad, we lost our good father, we
are heartbroken and we miss him.
3. - He was lying in his dying bed so
peaceful. He had a nice big funeral,
lots of flowers and wreaths. The people
were singing and escorted him to his
peaceful place.
I am enclosing a small picture of him.
That is the last picture of him, you may
keep it for a memory of him and pray for
his soul. I also held a High Mass at
his birthplace in Merzydorf, for Josef,
Jakob and Christina Unterweger, exactly
on Jossi’s Birthday, on 12th
of April.
My parents are still living. Father is
78 years old, mother is 74, years old,
and they both are still healthy. But
since Jossi, passed away, they both are
broken-hearted.
4 - I probably will
get a small pension for Jossi, about 300
lei. Then I still have the garden. Now I
know what I have to do. My
children are grown up; I also have two
lovely grandchildren. Two boys, Dieter
and Gerhard. They really loved their
grandfather. They go with me to
the cemetery and water the flowers on
grandfather’s grave. I hope you will
answer me soon, not so you will forget
it.
Hearty greetings to all of you.
Your friend Irma.
Your dears and the old ones.
Translations by Alex
Leeb
Sandy1936
© 2005 DVHH
All Rights Reserved
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