Gentzkow Journey

Every journey needs a first step. In family history, start by talking to all living ancestors and writing down what they say. Travel back in time through their old photos and listen to the stories that spill out. Tour cemeteries and former neighborhoods where memories come alive.

1990 Letter

Because my quest for family history began 35 years ago, I wrote a lot of letters requesting information from family members; these were actual letters that needed stamps and time. My great aunt Alice (Gentzkow) Humphrey (1910-2000) was especially good at connecting with extended family. So, when a West Coast member of the Gentzkow clan wanted to know more about the Gentzkow clan, I received this letter:¹Gentzkow, Bernard “Bernie,” Letter to Karrie Blees, 6 Aug 1990, Salem OR.

Bernard’s request demonstrates how the Gentzkow Journey gained steam as well as highlights the old-school roots of my family history hobby. To make inquiries of distant archives, I wrote letters. For the first 10 years, my genealogy information was written in pencil on Family Group Sheets and placed ring-binders. In the mid 1990s, I finally put my data in a shareware genealogy program. We did not have an internet connection at home until we installed a fax/modem in 1992 (so we could connect to the public library).

I am so very thankful that other family members made use of the Internet earlier than I did. Look at this headline regarding the Gentzkow family:²Arends, Hank, “Internet Links Long-lost Family Members,” Statesman Journal, Salem OR, 16 June 1996, page 15, col 1.

1995 Trip to Germany

Utilizing the resources of the early Internet, Bernard’s nephew Bob Gentzkow found and connected with Werner (Verner) von Gentzkow (1949-2020) in Germany.  Bernard, his brother Richard and Bob, traveled to Germany in 1995. While there, Werner and his wife Christine chauffeured the group around to all the ancient Mecklenburg-Vorpommern family locations. Describing the trip, Bob said that they were given “the royal treatment” as they toured church sanctuaries, bell towers, ancestral villages and former Gutshäuser (mansions). Unfortun­ately, they were unable to link our American Gentzkow family to the German von Gentzkow clan that was promi­nent in establishing the villages of Sadelkow, Leppin, Dewitz, Jatzke, and Genzkow.

Richard and Bernard Gentzkow in Genzkow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, 1995³Photo taken by Robert “Bob” Gentzkow. Copy given to Karrie Blees.

The 1996 article in the Statesman Journal outlined how an American and a German with the same last name discovered each other online. June of 1996 also marked the first time that the extended American Gentzkow family gathered together in person: a reunion in Oregon. This internet surname search and the reunion spurred a 20-year trek with this research question:

How is the American Gentzkow clan
related to the German von Gentzkow clan?

2000 Reunion

From the first conversation with Bob Gentzkow, Werner von Gentzkow continued to search for a birth/baptism record for the immigrating ancestor “George Edward” von Gentzkow. Werner traveled to archives and churches on behalf of the American family.

The American Gentzkow clan united again in June of 2000 in Minnesota. Werner was our special guest.

Because no link between the European and American families existed in 2000, I did not speculate on the connection to the German von Gentzkow clan when I self-published a history of the Gentzkow Family in America.⁴Blees, Karrie. Descendants of George Edward von Gentzkow of Minneiska, Minnesota : a history of the Gentzkow family in America. North St. Paul, Minn.: Sewing for the Harvest, 2000.

As part of the Gentzkow 2000 reunion, we chartered a bus and made our own family history tour of Minneiska MN. This photo of Werner was taken at Evergreen Cemetery in Minneiska on June 19, 2000 as he stood adjacent the grave of George and Sophia (Schultz) von Gentzkow.⁵Photo taken by Margie Roscoe Lucht. Copy given to Karrie Blees.

Internet Connections

In the late 1990s, there were several different Internet search engines; each had its own specialization. RootsWeb was a free, message-board format site which connected researchers around the globe. Ancestry.com was new in 1997; today it is the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world. With the increase in digitized records and the growth of the family history hobby, cousins found find each other.

Conny Diederichs

Intrigued by an old letter she found in a drawer, Cornelia “Conny” (Schneider) Diederichs began her own journey into family history. In 2011 she met Werner at one of her Diederichs family days in Güstrow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

Cousins from across Germany learned about their ancestors. (Werner, in purple, and Christine, in pink, are standing in the front of the photo. Conny and Christoph Diederichs are standing in the back left. Jürgen Gentzcke is on the far right.) Werner told Conny how he and the American family were searching for the link between the families.

At this time, I did not know Conny. The Gentzkow Europe-America Gentzkow connection was not clear. I knew nothing of the Diederichs family.

Diederichstreffen in Güstrow⁶Photo taken by Conny Diederichs. Copy given to Karrie Blees.

Five years Later

In March 2016, I received a quick note through the ancestry.com Messages feature. Conny welcomed me to the extended Diederichs family AND announced that she found the answer to our Gentzkow question!⁷Cornelia Diederichs. Online message to Karrie Blees via ancestry.com, March 9, 2016.