‘What’s your mother’s maiden name’? How many times have I had to answer that question? ‘Webert,’ I answer. But for most of my life it was only a name. A name I knew nothing about. And a name my mother knew little about.
A few years ago I got bitten by the genealogy bug and started researching the Weberts. I didn’t need to do much work because others – Ulrike, Dan, Lou, Jean, etc. – had already done it. I learned from them that the ancestral home of the Weberts is the tiny village of Olberode, tucked into a farming and forestry region of the German state of Hessen.
Mom, Earl, Padma and I packed our bags and headed out to the homeland. On arrival to Olberode’s big brother, Oberaula, we were greeted by my friend and local family history source, Ulrike and her son Patrik. Before we even had a chance to shake their hands, we were greeted by none other than the Mayor of Oberaula, Herr Klaus Wagner. He has a personal interest in families who had long departed the community so he sat with us to learn of what happened to the Weberts since they left in 1865.
Ulrike showed us the Webert family tree starting with my fifth great grandfather, Abel Webert who was born near where we were sitting in 1742. One of the branches from the tree was of the sister of my second great grandfather, George Webert. He emigrated to America just after the Civil War ended but sister Magdalena stayed and many of her descendants remain in the area.
Patrik and Ulrike guided us a few minutes out of Oberaula to Olberode. We went in the church where our ancestors had been christened or married. ‘Here’s where your ancestor lived,’ Uli said. I looked to a weedy patch next to an old farm building. Nothing remained of the home of my fourth great grandfather, Johann Adam Goetz. But if I closed my eyes I could imagine the Goetz and Webert families getting ready for service at the church just 20 metres away.
We spent the afternoon enjoying the hospitality of Patrik and Uli and learning more about our homeland. Patrik is hoping to keep up the traditions of the area and is hoping to participate in a Hessen-Wisconsin program which supports German students at Wisconsin State universities.
Providing my mother’s maiden name will never the same now. It’ll conjure images of a little slice of rural Germany where those who share that maiden name once raised their families.
