Email From Gary Aden to Gary Aden
Email Dated 7/26/2001

      Imagine that I am preparing to leave for northeastern Germany and
catching up on loose ends. Who did I miss checking on? Has any further
information been developed on any of my family branches or twigs?
Suddenly I recall that Abraham Hunsucker may have been born in
Rheinfals, Bavaria, but that oversight is quickly forgiven because I had
no further leads anyway and I already have accomplished as much there as
the clues on Theobald and Jacob Mechling's roots would permit and I
learned what I could about the area so what more could I do? To digress
though, I did wonder whether the parents of Theobald and Jacob sent them
ahead as trailblazers to the new world, as appears to be the case with
Peter Huntziker(sons Simon and John emigrated in 1737, one year earlier
than Peter) and as we shall see in the case of Heye Aden(sons John, Eilt
and Mimke preceded him and the rest of the family by several years). If
so, did the Mechling parents change their minds about emigrating  for
some reason? 

       Be that as it may, I check the worldwide web one more time and
stumble into the WELTY message board on Rootsweb. So just when I thought
I was an authority on all the variations of Hunsucker surname spelling,
I find the following message authored 10/26/2000 by Dennis Welty. "Has
anyone researched the Jacob Welti family of Breitfurt in the Palatinate
region of Germany? This family is mentioned in Annette K. Burgert's book
'Eighteenth Century Emigrants Vol II The Western Palatinate' 1985 on
page 180 under the entry of Peter Hundsecker. It reads as follows:
'Peter Hundsecker, son of Rudolff Hundsecker from Breitfurt, m. 23 April
1715 Benedicta, daughter of Jacob Welti, schoolmaster at Breitfurt.(The
Walti family was from Schafflen, Lentzburg, Canton Bern{today CH-5040
Schoftland, AG.}...' This information is the Walsheim A. Biles Reformed
KB and the Contwig Reformed KB. These churches are located near the town
Zweibrucken. Peter and his wife emigrated to America in 1738 and are
mentioned in church records in Berks County and Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. They are both Reformed. Perhaps others emigrated also."
The second message dated 11/14/2000 indicates that an examination of
microfilmed records at the above churches disclosed no further Welti
names. 

       Disconcerting! What do I do? Backtrack to Switzerland and
Zweibruecken? Boy, it's a  good thing this is a planning diary. I now
may have two new eighth great grandfathers- Rudolff Huntziker or
whatever and Jacob Welti. At least, I have found something I can touch
on my future Zweibruecken  visits if I can locate the churches. What the
information suggests is that Peter and his wife were of similar
backgrounds, specifically  Swiss- German from families who resided in
the Breitfurt and the Palatinate originally from Switzerland. Oh, and
one more thing, when I do the real thing, I will  watch all the signs
for the additional surname of HUNDSECKER. And they call genealogy a
stale pursuit. What a  laugh!

      While I am in Mechlenburg, Germany checking out the alternative
proposal for the Mechling boys origins, I am going to see if my theory
about Hiske^Hixsea Katherine 'Katie" Wilts^Wiltz Aden's{1852 Prussia-
1894 Nebraska}(Mimke's wife) and mother Anna's debarkation at the Port
of Hamburg has any credence. Family history(by Hiyo) holds that they
came by the steamship Elba in 1871 from the Port of Bremen in nine days.
The Elba had not even been commissioned then and the remainder of the
story seems improbable as well. My theory is that the ship's name is
confused with the River Elba which is close to Hamburg and might have
provided an alternative departure point from the old world. 

      It seems propitious whle discussing the Wiltz family to consider
the economic consequences of moving to the new world. While the new
world promised opportunity, there was no guarantee of income. As the
times of emigration tended to be those of economic uncertainty in one's
homeland, ti was unlikely that selling one's assets would yield top
dollar. In fact, some assets were probably sold at fire sale prices.
Demand for safe passage to the new world was high, therefore it was
expensive. In the case of the Wiltz family, the father, a mathematics
teacher with limited resources, wanted to emigrate himself, but couldn't
afford it while alive. With his death, the family followed his directive
to "sell everything and go to Illinois." In the case of the  Adens, the
three sons who preceded Heye and the other seven family members financed
the journey for the rest of the family from East Frisia to Illinois. 

      In addition to visiting the towns of Jever, Emden, Leer,
Oldenburg, Meppin, Cloppenburg, and Wildehausen(all on a circular  rail
line according to an 1882 map) in East Frisia^Ostfriesland that my Aden
ancestors traversed and the Ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven, the most
important mission of my journey will be to discover exactly where any of
them were born and resided utilizing professional guidance,
ortssipenbucher(OS- rougly translated "village lineage book" or
"church lineage book" in the Lutheran church-and the Registrar's office
in Bremen. Information  might also be found in German lists of emigrants
from the Ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven on the Ship Atalanta prior to
April 19, 1869. One active family researcher believes that our Aden
roots are ultimately in the East Frisian Islands. Heye^Hiye
Jansen^Janssen Aden left  some clues in his own handwriting at St.
Peter's Lutheran Church indicating he was born September 25, 1817 at
OSTOCHD--ZON, OSFRIESLAND. Names of villages change and the closest
spelling to that name according to the German Tourist Bureau is a
village of population 402 called OSTOCHTERSUM OCHTERSUM^OSTFRIESLAND ZIP
26449 about 5 miles east of ESENS where there is a railroad. The town
has a city hall and is about a 30 minute drive from Bremen. The general
area is referred to as Lower Saxony. Sometimes, the ordinal names of
sons provide a clue to the father's  first name in the old county.
Heye's sons names in order were John^Johann, Eilt, Mimke, Habbo, and
Heie. I might  therefore look for a Johann Aden as Heye's father.
      My dream would be to find a descendant of Heye's ancestors in the
area and receive an invitation to drink a beer, if not a home-cooked
German meal. I could find relatives in my other lines in Germany and
Switzerland, but it's unlikely that I'd get a simlilar invitation
because we share but one generational link out of many.      

The following pages contain the pertinent background information for our
Quest!