Immersion Journey to Discover my German Heritage

June 18, 2025

Update on family history. A number of years ago I started the project of getting to the bottom of our family story. Dad, Claire/Howard (and maybe even Grandpa Max) always told us that we came from a very nice castle in a town called Bad Neustadt. Dad had an old book that was “proof,” the whole thing. I’ve been to Bad Neustadt 3+ times, taken tea twice with the baroness who lives there, even gotten to know a few of the locals. I know that Claire/Howard have been there also. It’s a lovely story but being a good Boomer, I wanted to see proof. Hired people for research, the whole deal – to prove that our great grandfather Gustav was in fact the son of August Voit. No luck.

So what’s the REAL story? Gustav Voit was the youngest of 6 children on a large farm nearby. At the age of 20, in 1861, he came over for a semester’s worth of religious study. But loved America so much he didn’t return! Went to seminary in the US, pastored a church near Sheboygan. I need to review the sequence of events; his life includes a divorce (for a pastor back then?!?) and some time spent at the “Home for the Feeble Minded.” Let me know if you want to see details on Gustav.

I got to this thanks to one of the genealogy online web sites. In his ship’s manifest, all entry documents, censuses, he lists his birthplace as simply “Germany.” But 1-2 years ago I noticed that one of the documents, the city “Coburg” was written down and then crossed out. That mistake cracked the code. We now have a family tree with about 120 names going back to the 1700s. I’ve been working on this with the help of our German relatives, in Germany.

Yup – we have very friendly relatives overseas! I’m at the Frankfurt airport about to return to the US. Took two weeks of German language school and stayed with Wolfgang and Madeline Voit and their teenage kids, Jocelyn and Alexander. Tooled around the Coburg countryside, which happens to be as scenic as Germany gets. The Voits took me in with all the love and hospitality in the world, it was crazy.

Other key players in the family dept: The next picture is of our cousin Sabine Voit-Butzke and her husband, Andreas. Ultra nice and they live next door to Wolfgang/Madeline in the small village called Ummerstadt. Their English is about zero so we rely on my German (God bless them) and Apple’s translation app.

Two other key players are Günther Voit, a grui/friendly bear of a guy who is Holly’s age. There’s a photo of Wolfgang, daughter Joci and me meeting with him. Günther provided a ton of information and Wolfgang had never met him before. Then there’s Aunt Elizabeth, 93, super nice and tough as nails!

I won’t give you the whole travelogue except to say that visiting Germany, and now knowing our family there, explains just about everything. Why Dick was just a little different than the other dads, (he’s just German), and family traditions. And to see the source of German-style celebration that Claire and Howard, Edith and George have shown us in our lifetimes. Going to two local beer fests, a “grillparty” in my honor. You want to talk Authentic??

Going forward, I’ll keep cramming on German language study. Wolfgang and I will collaborate to fill out the family tree. Jocelyn (a terrific 18-year old) will come visit us after she graduates High school next summer. Plus Wolfgang needs to come visit and come visit friends in Texas with me. I swear he has to be part American!

That’s the skinny, come back to me if you want more!

With Love,
Cousin Rick
richardvoit@me.com
(312) 848-9099