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Overview


Wie alles begann... Grandfather Wessling was a long-time subscriber to the "National Geographic Magazine". And one of the most meaningful gifts he created for his grandchildren were two hand crafted atlases that had been fashioned out of the many maps which he had collected. radar map

While modestly aware of our ethnic background, the maps of Germany had a certain special appeal to us. Partly on account of the world political climate of the late 1950's and partly because of our social studies classes at school, Germany was of some significance to us. The question to have been asked was "in which part of Germany was grandfather's father born and when?" Regrettably, such a topic was never brought to the attention of our elders.

Many years later, as more documents regarding our family's history became publically available, the old question was again raised. This time we were prepared to discover that location. And more.

The results of our research will clearly be displayed in the following pages. We shall endeavor to provide our readers with the customary genealogical data as to who begat whom, where, and when. Additionally, we shall utilize documentary evidence to place the persons and their deeds in a contextual perspective of the times in which they lived.

Much of the presentation will focus on those ancestors who were born in Germany. As respects those born in America, we have decided not to include anyone born after 1940. Those persons who are presently alive have been purposely omitted in order to protect their individual privacy. If such persons desire to be mentioned in our pages, they are invited to contact us accordingly.

Many of the categories are self-explanatory. Of the others,
  • Dramatis Personae is intended to be an alphabetized listing of all persons named in these pages.
  • Research will serve as a bibliography for the many works cited throughout these pages and will include addresses of those places where copies of a number of documents may be obtained. Readers will also be informed as to some of the research 'tricks' which we have gathered during the course of our labors.
  • Projects functions as the repository for those areas where our research is on-going. If these topics generate sufficient depth, they may be graduated to a specific category. This category can thus be regarded as our "To Do" list despite our strong insistence to not rely on lists.
  • For everything else, Varia is our classification for miscellaneous items.
Every effort has been taken to ensure that our presentation is an accurate as well as a complete representation of the facts relevant to our ancestors' lives. If our readers should notice any misstatements, we urge them to so advise us in order that we may make the appropriate corrections necessary to maintain our standards.

We strongly encourage all of our readers to take the time to become familiar with the Terms of Use regarding these pages and to note the general disclaimer.

Lastly, it is suggested that our readers regularly refer to the New category for periodic reports on revisions which have been made to these pages.
 
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