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This post was updated on .
Hallo zusammen ♥
I am total geneaology novice in Chicago working on a real tough case of family erasure.
My late paternal grandmother immigrated to the USA in 1948 and made a sort of 'clean break' from the past. She spoke of no one so I grew up with no names of relatives, no stories, nothing. Then it seems Oma felt brave with Pres. Reagan being elected and flew back in 1980, visiting again in 1984 and taking me with her. She went a time or two more in the 1990s. I was introduced to some people and have photos with them, family and maybe a close friend of my grandmother. It was like 'oh come meet them, they are family' but still little to no information. I am neurodivergent along ASD lines and was a really hyperactive kid, was ten years old at the time. I was happy to meet people in between my hot pursuit of novel sweets and hope to climb around a new castle ruin. I was nonverbal until ages 6 - 7 and then Oma wants me to learn a whole new language in two weeks with no prior experience. I got good real quick at asking for candy. ☺
I have my grandmother's immigration and naturalization records. There is nothing needed to be found from her time in the USA onward. The black hole is anything and everyone before 1948.
I have struck out with all names using the compgen.de website. I maybe found a name for a possible relative or two based mostly on dates but these could also just be coincidences rather than matches.
How do I find?:
◙ Oma birth record in Germany
◙ Any other relatives if I learn her parent(s) names
◙ My father's birth record: born out of wedlock to US soldier and Oma and cannot learn if was on an Army base (they were not married yet - so would a girlfriend be allowed into a US Army hospital on a base in 1948?) or was my father born in Germany proper: have date for their marriage 4 months after his birth recorded in the naturalization records - there is a definite gap between my father's birth and getting married. I am not finding a birth record or record of citizenship for my father on USA or German side, was US Army Special Forced in Vietnam for almost the whole war. There has to be something or maybe they just applied for a social security number back in the day. Naturalization record for my grandmother says he was born in Esslingen. That is a tangle and I am stuck.
◙ Any other way to find death record or other records. I do have a clear memory of Oma's cousin, my 3rd cousin, as we lived with her for about a month in 1984. They were the same age or close together in age.
◙ Oma had a prior marriage to a German soldier said to be Luftwaffe [possibly not true] that died possibly 1940 - 1945 [if accurate or true]: my father has an older German half-sister whose surname is missing from any and all US records: her middle name, and then her first name changes in USA records. Oma's name and my father's half-sister's name were then also Anglicized in immigration but I know their prior German names and have them on record to prove my memory is correct.
◙ emigration record from Frankfurt on October 31, 1948
What I have:
◙ Oma names (one surname Maiden name or not, totally fake? Her married name to US soldier: Smith)
◙ Dates of birth for Oma, my father, his half-sister
◙ City and general region southern Germany especially Stuttgart and Esslingen am Neckar
I know I am looking for needles in a haystack that was set on fire back in WWII. Maybe there is something left to be found. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!
Vielen danke ♥
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